If your class is meeting online, invite your students to bring supplies with them to class.

Earlier we saw how Paul was made a new person by the power of Jesus. He didn’t change by working harder or by becoming a better person. No, Paul became a new person because He met Jesus on the road to Damascus and was changed immediately by that meeting. When we have a run-in with Jesus, we’re never going to come away the same! Encountering the God of the universe and experiencing His greatness and power has the ability to change our hearts, just as it did to Paul.

• Have you had a run-in with Jesus which changed your heart? Share! (Answers may vary. Give opportunity for [but do not force] students to share their testimonies of salvation or experiences with God during this time.)

When we make a decision to follow Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we experience a true makeover! We are no longer the person we used to be. We have been made into a new creation in Christ. How amazing is that? 

Let’s draw our own before and after pictures! Distribute supplies (or invite students to have them ready at home).

Have your preteens draw before and after pictures of themselves—before and after Jesus. Have them draw a line down the middle of the index card. They should write “Before” on one side and “After” on the other. They should sketch a picture of themselves before salvation (let them know stick figures are fine!) and then write describing words about how they may have acted or felt on the inside, all around their picture. If students don’t feel comfortable drawing a before or after of themselves or haven’t made a decision to follow Christ yet and don’t understand what the after might look like, they can choose to draw Paul.

You might model this for them beforehand, by sharing your own testimony and drawing your own before and after for the students to see as you share.

Share with students they can also become a new creation in Christ through acceptance of His gift of salvation. They too can encounter Jesus firsthand by choosing to believe in Him. Tell students if they’d like to hear more about becoming a follower of Jesus, they can stay after class, and you’d love to help them take that first step. Help with sharing the Gospel with this age group can be found in your teacher’s guide.

If you have made the decision to be in Christ, you are a new creation. That old person you once were is no longer. The new person God has made you has arrived. Fold up your before and after pictures and place them in your Bibles with this verse. Every time you open your Bibles, let 2 Corinthians flood your mind. Let your picture be your visual cue of who you are in Christ. You have experienced the best makeover you could ever possibly have! 

Pray to close.