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PREPARATION
Collect scrap materials for ‘Make me beautiful’, pens, paper and Bibles. Find the Made in Chelsea clip on the links section of the website.
MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL
10 mins
Collect a heap of scrap paper, cardboard, shoe boxes and anything else you might find in the recycling that’s clean and useable. Split the group into teams of four and five and tell them they’ve got seven minutes to turn this pile of junk into a glorious outfit for one of their team members to wear (on top of their existing clothes, nobody wants plastic pants). Once the time is up, bring the teams back together and crown (perhaps literally if you’ve got some cardboard left over) a winner.
IF YOU GOT THE MONEY…PART 1
10 mins
Hand out pens and paper and tell the group they’ve got five minutes (individually) to come up with an idea of what they’d do with £100,000. Tell the group that there are no right or wrong answers. Once they’ve had time to come up with some ideas, come back into the larger group and invite people to feedback. Encourage them to share not only what they decided to include but the reasons why and what they decided against including.
WHAT DO YOU VALUE?
10 mins
Get the young people into small groups and ask them to discuss what they would do in these scenarios:
- You can only listen to one album, read one book and watch one film for the rest of your life – which would you choose?
- You get stuck on a desert island – what three things would you take with you?
- Your house is on fire – what two things would you save?
PAID IN CHELSEA
10 mins
If some of your young people are unfamiliar with the show, you can use this to explain it to them: Made in Chelsea focuses on affluent young adults living in West London (Chelsea, obviously) and much of it revolves around their wealth, money, fashion and lifestyle. The message of the show is simple: greed is good and money is king. That’s not to vilify those in the show; it’s a dramality and therefore presents a heightened and scripted view of real life. They’re also merely indicative of wider society - the importance of money is preached through our economic system, political dialogue and news broadcasts.
Watch the clip from Made in Chelsea on the links section of the Premier Youthwork website. This clip demonstrates much of what we’ve talked about above. After you’ve seen the clip, discuss these questions:
- Have you seen the show before?
- What do you think of it?
- How do you feel about this clip?
- Do you think the worldview shown by the cast members reflects wider society?
- Do you agree with them? Should we be focusing on accruing more wealth?
KEY POINT 1
The world has a very clear message when it comes to money, one backed up and summed up by Made in Chelsea: we need to get more of it. The Bible offers an alternative way of approaching life.
GOD AND MONEY
15 mins
Say: It’s easy to find out what the world thinks about money, but what does God think about it? Jesus talks a lot about money, more than just about anything else. Let’s examine a few passages and explore what they have to say.
Split the young people into small groups and give each of them one or two of these passages: Psalm 24:1, Matthew 6:19-24, Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 12:41-44, Luke 16:13-15, Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-37. Ask each group to discuss the following questions about each passage:
- What is this passage saying about money?
- How does this compare to what the world says?
- How does this make you see money differently?
- Does anything in this passage surprise you?
- Do you follow these ideas at the moment?
- What would our lives look like if we lived this way?
- Which is easier: the world’s way or this way?
Once they’ve discussed these in their groups, come back together and invite the young people to feedback what they have discussed.
KEY POINT 2
When you read the Bible, you don’t get the impression that money is inherently sinful; the focus is on our priorities. God seems much more concerned with the attitude of our hearts than the content of our wallets. If we maintain the attitude that all of ‘this’ is God’s and we are using it to serve him, then we can use our gifts, possessions and attributes in the right way. This is bigger than money, this is about the way we approach and view everything that God has given us.
IF YOU GOT THE MONEY…PART 2
10 mins
Invite the group to go back to the earlier activity. In small groups, discuss again what a biblical way to spend £100,000 might be: how much would they spend on themselves? How much would they save? How much would they give away? After they have discussed this, give them some time to think individually about how this might apply to their own lives – should they be using their own (limited) finances differently? How could this affect even their career choices? Pray to finish.
