FAMOUS FOREHEADS
10 minutes
Play the classic party game to get your group into the theme. Write famous names on sticky-notes and ‘attach’ one to everyone’s foreheads. These must stay in place until they have guessed their famous forehead by asking yes or no questions to each other. If you don’t have sticky-notes, a permanent marker would make this game last a lot longer!
Key Point 1
Watch out! Assigning value and importance can infiltrate our faith and there are some people who love to define these standards, imposing them on the rest of us. Paul refers to these people as “dogs” and “evildoers” (v2). Ouch! That is how poisonous and corrupting this mentality can be. Instead, this is who we are: people who serve God by the Spirit, boast in Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh (v3). We choose not to boast about our personal qualities and choose to only find our value and importance in Jesus.
PEDIGREE OR MONGREL
20 minutes
It’s time for the great doggy quiz: pedigree or mongrel. Split into groups and show photos of different dog breeds: French bulldogs, cockapoos, labradoodles, springadors and a few mongrels – award points for the best knowledge and most inventive incorrect answers. Reflect on the value we assign to certain breeds and appearances, even of dogs!
Read Philippians 3:2-6. Explain that Paul is clearly tired of this attitude in the church and so shows off his credentials. He ticks all the boxes of Jewish pedigrees: circumcised on the right day, a reputable family tree, a man of the cloth, hated Christians back in the day – theoretically a perfect Jew. Hardwired into our culture is the habit of assigning value to our assets and attributes, recently confirmed by another summer of results with the annual accompanying failures and successes. In Philippians 3, Paul confronts this notion: the kingdom of God doesn’t work on the same model and doesn’t recognise the same values. Specifically, the key asset in question was circumcision – new Christians being encouraged to have the snip to become pedigree Christians, not mongrels. This is a chapter where Paul challenges us to reassess the things we value and recalibrate our mind-set to kingdom values.
Give everyone a few minutes to write down their own religious credentials. Suggestions could include: Bible knowledge, years at church, singing ability, volunteer roles fashion sense, perfection levels. Discuss together what they’ve written down and whether it makes them feel good about themselves or insecure? Do they feel like a pedigree or a mongrel?
THE GOSPEL IN CHAINS
20 minutes
For the next five minutes ask the group to create their own top trump card with a comical self-portrait above a list of their key assets and attributes. They may want to include some of their religious credentials that they’ve listed already but could also include: appearance, intelligence, fitness, money, popularity. Encourage them to reflect on how much they value these, scoring each out of 100. The urge to start comparing ourselves to each other and play human top trumps may be irresistible – talk about that together.
Explain that until we find something of greater value, these things will naturally be important to us. When we find something of infinite value, everything else fades into insignificance. You may want to tell the parable of the pearl at this point (Matthew 13:45-46). Read together how Paul describes this phenomenon in Philippians 3:7-11, particularly emphasising verses seven and eight. As we focus on Jesus and the benefits of knowing him, the rest will fade. What have you got to lose, compared to what you can gain?
Have a short time of reflection and worship. Ask a leader to pray based on Psalm 63:1-7 and then invite the group to tear up their trump card – incinerate them if you like – and say we are not holding onto these things, we choose to find our treasure in Jesus. (Disclaimer: please burn responsibly.)
Key Point 2
We must remember that the goal we’re aiming for is eternal life. Fixing our eyes on the prize will help us to abandon unhelpful habits and thoughts, holding onto our faith in Jesus Christ (see Philippians 3:9-11, 13b-14).
FEAR OR SMEAR
10 minutes
The final section of this chapter encourages us to think about our role models. Is it someone with the same faith and values as you? Talk together about the desire and pressure to be like people around us, asking what their values and goals are. We might not put it as bluntly as Paul does in verse 19 (“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things”), but he’s pretty accurate about our culture and friends. Their god is their belly – that sounds about right, we love our food. Their glory is their shame: “last night was amazing, I can’t remember anything”. We’re not being asked to change our friends and only hangout in a holy-huddle, but to make a conscious decision about who are going to be our role models.
Ask the young people to pick someone to imitate and learn from as a role model. It could be an older person within the church, a Christian leader or someone from within your group. Talk in small groups about how to do this; could you ask them to be your mentor, how can you learn from them? Follow this up in future weeks to see how they’re getting on.
Supporting documents
Click link to download and view these files690430.pdf
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