PLAN A: Aspire, Abstain, AchieveSM is a youth-oriented multimedia presentation that’s fun, interactive, shocking, and inspiring. Our culture is changing like it’s on roids. And somehow, young people are supposed to process all of these exponential shifts. We have more technology than ever before, yet less truth than ever before. Our society’s gone mobile yet disconnected from so much of the foundational truths that have kept us grounded. This is the day and age of digitized lives, yet so few parents know and understand what’s going on in the millennial universe.
We live in the greatest country on earth, where opportunity abounds all around us. So, we encourage young people to aspire toward something great…even impossible. And realize that even dreams require work, a strategy and a faithfulness in that journey. Despite our instantaneous, download-it-in-a-few-seconds society, good things do take time. Too many are fixated on the immediate without looking ahead to what’s possible.
We live in an increasingly “anything goes” society that mocks the concept of self-control. Abstaining is a powerful act. It’s not limited to sexual behaviors, but many behaviors. Abstinence makes us stronger. We’re told, for instance that abstaining from certain foods make us healthier, or that abstaining from using certain language makes other emotionally healthier, or that abstaining from driving a car that uses fossil fuels will save the earth. (Disclaimer: We don’t promote climate change propaganda, but you get the point of how we’re encouraged to abstain from a lot of things every day.) Proverbs 25:28 declares “He whose spirit is uncontrolled is like an unwalled town which has been broken into.” When you aspire it requires you to abstain…from something…sometimes, from many things. That delay–whatever it may be–may seem painful, but not nearly as painful as failing to realize that precious personal goal.
We’re all inspired by different stories of those who achieve the seemingly impossible.
In this presentation, we discuss:
- Who are you? How do you describe your generation?
- What is Pop Culture? Describing most influential elements in our society.
- What are the pressures you most deal with in your environment?
- Ryan Bomberger’s personal story: from abortion to adoption to factivism
- Define Aspire
- What kind of dreams to you have? Do you believe that dream is attainable?
- From the Abstract to the Tangible: Write it Down
- Discuss pressing movements today (e.g. #BlackLivesMatter, LGBT, Abortion, Religion, Poverty)
- Define Abstain
- What kind of things do we abstain from?
- What are the pros/cons of abstinence?
- Self-control versus Remote-ControlSM
- Define Achieve
- What kinds of things have you achieved?
- Who are role models you look up to?
- Presentation of Dreamers and Achievers
- The Balloon Experiment
