(5–8 minutes, easy setup)
Learners will identify how Christ’s resurrection can take away their own fear of death and dying.
Provide a dry erase board and marker. Provide paper and pens.
Ask: Why do so many adults share a fear of death and dying? Should a Christian fear death? Why? After responses, write the words to the third stanza of the hymn Christ the Lord is Risen Today on the board: Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia! Dying once He all doth save, Alleluia! Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!
Divide learners into four groups, assign each group one of the lines of the hymn written on the board, and provide each group with paper and a pen. Point out that the words of this stanza explain why Christians have no fear of death. Instruct each group to identify and record other biblical support of each line on the paper provided (i.e., “Lives again our glorious King” is evidenced through the empty tomb). After two minutes, encourage each group to create a one-sentence statement that expresses why Christians should not fear death, based on their assigned hymn lines and the other biblical support they’ve identified. After another minute, call on each group to read the statement they created and write these on the board. After groups have shared, read through each statement again, as if you’ve created a new stanza. Say: As we grow closer to facing our own deaths, and as we experience death through family and friends, the one thing that we can hold onto is that death is not the end, but the beginning of our eternal life in the presence of the risen Lord.