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Main Point of Discussion: Our faith in God starts a change in us. The Movie Clip: “I didn’t even know what was happening to me.” Every once in a while a film is released that reminds youth workers that we can make a difference: Coach Carter, Stand and Deliver, Renaissance Man… this is one of those films. If you haven’t seen it, stop by the video store tonight and pick it up. (As I mentioned in my review, yes, there is some violence and pretty bad language speckled throughout the film—a realistic glimpse of our institutional system. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. This film is a gem. This is the type of film I would have shown to my outreach clubs when I worked with a pretty tough group of campus kids. This raw film reveals a realistic glimpse of street life, tough choices, and their consequences. The film is very real and earns its PG-13 rating.) The movie is about a counselor in a juvenile detention center who wants to give kids a second chance. He starts a football team to teach them discipline, teamwork and accepting criticism. This movie has several good clips that you could use to promote discussion. We’ve written three different discussion starters on different subjects from this one film. This is just one of them. (CLICK HERE for IMDB’s page of online previews for this film. Trailer #1 and #2 are actual previews, 3-6 are various clips from the film, just to give you a little taste.) In this scene Coach Porter has a one-on-one conversation with an inmate named Willie about the change that is happening in his life. NOTE: Part of this clip is the same clip we use for another discussion from this movie about forgiveness. But this write-up (other than the movie description) is totally different.Introducing the Clip: Today I want to show you a clip from the movie The Gridiron Gang. Many of you have already seen this movie, but for those who haven’t, this scene is a conversation between a juvenile prisoner named Willie and Coach Porter, played by The Rock. Coach Porter is a counselor in a juvenile detention center who wants to give kids a second chance. He starts a football team to teach them discipline, teamwork and accepting criticism. The results are amazing. Willie, one of the players, not only learns teamwork, he strikes an “unspoken friendship” with a rival gang member. In an act of valor, Willie ends up preventing his new friend, this “rival gang member” from being shot by one of Willie’s old “homeboys.” He saved this other kid because now he didn’t see him as an enemy, he saw him as a team mate. Now Willie is having second thoughts. He’s questioning his loyalty and wondering what is happening to him. He doesn’t understand the decisions he’s making… because for the first time, he seemed to do something… right. In this scene, the coach is talking him through this. NOTE: This clip has two cusswords in it. This creates a tough situation for some of us… if you have access to some editing equipment, it’s an easy fix. Use your own discretion. IMDB has a low res. version of the clip with one of the words cut out of it (CLICK HERE). Scene Script: BEGINING THE CLIP: It’s hard to find a starting point for this clip because of the language. It’s your call. The IMDB clip I linked above (which doesn’t have the coach’s cuss word below) starts mid argument about 1 hour, 31 minutes and 31 seconds.
Willie: (yelling) Because of you! And this damn football team, man. Coach Porter: That’s bull sh**. You made a choice. Willie: No I didn’t. I didn’t even know what was happening to me. It was just so… so quick. (pause, hitting the wall, crying) I don’t know what’s happening to me, man. (crying) Coach Porter: I do. (pause) You’re not the loser you were when you first got here Willie. You’re just not used to being a winner. Transitional Statement: Willie is changing and he doesn’t know why. Coach Porter’s first observation is that Willie made a choice, but Willie reacts, “No I didn’t, I didn’t even know what was happening to me.” As I saw what Willie was experiencing, I thought, “Wow, what an example of what happens to us when a person becomes a Christian.” Being a Christian is not trying to be good. It is not trying to change ourselves like “ten steps to becoming a new person.” When we become a Christian something happens and we begin to change. Divide into Small Groups: Let’s go ahead and split up into our discussion groups, and then afterward we’ll come back together for a final word. CLICK HERE for a quick training article on how to maximize your small groups using our small group format—a great resource to equip your small group leaders. Discussion Questions:
When we become a Christian, God starts changing us. We don’t change ourselves… we just trust Him to do it. Read the following passage: II Corinthians 3:4-6 (NLT) It is not that we think we can do anything of lasting value by ourselves. Our only power and success come from God. If we read further in this II Corinthians passage, we’d see that it goes on to tell us that this change in us isn’t because of certain rules we followed… it’s because of God’s Spirit in us. God came into us and began to make every thing new. People often misunderstood the Bible when it talks about the “fruit” in our lives. I’m talking about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23. Many people look at it as sort of a list of things that we must achieve. “I need more love, more joy, more longsuffering, more gentleness and more self-control.” We might ask ourselves, “How can I love more, how can I show more longsuffering?” BUT WE MISSED THE POINT. Read the following passage that talks about the fruit of the Spirit and ask yourself one question: WHO produces this fruit? Galations 5:22-23 (NLT) But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. WRAP UP: True Christianity can't be measured by a list of do’s and don’ts; it is concerned with internals—who we are inside. And those can't be produced on demand. We can't make fruit "happen." In fact, with true Christianity there is no need for that outer coercion. We now have an inner passion: the Spirit of God who comes to live inside us. There is no need to push, because it is Jesus who pulls. It is His wonderful attraction. The more you "hang out" with Jesus, the more He rubs off on you. The passion comes from within rather than from external pressure. There is an inward desire to please Him because He loves us so much. We no longer obey because we have to or somebody is making us, but because we want to. Some self-help groups are forever pushing, coercing, insisting and demanding. People feel like they have never done enough. Where does one learn to experience the true Christianity that transforms from within? Most of the time we don’t learn this kind of change in a seminar, school or self-help book. We learn to live by the power of the Holy Spirit when our human efforts just don’t work anymore. We might feel at that moment that life is over, but in actuality life is just beginning because we are learning to depend on a whole new supernatural, resurrection power that is awesome. When we preoccupy our lives with externals we take all the focus off what God is doing. We can't be good by trying harder. That is counter-productive. It makes us more ungodly. The only thing that trying to obey a list of do’s and don’ts produces is hypocrisy. If we have to look good on the outside, we can't be honest and admit what is really going on at home and in our relationships. We can't admit struggles. We can't admit that we make mistakes. We can't look weak, because that would be unspiritual. But we don't have to live that way. Some self-help systems focus on success. And many churches focus on what we are doing for Christ. What a contrast to the honesty of an AA meeting. That is what ought to be true of Christians. The church should be a place where we can talk freely and openly about the areas where we are struggling and the mistakes we have made. Then we don't have to prove anything, because our acceptance is not based on performance. What matters is what God is doing inside, and every one of us is a work in process. Written by Tom McKee |
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