Want to grow as a Christian? Here are five practical steps: Confess your sins, learn the Bible, honor and worship the Lord, talk to God in prayer and make fellow Christians your best friends. In the object lesson video, we call these “pillars.”
Click the image to watch. Runtime: 2:20
POINT: Five wise steps to take to grow in Christ.
MATERIALS NEEDED: About a dozen white paper cups (the ones for coffee are perfect), a marker to write on the cups, a cookie sheet or similar to stand on as explained below.
Bible Story Suggestion: Acts 2:42-47, an example of Christians growing in the Lord together:
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to gathering together, to observing communion and praying. Everyone was in awe, and the apostles performed many wonders and signs.
All the believers were together and held everything in common. They sold possessions and shared with anyone in need.
United in one accord they met every day in front of the temple. They broke bread from house to house, sharing their meals with gladness and heartfelt sincerity, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
Instructions: Read the Bible story to your audience, pointing out that the habits the early Christians were building caused them to grow in strength and maturity in their walk with the Lord. Perform the object lesson as described below and in the demonstration video.
Object Lesson: How to Grow in Christ
A volunteer from your audience will be standing on a cookie sheet or similar platform supported by several paper cups. We suggest about a dozen white paper cups (the kind that hold coffee are the best). A marker is used to label the cups.
Five cups are labeled with these five words, one word per cup: Confession, Bible, Worship, Prayer, Fellowship. Make two or three sets for a total of ten to fifteen cups.
Here’s the idea: The cups represent five key “pillars” of Christian growth. Anyone who continually takes a stand on these pillars will grow up to be a strong, mature believer. The demo video shows everything you need to know.
Activity Page: How Much Time is About Right?
Your listeners vote on how much time is about right to spend on each of the five pillars. You can make copies for everyone to work on, or simply use it to guide a group vote.
A Fun Game: We call it Cupside Down. Place several dozen cups on the playing area, half of the cups placed right side up, the other half upside down. Form two teams. At your signal, one team tries to turn all the cups up, the other team tries to turn them all down. Call time after about a minute. Count the cups, declare the winner.
NOTE: Instead of the five pillars we’ve chosen, you could modify this object lesson and the Bible story to teach about the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22,23), key Bible verses on any topic, and so forth.
Be sure to download the 100% free lesson plan and activity page! Get it HERE.
