Leader’s guide · 13 weeks

Leader’s guide: C. S. Lewis (For Teens)

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This guide helps you lead thirteen weekly sessions on C. S. Lewis (For Teens), the true story of Jack Lewis: a Belfast boy who lost his mother at nine, gave up his faith at school, argued his way through Oxford as an atheist, and became, in his own words, “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England,” before going on to write Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters and the Narnia stories. It is written for teens aged about 13 to 18, and works well for a youth group, a homeschool or a small group. Lewis’s story speaks straight to the questions teens ask: doubt, prayer that seems unanswered, honesty, friendship, keeping promises, grief and how faith can hold when feelings fail.

Each session takes about 30 to 40 minutes. Open by saying the memory verse together (3 minutes). Read the chapter, either aloud together or at home beforehand (5–10 minutes). Talk through the chapter’s three questions, which come with answers to help you (10–15 minutes). Do the activity (about 10 minutes). Then close by praying the chapter’s prayer, or one of your own (2 minutes).

To prepare, read the chapter yourself beforehand and glance at the activity; most weeks need only paper and pens. Grief runs right through this book: Lewis’s mother dies of cancer in chapter 2, he is wounded and loses friends in the First World War in chapter 5, his father dies in chapter 7, and his wife Joy dies in chapters 12 and 13, where his raw grief and doubt are described honestly. Some teens in your group may be grieving, or may have a parent who is ill, so give space without pressing anyone to share, and know who you would refer a young person to if grief or darkness becomes too heavy; the book itself points readers to a parent, pastor, teacher, doctor or crisis line. The book also touches on a brother’s drinking, a lie kept up for years, and an uncertain relationship with Mrs Moore, which it handles discreetly; follow its lead and keep the focus on what Lewis learned. Welcome honest doubts: Lewis would have.

Week 1 — Call Me Jack

Clive Staples Lewis is born in Belfast in 1898, renames himself Jack after a neighbourhood dog, and grows up with his brother Warnie, an emotional, anxious father and a clever, funny mother. A tiny moss garden in a biscuit tin awakens a deep longing he can’t explain, and in the book-filled house at Little Lea he reads everything and invents the world of Boxen. He takes church for granted without asking what it rests on, and later regrets how unfairly he wrote about his father. The big idea: God is patient with the middle of the story, and our deepest longings may be threads by which he is drawing us.

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” — Proverbs 22:6 (KJV)

Memory verse

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 22:6

Talk together

  1. Why was Clive Staples Lewis called Jack?

    As a small boy he refused to answer to Clive and insisted on being named after a neighbourhood dog called Jacksie. The name shortened to Jacks and then Jack, and his family and friends used it for the rest of his life.

  2. What did Warnie's toy garden stir in Jack?

    A sudden, aching longing he couldn't explain. It came back throughout his childhood, and later he believed it was one of the ways God had been drawing him.

  3. How did Lewis later feel about the way he had treated his father?

    He deeply regretted it. Many readers think his written picture of Albert was unfair, and friends said it weighed on him more than almost anything in his past.

Activity

Mapping Longing

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Read aloud the description of the moss garden and the “sudden, aching longing” it stirred in Jack.
  2. Ask everyone to list privately three things that have given them a similar longing: a place, a song, a story, a view.
  3. Invite volunteers to share one item from their list, without explaining it if they’d rather not.
  4. Discuss: what do you think people are really longing for when they feel this, and why might Lewis have linked it to God?

Read chapter 1

Week 2 — August 1908

In 1908 Jack’s mother, Flora, dies of cancer after an operation at home, in the same year his father loses his own father and brother. Nine-year-old Jack prays for her healing and then for her return, and nothing happens; looking back, Lewis thought he had treated God like a magician. Albert, overwhelmed by grief, becomes almost a stranger, and within a month sends both boys to a harsh boarding school in England, where Jack briefly prays seriously. The big idea: a child can feel forsaken even by parents who love him, but God takes up those who feel abandoned.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” — Psalm 27:10 (KJV)

Memory verse

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.

Psalm 27:10

Talk together

  1. What did Jack pray for when his mother was dying, and what happened?

    He prayed that she would get well, and after she died on 23 August 1908 he prayed that she would come back to life. Nothing happened.

  2. How did Lewis later explain that unanswered prayer?

    He thought he had treated God like a magician rather than a Saviour. It didn't destroy his faith at once, but he believed it laid the foundation for the unbelief that followed.

