Are you a MINION? And have you found a Gru worth following?

On thursday nights at LLYFC we hold our ‘Reverb Space’  after-school drop-in.  During these evenings we sometimes hold a ‘cinema’ themed night.  Recently we had a ‘minions’ evening.  If you have ever seen ‘Despicable Me’, ‘Despicable Me 2’, or ‘Minions’, then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

The ‘minions’ are loveable, if a little bit gormless, minions that in the films, follow and work for equally as gormless, it would seem, supervillains, such as ‘Gru’ in the ‘Despicable Me’ films.

For this evening our director at LLYFC; Tim Gough, created a short resource to share the gospel relevantly, using the ‘minions’ as the medium through which to explain the good news.  Please read and enjoy Tim’s great work.

Minions exist to follow someone else – and they are just not happy until they do! Minions will travel the world to seek out a leader to worship, adore and serve but – even though they try really really hard – they are just a bit pants at it.

They drop a T-Rex into a volcano, get a Caveman eaten by a bear and accidently shoot Napoleon up the backside!

We’re exactly the same, y’know (ish… not so much with Napoleon). We were made to love and serve and be in relationship with someone who wants the best for us. We’re wired to be ‘Kingdom People’ who live with an awesome King – just like a Minion!

We Are Minions Too!

The problem is that we’re also not great at finding the right leader. We might spend all day worshipping a football team, a TV show or an xbox game. Then the team looses (idiots!), the show gets canceled (or kills the best character, grrr!), or you complete the game and have to blow all your money on the next one!

It might be that we decide to put all our faith in a best friend, parent or teacher. But even they – with the best of intentions – can let us down or stand us up too!

Hearts get broken and our world crumbles for a while. Life loses its purpose and direction and we start to feel pants…again!

Is There Anyone Worth Following?!?

Jesus Christ says “Follow Me” nine times! He’s a pretty consistent dude, eh? But you’ve gotta ask: why should we? We’ve followed all kinds of things and people before and that hasn’t worked out. Why follow a guy who died thousands of years ago and doesn’t even have an Instagram account?!?

The thing is that, if you read Jesus’ stories, in not one of them did he ever do anything wrong. He was just ridiculously awesome all the time! He Cared for people, never stood them up, was totally loyal and completely loving. In fact the

Bible tells us that he was completely ‘without sin’ (2 Corinthians 5:21 – that’s how you’ll find it on google or in a Bible) – which basically means he was absolutely perfect!

He Took The Freeze Ray!

He also died, yes, but for us! He jumped in front of a bullet that was heading our way. Y’see we do sin. Aka: We mess up! We epic fail (just like those quirky little Minions!) and if there is a God out there who is completely fair minded, then we have to make up and pay for those sins. However Jesus (who was sent by that God btw) paid for us by dying in our place.

Jesus also didn’t stay dead! Because Jesus was actually God himself in human form (I know! Cool, eh?… and weird!), death couldn’t hold him. That means he’s still alive today – doing his God-thing and making sure the world keeps turning.

Finally… I can follow someone like that!

So following Jesus is just sensible! We all want someone to give our life purpose and meaning, we’re gonna keep looking for stuff to fill that gap, and Jesus is just, well, EPIC! He’s perfect, he died for us – proving how good he is; and he rose again from the dead – proving just how powerful he is. I want to follow him!

Doesn’t That Mean I’ll Stop Having Fun?

Jesus does’t think that you shouldn’t like football, xbox games, telly, or having best friends and family. He wants you to live your life! But he also just wants you to put him first out of those things, so he can take care of you and guide you.

Jesus also does’t promise to make our lives perfect. But he does promise “never to leave or abandon us” (Hebrews 13:5). He will be with us in our darkest times. We can always talk to him an he will always listen and always understand.

Ok! So How I Do It?

So, just like a Minion who has found their Gru – lets follow Jesus! That means that we need to accept his friend request and click like. We do that by praying a simple prayer (I’ve written an easy one out for you on the back if it helps!). Praying is not a magic trick, it’s just talking to Jesus just like you would to anybody else – you can do it out loud or in your head. He’ll always hear you! Give it a try…

Hi Jesus…

Thanks so much that you love me and died for me. Thanks for taking the bullet for me. Thanks for loving me even when I’m a bit pants. Thanks for sending me a friend request. Thanks for wanting to know me!

I’m sorry for all the times I’ve been a bit rubbish. I’m sorry that I’ve ignored you until now and looked for other things and people to follow. Please forgive me.

I accept your friend request. Please hang out with me every day. Please help me to follow you, learn more about you, talk to you and trust you as I walk through life. Help me live life to the full!

Amen (that’s just a classical way of saying “Yup, I stand by what I just said!”)

Fab! So What Now?

It’s not easy following a guy that you can’t physically see! So here are three things that will help you keep cracking on!

1. Find a Christian friend or Youth Leader (get on google and look for for Church Youth Clubs in your area) that you’ve started following him.

We all need friends to help us out with these big choices.

2. Learn more about him in the Bible. You can download a Bible App (YouVersion is a great choice) or go online (Biblegateway.com is pretty good).

The Bible is actually a library of 66 books – hard to know where to start! Look in the contents for, or google the book of Mark. That’ll be a great start! If you like poetry and music, then maybe check out Psalms too!

3. Pray! Talk to him! Tell him what you care about, what you’re doing. Share with him your questions, your fears and your dreams. Get to know him by chatting!

Ask him to be with you, bring him your questions and remember to say thanks too – he’s worth it!