Lessons in Leadership from Black Panther: The Importance of Family and Friends
This session is based on the 2018 Marvel film Black Panther. 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 Black Panther?
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 highlight and discuss the importance of family and friends when it comes to leadership and faith, and how key they are especially when we are thrown into leadership positions.
When T’Challa’s father dies in the film, it means that he has to take responsibility and become king before he feels he is ready. Throughout the film he relies on his friends and family for help and he only succeeds because of their support.
God loves friendship and family. In Genesis 2, Adam was by himself and God recognised that isn’t the way we are meant to live. ‘It is not good for man to be alone’ (Genesis 2:18). So God created Eve, Adam’s first friend and his family.
So friends and family are really important for each of us. Whether it’s our genetic family, adopted or foster parents, or our friends, each of these relationships are really important for us as leaders and as Christians. God designed us to have these relationships to help us thrive.
Discuss
What do you think are some of the key ways T’Challa is helped by his friends and family throughout the film?
Some of the key moments you could cover are:
Shuri designing his Black Panther suit and all the technology which helps him.
Nakia stealing the Herb that helps Black Panther get his powers back.
Okoye being a loyal friend and always fighting by his side.
Following this, ask your group to talk about the friends or family that support them. It’s important here to be aware of those in the group who may not have this, whether they have challenging family circumstances or struggle with friendships. We will be talking about this next.
The scene where Shuri shows T’Challa all his new gear is a great example of how his family is helping him in his leadership.
Teach
Not all of us have good family relationships or friends. Even those of us who do still end up making mistakes and hurting one another. We see this in the film. T’Challa’s father died carrying a secret (that he had killed his brother) which came back to haunt the family. W’Kabi (the guy with the Rhino) betrays T’Challa looking for revenge, even though they are meant to be best friends. Killmonger lets his broken family relationships consume him and lead him to becoming an evil villain.
Broken relationships, families and friendships can be hard. Really hard. However, they don’t have to hold you back from your relationship with Jesus, your leadership and joy in life.
In the Bible it is clear that God is passionate about relationships, friendship and families. Even when they are broken, God is all about redeeming and restoring these things, while also giving us new family and friends. During his time on earth, Jesus is recorded to have had 12 close disciples – people who followed him and learned from him. We know from the Bible that these guys were also some of his closest friends and became his family. They supported him in his work and leadership, prayed with him, encouraged him, and walked alongside him. These are great examples of friendship.
We could also look at the story of Moses. When Moses encounters God and is called to go and lead Israel out of Egypt, Moses says, ‘Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.’ (Exodus 4:10). He feels weak and isn’t up to this leadership task. After a bit of discussion God tells Moses that his brother, Aaron, will support him and do the speaking, as well as being his right-hand man. Then, when Moses is leading the people of God, his father-in-law Jethro gives him advice about how to lead the people more effectively by getting other people to help him lead (Exodus 18:13-27). These are great examples of family supporting family.
As Christians, and also as leaders, we need these kinds of relationships! We need people around us who support us and have our backs. Equally, we need to be those types of people to our friends and families. As leaders we have to set this example ourselves and encourage those around us to act similarly.
I want to be this person. I want to be someone like Jesus, some who loves, supports and cheers on my friends and family. I also want God to bring more people into my life who are like that.
Ask your group:
Who are the people in your life who support you in your faith and leadership?
Who are the people you can support?
What is one thing you have learnt that could help you support and cheer on your friends and family in their faith?
Prayer
Get everyone to stand up. Feel free to put some music on if you think it would make this time less awkward for the young people. Ask them to close their eyes, put their hands out in a receiving position and ask the Holy Spirit to come. Then wait.
See if the Holy Spirit prompts anything to pray for in you or your team.
Following this session, you may want to offer to pray for people who might be struggling with the subject of friendship and family. It’s not about forcing anything upon anyone, but while everyone’s eyes are closed you could ask whether anyone feels like they are struggling with their friendships or their family and ask them to raise their hand. This is a really vulnerable thing, so don’t worry if no one does. But if they do, you or a trusted team member could pray with them.
You could also pray specifically for people who want to be a good friend or family member – those who want to lead the way in what it looks like to be supportive, caring and someone who always has their friends and family’s back.
Finish with a prayer asking the Holy Spirit to empower the group to be great leaders who have friends and family to support them, and that they would be great supporters of their friends and family themselves.
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