Teaching Ideas for Making Christ the Center of Our Lives
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Let’s chat about some ways you can share the gospel of Jesus Christ at church, specifically teaching ideas for “Why Should Jesus Christ Be Central in My Life?”. This is typically taught in Young Women's classes and Aaronic Priesthood Quorums on October 9th, the week right after General Conference. Watch the video, listen to the audio, or read below for ideas to get you teaching and discussing this Come Follow Me lesson in your class.
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General Conference Review
Notice the very beginning of this lesson in the Come Follow Me Youth manual. Typically it talks about how we need to go over the four parts of the work of salvation and exaltation. However, this week it tells us to do a General Conference review. Really this could take up your whole lesson and that's okay because Jesus Christ is the center of General Conference as well, because He's the center of our church. It's really easy to tie that all together at the end as you discuss the things that you've learned in General Conference with each other. A fun way to do this is by drawing on the whiteboard fun shapes and inviting people to fill in answers as they come in with a whiteboard marker or sticky notes. As mentioned in the last lesson help, sticky notes can be a really great way to include more people. It's not as intimidating and you get a lot more answers really quick.
On the whiteboard, you can put different shapes, like a starburst for the word “Themes”, a circle for the word “Testimony”, and a double rectangle for the word “Actions.” The goal is to catch people’s eye and make it more inviting to come and participate. My favorite question is always about what themes people noticed. If you only ask one question about General Conference, ask about what themes people noticed. The answers will tell you how you need to gear your lessons for the next six months because of what they're honing in on and paying attention to.
If you are a planner, you can hand out a free printable sheet that I have under General Conference Fun that says, “Things I learned about Jesus Christ” and it has a picture of Jesus Christ in the middle (it’s page 26 of the many pages in the free printable). Hand out these note pages before General Conference and have people map out their answers- what things they learn about Jesus Christ. Remind them to bring them back and you can discuss them in class together. It's a great way to tie it all in to how we need to keep Jesus Christ as our center.
Please remind people no matter what if you're going to talk about General Conference because we forget about 70% of what we've learned after 24 hours. We can't expect to have a great conversation about General Conference if we don't give people an opportunity to go back and remember what was actually taught. Encourage your class to go through their notes or to skim some of the summaries that are available after General Conference. ChurchofJesusChrist.org always has summaries available shortly after Conference ends. It's a great source for a quick recap.
Dart Board
If you want to add some fun, need help getting your class to focus, or you just aren't sure how to organize your lesson, this ideas is for you. Grab a magnetic dart board. You will also need some index cards or pieces of paper that you can lay out in a grid either on the board or on a table. On each card write a question, reading assignment, quote, etc. Then lay the cards out in a grid under specific point categories such as “Bullseye”, “Completely missed the board”, “10 points”, etc. Invite one person up at a time to throw a dart. Their point total will reveal which card to pick and discuss. You can do this for the whole class or until everyone has had one turn.
After the activity, you can tie it in with how we always want to focus on Christ, to have Christ as our center or as our bullseye. Sometimes we miss a little, sometimes we miss a lot. Sometimes we don't even make it on the board, but as we continually strive every single day to have Christ as our center, it becomes easier and we get closer and closer. There's a great quote from Elder Holland back in October 2019 where he says, “May we strive to see Christ at the center of our lives, of our faith and of our service.” You can send home or use as a visual my coloring page of the quote with Christ as the center and activities that can help lead us to that center.
Everything Points to Christ
Everything we do in church is to lead us back to Jesus Christ, whether we realize it or not. From family history work to going to weekly activities. Everything we do is to lead us back to Jesus Christ. Discuss some of those things and talk about how they help bring us closer to Jesus Christ. In the last couple of years, the Church has made changes to make it even more clear that Christ is the center of everything that we do. Ask what those changes are and how they help. Some examples are:
The name of the Church. President Nelson has stressed that we should use the full name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We don't go by Mormons. We don't go by LDS. We go by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And if we want to shorten it, the Church of Jesus Christ. We want to keep Jesus Christ in that name because it's His church.
