ℹ️
This session was inspired by a performance of the US rock band Disciple at a Christian rock festival in Germany, where the band stopped the show to talk about suicide and invited the crowd to make a promise to live.

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.

Many teenagers deal with negative thoughts, identity questions and self-doubt during puberty. Often this turns into a downward spiral of depression, self-harm and self-loathing, all the way to suicidal thoughts that in the worst case are acted on.

With this session outline you can address this difficult topic with your teenagers preventively and speak biblical truths over them. Please note that this outline is not a substitute for therapy.

⚠️
Important: If there are teenagers in your group who suffer from depression or other mental illnesses, they need professional help from a doctor or therapist. If it becomes clear during this session that someone needs further support, please don’t hesitate: seek help and involve counseling services. At the end of this outline you’ll find contacts that can help you in such a case.

Icebreaker

⏱ 5 minutes

❓
What inventions do you know that you would call “brilliant”? (The discovery of the antibiotic penicillin, the automobile, the printing press?)
❓
What do you think makes these inventions so valuable?
❓
Who actually decides what makes an invention valuable?

Introduction

⏱ 10 minutes

📖 Read Genesis 1:26-27 and 31 together

God created human beings as the crown of his creation. Humans were his masterpiece, which he saved for the last day of creation. “It was very good!”

God gave human beings a mandate and a purpose, and that made them a unique creation. Humans alone are the image of God. They are like God, and they alone are to rule over the whole earth.

❓
Why do you think so many people today feel worthless and useless, reject themselves and often hurt themselves, even though God created them as a wonderful creation? (Let your teenagers collect answers and talk about them together.)
👉
Share these numbers with your group (from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey 2023, high school students in the US): 40% felt so sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks that they stopped doing their usual activities. 20% seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. 16% made a suicide plan. 9% attempted suicide. If you’re outside the US, look up the numbers for your country.

These numbers are hard to take in. Maybe you have gone through a difficult time mentally yourself, or maybe someone in this group is right in the middle of one. Or a friend or someone in your family is affected and in an emotional low. It’s important that nobody stays alone with these emotions and situations. Today we’re going to talk about it and look at what God has to offer you, everything he has placed inside you, how he sees you and what his idea of you was.

Going deeper

⏱ 5 minutes

📖 Read Ephesians 1:4-5 and Ephesians 2:10 together

God wanted you as his masterpiece. Even before the world was created, he thought of YOU and chose you. From the very beginning, you belong to God’s creation just as you are. That was his plan; he created you full of love and joy.

Small groups

⏱ 15 minutes

👉
Divide the teenagers into small groups and introduce the small group time. Hand out the Psalm and the questions below.

Read Psalm 139:13-16 together (NIV):

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. (Psalm 139:13-16)

Discuss the following questions and discover the content and truths of this Psalm for yourselves:

  1. Read these verses out loud together. Which qualities does David thank God for? (Fearfully and wonderfully made, wonderful works, woven together, seen and known before birth.)
  2. Which of God’s values and promises are contained in these qualities?
  3. How can we write these qualities into our hearts as truth for ourselves?
  4. How can this Psalm help you when thoughts of self-rejection creep in?
  5. What else helps you climb out of a low when you feel depressed? Share your strategies: what you do in phases like that, what has helped …

Music video “Promise to Live” by Disciple

⏱ 15 minutes

👉
Hand out the lyrics, the Bible passages and the action step (the promise below). Explain that they can think it over quietly at home and decide whether they want to make this promise binding with their signature. They could glue it into their journal or put it in their Bible to remind themselves of it regularly.

There are times when we don’t feel worthy. Maybe sin has crept into your life, maybe you’ve gotten into trouble or made stupid decisions. Or maybe it’s just a self-rejecting feeling that you’re worthless and not worthy of living, that there’s no point to your life because you think it doesn’t matter anyway whether you’re here or not. In times like that, it’s important that you make a commitment, a promise before God and to yourself: Suicide and self-destruction are never the solution. Promise to live, because God gave you life. Remember that you are his masterpiece, and promise that you will never throw that worth away.

Put all your trust in Jesus, because he still has a great plan for your life. There is no sin he cannot and will not forgive. Some time ago, the Christian rock band Disciple wrote and released a song about exactly this. It’s about this promise to live, because God made you masterfully and gave you a purpose. Let’s make this promise today.

🎬 Watch the music video “Promise to Live” by Disciple together.

“Promise to Live” by Disciple (official music video)
📝
My promise to live

I, ______________________, promise before God and to myself: Suicide and self-destruction are never the solution. God gave me life and made me his masterpiece (Psalm 139:14, Ephesians 2:10). When I feel worthless or hopeless, I will remember that my worth doesn’t depend on how I feel. I will talk to someone I trust and get help. I promise to live.

Date: ______________ Signature: ______________________

Closing

⏱ 3 minutes

It’s important that we talk about these topics, because every life is worth living, yours and mine, and sometimes we forget that, and it’s good to remind ourselves. If you notice that depression or self-destructive thoughts are digging in and taking hold in you, or if you have friends who express thoughts like that or suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate for a second: get help. Take it very seriously. There is help.

Where can you get help?

  • Here in your youth group: we’re happy to talk with you personally. Don’t stay alone with these thoughts or with what you know.
  • In the US: call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (free, 24/7), or chat at 988lifeline.org. You can also text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
  • In the UK and Ireland: Samaritans, 116 123 (free, 24/7).
  • Elsewhere: look up your country’s crisis line; most countries have a free helpline.
  • In an acute emergency, call your local emergency number or go to the nearest emergency room.
⚠️
For leaders: The 988 Lifeline has a good page on how to help someone else, with warning signs and concrete steps you can take with a teenager at risk.

Prayer

⏱ 2 minutes

👉
Close the session with prayer, bless your teenagers and place them under God’s protection. Encourage them: if they are affected and want to talk, you are there for a personal conversation too.

English version: September 2026