  3. What line was on his mother's calendar the day she died?

    A line from Shakespeare's King Lear: “Men must endure their going hence.” Albert kept the page.

Activity

Saviour or Magician?

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Draw two columns headed “Treating God as a magician” and “Trusting God as a Saviour.”
  2. As a group, suggest prayers or attitudes for each column, such as “If you do this, I’ll believe” or “I don’t understand, but I’m still talking to you.”
  3. Discuss why Lewis said the unanswered prayer left him “with nothing” rather than shattered.
  4. Invite everyone to write down privately one prayer they feel God ignored, untidied, and to consider who they could talk to about it.

Read chapter 2

Week 3 — A Faith Let Go

At Cherbourg House, between twelve and fourteen, Jack quietly stops believing. A matron’s vague spiritualism unsettles him, his exhausting attempt to pray with the right feelings becomes a torment he is relieved to drop, and he sees no reason to treat the Christian God differently from old myths. At Malvern College he hates the sport-and-status culture and the in-crowd, but meets Arthur Greeves, a lifelong friend who loves the same books. The big idea: faith that rests on our own feelings becomes a burden, but God doesn’t depend on how we feel.

“Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.” — Matthew 6:8 (KJV)

Memory verse

Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

Matthew 6:8

Talk together

  1. Name two reasons Jack gave for losing his faith at Cherbourg.

    Any two of these: a matron's vague spiritualism loosened his faith; his anxious attempts to make himself feel the right things in prayer made religion a torment; and he could not see why Christianity should be true when the old myths were treated as fables.

  2. What did Jack hate about Malvern College?

    The rule of the senior boys, the worship of games, the snobbery and social climbing, and a culture of favouritism among the boys. It left him with a lifelong distrust of wanting to belong to the inner ring.

  3. How did Jack and Arthur Greeves become friends?

    Jack visited Arthur when he was ill in bed, saw a book of Norse myths beside him, and found they loved exactly the same things. They wrote to each other for nearly fifty years.

Activity

Rank the Reasons

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. List on a sheet the reasons the chapter gives for Jack’s loss of faith: the matron’s ideas, prayer based on feelings, the cruelty of the world, myths and scholars, and nobody answering his questions.
  2. In small groups, rank them from the one teens today most often face to the least.
  3. Compare rankings and talk about which reasons were about evidence and which were about experience.
  4. Challenge everyone to pray once a day this week, short and honest, without checking how it feels.

Read chapter 3

Week 4 — The Great Knock

At fifteen Jack is sent to the tutor William Kirkpatrick, the “Great Knock,” a convinced atheist who demolishes vague talk and teaches him to define his words, weigh evidence and read Greek at speed. Jack settles into unbelief, and in 1914 he is confirmed and takes Communion without believing, to please his father, something he later counted among the worst things he ever did. In 1916 George MacDonald’s Phantastes touches his longing with a new kind of goodness. The big idea: God can use even an unbelieving teacher to sharpen us, and being honest with God matters more than looking right.

“Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” — Proverbs 27:17 (KJV)

Memory verse

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

Talk together

  1. What happened on Jack's first walk with Kirkpatrick?

    Jack remarked that Surrey was wilder than he expected, and Kirkpatrick made him define “wild” and give his grounds, showing him he had no clear meaning or evidence. Jack loved being taken seriously.

  2. Why did Lewis later regret his confirmation in 1914?

    He didn't believe any of it. He went through with it to please his father and avoid an argument, and he later saw it as a solemn act before God done out of cowardice.

  3. What did reading Phantastes do for Jack?

    It didn't convince him of anything, but he felt a new kind of goodness touch his longing. It began to work on his imagination years before the rest of him came to faith.

Activity

The Great Knock’s Questions

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Put the group in pairs and have each person write down one thing they believe, about anything.
  2. Partners take turns playing Kirkpatrick, asking only: “What exactly do you mean?” and “What are your reasons?”
  3. After two minutes, swap roles.
  4. Discuss together: did the questions feel like an attack or a gift, and how can we welcome hard questions about our faith?

Read chapter 4

Week 5 — A Promise at Keble

Jack reaches Oxford in 1917 but chooses to serve in the war, rooming with Paddy Moore, whose warm mother Janie welcomes him. The two young men promise that whoever survives will look after the other’s parent. At the front Jack takes about sixty prisoners and is then badly wounded by a shell that kills his sergeant; Paddy is killed, Albert never visits his wounded son, and Mrs Moore does. The big idea: being someone whose word holds, even when life moves on, is a deeply Christlike thing.

