Before the Session
Facilitator: In advance of the session
- Have the Bible Background Video ready to view.
- Review today’s scripture text and the session activities to help better facilitate the discussion.
- Encourage your group to listen to the Faithelement podcast ahead of the next session (Share the link via email or social media)
Context (From the Youth Session Page)
Have everyone stand in the middle of the room and ask them to more to the left or the right depending on their preference, as you read from a list. Give people time to move and share their reasoning for their preference as you read the following list (or a preferences list of your own):
- Coke vs. Pepsi
- Hamburgers vs. Chicken
- Star Wars vs. Avengers
- Nike vs. Under Armor
- Fruit vs. Vegetables
- Flip Flops vs Open Toed Sandals
- Early Bird vs. Sleeping In
- History vs. Science
- iPhone vs. Android
- Brownies vs Cookies
After the activity, ask the group:
- How did you determine what your preference for each would be?
- Which choices were toughest and why?
- When you need to make an important decision, what do you usually do and why?
- How do you feel when someone else makes a decision for you and why?
- What role do you think God has in your freedom?
Content (From the Mind Session Page)
Read Galatians 5:1, 13-25, then watch the Bible Background Video.
Then ask questions like these:
- Explain what you think Paul means in verse 1: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” What else might we think freedom is for?
- Why does Paul say the Galatian Christians should not use their freedom to return to following The Law?
- What do you think Paul means by “faith working through love?”
- In what ways could we use our freedom in Christ to go back to sinful things?
- Rather than go back to those old ways of life, Paul urges us to “walk in the Spirit.” What do you think this phrase means?
- In what sense has Christ freed us from the urges of our human nature?
- Compare Paul’s lists in verses 19-21 and 22-23. What is the difference, not only in the actions, but in the outcome and the orientation of these things?
- Why would Paul use the image of “fruit” here?
- Summarize Paul’s argument – what is the best way to use this freedom we’ve been given?
Closure (from the Current Session page)
Share this video of people making eye contact and remind the group that:
This video “evolves around a simple but poignant theory, developed by psychologist Arthur Aron in 1997: that four minutes of uninterrupted eye contact brings people closer to each other better than everything else.”
Ask:
- What did you see happening in this video?
- Why do you think people were so emotional in this video?
- How did you see people becoming awake and knowing another person in these images?
- What would it be like for a Church to take on an experiment like this?
- Where or how might we start with such a project?
Share this quote from C.S. Lewis
We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded with God. God walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labor is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.
Pray together to end the session, praying for vision to see the experiences of all those we are called to love.