ROOTED · WEEK 09
You were made to serve.
Following Jesus is not a spectator experience. God has placed something in you that can strengthen His Church and serve other people.
Leader Prep · 5 Minutes
Give them real responsibility.
Churches sometimes tell teenagers they matter while giving them very little that actually matters.
If every meaningful responsibility belongs to adults, students quickly learn that they are mostly observers.
Tonight begins changing that.
You are not trying to fill volunteer slots. You are helping students discover that following Jesus includes using what God has placed in them for the sake of other people.
The goal is not for every student to identify a perfect spiritual-gifts label tonight. The goal is for every student to take one meaningful step from consumer to contributor.
The Big Idea
God gives gifts to His people so His people can serve one another.
Your gifts are not trophies proving that you are special. They are grace entrusted to you so you can strengthen others, build the Church, and bring glory to God.
Scripture
Use what you've received.
1 PETER 4:10-11Peter writes, "As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another."
Notice the direction of the gift. It is not merely something we possess. It is something we use for others.
Peter also says that our service should ultimately result in God being glorified through Jesus Christ.
The question is not only, "What am I gifted at?" The better question is, "How can God use what He has given me to serve?"
Tonight's Flow
Move them from audience to ownership.
Students should leave tonight with one specific place to begin serving-not merely the idea that serving is important.
Table
Ask students where they already enjoy helping, solving problems, encouraging people, creating, leading, organizing, welcoming, praying, or serving.
Word
Read 1 Peter 4:10-11 and selected passages from 1 Corinthians 12. Use the teaching points below.
Discover
Help students identify places where ability, burden, opportunity, and affirmation may be coming together.
Commit + Pray
Ask every student to choose one meaningful way to serve during the next 30 days. Pray over their willingness to be used by God.
Teaching Guide · 15 Minutes
Four truths to establish.
Keep gifts connected to humility, service, the Body of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Every believer can contribute.
The New Testament does not describe the Church as a few gifted people doing ministry while everyone else watches. God works through His people, and every believer has a place in the Body.
Gifts come from God.
Spiritual gifts are not simply personality traits with Christian names attached. Scripture teaches that the Holy Spirit distributes gifts according to His will for the benefit of the Body.
Gifts are discovered through service.
Sometimes you recognize a gift before you use it. Often you discover it while serving: someone gives you an opportunity, God works through you, and mature believers begin affirming what they see.
Character matters more than platform.
Giftedness never replaces holiness. The Spirit who empowers believers also forms Christlike character. Being visible is not the goal. Being faithful is.
Discover Where To Start
Look for four things.
What can you do?
What skills, abilities, experiences, or strengths has God already developed in you? Don't dismiss ordinary abilities.
What do you care about?
What people, needs, problems, or areas of ministry consistently matter to you? Compassion can point toward places of service.
Where is there a need?
Sometimes God's direction begins with a simple opportunity directly in front of you. Faithfulness often starts small.
What do others see?
Listen to mature believers. What qualities or gifts do pastors, parents, leaders, and others consistently recognize in you?
Spiritual Gifts
Don't reduce the Spirit to a quiz.
Tools and assessments can sometimes help students notice patterns, but Scripture gives us a richer picture.
The New Testament describes the Holy Spirit distributing gifts among believers for the common good and for ministry.
Those gifts include many forms of service, leadership, encouragement, mercy, giving, teaching, faith, discernment, and supernatural ministry.
Because THE FEW is Pentecostal discipleship, we should also leave room for the Holy Spirit to work through believers beyond natural ability. But spiritual gifts should always operate under biblical authority, with love, humility, order, and accountability.
Talk
Help them imagine themselves serving now.
What's something you naturally enjoy doing that could help another person?
What need in your church or community do you notice more quickly than other people seem to?
What is something other people have told you that you are good at?
Why do you think God gives gifts to believers instead of simply doing everything Himself?
What is one place in this church where you could begin serving before next month?
Practice + Pray
Choose one place.
Have every student write one concrete place they could serve during the next 30 days.
Examples: greeting, children's ministry, worship, media, setup, prayer, outreach, hospitality, helping seniors, cleaning, creative work, or another meaningful role appropriate to your church.
Then identify the adult leader they need to talk with.
"God, use what You've given me."
Pray over students individually or as a group:
"Holy Spirit, show us how You want to use our lives. Develop the gifts You have placed in us. Give us humility to serve, courage to step forward, and faithfulness when nobody notices."
Leader Coaching
Notice this.
Parent Table Talk
Name what you see in them.
Parents can play a powerful role in helping students recognize gifts, character, compassion, and areas of potential ministry.
Where would you actually enjoy serving in our church?
Tell your student one gift, strength, or ministry quality you genuinely see developing in them.
Help your student make contact with the adult leader connected to the area they want to serve.
"God, use what You have placed in our lives. Give us humble hearts and make us faithful servants."
Before Week Ten
Don't let the commitment stay on paper.
Follow up with every student about the area of service they identified.
Personally connect students with the appropriate ministry leader when possible.
Ask adult leaders to give students meaningful responsibility with healthy supervision.
Watch for what happens when students actually serve: What gives life? What bears fruit? What do others affirm?
Celebrate faithfulness, not visibility. Make sure quieter forms of service are valued too.
Next
Week 10 - Tell Your Story.
Students are beginning to serve with what God has given them. Next, we help them recognize that their own story can become a witness: what Jesus has done in them can point someone else toward Him.