SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
“HOW LONG?”
II Peter 3: 8-13
Big Idea: Patience, being faithful, Christian living, fair, answers to
prayers, scripture
Note to the Teachers: The easiest thing to do (which actually becomes the most difficult before the end of the
class!) is to use the same teaching method for the entire class period. What most of us are used to is simply
lecturing or asking questions. And hey, if your kids are walking out each week saying, “Man, that connected with me.
The hour just flew by!,” then those two methods are fine. What this curriculum seeks to do is to give you active
exercises that take the kids’ attention off of you and their own discomfort enough that they CAN naturally answer
the questions you want them to get at. Remember the rule: 1 minute of attention for each year of life lived. That
means that even in our older classes, we should be shooting for changing our teaching methods 3 times in the class
period. The reason there are seven different exercises is that I’m guessing that 4 of them won’t work for your
group. If an exercise doesn’t work, try the next one. But please try to engage the kids with something besides the
standard lecture and Q&A. Thanks for all your work in loving God’s kids! Also, to aid you in your preparation, any
special supplies recommended for this lesson are outlined in a box. Contact [email protected] with any
questions!
I. Gathering (Attendance, Announcements, First-Timers)
II. Engaging the Brain
A. The World’s Longest Day: Groundhog Day Video Clip
1. As the group is coming in, have a video clip from the movie Groundhog Day showing,
the clip that shows Bill Murray in a series of mornings waking up to the same day.
2. Process Questions
â This is a movie about a day that just wouldn’t end. Which day of the week
feels like the longest day to you?
â The Bible talks about God’s perspective on how long a day really is. Any
ideas what that perspective is? (Hint, it says, “To God, a day is like…”).
B. Lining Up the Patience
1. Explain how today’s “Line Up” will work:
a. You will give the group three questions.
b. After each question, everyone in the group needs to move into a single file line
across the room.
c. One side of the room is for those folks who answer “A whole lot,” and the other
side of the room is for people who answer “Not at all.”
d. The group members can move to any place along the line that best indicates
how strong their answer is (those who “could go either way” will stay near the
_____________________________________________________________________________
MINISTRY ARCHITECTS EXISTS TO:
DESIGN sustainable, deep-impact ministries, one church at a time
BUILD the competence, joy, and longevity of ministry professionals
CONSTRUCT bridges to the best ministry resources available today
SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
middle).
e. Once everyone has moved, you’ll be asking a few people to explain why they
picked the spots they did.
2. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
3. The Rounds
a. Round One: How patient are you with your family?
b. Round Two: How patient are you with your friends?
c. Round Three: How patient are you with God?
4. Process Questions
â According to what you saw, who do we have the hardest time being
patient with?
â When you are feeling impatient with God, what do you do?
C. Tension Getter: Would You Mind Explaining God?
1. Explain to the group that you want to read them a situation and then you want to hear
how they would answer if they were in this situation.
2. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
3. Read the following case study to the group:
You are the youth pastor and one of your students comes to you angry and frustrated. “Last
week,” he says, “you taught us in Bible study that ‘the way of the transgressor is hard.’ Well,
doing the right thing got me a D on my European History final. And the kid who sits next to me
‘transgressed’ his way to a B+. This weekend, when I’m at home grounded and our youth group
is off on the ski trip, I’m going to have a hard time understanding who really had it hard.”
4. Process Questions
â You are the youth leader. What do you say?
â Have you ever wanted to ask God why things seem so easy for
people who seem to ignore God’s standards?
â How many of you have ever asked God that very question?
â If you had this kind of complaint about God, who would you talk to
about it?
III. Igniting the Heart
1. Mining Expedition—II Peter 3:8-13 1.
(Put on your hard-hat) and explain that you want to invite the group members to go on a
little mining expedition.
2. Explain that you want to give the group a way of digging into a text of Scripture for
themselves.
Page | 2
SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
3. Explain that the process involves five digging questions, emphasizing that there are
no “right and wrong” answers to these questions.
4. Distribute the Journal Sheets and pencils and invite the group to ask questions to
clarify the instructions.
5. Give the group members three minutes to complete the Journal Sheets individually.
6. Before beginning the process questions, break the group into groups of four and give
these groups three minutes to share some of their reactions to the journal questions:
a. What three-word reaction do you have to these verses?
b. What gives you the most trouble?
c. What do these verses tell you about God?
d. What do they tell you about yourself?
e. What action do they urge you to take?
7. Process Questions
â What do you think about this process of a way of understanding for
yourselves what the Bible has to say to you?
