Series Name: Goal!
Message Title: Game Plan
Short Summary: Just like a soccer team needs a game plan to win, parents need an intentional strategy to help their children follow Jesus. Drawing from Deuteronomy 6:4-9, this message reveals God's three-part game plan: create a spiritual practice schedule with intentional faith moments, maximize ordinary everyday opportunities for spiritual conversations, and mobilize children into God's mission through active service. The most powerful truth? Faith gets cemented not just through what kids know, but through getting them in the game of serving others.
Icebreaker Question
What's one skill or hobby you learned as a kid that you're grateful someone took the time to teach you? Who taught you, and what made their approach memorable?
Review: Previous Week's "I Will" Statement
Last week's commitment was: "I will pray, by name, for the next generation."
Reflection Questions:
- Who specifically did you pray for this past week? Share their names and what you prayed for them.
- What did you notice or experience as you committed to pray?
Discussion Questions
Question 1: The Foundation of Faith Transfer
Read Deuteronomy 6:4-9 together as a group.
Moses tells the Israelites that before they can impress God's commands on their children, these commands must first be "upon your hearts." The message emphasized that "you can't give away what you don't possess" and that casual faith produces even more casual faith in the next generation.
Reflect and Share: When you think about your own spiritual life right now, what would you say the young people watching your life are "catching" from you? This could be your own children, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, kids you mentor, or young people at church. What does your authentic, everyday faith look like, and how does that make you feel about what you're passing on?
(Encourage vulnerability here—this isn't about perfection but honest assessment and growth. Everyone has influence, whether parent or not.)
Question 2: The Practice Schedule
The message challenged us to create a "spiritual practice schedule"—intentional, structured times to engage young people with God through prayer, devotions, and Scripture reading. The Nerheim family modeled this beautifully with nightly prayers and reading the Action Bible together.
Reflect and Share: Think about your sphere of influence with young people—whether you're a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, mentor, or friend. What intentional spiritual rhythms do you currently have (or could you create) with the child in your life? For those without children at home, how might you invite a young person into your own spiritual practices—maybe a nephew joining you for church, a grandchild coming over for devotions, or mentoring a younger believer?
Question 3: The Run of Play
The message taught that "the extraordinary is found in the ordinary"—that most powerful faith moments happen not in structured teaching times but in spontaneous, everyday moments: in the car, at the dinner table, during a walk, or when something unexpected happens. Pastor Carter shared about using a moment driving past a grocery store to teach his sons about confession and honesty.
Reflect and Share: Think back over the past month to your interactions with young people—whether your own kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, or young people you know. Can you identify a "run of play" moment—an ordinary situation where you had (or missed) an opportunity to point them toward Jesus? What happened, and what did you learn from it? For those who don't have regular contact with young people, what's one relationship you could invest in to create more of these moments?
Question 4: Getting in the Game
The message's most powerful point was that "faith gets cemented and actualized when our kids get mobilized for God's mission." Todd stated, "If your children are not mobilized in living out God's mission in some meaningful way while they're still at home, they are very unlikely to own their faith and live it out when they grow up." He challenged everyone—young people, parents, grandparents, and influencers—to get in the game.
Reflect and Share: Consider the young people in your sphere of influence. Are they currently serving or engaged in God's mission? If you're a parent, how are your kids involved? If you're a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or mentor, have you invited a young person to serve alongside you? If not, what fears or obstacles have held you back? What would it look like to change that this week? And for those who are single or don't have regular access to young people, how might you first get yourself in the game so you have something to invite others into?
Question 5: Everyone Has Influence
Todd reminded us that this message isn't just for parents—he specifically called out young people, grandparents, and all influencers. He said to young people: "You are young, you are passionate, you are gifted, and God has good works planned out in advance for you to be able to do." And he challenged everyone to get involved in our kids' or student ministries or bring a young person with them wherever they are serving.
Reflect and Share: Whether you're single, married, a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, or friend—who is one young person God has placed in your life that you could intentionally invest in spiritually? What's holding you back from taking that step? And if you're a young person in this group, who is someone older in the faith that you could ask to mentor you or serve alongside?
This Week's "I Will" Statement
"I will invite a child to serve along with me this week."
Action Steps:
- Identify a specific young person in your life (your child, grandchild, niece, nephew, neighbor kid, student you mentor, or young person at church)
- Choose a concrete serving opportunity (helping a neighbor, serving at a microcampus, volunteering at church, yard work for someone in need, etc.)
- Extend the invitation this week and follow through together
- Note: If you're not currently serving anywhere, this is your week to get in the game first, then bring a young person with you
- For young people: Find an older believer and ask if you can serve alongside them
Accountability Question for Next Week: Who did you invite, what did you do together, and what impact did you see?
Prayer Prompts
Prompt 1: Open Sharing
Leader asks: "What prayer requests do you have this week—anything you're facing that we can bring before God together?"
Prompt 2: For the Next Generation and Our Influence
Pray specifically for the young people in your group members' lives:
- That God would give parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, mentors, and friends wisdom, intentionality, and courage
- That young people's hearts would be soft and receptive to God's truth
- That every person in your group would recognize their unique sphere of influence with the next generation
- For young people who have wandered from faith, that God would pursue them and bring them home
- For single adults and those without children, that God would connect them with young people who need their influence
Prompt 3: For Mobilization and Mission
Pray for activation and engagement across all generations:
- That God would open doors for children and young people to serve meaningfully
- That fear, busyness, or complacency wouldn't keep anyone from getting in the game
- That this generation would catch a vision for God's mission and own their faith
- That Pathway Church would continue to create opportunities for all ages to serve and grow together
- For intergenerational relationships to form and flourish
Rewatch the Message
Want to revisit this message or share it with someone else?
Watch it here:
Remember: The goal of this discussion is discovery, not perfection. Create space for honest struggles, celebrate small steps of obedience, and trust that God is at work in every generation. Whether you're a parent, grandparent, single adult, aunt, uncle, or young person, you have influence, and God wants to use you to pass the baton of faith.