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SYNOPSIS The first pure-pop album from this artist, with a title that pays tribute to the year of her birth as well as the decade that influenced these tracks.
INTRODUCTION This session explores the story of the Prodigal Son from the perspective of the ‘minor characters’: the father and the older brother. It provides an opportunity for your young people to consider how they might respond to the challenge this offers.
THE SESSION Begin the session by explaining that we all have different experiences of family, but for each of us our families will encounter good times and difficult times. In this session, we will explore a story about a family that experienced separation and the pain this brought each member.
Provide Bibles and ask someone to read Luke 15:11-32. Tell your young people that this is a story they may already be familiar with, but that we are going to explore the story from the perspective of the father and the older brother, rather than the central character of the younger son. As they hear the story, what do they notice? Is there anything they can relate to? What surprises them most about the story?
TRACK 5: ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS STAY
Play the track and ask how the song can help us understand how the older brother may have felt when his sibling returned home. What might he have experienced in his brother’s absence? Why is he so angry and lacking in understanding at his father’s joy?
TRACK 7: I WISH YOU WOULD
Introduce this track, explaining how in some ways it gives a glimpse of how the father may have felt while his son was away, waiting and hoping that he would return. How does this contrast with the bitterness of the brother? Why do you think the father threw his arms open to his returning son?
Explain to the group that, when Jesus first told this parable, those listening were surprised that the father welcomed home the son who had shamed him and would have understood the feelings of the older brother. But God, our loving father, welcomes all those who come back to him with love and grace, regardless of their past. The challenge for us is to consider whether we act like the brother in the story, resenting God’s grace to those we see as living in a way that causes God pain, or whether we can share the love that we have experienced as members of God’s family with those who don’t yet know how loved they are.
As you bring the session to a close, reread the passage to them, pausing to allow your young people to reflect upon the interactions between the father and each of his sons. Pray for your young people that they will find practical opportunities to share God’s love with those who are far from him in the week to come.