â Which would you rather have—your teacher explaining the text to you
or digging it out for yourself?
â According to this text, what does God want for everyone?
â What does it mean to “come to repentance”?
â Can you think up a situation in which a person your age might “come to
repentance”?
â Does this whole repentance thing just apply to ax murderers and drug
addicts or does it apply to clean-living church people too?
â How can a person who has “been good” all his or her life repent? Does
he or she need to?
â What way do you react to all the detail about the end of the world? Does
it motivate you, confuse you, or something else?
B. Lyrical Insights from Chris Rice
1. Find the song “How Long?” or “Am I Naïve?” from one of (Christian Artist) Chris Rice’s
early CD’s.
2. Before you play the song, ask the group to listen for how the questions raised in this
song might relate to the text from II Peter.
3. Play the entire song and ask the following process questions:
â What’s the question that this song is asking?
â Do you see an answer to this question in the passage we just looked
at?
â What do you think about asking these kinds of questions of God?
C. Dear Peter
Page | 3
SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
1. Read the following letter to the group:
I am an ordinary high school girl. Or at least I used to be. I try to live right. I used to pray a
lot, but now I don’t really see the point, not after the way God has treated me. I had a car
wreck when I was 14. I became paralyzed from the waist down. Do you know how hard it
is to be seen always as “the crippled girl”? It’s like no one can see that there is a real person
sitting in the chair, just a lump of breathing flesh to be pitied. I have prayed and prayed
that I would be able to walk again, but I’ve been stuck in this chair now for over three
years, and I’m about to give up hope. The Bible says that God will answer when we pray.
So why is God not answering? What’s taking him so long anyway?
2. After you have finished reading, ask the group members to write a response to this
letter, but a response as if they were writing from Peter’s perspective.
3. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
4. Have the group members turn their Journal Sheets over and write the letter.
5. Process Questions
â
â
â
â
What kind of answers would you guess Peter would come up with?
Would you answer this girl differently than Peter would?
What would you say?
How do you think Jesus would answer this girl?
D. Devil’s Advocate Role Play: “The End of the World, Get Real!”
1. Ask for a volunteer or two who would be willing to play the role of the “devil’s
advocate,” one who would be willing to question what the Bible is saying.
2. Or you may want to hand pick the person to serve as the devil’s advocate. It might be
a helpful stretch to allow this person to be someone in the group who is most likely to
defend the Bible.
3. Explain to the “devil’s advocate” that he or she will be arguing against the whole
group.
4. Explain to the group that their job is to respond to the questions raised by the devil’s
advocate.
5. Explain to the devil’s advocate that he or she is responsible to challenge what the
Bible says and what the group thinks. Explain that the devil’s advocate is free to ask
people in the group direct questions.
6. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions.
7. Explain that the topic for this debate is the end of the world and that the devil’s
advocate’s position is, “You can’t really believe what you’ve just read in the Bible about
the end of the world. Everybody knows that’s just symbolism!”
Page | 4
SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
8. Give the group a few minutes to enjoy a healthy time of disagreement with the devil’s
advocate.
9. Process Questions
â Did our devil’s advocate raise any good points?
â How do you think God feels about these kinds of doubting, challenging
questions?
â What do you think about people who take their faith seriously but can’t
seem to take discussions about the end of the world all that seriously?
IV. Taking It Home
A. The Letter to the Patient God
1. Invite the group members each to write a letter to God.
2. Give the group this outline for the letter:
a. Dear God,
b. Thanks for being so patient when me when I…
c. I’m sorry about the ways that I…
d. Help me…
e. I’ve got this one question, Lord:
3. Process Questions
â How do you feel about written prayers?
â Do they feel more honest or less honest?
â Knowing what you know of God’s patience, how might he respond to
this kind of letter?
â Can you think of anything that God might feel impatient for our group to
learn?
B. Prayer Snippets
1. Invite the group members to each pick a line from the letters they have written and
speak it as a part of the closing prayer.
2. Explain that you will open and close the prayer with something you have written.
3. Invite the group to ask questions to clarify the instructions before you pray.
4. Lead the class as they close in prayer.
Page | 5
SPICE RACK E-Curriculum
by Mark DeVries
HOW LONG?
Journal Sheet
But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a
thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises, as some count
slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to
repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a
roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought
to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That
day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat.
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the
home of the righteous. —II Peter 3:8-13
What three-word reaction do you have to these verses?
What gives you the most trouble?
What do these verses tell you about God?
What do they tell you about yourself?
What action do they urge you to take?
Page | 6