Lessons in Leadership from Captain Marvel: Never Give Up
This session is based on the 2019 Marvel film Captain Marvel. You and your young people should watch the film before the session. The film is certified as a 12A, so be wise making sure that anyone watching is 12 or above (or watches with adult supervision).
Icebreaker
To start the session, chat about the film. Discuss what people thought about it. Had they seen it before? What did they like about the film? What didn’t they like? Who is their favourite Marvel character? Why do they think you are doing a session based around Captain Marvel?
The goal is to get your young people to think back to the film (if they watched it at another time) and to start stimulating conversation, getting the young people to share. If there are particular young people who are more shy, make sure you ask for their opinion. Get everyone involved.
A good way to end this is to explain how there are lots of lessons about faith and leadership we can learn from the film, and so that’s what you are going to be doing in this session.
Explain
The aim of the session is to show how never giving up is an important feature of being a follower of Jesus, and also for being a quality leader.
It also helps us to explore the damage other people can do to us and who you believe ourselves to be. As followers of Jesus we need to get our identity from him and not who other people say we are.
In the same way Captain Marvel breaks free of the Kree trying to hold her back and control her identity, with God we can break free from the identity society gives us and find our true identity in Jesus.
Discuss
In Captain Marvel, where did it come in handy that she didn’t give up easily?
When she was training to join the Air Force
In what way were the Kree holding Captain Marvel back from her true potential?
They had lied to her about who she was
She was told she was given her powers by the Kree, a lie
They limited her powers
What about us? Do lies that have been spoken over us hold us back?
Really try to draw out answers from everyone.
Teach
Have you ever felt like Carol? Have you felt like what people have said to you hangs over you? Have you ever felt bogged down by the expectation society puts on you? I have.
We live in a world where everyone loves to have an opinion, but also loves to have an expectation of everything and everyone. We live in a society where we categorize some things as ‘normal’ and everything else as weird or ‘not how we do things’. We live in a world where, because of technology, advertisement and social media, we are constantly being told how we should behave, what we should like, and who we should be.
All these things are trying to form our identity and most of the time we don’t even get a choice in this matter. Even when we do have a choice, we are condemned and considered weird or outsiders unless we follow the crowd.
Firstly, whether we have a faith or not, that isn’t how we should live. Our lives shouldn’t be defined by sources outside of our control. We should choose how we are defined and who can speak into our lives. If we let them, our close friends can be people who speak positively over us and declare some of who we are. Our families can be this as well. Obviously, there are limits to this and it is easy for friends and family to make mistakes, so they can’t define you completely. We also need to decide for ourselves who we are and what our identity is.
The ultimate way we receive and work out our Identity is with God through his word, the Bible. God created us, designed us and knows us. His way of doing life, viewing life and viewing ourselves brings life in all its fullness.
But where do we start? How does that help when I feel lost, confused or alone? We start by turning to the Bible as God’s living word. More than just a history book or an eyewitness account, the Holy Spirit breathes through the Bible and speaks into our everyday situations – breaking lies, offering freedom and telling us whose we are.
Throughout the Bible there are so many passages where our identity in Christ is laid out before us. In John 1:12, it declares that we are ‘children of God’. Psalm 139:4 tells us how we are fearfully and wonderfully made by God. And Genesis 1:27 tells us that we have been made us in his own image and likeness.
Yes, we have flaws – that’s part of being human – but we have been made in God’s likeness, we have been made to reflect some of his best qualities. You have been made in his glory. Not only that, God knows each one of us personally, and he is calling us into an awesome life with him, where we don’t have to be defined by society, only by him.
When that happens, it’s like our full powers are unlocked. It’s like the moment when Carol takes the chip off her neck and discovers what she is really capable of. When we discover and understand our true identity as the children of God, it removes all barriers and allows us to head towards our full potential.
Reflection
For many young people this will be a hard topic. Many of us have had things spoken over us that have defined us – hurtful words, bigotry, or expectations that we feel we can never achieve.
Put on some instrumental music and ask the group to write down some of these things privately on pieces of paper. Ask them to write down what they want to break free from and what might be holding them back in this area.
Then (not forgetting a risk assessment!) do a symbolic act of burning or tearing up pieces of paper to represent the things your group have written down. Ask them to tear up their own pieces of paper. Explain that to God, these things have no power and that with him and his Holy Spirit we can be free of them as well. Try to make this time as peaceful as possible, really encouraging the young people to see themselves being freed of these words, expectations and forms of identity as the paper is torn or burnt.
What these young people have just done –confronting these things holding them back and defining their identity in a way they don’t want – is a vulnerable thing. Be gentle and kindhearted.
Prayer
As the young people have put down the words that have been spoken over them, we want them to pick up the truth about who they are in Christ.
At times when we feel like we can’t hear from God or our emotions are taking us on a rollercoaster ride, it is so good to have a piece of scripture to hold onto, to learn and pray into.
Download the PDF resource which contains lots of Bible verses about identity. Share it with the group and ask them to read over the verses as they pray. Encourage them to look over the verses before they go to school every day and see what difference it has made or what comes up in their mind as they think on these descriptions as their true identity.
Then, explain how the Holy Spirit can start working in us right now to help us find our identity in Jesus and to help us unlock our fullest selves.
Say that you are all going to wait on the Holy Spirit and see if he wants to speak to anyone.
Then, wait. Pray that the Holy Spirit starts to move among the young people. As leaders, try to stay aware of what is going on with the young people. Keep praying, but keep an eye open.
It may be subtle, but it is likely that there will be young people who start to feel the presence of God, and hopefully in some way or another hear him speak to them about their identity. More often than not I’ve seen the Holy Spirit move powerfully at this point.
As a team, listen to God and what he might be saying to you for your young people. As long as it is strengthening, comforting or encouraging feel free to share it.
End with a final prayer, praying that we can all seek to find their identity in Christ, not the world, so that we can reach our full potential.
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