Come Follow Me- As we're in the scriptures more we’re closer to Jesus Christ because Christ is all over in scripture.
Two-hour church- The whole point of that was not to have less time at church but to be talking about Christ more, to make sure that He is the center of our worship.
Fewer announcements because we want to make sure that Jesus Christ is the center of our Sacrament meetings, not the ward party.
The Children's and Youth program- It's all about becoming more like Jesus Christ.
Ministering- Even that changes so that we can make it more clear in becoming like Jesus Christ and ministering one on one, just like he did.
Discuss some reasons why the Church made these changes and how it makes it clear that Jesus Christ is the center of everything that we do. Then discuss what changes we can make in our lives. What are we choosing today to ensure that Christ is central and where do we find Jesus Christ? Where do we go to find him every single day? Talk about some of those ideas, discuss, and brainstorm together.
Ponder and Journal
I recommend bringing some music to listen to as people ponder and journal; a hymn like “I Believe in Christ” would be perfect. You can find some great options in the Gospel Library app or using the Sacred Music app. Give people pieces of paper and an opportunity to journal their feelings. Invite them to ponder the questions, “What do you think of Jesus Christ? How do you feel when you think of Jesus Christ?” It’s a great opportunity to record and reflect on their testimony. After the song is over, you can absolutely invite people to share their thoughts, but nobody is required to share. Be prepared to share your own thoughts as that will often encourage others to share theirs.
When Would You Go?
Try starting this activity before class starts as people are writing up on the board for the General Conference review and other people are waiting, casually ask, “If you could go back in time, when would you go?” Asking it before you teach helps ensure more authentic answers uninfluenced by what you have talked about in your lesson. Of course, you can ask the question later on as well. There's no right answer. It's just a fun question. When you are ready for this part of the lesson though, bring those answers back in and how they were all great ideas and fun to think about. Then ask them the follow-up question “What do you think was the most important day in history? The day that had the greatest impact on humankind, changed the course of history?”
Elder Uchtdorf answers this question in the talk referenced in the Come Follow Me manual for this lesson. He said, “In my mind the answer is clear. To find the most important day in history, we must go back to that evening almost 2,000 years ago in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus Christ knelt in intense prayer and offered Himself as a ransom for our sins.” After the quote, it's an excellent opportunity to show a video that's also recommended in the manual. It's a Christmas video, but it's so good for this lesson. In the beginning, it talks about what life would be without Jesus Christ. then shows what our life can be like because we do have Jesus Christ and He did atone for our sins.
Once the video is over, invite people to share their thoughts about why we believe in Jesus Christ and what we can do to come closer to Him and make Him a part of our daily lives. You can even invite your class to do a seven or 14 day challenge where every day they answer those two questions: Why do we believe in Jesus Christ? List one reason then “How am I today going to ensure that I'm coming closer to Jesus Christ?” Kick it off by answering one of those questions in class together with The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles.
I made advent cards with The Living Christ a long time ago and it works great for this activity as it divides The Living Christ into small sections. Pass the cards out in your class and have people read just that section. What's one reason in here (there's probably more) why we believe in Jesus Christ or at least why the apostles believe in Jesus Christ? Do we agree? Do we have that testimony as well? Share those answers, write them down in that journal invitation and encourage your class to keep that going again.
You're going to have to remind them frequently to do it and to bring it back if you want a return and report activity.
Remember everything changes when we have Jesus Christ as the center of our lives, as we truly seek Him, seek to know Him and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Everything changes from understanding who we are from doing our homework to cleaning the bathroom, to going to a game on Friday night, everything changes. It changes what we do, how we do it, what we notice, how we treat others, etc. Everything is different because of it. And as we continue to make Jesus Christ the center of our lives, we will be all the better for it.
Chat with you next time when we talk about a faith-filled story from somebody who's striving to live the gospel of Jesus Christ, just like you.
