LADDERS
15 minutes
Get the young people into pairs, ideally of relatively similar running pace. The young people should sit opposite each other in a long line, with their legs out straight, the soles of their feet touching, with about half a metre between each pair. Each pair is then given a number. You can then either shout out numbers, or if you’re feeling more creative (and it’s more fun this way), tell a silly story during which you shout out numbers from time-to-time. When a pairs’ number is shouted out they jump up, run along the line over the seated legs, around the top, down the outside and back up the ‘ladder’. The winner is the first one back in their space and sat down. Be sure to highlight the importance of not moving your legs around when people are running over the top of them, and also not standing on other people’s legs! Keep track of which side of the line wins the most races. For added chaos you can call multiple numbers at once.
GET IN LINE
15 minutes
Get your group to line up in a random order, and then reorder themselves from:
- Tallest to shortest
- Earliest birthday in the year to latest birthday in the year
- Alphabetically
- Cheekiest to least cheeky
You can add any others that you think would work well and be fun for your group. You could make them do it in silence to make things more complicated. Get each member of your group to write out, on post-it notes, three famous people, or people known to the whole group. On your flip chart paper, draw a big ladder with ‘best’ written at the top, and ‘worst’ written at the bottom. Get them to stick the post-it notes where they think the people should go on the ladder. Then ask them to think about, or say where they think they might be on the ladder.
CONSIDER OTHERS
10 minutes
Read Philippians 2:3-4 and discuss the following questions:
- In what ways might we find it hard to consider others better than ourselves?
- Does this mean that everyone else is ‘better’ than me?
- What would it look like if each one of us were to genuinely and wholeheartedly look out for the interests of others?
Say: We love a checklist in life: a to-do list where we can tick things off and see how much we’ve achieved. We can often fall into the trap of wanting to apply the same idea to our Christian faith, and subconsciously feel like the more good things we do, say, or achieve, the better our standing will be before Christ, or the higher up some imaginary Christian pecking order we will be. But the gospel of Jesus Christ says exactly the opposite of that. At the heart of Philippians chapter two we are faced with the real challenge of what it looks like to live for Christ: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
Key Point 1
Being a Christian isn’t about following a set of rules, or worrying about how ‘good’ or ‘bad’ we are, or worrying about other people around us being ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than us. It is an attitude of the heart, and we are called to have the same attitude as that of Jesus Christ. As we will see next, that is an attitude that is humble, that seeks to put others first, and always seeks to find unity. And as we will also see, our attitude always affects our behaviour.
A SELFLESS ACT
5 minutes
Tell the group this story: A doctor was performing a serious operation on a little girl. She needed O-type blood but the hospital didn’t have any. However the little girl’s twin brother had O-type blood. The doctor explained to him that it was a matter of life and death, and that his sister needed him to donate his blood for her. The little boy sat quietly for a moment, said goodbye to his parents and went off with the doctor to the theatre. The operation was a success and the little girl came through it fine. The little boy then turned to the doctor and asked: “So when will I die?” He thought he was giving his life for hers! Ask the group to discuss their reaction to the story.
THE ATTITUDE OF CHRIST
10 minutes
Read Philippians 2:6-11, or even better print it out on large sheets of paper so the whole group can easily see it. Think about the following questions together:
- Who is Jesus?
- What did he do? Think about it in your own words, or write it on the sheet.
- Because of what Jesus did, where is he now?
- How do we see this in the world around us? In what ways might we find this hard to see?
- What is yet to come?
Key Point 2
The little boy in the story exemplified putting the interests of others above that of his own, even to the point that he was willing to give his life for his sister’s. Jesus came and did the same for us on the cross, even though he was God, the creator of the world, the creator of you and me – those who’d turned our backs on him. Because he did that, and then defeated death, he today sits on the throne in heaven reigning over his creation. And we can know him as our king, saviour, friend and helper, even though there is still brokenness in the world, and the world doesn’t recognise him as king. But one day: “Every knee will bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”. One day everyone will recognise exactly who Jesus is.
Sas Cutting is a former youth worker and now a full time mum.
Andy Mcconville is youth development coordinator at St Michaels, Chester
