Rotation.org Writing Team
Peter, do you love me?
A Music Devotion
Summary
Students will watch the music video, "If We are the Body," –which features the title song by the same name. The song is by Casting Crowns, a popular contemporary Christian band.
This is a 10 minute "devotion" and not a complete lesson plan. It can be shortened. The song/music video is four minutes long. See presentation notes & resources below.
The music video examines how we as the Body of Christ need to do a better job of welcoming others, not excluding people, or staying in our "cliques." The body helps those in need.
The song fits works particular well with these three Bible passages:
Jesus' question and command, "Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep!" —Jesus telling us to BE HIS BODY and feed/love/reach out to others as a sign of our love. Those are also the two halves of the Great Commandment: Love God? Love Neighbor! (Matthew 22:35-40). The music video could also be used for a lesson about the Body of Christ.
Possible Uses:
- Children's Worship
- Children or Youth Fellowship
- Gathering Time before lessons
- Children's sermon video
- As an alternative or reflection with any of the lessons in this set.
- As a lesson about the Body of Christ.
Age range:
Grades 3 and up, and younger and older youth. (Even adults!)
Scripture for the Lesson
John 21: 1-17, "Peter do you love me? (then) Feed my sheep!"
Romans 12:5 One Body, One Spirit.
"...so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another." (NRSV)
1 Corinthians 12:12-27 "One Body with Many Members"
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." (NRSV)
The Music Video
Below is a free, full-length preview of the song set to images and posted on YouTube. We looked at several videos which use the same song. We like the one below posted by "McKinley's Good News Club!" It's a good fit for children, has many images of children praying, and the audio quality is good. If the link goes dead, search for it. See the copyright notes below to be legal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7xirmboSeo
Resources for Reflecting on the Song
Suggested Steps: Watch, Discuss, Watch one more time.
Before showing, tell students that the song writer originally wrote the song to teach his youth group an important lesson about being followers of Jesus. Tell them to "watch the video and then tell me what you think that lesson was about."
After showing the music video, share that according to the song's WIKI page, the song was originally about not showing preferential treatment in church, or favoring rich over poor.
- Does that happen in our church? Do we have groups that look down on others? Do we favor a certain type of young person or behavior or dress?
- How about at school?
- What would Jesus say about that?
Below is a list of some of the images used in the music video. After seeing the video, you might ask if they saw that image, and what they thought the image was trying to say. Most students won't have seen everything the first time through, and will look for them during the replay.
- Girl in worship
- Body in lunch room.
- Woman and child in need
- Traveler who sinks into the back pew. Judgmental glances.
- Crying girl
- Man on street hiding his face
- Praying hands
- Serving food
- Doctor with child
- Kids holding candles
- Girl praying
- Boy praying
- Girl praying
- There is a way.... picture of the cross.
Here are lyrics from the song followed by a question.
- If we are the body…. (How are you the “Body” of Jesus to others on Sunday morning? At school? At home? How is the Body of Jesus supposed to act?)
- But if we are the body, why aren’t his arms reaching? (Who are we supposed to be reaching out to? What is keeping our "arms" at our sides?)
- Why aren’t his hands healing? (How does Jesus heal others using our hands?)
- Why aren’t His words teaching? (How does Jesus use our words to teach others)
- Why aren’t his feet going? (Where does God want us to go?)
- Why is his love "not showing" them there is a way? (How do we show others the way to life?)
- There is a way. (What is that "way”? Jesus is the way.)
- What's keeping you from being the disciple Jesus wants you to be? Do you need to stop hanging around certain people? Or speak up to certain people? How can WE help each other become better members of Christ's body?
Want printable lyrics for teaching purposes?
Google "If We Are the Body Lyrics Casting Crowns" and you'll see they have been posted by fans on many sites. Please remember, you cannot print these lyrics for public use, only for personal or teaching use.
Copyright Notes on Using the Music Video
By rights, you need to own the song to be able to play it for your class. If you don't already, please download a copy of it from your favorite online music source, such as iTunes or Amazon. After doing that, you can legitimately teach with one of the Youtube videos that use the song. If you don't own the song, you can only watch and listen to the YouTube video for personal use.
To play the video for others, if you do not have internet access at point of use, copy the URL of the music video, and go to clipconverter.cc where you can paste in the URL of the music video to create a downloadable movie file that you can put on your computer or a USB flash drive, or burn it to a DVD. Once downloaded, you can then transport the file to your desired location and play it back on a computer or television.
If you are going to use the music in worship or fellowship, legally you need a license to play it as it will be considered a "public performance." Check with the pastor to see if your church owns a "blanket" license to play copyrighted music in worship. Playing the song in a "face to face teaching situation," however, is protected "fair use" --provided you have purchased the song itself. Once purchased, you can play any video from YouTube that uses the song.
Written by Neil MacQueen for the Rotation.org Writing Team
inspired by a lesson idea from members Jo Ohrlein and Carol Hulbert
Copyright 2017, Rotation.org Inc.
