The elements described below offer different ways to engage with the topic of this session. It’s up to you whether you use all of them or just one. They are tools for you; you decide how to use them. What matters:

  • Be flexible and adapt the activities to the group dynamic and your time budget. You won’t be able to fit all the elements into one session.
  • Make sure all participants are included and feel comfortable.
  • Offer enough room for personal reflection and stress the importance of honest and open feedback.
  • Be sensitive to emotional reactions, especially when it comes to personal topics.

Introduction

⏱ 15 minutes

👉
Hand out the lyrics (print them from a lyrics site) so everyone can follow the content closely. Give the teenagers time to let the words and the mood of the song sink in.

🎶 Listen to the song “I Need Help” by Connor Price.

Connor Price, Maverick City Music & Taylor Hill: “I Need Help” (ft. Nick Day)
⚠️
During the discussion, make sure everyone feels comfortable speaking openly. Create an atmosphere of trust in which no question or answer is judged.
❓
In what kind of situation do you think Connor Price might have written this song?
❓
If you could ask Connor Price one question about the song, what would it be?
❓
What speaks to you in particular?
❓
Price sings “I need help.” When was the last time you noticed that you need help?

Activity “The Weight of the World on My Shoulders”

⏱ 20 minutes

🧰
Materials: 5 balloons and a marker per participant, tape (to mark the playing field or task areas)

Every one of us struggles with worries and challenges in life, just like Connor Price describes in the song: “I got the weight of the world on my back.” For him it feels like a burden on his shoulders.

👉
Give every participant 5 balloons and a marker.

Take 5 balloons and a marker and write one worry or burden you’re feeling right now on each balloon. A keyword is enough. You don’t have to share any details you don’t want to share.

👉
If the participants find it hard to name their worries in general terms, here are a few categories: school, family, friends, the future, stress, doubt and so on.

Once everyone has written their worries on the balloons, they have to keep all 5 balloons in the air at the same time while completing a task. It’s best if everyone starts the task at the same time (no teams).

Task ideas
Obstacle course: The participants have to complete a small obstacle course, for example running around cones or stepping over small obstacles (a rope on the floor), while trying to keep all 5 balloons in the air.
Balancing: The participants have to walk along a straight line (masking tape on the floor) from point A to point B while trying to keep all 5 balloons in the air.
Writing lyrics: The teens have to write part of the lyrics on a piece of paper while trying to keep all 5 balloons in the air.

You’re now going to get a task, and while you do it you have to keep all 5 balloons in the air. If a balloon drops, you start the task over. Whoever completes the task without dropping a balloon may sit down. You have 2 minutes.

❓
How did that feel for you?
❓
Who or what encouraged you to tackle the task alone? What kept you from asking for help?
❓
If someone had offered you help, would you have accepted it? Why or why not?

Activity “Letting Go of Worries at the Cross”

⏱ 20 minutes

🧰
Materials and preparation: Prepare a wooden cross with nails that balloons can pop on. Set the cross up in the middle of the room. Alternatively, you can tape a cross made of tape and paper to the wall and attach thumbtacks (instead of nails) to it with extra tape. Prepare slips of paper with promises from the Bible, God’s truths that you want to speak over the teenagers in this activity. One piece of double-sided tape.

We’ve experienced how hard it is to carry all our worries. It’s usually the same in life. When we try to handle everything on our own, we can quickly get overwhelmed. But Jesus invites us to cast our burdens on him and trust him.

📖 Read Matthew 11:28

To symbolically cast our worries and burdens on Jesus today, we’ve prepared this cross. If you haven’t written your worries or burdens on all your balloons yet, take a moment to do that now.

I invite you to come to the cross with your balloons and throw your worries and burdens onto Jesus.

❓
How did it feel to let the balloon (your worries) pop?
👉
Take double-sided tape and stick it to the palm of your hand. Then take a balloon in that hand and try to throw it at the cross, to demonstrate that it doesn’t work.

Even though we’ve all just seen our balloons pop, is that always how it goes in real life? Do we experience our worries vanishing into thin air every time we give them to Jesus? I don’t, not always. Maybe right now you’re talking to Jesus, but it seems like he isn’t listening or isn’t taking your worries from you. Sometimes we have to keep carrying our worries even though we’d love to get rid of them, like this balloon that’s stuck to my hand.

👉
Share your own experiences here of times when you found it hard to hand over your worries.
❓
Why is it so hard to really hand over our worries, even when we know that Jesus can carry them?
❓
What could the double-sided tape stand for? (For example lies, hurts, unforgiven sins, guilt, a lack of trust in Jesus, something that has crept into your life between you and Jesus, and so on.)

We don’t just need to bring the balloon to Jesus, but also the tape that’s holding us back. Sometimes the tape is stuck to our arm where it hurts to pull it off. But only when we expose our wounds can Jesus truly heal us. And that is only possible when we trust Jesus completely.

👉
You can refer back to the lyrics here if something in them has become important to you that you want to pass on to the teenagers.

Time of quiet

⏱ as long as you need

Music is playing in the background. Use this time to talk with Jesus. You can stand or stay seated where you are, or come closer to the cross. Around the room you’ll find slips of paper with God’s promises for you. Take time to read them and think about what they mean for you. Jesus is here. He was here before we entered this room, and he invites you to come to him, climb onto his lap and tell him everything that’s on your heart.

We as leaders would also love to pray for you specifically. If you’d like that, just come to us.

I’d like to pray for you now. After that, feel free to take as much time as you need. Then you’re warmly invited to head over to the lounge, spend time together, enjoy some snacks and let the evening wind down.

Connor Price on how “I Need Help” came about

English version: September 2026