Learning from Chris Brown

Any regular user of our free youth ministry resources knows that we like to use pop culture as a jumpstarter for discussion. (You may remember discussions we’ve done like the one about “Judging Others” when Susan Boyle was on “Britain’s Got Talent,” or our discussion on “Choices and Their Consequence” when Miley regretted her decision to take some risque’ pics. Hmmmmmmm.) This week we just launched two new discussions that we’ll be featuring on the front page of our site next week (I’m just giving you blog subscribers a sneak peek!) One of these new discussions from our Spiritual Growth Agendas page is about self control, using the Chris Brown incident to launch the discussion and Bible study.

Most of you have heard the buzz about Chris breaking the silence on Larry King last week. We’ve taken this interview and written a lesson about it, with small group questions, scripture and a wrap up. Here’s a snippet:

Main Point of Discussion: Because we all have a sinful nature, we all have the potential to act in terrible ways.  That’s why it is critical as Christians to defeat the inclinations of our flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit

The Background:
R&B singer Chris Brown pleaded guilty to felony assault after a widely publicized incident with his former girlfriend, Rihanna. A second felony charge of making criminal threats was dropped.

On August 25, 2009 Brown was sentenced to five years probation and six months of community labor.

Brown breaks his silence to CNN’s Larry King in his first TV interview since assaulting Rihanna.

He talks about what happened the night of the assault, the infamous photo of a battered Rihanna and his feelings for her today.

Introducing the Clip:
Today I want to show you a clip from the interview with Chris Brown on Larry King Live.  As we watch it, pay close attention to Brown’s tone and wording when he talks about the incident.

 

(we link the entire CNN clip on the discussion page)

Key Interview Dialogue:

King: What do you think caused you to be violent? I mean, you have to think about it. Everybody — we all think about ourselves — why did I lose my temper, why did I get angry over this?

Brown: I mean, that’s relationships. I wouldn’t say it’s O.K. I think, just in relationships in general, there’s chances where you lose your temper or like arguments get heated or whatever the case may be. I’m not saying domestic violence is a part of relationships.

I feel like that we’re young. We’re both young. So nobody taught us how to love one another. Nobody taught us a book on how to control our emotions or our anger. I’m not trying to fall on the fact that I’m young. I’m just saying it’s a lot of stuff that I wish I could have changed that night.

King: When you hear about all the things that the police and the reports say you did, how do you react to that?

Brown: I’ll just look at it and like, “Wow, like, I’m in shock. Because, first of all, that’s not who I am as a person and that’s not who I promise I want to be.

King: Do you remember doing it?

Brown: No.

King: You don’t remember doing it?

Brown: I don’t. It’s like it’s crazy to me.

King: You’re a great dancer, a great singer, you’re popular, you’re known all over the world. Do you ever say to yourself I screwed up?

Brown: Every day. Every day. I think this is probably — like I said, it’s probably one of the worst moments of my life. And I always wish like I could take it back. And every day, it’s just something that sticks in my mind. And I’ve said countless times how sorry I am to Rihanna, and I just accepted full responsibility. But it’s just one of those things I wish I could have relived and just handled totally different.

Transitional Statement:
You probably noticed several interesting things during the interview, one of the most prominent to me is the connection to something that is true for all of us in this room- which is the fact that we all have a side to us we’d rather not admit to having.

Divide into Small Groups…

You can access this entire discussion peice here.

You can access that discussion and our new discussion about being “Changed by Christ,” discussing the tragic death of D.J. AM. … both on our Spiritual Growth Agendas page.