Hey Awesome Person,
Have you heard the Coldplay song We Pray?
The song came out a few weeks ago and I thought it was worth sharing with you a few ways to use the song in your youth group as a way to teach on prayer.
Here are a few things you need to know before I share the ideas,
- Chris Martin was brought up in a strict Christian home and shares about it in this interview from 2021.
- Based on the interview, Pray is not a "Christian" song, but a universal call to pray to whomever you believe in.
- There are two lines in the song which need more context
'Pray Virgilio wins' refers to the case of Virgilio Aguilar Mendez, a teen migrant from Guatemala who was seemingly unlawfully accused of the death of a Florida police officer.
'We'll be singin' "Baraye"' references the song "Baraye", which became an anthem in Iran after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year old Iranian woman, died in police custody after being arrested for allegedly wearing her hijab improperly.
These are take from the article Learning to Pray with Coldplay
If you still want to use the song, here are some ideas
Play the lyric video and share Chris Martin's Christian background and ask a few questions
Does growing up in a strict Christian environment make you not want to pray, go to church, etc. why?
What are some of the things the song says we should pray for?
When you pray, does it matter who you pray to or how you pray?
Does the Bible give us any examples of how to pray? Jesus gives us a model prayer in Matthew 6:5-14. You can go deeper into the prayer with this resource.
Closing Idea
Write down all the things the song says, we should pray for, one per piece of paper, ex. forgiveness, pray to lift others up, etc. and set up prayer stations for students to visit while worship music plays.
Students can go to as many stations as the like and then circle them up, ask for prayer requests and close in prayer together.
If you didn't have a lesson tonight, you have have one now. If this lesson doesn't fit, there over 75 resources in my store to choose from.
Have an awesome youth meeting!
Paul
