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Synopsis
The debut album from this Irish singer-songwriter is littered with references to the church his parents chose not to raise him in.
Introduction
This song has remained at the top of the charts since its debut last autumn and criticises traditional Catholic teaching about homosexuality. In this session, the song is used to explore our experiences of church and what church should be like for us all, without directly addressing this issue. You will need pipe cleaners and Bibles.
THE SESSION
As your young people arrive, give each of them a pipe cleaner and ask them to create a symbol which represents what church means to them. Invite your young people to share their symbols of church and to explain them.
Explain to your young people that the Bible has much to say about the Church: what it is and how God intended it to be. It is God’s great partner in mission to the world, but the reality is, as a body made up of imperfect human beings who all make mistakes hurt each other and are pretty good at thinking we know God better than he does, the Church gets things wrong from time to time. This is not how God intended it to be, and it hurts God when we hurt people who he created and loves.
Track 1: TAKE ME TO CHURCH
In the song, the singer talks of finding a greater level of love and acceptance in a sexual relationship than he could in church. But what does the Bible have to say about what church should be like for those who are a part of it?
Distribute the Bibles and read Acts 2:42- 47. Ask your group to consider how this image of church compares both to church as we have experienced it, and church as described in the song. Can you imagine what it would be like to belong to a group of people who were that committed both to searching after God and taking care of one another?
Explain to your group that the Bible does challenge us to live life well, and has particular instructions about how God expects us to do that, but there is also a level of uncertainty in how we interpret some aspects of the Bible and it isn’t the job of any one of us to attack other people for living in such a way that we believe to be wrong before God. Church should be a safe place where we can wrestle with some of the big questions of the Bible but that should be within a loving community, and not a place of judgement.
Give each of your young people a second pipe cleaner and invite them to create a second symbol which best represents the church of Acts 2. Place these in the centre of the group and challenge your group to consider what they could do to help be a part of a church that looks like this, before you pray over these symbols of church.