“When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.” — Ecclesiastes 5:4 (KJV)

Memory verse

When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.

Ecclesiastes 5:4

Talk together

  1. What promise did Jack and Paddy Moore make?

    That if one of them was killed in the war, the survivor would look after the dead man's parent.

  2. What happened to Jack on 15 April 1918?

    A shell, probably British, burst beside him. He was wounded in the hand, leg and chest, and Sergeant Harry Ayres beside him was killed.

  3. Who visited Jack in hospital, and who didn't?

    His father, Albert, never came despite Jack's letters. Janie Moore, whose own son was missing, came at once and cared for him.

Activity

Promise Audit

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Ask the group to list the kinds of promises teens make: to friends, parents, teams, God, and in messages.
  2. Discuss which kinds are easiest to let slip and why.
  3. Ask everyone to write down privately one promise they have let slip.
  4. Have each person write one concrete step to keep it, or a way to tell the person honestly that they can’t.

Read chapter 5

Week 6 — Mrs Moore

After the war Jack lives with Janie Moore and her daughter Maureen in poverty, doing chores while taking three Firsts, and he supports them for more than thirty years. At the same time he deceives his father about it for about ten years, which he later counted one of the great sins of his life. The chapter is honest that nobody knows for certain what the relationship with Mrs Moore was at first, and it notes the household was demanding. The big idea: you can be doing something good and something wrong at the same time, and God wants both brought into the light.

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” — James 1:27 (KJV)

Memory verse

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

James 1:27

Talk together

  1. How did Jack deceive his father in the 1920s?

    He didn't tell Albert he was living with Mrs Moore, or that Albert's allowance was partly supporting her household. He kept this up for about ten years, by silence and by lies.

  2. What do we know, and not know, about Lewis's relationship with Mrs Moore?

    We don't know whether they were lovers in the early years; biographers disagree and no record settles it. We do know he supported and cared for her for more than thirty years.

  3. What did life with Mrs Moore teach him, according to the chapter?

    Living with a demanding person taught him patience, and later he wrote wisely about the small irritations of family life and how love is learned at home.

Activity

Good and Hidden

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Ask: what was good about how Jack treated Mrs Moore and Maureen, and what was wrong about how he treated his father? List both on one sheet.
  2. Discuss why it is possible to be generous to one person and dishonest with another at the same time.
  3. Talk about why secrets from parents grow heavier over time.
  4. Ask everyone to consider privately one thing they could bring into the light, and, if it is safe, one honest step they could take this week.

Read chapter 6

Week 7 — The Most Reluctant Convert

Lewis meets Tolkien and other Christian friends who unsettle his views, and his defences fall one by one, from materialism to a vague Absolute Mind. After his father dies in 1929 and Jack is left with grief and guilt, he finally kneels and admits that God is God, probably in 1930 according to most scholars. He now believes in God but not yet in Christ, and goes to church in obedience before he fully believes. The big idea: there is nowhere we can hide from God, and some of the best stories begin with a reluctant yes.

“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” — Psalm 139:7 (KJV)

Memory verse

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?

Psalm 139:7

Talk together

  1. How did Lewis describe his own conversion to belief in God?

    Not as a search but as a hunt, with himself as the quarry. Each position he retreated to fell, until he knelt as “the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.”

  2. Why do most scholars think Lewis came to believe in God in 1930, not 1929?

    Alister McGrath read his letters in order and found no sign of change in 1929 but clear signs in 1930, so Lewis probably misremembered the year when writing decades later. Some still defend 1929.

  3. Was Lewis a Christian once he knelt and prayed?

    Not yet. He believed in God but not in Christ. He began going to church out of obedience before he had full faith.

Activity

Hiding Places

You will need: Bibles, paper and pens

  1. Read Psalm 139:1–12 aloud together.
  2. List as a group every place the psalm says someone might try to go to escape God.
  3. Then list the “hiding places” Lewis tried in the chapter, from materialism to the Absolute Mind.
  4. Ask everyone to finish this sentence privately on paper: “The place I’ve been trying to hide from God is …”

Read chapter 7

Week 8 — Myth Became Fact

Lewis believes in God but cannot see how a death long ago could take away his sins. On 19 September 1931, walking Addison’s Walk with Tolkien and Hugo Dyson, he hears that the story of Christ is like the old myths he loves, but with one difference: it really happened. Nine days later, riding in Warnie’s sidecar to Whipsnade Zoo, he realises he now believes Jesus is the Son of God, and at Christmas he takes Communion for the first time since 1914, this time believing. The big idea: in Jesus the Word became flesh; God didn’t just give us a beautiful idea but stepped into history.

