Teaching - Aaron Buer

Storytelling vs. Preaching

Every so often I run into a blog post or a book that makes me stand up and shout, “Yes! That’s exactly what I think too!” It’s a rather exhilarating and embarrassing situation, particularly if I happen to be in a crowded coffee shop at the time of reading. “Sir, please sit in your chair and act like a normal person.” This scene most recently happened over this post from Brad Griffin on the Fuller Youth Institute site.

What I want to say here may not be popular with some but I believe in this concept enough to weather the criticism. Here it is: expositional preaching doesn’t work with students. What I mean is that 3 point propositional sermons are an ineffective model for promoting life-change in students and, truthfully, in most adults as well. There, I said it.

Part of me shutters as I type these words because I grew up in churches where propositional sermons were, and still are, the signpost of ecclesiastical (a big word for church) correctness. In addition, much of my pastoral training at the college I attended was centered around creating and delivering 3 point sermons. A few of my profs will probably retroactively fail me if they read this post.

And yet, here’s how I know I’m right: What were your pastor’s 3 points on Sunday morning? What’s that? You can only remember one thing about what your pastor said? I rest my case.

Please understand that I’m not saying that we abandon the Bible or wimp out on content. Our teachings must be built on Scripture and include the actual reading and unpacking of Scripture. What I am saying is that teaching with clarity and great storytelling trumps a deluge of content in every possible way.

Humans are designed to be moved by stories. God revealed Himself in story–through compelling and conflicted characters, gut wrenching tension and a plot line so incredibly moving that it has been repeated in books and movies over and over again. It’s the story of the Bible. My question is: Why do we take what is compelling and transforming in itself and shove it into a format of communication that sucks all the energy and tension out of the content?

Why don’t we do what Jesus did? Jesus told stories–powerful, transforming stories built around the truth of Scripture as it existed in His time. His stories hit people exactly where they were–their occupations, struggles, families, joys, fears and cultural context. Secondly, Jesus focused his teaching on a small group of 12 guys. He communicated to the masses and then unpacked his ideas with his 12 over campfires, meals and long walks. Lastly, His parables typically focused on one idea. Essentially, he communicated one clearly expressed idea through the vehicle of powerful storytelling.

What can we, as youth workers, learn from Jesus?

The most lasting communications are crystal clear. They communicate one central idea…not 3.
The most transformative communications ask you to do something. If we aren’t specifically asking our audience to act, we have failed.
The most engaging communications include great storytelling. We must master the art of story.
The most relevant communications lead to further discussion. Our communications ought to set up meaningful small group conversations.

So, how do you actually teach like this? Here are a few questions to wrestle with:

1. Can I boil my communication down to one point? Can I craft a memorable statement around that one point?

2. As I communicate, am I putting my audience in the shoes of the biblical characters involved in the story? Will they feel what the character felt?

3. Did I take my audience to the setting of the story? Did they feel, smell, taste and see the places, the people, the events?

4. Did my audience experience the tension of the story? Did they care?

5. Did I demonstrate why my one point matters in real life?

6. What did I ask my audience to do with my one point? Give them an assignment.

7. Did I send my audience to small groups with a compelling question to interact with?

8. Did I set up my small group leaders with tools to help bring the communication to the lives of my audience?

In order to communicate for life-change. We must communicate clearly, utilize the power of story, ask them to do something and set up small groups for conversation. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

microphone image credited to Ben Rogers via Flickr

Free Teaching Series

Who doesn’t love free stuff? Especially when that free stuff involves doing less work?

We recently did a teaching series called Gravity that I loved. It’s a series about boundaries. In the series we taught on boundaries with sexuality, media, friends and time. In my opinion, the series was awesome enough that you should use it in your student ministry.

Here’s the title package…

While we’re at it, here are all the teaching scripts…

And here’s a link to title slides, blank slides, and the title package.

Feel free to borrow/steal this material and let me know if you found it helpful.

How Love Overthrew an Empire

A few weeks ago we finished up a series on influence that we called Wakes. I loved the imagery that Al, our production coordinator used for this series. We borrowed (with permission) footage from a friend’s wake boarding Vimeo page and added text and music to it. The combination of Johnny Cash and wake boarding ended up being pretty boss. I was really happy with how the entire series turned out.

Wakes Bumper from LifeLine Student Ministries on Vimeo.

