The Freedom In Christ Course for Young People is a 13 session discipleship course for 11-18s
Life-changing
A powerful resource designed to make fruitful disciples who are sold out for God. Connecting with the truth about who they are in Christ, becoming free from all that holds them back, and learning to how to be transformed by the renewal of they minds – no matter what their circumstances - makes for a life-changing experience
Two Age Ranges
Freedom In Christ for Young People has two streams - one for 11-14s and the other for 15-18s. The Leader's Guide has comprehensive notes to run sessions for both age groups, plus a DVD to deliver short talks on each topic. The material includes prep for the leader, introduction and ice-breakers, illustrations, prayers, talks, games, worship and more.
The 3Ts
Freedom In Christ for Young People includes the three "Ts" of the Freedom In Christ approach to discipleship - Truth, Turning and Transformation. The teaching delivers the Truth, there's a special youth version of the Steps To Freedom In Christ, and the course includes equipping young people with Stronghold-busting.
Find out how it works
An overview of each session
Session 0 | Launch!
Kick off with a special social event - the Leader's Guide contains some good suggestions. The session includes teaching material on why we rely on the authority of the Bible - especially important amongst an increasingly Biblically illiterate culture.
Session 1 | Who was I?
When Adam and Eve were created, they had life in all its fullness. God met all their needs. They were perfectly accepted, secure and significant and this is a picture of how our relationship with God is meant to be. When they disobeyed God and turned their back on him, they lost their relationship with God. The result for us is that we were born physically alive but spiritually dead and with a huge need for acceptance, security and significance. Jesus came to restore to us the very same life, acceptance, security and significance that Adam and Eve had originally.
Session 2 | Who am I now?
The Bible is clear that when we become Christians, who we are and the way God sees us totally changes. This session explains that we should no longer regard ourselves as sinners but as new creations, children of God, saints! Furthermore, the way we see ourselves really matters. It is important to know that we can approach God with confidence, knowing we are not guilty in his eyes.
Session 3 | Where do I put my faith?
We all have faith in something. It is where we put that faith that decides whether or not it will be effective. If we want our Christian life to be fruitful and effective, we need to put our faith totally in God and the truth of the Bible. Our faith grows by putting it into practice.
Session 4 | What are we up against? Worldview
We live in a world full of choices and ‘mix and match’ spirituality. The way that we see reality - our worldview - can vary massively based on where and when we were brought up. The world also tells us that there is no absolute unchangeable truth. When we become Christians we need to learn that, if we want to see reality as it is, we need to adopt the Biblical worldview.
Session 5 | What are we up against? Big choices
This session introduces something that the Bible calls ‘the flesh’, the unhelpful ways of thinking and coping that we developed as we grew up. These ways can still really affect us and hold us back, but we don’t need to give in. We can choose every day and moment to live either according to our selfish ‘flesh’ or according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Session 6 | What are we up against? Strongholds
The environment we grew up in, traumatic experiences and giving into temptation may have led to the development of what the Bible calls ‘strongholds’. These are deeply-ingrained lies that we believe that affect the way we live. When we become a Christian, these lies were not deleted and we have to ‘renew our minds’ with the truth in the Bible.
Session 7 | What are we up against? Spiritual Reality
It is important to realise that we are in a spiritual battle and the devil does exist and that he tells lies to us to affect what we believe and therefore how we live. Every day this battle between truth and lies takes place in our minds. This session looks at how the devil works and how to win the battle.
Session 8 | Freedom - Handling our emotions
Our emotions tell us if something is wrong and needs to be dealt with. Choosing to believe the truth about who we are and who God is makes sure that our feelings reflect reality. The best way to handle our emotions is to be totally honest with God.
Session 9 | Freedom - Forgiveness
Nothing holds young people back more than an unwillingness to forgive. Forgiveness is not about setting the person who has hurt you free but about you being set free. Learning to forgive from the heart sets us free from the past and opens the door for God to heal our emotional pain.
Steps To Freedom In Christ Away Day
The Steps to Freedom in Christ is a key part of the course. It is a gentle repentance process, where young people look at seven different areas of their life, ask the Holy Spirit to bring to their mind stuff they need to deal with and then say sorry and turn their back on it. It is about reconnecting with God’s love and getting back on track in our relationship with him.
Session 10 | Truth = Freedom
If we dealt honestly with everything the Holy Spirit showed us in the Steps to Freedom, we have taken hold of the freedom Jesus won for us. The key to growth now is staying free. This session looks at how we make truth part of our lives every day and regularly resist the devil and renew our mind.
Session 11 | Loving Others
Jesus said that the most important command was to love God with all that we have and love our neighbour as ourselves. This session looks at the fact that relationships go wrong because people focus on their rights in a relationship rather than on their responsibilities. If we focus on how we are to treat others rather than what we feel we deserve our friendships will be stronger, more fruitful and reflect God more.
Session 12 | Where are you going?
It is important that we understand God’s goal for our lives and bring our own goals into line with it. God’s goal for us is that we become more like Jesus. We have all kinds of desires that other people or events can get in the way of but no one can stop us becoming more like Jesus.
Session 13 | Keep going
The world tells us that we will only have real satisfaction, fulfilment and success if we achieve certain things and look the right way. This session looks at a number of aspects of our lives and how faith works in each of these areas as we aim to become more like Jesus.
What leaders say about Freedom In Christ for Young People
“Freedom in Christ is a creative and relevant course for teenagers with the potential to produce a generation of fruitful young disciples.”
Martin Saunders, Premier Christianity
Youth FIC is enabling our teenagers to deal with the challenges of growing up as Christians in the world. It's amazing to see how much baggage they can accumulate by believing the lies of the world and the enemy…but so rewarding to see the emotional engagement through this great course.