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” — John 1:14 (KJV)

Memory verse

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

Talk together

  1. What was the key point Tolkien and Dyson made on Addison's Walk?

    That the story of Christ had all the power of the old myths of a dying and rising god, but with one difference: it really happened in history. The myth had become fact.

  2. Where was Lewis when he came to believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

    In the sidecar of Warnie's motorcycle on the way to Whipsnade Zoo, on 28 September 1931 according to most biographers.

  3. Why was Christmas Day 1931 significant?

    Lewis took Communion at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, for the first time since his unbelieving confirmation in 1914, and this time he believed.

Activity

Myth or Fact?

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Ask the group to name stories they love where someone gives their life to save others or comes back from death.
  2. Discuss why these stories move us, and then read aloud Tolkien and Dyson’s point that the story of Christ really happened.
  3. In pairs, write down what difference it makes that the Gospel story is history and not only a good story.
  4. Share a few answers, then note that Lewis’s faith arrived quietly, in a sidecar, and ask why that might encourage someone.

Read chapter 8

Week 9 — A Voice in the Blackout

The Inklings meet to read their writing aloud, and Lewis encourages Tolkien to finish The Lord of the Rings. During the Second World War he takes in evacuees, publishes The Problem of Pain and The Screwtape Letters, and gives BBC radio talks that later become Mere Christianity. Speaking to tired, sceptical airmen, he learns to drop clever language and take their questions seriously. The big idea: be ready to explain your hope plainly, with gentleness and respect for the person asking.

“But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” — 1 Peter 3:15 (KJV)

Memory verse

In your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

1 Peter 3:15

Talk together

  1. Who were the Inklings?

    A group of Christian friends, mostly writers and scholars, including Lewis, Warnie and Tolkien, who met on Thursday evenings to read their work aloud and criticise it honestly.

  2. What did Lewis do with the money he was paid for The Screwtape Letters in the newspaper?

    He refused it and had it sent to a fund for the widows of clergy.

  3. What did speaking to RAF airmen teach Lewis?

    To drop his learned references, explain theology in plain English and take hard questions seriously. He thought it made him a better apologist.

Activity

No Church Words

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Write a list of church words on a sheet: saved, grace, sin, born again, gospel, redemption.
  2. In pairs, choose two words and explain them in plain everyday language, as Lewis learned to for the airmen.
  3. Then ask each person to write five plain sentences on why they believe, or why they aren’t sure yet.
  4. Invite a few volunteers to read theirs, and talk about what made the clearest ones work.

Read chapter 9

Week 10 — Who Knows the Worst About You?

Fearing pride as his fame grows, Lewis does three things: he goes to confession with an elderly priest almost every week for twelve years, gives away two-thirds of his royalties through the Agape Fund, and answers thousands of letters by hand. When Elizabeth Anscombe challenges one of his arguments at the Socratic Club in 1948, he is low afterwards but rewrites the chapter, and the chapter corrects the legend that he gave up defending the faith. The big idea: humility grows through ordinary hidden habits, and it helps to have someone who knows the worst about you and loves you anyway.

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” — James 5:16 (KJV)

Memory verse

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

James 5:16

Talk together

  1. Why did Lewis start going to confession?

    He knew he was proud and that fame was dangerous for him. He wanted someone who would hear the worst, not be impressed by him, and tell him the truth.

  2. What was the Agape Fund?

    A charity Lewis set up with Owen Barfield's help. Two-thirds of his royalties went into it and were quietly given to people in need.

  3. Did the debate with Elizabeth Anscombe make Lewis give up apologetics?

    No. He admitted she had a point and rewrote the chapter, but he kept leading the Socratic Club and writing Christian books. Anscombe herself called the legend nonsense.

Activity

Three Habits

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. List Lewis’s three habits against pride: confession, giving money away and answering letters.
  2. In small groups, suggest a teenage version of each habit.
  3. Discuss how he responded to Anscombe’s criticism, and what it looks like to lose an argument well.
  4. Ask everyone to write down privately the name of one wise, trustworthy Christian they could be honest with.

