Love Heart Challenge
15 minutes
Give everyone in your group a handful of Love hearts; these are their tokens, or currency. Give them an allotted time (five to ten minutes) to challenge as many other people in the group to either a game of thumb war, stare war or rock, paper, scissors. They cannot challenge the same person twice, unless they have already challenged everyone else (this will depend on group size). The loser of each challenge has to give one of their Love hearts to the winner and the overall winner of the game is the person with the most Love hearts at the end. They could then eat their ‘winnings’ (although that’s pretty gross and germy), or just have a giggle at what their Love hearts say.
Speed dating musical chairs
10 minutes
This is basically good old school musical chairs, but with the chairs arranged in pairs opposite each other, as in the First Dates restaurant. Play an appropriate love song. You could, as an extra twist, have a question for the pairs sat opposite each other to ask one another: what is your favourite ice cream? Where would your perfect first date be?
There is only one happiness
15 minutes
Ask your group(s) to discuss the following questions:
- What makes you happy?
- What do you think is the source of true happiness?
At the beginning of every episode of First Dates, the Maître D Fred Sirieix tells us, ‘There is only one happiness in this life: to love and to be loved.’ In your group(s), discuss what they think about that statement. Say: our culture tells us that Fred Sirieix’s statement is true: that we must find love to be truly happy.
Read John 10:10 together and ask: what do you think ‘life to the full’ with Jesus looks like?
Key Point 1
People are searching for happiness in life in all kinds of different ways: be it through love and relationships, thrill and adventure, wealth, or maybe even in far more destructive ways. The Bible tells us that true happiness and fulfillment is found only in knowing Jesus Christ. We are made by him, and for him. He has given us lots of other good things to enjoy in this life, such as love, relationships, family and friends. But we will only understand who we were made to be, and be able to enjoy those things as God intended us to, if we are in relationship with Jesus first and foremost.
The ‘shape’ of love
10 minutes
Get your group together and ask them, without thinking too hard about it, to make a shape with their hands that represents love. Hopefully most of them will make the shape of a heart which lots of celebrities use, or some footballers after scoring a goal. Say: the Bible talks about love being a different ‘shape’.
Read the first part of 1 John 4:10, ‘This is love: not that we loved God but that he loved us…’ As you read this out, hold up / pin up the big arrow pointing down to represent God’s love for us.
Read 1 John 10:11, ‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ As you read this out, pin up the two outward facing horizontal arrows to represent that a the correct response to God’s love for us is for us to love one another.
Ask your group how many of the Ten Commandments they can remember. They may or may not get them all, but it’s fun to try. Say: being a Christian isn’t about following a set of rules that we sometimes find hard to remember anyway. Jesus sums it up in Matthew 22:37-39 when he says: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself.’
As you read this, pin up the final arrow that points upwards to represent our response of loving God in return. You should now have pinned up the ‘real shape of love’: the cross. As you point this out to your group, read 1 John 4:10, this time the whole verse: God loved us so much that he sent his son to die in our place on the cross.
Key Point 2
Real love is found not in the First Dates restaurant, but on the cross. John 3:16 tells us that ‘God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’ God loves you so much that he sent his only son to die for you so that he could be with you forever!
Response
10 minutes
At the end of each date in the First Dates restaurant, the couple is invited to sit down together and tell each other how they feel it went and what they really thought about the other person. Hand out a copy of the blank heart sheet and spend time writing short statements or prayers (a bit like you might get on Love heart sweets) of response to God for what he has done for them, of how they feel about him, or of how they want to live life to the full with Jesus. You could do this individually or in pairs. Give space for them to reflect and pray.
Sas Cutting is the youth worker at St Andrews, North Oxford.
Andy Mcconville is the youth development co-ordinator at St Michaels, Chester.
