Choose Electives

Transitions: Coping with Change

Our lives are full of transitions. We move from school to work, from job to job, from place to place. Life itself brings transitions as our bodies and families grow older. Sometimes transitions seem to be our enemies. Other times, change brings opportunity and new hope.

This elective study helps adults explore issues of transition and offers direction in coping with change. These sessions use the Hebrews' experience of the Exodus to explore the issue of change in our lives. The Scriptures help us see that transition can be a route to growth and maturity.

Five-week plan:
• Week One: The Difficult Gifts of Transition and Change
Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Session Focus: The entire process of transition is a friend and ally to our growth in faith.

• Week Two: When It's Time to Go
Scripture: Exodus 14:1-14 and 21-25; 16:1-21; 32:1-20
Session Focus: Before we can continue in life and faith, we must first come to terms with ending the old ways of living. Leaving the old is as important as beginning the new.

• Week Three: Alone in the Wilderness
Scripture: Numbers 13:25-14:4 and Numbers 14:20-23
Session Focus: To seek out and appreciate the learning and healing that can come from those wilderness times in our lives when we feel disoriented and unproductive yet sustained and nourished by our faith in God.

• Week Four: The Flowers of Spring
Scripture: Joshua 1:1-9
Session Focus: To consider that one of the secrets of life is knowing when the opportunity is right to move into a new adventure. To become aware of times when we are truly ready for a new beginning.

• Week Five: Settlement
Scripture: Joshua 24:1-18
Session Focus: To help us appreciate the blessings and dangers of the settled times of life. To remember those things that have given strength, the dangers that might cause us to fall short, and the rewards of a journey of life and faith well taken.

Resources available:
The Leader’s Guide, Transitions: Coping with Change, and the learner’s Companion Guide by Jerry Cappel and Lawanda Smith, are available for purchase at:
http://www.helwys.com/choice/extensions/transitions.html
by calling 800-747-3016.

Tips:
• If you offer this study in the summer, highlight the fact that many persons experience the summer as a time of transition between jobs, homes, or schools. Make this life connection in any promotional materials about the event.

•A newsletter article might read:

Has Your Life Changed?

If so, you are not alone. As life changes, Christians are called upon to navigate the transitions with grace and toward growth. Discover ways to handle the inevitable changes of life by joining us for a special study, “Transitions: Coping with Change” (provide place, time, and leader name).

• Make “companion guides” available at the first session of the study, and encourage participants to follow the daily readings which follow each week’s theme. The companion guide helps individuals process the study and apply it to the unique changes in their own lives.