Evangelism and Spiritual Warfare, Mentor's Guide, MG08

/ 1 6 5

E V A N G E L I S M A N D S P I R I T U A L W A R F A R E

• Problems framed as questions such as “When preaching at a funeral, is it more important for a minister to be truthful or compassionate? Why?”

Regardless of what method is chosen, the key to a successful Contact section is making a transition from the Contact to the Content of the lesson. When planning the Contact section, Mentors should write out a transition statement that builds a bridge from the Contact to the lesson content. For example, if the lesson content was on the truth that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person who is a full member of the Godhead, the Contact activity might be to have students quickly draw a symbol that best represents the Holy Spirit to them. After having them share their drawings and discuss why they chose what they did, the Mentor might make a transition statement along the following lines: Because the Holy Spirit is often represented by symbols like fire or oil in Scripture rather than with a human image like the Father or the Son, it is sometimes difficult to help people understand that the Spirit is a full person within the Godhead who thinks, acts, and speaks as personally as God the Father or Jesus Christ. In this lesson, we want to establish the scriptural basis for understanding that the Spirit is more than just a symbol for “God’s power” and think about ways that we can make this plain to people in our congregations. This is a helpful transition statement because it directs the students to what they can expect from the lesson content and also prepares them for some of the things that might be discussed in the Connection section that comes later. Although you may adapt your transition statement based on student responses during the Contact section, it is important, during the planning time, to think about what will be said.

Three useful questions for evaluating the Contact section you have created are:

Is it creative and interesting?

•

• Does it take into account the needs and interests of this particular group?

• Does it focus people toward the lesson content and arouse their interest in it?