and by GRACE.

The following activity happened last Sabbath afternoon at our AYMV Program.

Instructions:

1.) Divide the congregation into 4 groups of 5-8 people. More groups can be made if you are in a bigger church.

2.) Assign a group representative.

3.) For each group give out pieces of paper with the following phrase:

a.) Grace over sin

b.) Sufficient Grace

c.) Growing in Grace

d.) Works of Grace

other options would include : Spiritual grace, supplies of Grace, divine grace and etc.

4.) Allow the groups 10-15 minutes to talk about themselves the meaning and importance of the phrase.

5.) Let them also prepare a song for the whole group to sing in front. Our church mates sang the following songs: Amazing Grace, Marvelous Grace, Grace, Your Grace still amazes me.

6.) The representative will then explain/expound and share to the rest of the congregation after the 15 minutes is up.

 

Hope this short but meaningful program idea can be used in your churches.

Be a blessing.

Program Idea: Church Testimonies

Personal testimonies should have a special place in the Sabbath program.

Each Sabbath, the congregation should be encouraged and educated in a way that throughout the coming week they will be able to live and create fresh experiences that will strengthen their personal bond with Christ.

These experiences, when shared with the church in the Sabbaths to follow, will in turn inspire and encourage others in their daily walk with the Savior.

More often than not, though, the program leader will have a problem finding someone from the congregation to share an inspiring experience with the church. There are two possible reasons that could account for this.

First, the members do not have such experiences. Second, they are too shy to come up front and share the experiences they do have.

One way to deal with both problems is through this simple activity.

PROGRAM IDEA: Group Testimonies

Objective: To encourage the congregation to share their personal experiences as a Christian.

Materials Needed: None

Mechanics:
Divide the congregation into as many small groups as reasonable. Ours did well with four. Instruct each group to gather experiences from the members for each of the following categories:

1. Answered Prayer
2. Helping Others
3. Witnessing to Others
4. Conversion
5. Overcoming Temptation

You could also add other categories or come up with an entirely different set of categories. Give the group about ten minutes to gather these experiences. Time pressure is sometimes necessary to motivate the members to volunteer their experiences. Also, dividing them into smaller groups will encourage them to contribute. Plus, there’s the assurance that he/she won’t be the only one to do it.

At the end of the allotted time, have the group representatives come up to share their experiences with the bigger congregation. It’s also advisable to set a time limit for each group to present. The adult males at our church had more than five representatives, and we only then discovered that the “quiet” ones have a lot happening in their lives that are worth hearing!

At the end of the afternoon, we heard at least 20 different experiences from our members, most of them sharing for the first time.

Optional: Have the entire group come up front at the beginning of their turn to sing a hymn, serving as intermissions between the mini-speeches. We did this at our church so the non-representatives could still take part in the larger program.

I hope this helps your AY Program plan for this coming Sabbath. If you do use this program idea, do share how it goes. I would very much love to hear from you.

God bless and be a blessing.