To reveal the subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which students today are molded into a lifestyle suggesting that money, power, sex, and individuality are the most important elements to attain in life.

OVERVIEW

LEADER PREPARATION

Numerous commercials propagate the myth that the more you possess, the better you are. Videotape and edit some of these together with a video cassette recorder and show the prevalence of this attitude. If a VCR is not available, cut out magazine or newspaper clippings that communicate the theme. Some ideas are car commercials, beer commercials (Coors, Miller, Michelob), and clothing commercials. The following are additional ideas:

• Using an episode of "The Cosby Show" or any other appropriate television sitcom dealing with designer clothes, edit the main theme and show to group.
• View and edit episodes of game shows for prizes and people’s reactions. Also edit an episode of the television series "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
• Select a top ten pop song. Transcribe the lyrics onto a transparency and show during the meeting.

GROUP BUILDING

• Have several students write and perform a short skit about a typical pressure they face. It can center on graduation pressures, the "weekend courtship trials," the party scene, or fitting in with the stylish and cool crowd.
• While these students are working on the skit, with the rest of the group, sing several songs revolving around servanthood or being a stranger in a strange land.
• Perform the skit.
• Ask students what in the skit is realistic. Discuss other common pressures they face. Using an overhead, list their responses.
• Show the video. Divide them into small groups and ask them to list the lifestyles presented. Ask them to relate what they saw to what they experience in their lives.
• Gather as a large group and ask for each group’s answers and how they related to the original list obtained from the skit.

WRAP-UP

Tell of Mother Teresa’s work among the unlovable in this world. Illustrate her motives and show how her heart focuses on serving. Show the peace that she has in her work without cars, careers, or condos. You may use another example as appropriate with your group.

EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP

• During the next meeting, allow time for students to tell how they had seen these attitudes in their lives and the world over the week.
• Visit the campus that week and talk to the students in their dorms.
• Promote a work day with an organization such as "Habitat for Humanity" and work with some of the more unfortunate in the inner city.