A Walk to Remember

Warner Brothers
PG

While not the world’s best movie, this might be a great choice for your next lock-in or retreat, and you might even get some good discussions out of it.

Landon Carter is one of those popular tough guys in high school, who gets in some trouble and is sentenced to do some community service. There, he runs into Mandy Moore, a PK who has a list of goals in life—one of them is to be nice to someone you don’t like. She tries her best to help him, and he lets her down again and again. Of course, in the end he comes around, ditches his not-so-good friends, falls in love with Jamie and becomes a model citizen. There is one more twist in the movie, but you'll have to discover it for yourself.

Study questions

Themes to talk about:
Outreach

• Jamie’s father doesn’t like her hanging out with this guy. Discuss with your youth group and guest youth: Do outsiders feel comfortable in our youth ministry and congregation? Who is here? Who is excluded?

• Are you friends with people who aren’t Christian? Do you know Christians who aren’t friends with non-Christians? How do people react to those people? Is it wrong to be friends with people who are not Christian? Is it wrong to not be friends with someone who is not a Christian? Explain your response. In discussing these questions, talk about the example of Jesus. None of Jesus' friends were Christians because there was no such thing. Instead, he hung out with tax collectors (Matthew 11:19) and a rejected Samaritan women (John 4:7-27), all people that the leaders of the church would have found unacceptable companions. Another helpful verse is 1 Corinthians 7:12-16, Paul’s rules on marriage where he talks about being married to an unbeliever.

• Is there ever a time when it is OK to not hang out with people who are not Christian? It is important to talk with your group about the importance of being friends with all people, but not compromising your own values for that friendship. Some helpful verses to talk about this might be James 4:4: “…Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” Similar is 1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things of this world…” and words from Jesus in John 15:18-27: “If the world hates you…”

• If you like controversy, when your group feels pretty secure that they should be friends with all people, challenge them with Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 6:14-18, the first line of which says, “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers…”

Faith:
As a bonus, this movie also has some good conversations about faith:

At 30:08 Jamie and Landon have this conversation:

Jamie: I have my beliefs—I have my faith. Don’t you?
Landon: No, there’s too much s__t in this world.
Jamie: Without all the suffering, there would be no compassion.
Landon: Yeah, well, tell that to those who suffer.

Later on, at 1:01 they continue their discussion:

Jamie: How can you see places like this and have moments like this and not believe.
Landon: It's nice to be so sure.
Jamie: It's like the wind—I can’t see it but I feel it.
Landon: What do you feel?
Jamie: I feel wonder, beauty, joy, love—I mean it's the center of everything.