One of my favorite teachings from this series was on love and how the early Christians essentially overthrew a repressive empire without the use of force. Check it out:

Wakes – Love from LifeLine Student Ministries on Vimeo.

My Worst and Best Teaching of the Year

Last week included my worst teaching of the year and also my favorite. The funny thing is that they were supposed to be the same content. Sometimes you write a teaching, you think it’s going to be great and then it falls flat. It’s worse when you are writing not only for yourself but also for other teachers on other campuses.

After teaching our high school students on Sunday night, I went back to the drawing board because, while it wasn’t a terrible teaching, it wasn’t clear or direct enough. It took some hard work and last minute fine tuning but I and was very pleased with what came out on Wednesday night at our middle school event.

This is the second teaching of our Wakes series and it’s all about how other people influence you. Check it out.

For me, it’s been 5 years since I’ve written curriculum and taught on a regular basis. I’m sort of relearning the art. Thankfully, my team and my boss have given me a lot of grace because there is a learning curve for this sort of thing. In my transition back into teaching and writing, I’ve found this model to be helpful:

http://uthmin.net/np-communicating-to-students-1/

http://uthmin.net/np-communicating-to-students-2/

What is Worship?

Last Sunday and Wednesday night I taught on worship at LifeLine. The question is: What blows your mind? For me, it is the vastness of the universe. What if God spoke it into being? What if this incredibly powerful Being knows you and loves you. Worship is responding to this incredible God.

Let me know what you think…

Guest Post: Seeing Our Place in the Story

Have you ever felt like it is a challenge to help students understand the Bible, let alone get them to open it? They will often argue that the Bible is ancient and doesn’t deal with the things they deal with. That, however, is because they have often missed the story it tells. Students (or anyone for that matter) will say that it doesn’t make sense or it’s boring. Again, they may have missed the story it is telling.

I have taught students for almost a decade now, all of which was in a student ministry setting up until this past year when I made the transition to teaching Bible at a Christian high school in Grand Rapids. I teach Old and New Testament Survey for freshman, which means I get the privilege (and challenge) of teaching an overview of the entire Bible. And the more and more I teach it this way, the more and I believe every person needs to hear the story this way.

The reason we get stuck or confused or bored when we read the Bible…the reason it appears most Bible reading plans run out of steam somewhere around Leviticus 13 (skin diseases – yes!)…the reason students don’t want to pick up the Bible, might just be that we don’t understand what to look for. So as we venture to help students read the Scriptures seriously or even as we read it ourselves, consider a few simple thoughts.

The Bible is first and foremost God making himself known. Many religions or teachings are built around the idea that god is someone or something that you must find, like a cosmic game of peek-a-boo. But the story of the Bible is the story of a God who says, “Here I am. I do not hide and I am not far off. In fact, I am coming to where you are.” God’s Story is, well, his story. That means before we ask what God wants us to know about Moses or David or Paul, we must ask what God wants us to know about himself.

The Bible reveals the divine drama that is unfolding before our eyes. It is a collection of stories that ultimately tell one big Story. This is nothing original to me, but I teach the Scripture as God’s Story told in four acts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. I won’t unpack each here, but teaching the big Story of the Bible reveals something essential and yet often missed – the Story is not over yet. This leads to the next crucial idea:

We can be a part of God’s big Story. Each one of us has the opportunity to take our individual story and bring it into God’s glorious Story. We live in the wake of Christ’s great act of redemption and the explosion of the first church to the ends of the earth and we now await (with all of creation!) the glorious conclusion when Christ will come and set things right. This is God’s Story, and he graciously and gently invites us in. We get to be a part of a story that has not yet come to its conclusion, and yet the author has given us a glimpse of how the story will end (which looks remarkable similar to how the story began…).

In a world where kids are desperate for something compelling to give their lives meaning, I can’t think of anything more compelling. With more distractions and shorter attentions spans than ever, I can’t think of anything more captivating. This is the story we get to invite students into.

Now, go and tell the Story.

Matt Bell mattbellwords.com | Matt is a Bible teacher at NorthPointe Christian High School in Grand Rapids, MI. He previously served as a student pastor at Ada Bible Church. He is a husband to Lyndsay, a father to Codyn, Laila, Jaben, & Violet. Jesus is the pie pan to all of these delicious slices.

Image credited to On Being

Category: Teaching