“Here
I Raise My Ebenezer”
Optional Spiritual Autobiography Retreat
Brief: Use this section as a retreat or as a
mini-series during your weekly meetings to help students understand and share
how God has helped them so far in life.
Sample Schedule
Friday night –
bonfire, campfire games, session 1, board games
Saturday – breakfast,
session 2, activity/board games, lunch, camp activity, session, 3, dinner,
session 4, flashlight hide and seek, movie, board games
Sunday – breakfast,
session 5
Session 1
Praise songs and “Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Intro Question
Tell us one thing we
don’t know about you.
Scripture: Read 1 Samuel 7:2-12
What was an Ebenezer?
(An Ebenezer is a monument set up to show how far God has helped you.)
God helped the
Israelites fight and beat the Philistines up to a certain point, so Samuel
raised the Ebenezer there.
This weekend, we’re
going to be raising our Ebenezers. God is working in our lives all the time,
but we don’t always notice it when it’s happening. Writing our spiritual
autobiographies will help us look back and see what God has done for us and in
us. We’ll see how far God has helped us.
What did the people
have to do for God to help them against the Philistines?
1. They had to turn
to God (verses 2-4). Part of writing our spiritual autobiographies will be
remembering when we turned to God or when we turned back to God.
2. They had to
confess their sins (verse 6). Part of writing our spiritual autobiographies
will be remembering and talking about times when we have sinned and made
mistakes.
3. They recognized
the challenge (verse 7). We’ll also be talking about challenges and scary times
that have come up in our lives.
4. They asked God for
help (verses 8-9). We’ll talk about times God has helped us and times He
hasn’t.
5. They took action.
They knew what they had to do, and they did it. We’ll talk about the things God
is asking us to do as well.
(Hand out Writing a Spiritual Autobiography instructions and
journals and give time to work on them. Conclude the session by singing another
praise song and “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” again.)
“Here
I Raise My Ebenezer”
Optional Spiritual Autobiography Retreat
Session 2
Praise songs and “Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Intro Question
Tell a favorite story
about your family.
What did God have to
do with your story?
Who is the most religious
person in your family? The least?
Scripture: Genesis
12:1-5; Hebrews 12:1-2
Read Genesis 12:1-5
What did it cost
Abraham to go on this journey? (Leaving everything familiar, his family, etc.)
Did Abraham know
where he was going? (No.)
What was Abraham’s
goal? (To go where God led him.)
Abraham’s goal was to
keep going wherever God led him. He didn’t want to stall or get lost or get
stuck in one place. He started on his journey right away, and he wanted to get
where God was leading him.
We’re on a journey
too. We’re on a spiritual journey with God. We might not know everything that’s
going to happen to us in life on our journey, but our goal is to follow God and not get stalled or lost or
stuck on the way but to keep going forward.
How could we get
stalled, lost, or trapped on our spiritual journey?
Read Hebrews 12:1-2
The big thing that
hinders us in our journey, that stalls us, makes us get lost, or trapped, is sin. When we sin, when we don’t follow God and
what He wants for us in life, we lose our way on the journey.
So, Abraham starts
out on this journey. What did God promise him in return? (That God would bless
him and that he would be a blessing to others.)
God will bless us too if we follow Him in our spiritual journey.
What does it mean to
bless others?
How can you be a
blessing to others?
(Give time to work on
spiritual autobiography journals. To conclude the session, the leader should
share their spiritual autobiography. Pass out the Listening to a Spiritual Autobiography instructions and go
over it as you begin.)
“Here
I Raise My Ebenezer”
Optional Spiritual Autobiography Retreat
Session 3
Praise songs and “Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Intro Question
When have you
experienced God? (Pass out idea sheet)
Scripture: 1 Kings
18:16-40; 19:1-13
Read 1 Kings 18:16-40
Elijah experience God
in an amazing way. He won this great victory. And sometimes we experience God
in some pretty amazing ways. But watch what happens next?
Read 1 Kings 19:1-10
Elijah has just had
this great time with God, doing this miracle, but now Elijah is feeling low.
He’s depressed. Maybe he’s even doubting
why God ever did this miracle in the first place. When have you doubted God?
Read 1 Kings 19:11-13
Just like Elijah, we
experience God in some big ways sometimes, and these are special times, but we
know that God is also with us on a daily basis in a more subtle kind of way.
How can you feel God’s presence every day?
(Give students time
to work on their spiritual autobiography journals. Then, give a couple of students
time to share their spiritual autobiographies.)
“Here
I Raise My Ebenezer”
Optional Spiritual Autobiography Retreat
Session 4
Praise songs and “Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Intro Question
When you were little, who was the most important
person in your life?
Who is the most
important person in your life now?
Have you ever had a
“spiritual friendship,” a friendship that was centered on helping each other
with your faith? What would that kind of friendship be like?
(Give students time
to work on their spiritual autobiographies. Then, give students time to share
their spiritual autobiographies.)
“Here
I Raise My Ebenezer”
Optional Spiritual Autobiography Retreat
Session 5
Praise songs and “Come
Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”
Intro Question
What is the scariest
to you? (Pass out idea sheet.)
What is the scariest
thing that has ever happened to you?
Scripture: Read Genesis 22:1-18
How has God provided
for you in scary or hard times?
What can we learn
about God during scary or hard times?
(Finish sharing
spiritual autobiographies. Then, have students pass their journals around. Each
student writes something they admire about that person in their journal.)
(To conclude the
retreat, have each student find a rock from the retreat center, decorate it
with their names and other designs in permanent marker and then, bring them to
the youth room to make an Ebenezer pile of stones in remembrance of the
weekend.)
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