Read chapter 10

Week 11 — Burdens and a Wardrobe

In the years of his fame, Lewis’s home life is exhausting: Mrs Moore grows ill and demanding, Warnie struggles with drinking binges, and Jack collapses from exhaustion in 1949 yet keeps his promise until she dies in 1951. In the middle of it he writes The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and six more Narnia books, and answers children’s letters patiently. Oxford never makes him a professor, but Cambridge does in 1954. The big idea: carrying someone else’s burden is never wasted, even when it feels as if your own life is on hold.

“Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” — Galatians 6:2 (KJV)

Memory verse

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Galatians 6:2

Talk together

  1. How did Lewis care for Mrs Moore at the end of her life?

    He nursed her at home for years and, after she moved to a nursing home in 1950, visited her almost every day until she died in January 1951.

  2. How did Lewis respond to Warnie's drinking?

    He didn't lecture him in any record that survives. He worried, prayed, went to be with him, brought him home and forgave him.

  3. What did Lewis say to the child who worried about loving Aslan more than Jesus?

    That it wasn't really possible, because the things the child loved Aslan for were the very things Jesus had done and said.

Activity

The Invisible Load

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Ask the group to list jobs that keep a home running which nobody usually notices.
  2. Have each person write down privately one person at home who carries a heavy load.
  3. Ask them to choose one job they could quietly take off that person this week without being asked or mentioning it.
  4. Discuss: why might Lewis have written some of his best books in his most exhausting years?

Read chapter 11

Week 12 — A Bedside Wedding

Joy Davidman, a brilliant American writer who came to faith in a crisis, writes to Lewis and becomes his friend. He marries her in a civil ceremony only so she can stay in England, but when cancer is found he realises he loves her, and a priest marries them at her hospital bedside and prays for her healing. To her doctors’ astonishment she recovers for a time, and they have three happy years before she dies in July 1960. The big idea: there is a time to weep and a time to dance, and we should not wait for perfect conditions to love people well.

“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;” — Ecclesiastes 3:4 (KJV)

Memory verse

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

Ecclesiastes 3:4

Talk together

  1. Why did Lewis first marry Joy in a register office?

    The government refused to let her stay in England, and a civil marriage gave her the right to remain. At first he treated it as a legal formality only.

  2. What happened after Peter Bide married them and prayed for Joy?

    Against all expectation, her cancer stopped and went back, her bones healed, and she lived about three more years.

  3. How did Lewis understand his own weakening bones during Joy's recovery?

    He wondered, remembering Charles Williams, whether he had been allowed to bear some of her suffering. He thought it possible but didn't claim it.

Activity

Gratitude Notes

You will need: Small cards or paper and pens

  1. Talk about how Lewis and Joy took their short, shadowed time together as a gift.
  2. Ask everyone to think of someone they love and take for granted.
  3. Have each person write a short note naming one specific thing they are grateful for about that person.
  4. Encourage them to give or send it this week, not someday.

Read chapter 12

Week 13 — Men Must Endure

After Joy’s death Lewis writes honestly about grief in notebooks later published as A Grief Observed, admitting he feared God might be cruel and slowly finding the questions change. He cares for Joy’s sons, survives a heart attack, and dies at the Kilns on 22 November 1963, the day President Kennedy was shot. Warnie puts the line from their mother’s calendar on his gravestone: “Men must endure their going hence.” The big idea: keeping the faith doesn’t mean never doubting; faith is what holds when anguish has done its worst.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:” — 2 Timothy 4:7 (KJV)

Memory verse

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

2 Timothy 4:7

Talk together

  1. What was A Grief Observed, and why did it help people?

    Lewis's notebooks written after Joy's death, published under a made-up name. It helps grieving people because it is honest and doesn't pretend to explain suffering away.

  2. Did Lewis lose his faith after Joy died?

    No. He felt God was silent and feared God might be cruel, and he wrote that down honestly, but he came through to a kind of peace and went on praying and going to church.

  3. What words are on Lewis's gravestone, and why?

    “Men must endure their going hence,” the line from King Lear on his mother's calendar the day she died in 1908. Warnie chose it.

Activity

An Honest Letter

You will need: Paper and pens

  1. Read aloud Lewis’s line, “No one ever told me that grief felt so like fear,” and ask why it has helped so many people.
  2. Point out that the psalms and Jesus on the cross speak honestly to God, even in anguish.
  3. Give everyone a few quiet minutes to write a short, honest letter to God about the hardest thing they are carrying, for themselves only.
  4. Suggest they keep it and read it again in a month, and remind the group who they can talk to if things feel too heavy.

Read chapter 13