Tag: curriculum

What We’re Teaching This Year

Look, I know how it is.  You had a plan.  You had it all mapped out.  But, then there was the mission trip, the other mission trip, the camp, and the vacation.  And now, here we are, the day before September, and well, you don’t exactly have a curriculum plan for the fall.  Been there.

I know that many student ministry leaders are scrambling to make teaching plans for the fall, so I thought I’d share ours.  Feel free to steal or borrow anything you like.  In fact, I’d be happy to send you full teaching scripts and bumper videos.  Also, before you go to the trouble of writing your own curriculum or adapting some of ours, you should consider XP3.  In my opinion, it is the best curriculum out there for middle school and high school students.  If that doesn’t suit you, there is also a ginormous selection of great teaching series at DYM, including some of my own stuff…shameless plug.

Anyway, here’s our teaching plan for the school year:

We’re kicking off the year with a series called Scandal  Here’s a little blurb to describe what it’s all about:

Who was Jesus? Most people believe that Jesus was a really nice guy who did a bunch of nice things and started Christianity. He’s usually depicted in a clean white robe with a fancy blue sash, and his hair and beard look like something out of a shampoo commercial. The truth is that Jesus was incredibly controversial. To the people he lived around, nearly everything about him screamed “scandal!” What if our perceptions of Jesus are too polished and tidy? Who was this scandalous and controversial man? And how do His actions and words relate to our lives, 2000 years later?

Our goal with this series is to put the spotlight on Jesus.  My hope is that many of the students who come to our ministry in September would become intrigued by Jesus and stick around.

Our October series is called Recalculating.  I’ll be honest with you, it’s a collection of stolen teachings from Andy Stanley on wisdom and decisions.  When I come up with better wisdom sermons than Andy, I’ll let you know.  For now, here’s a description of what Recalculating is all about:

Have you ever been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” That’s a hard question! A better question might be, “Who do you want to be when you grow up?” As in, what kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to be generous? Selfish? Thankful? Bitter? Honest? Deceitful? How do you make sure you become the kind of person you want to be? That is what this series is all about.

Our November series is called Habits.  This series is all about patterns in our lives and how certain behaviors, over time, lead to life and others lead to death.  This series isn’t fully completed yet, but I think it will be great.  The first teaching is based on Ephesians 4:21-32 and the bottom line is:  Break one and make on.  In other words, you are one habit away from becoming more like the person God created you to be or one habit away from becoming less like the person God created you to be.

In December, we don’t have a teaching series planned.  Instead, we focus on serving, put on a baptism service, and a stand alone teaching on Christmas.  Like most of you, we take a few weeks off around the holidays.

In January, we’ll begin a series that has been reoccurring for us.  Two years ago we called it Doubt.  Last year, we called it You Asked for It because the series was built around difficult questions our students had been asking.  This year, we’re calling it idk.  Like last year, we’ll build the teachings around questions our students write and place in our “doubt box.”  We’ll collect the question in September and spend the next few months creating a compelling series.  For the record, we were originally planning to call this series, Can I Ask That? but then, like usual, Andy Stanley came out with a book by that title and stole our idea.  He’s always doing that…

In February, we’ll capitalize on the romance in the air around Valentines Day and do a series called Awkward.  For years, we just simply called this series The Sex Series, but eventually we figured out that sexuality encompasses a lot more than simply sex. Also, calling a series The Sex Series is pretty weird.  Apologies to all our alumni students.

By calling the series Awkward, we acknowledge upfront that the conversations within this series are a little uncomfortable, humorous, and awkward.  But, they are also incredibly important.  Awkward is a series we repeat year after year.  The best part of our Awkward series is when we put a panel of volunteer leaders on the stage, have them tell their stories, and then let our students ask them questions.   It’s always an amazing night.

Our March series is called Forever.  This series is a response to what I sense is a growing misunderstanding among our students about eternity.  In particular, I’m excited for a teaching on the new earth.  I’m planning to steal a page out of Dallas Willard by calling it, “Life after life after death.”

I think the idea of heaven is boring to most of our students because they don’t really understand it.  This series will be different from anything we’ve done in recent years.  We’ll see what happens.

In April and May, we’ll conclude the ministry season with a series called Fortune Cookie.  This series is all about things we believe that aren’t actually in the Bible.  The reoccurring statement in this series will be, “God never said…”  We haven’t completed this series yet, but here are a few of the beliefs we plan to address:

  • God helps those who help themselves.
  • God just wants you to be happy.
  • God will never give you more than you can handle.
  • All religions lead to God.

Well, that’s our plan for the year.  My hope is that some of our ideas generate something awesome for you.  Also, we’d love to be a resource for your ministry.  If you are interested in our teaching scripts, bumper videos, or anything else, just let me know.

 

Dumb | Failure to Communicate

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been blogging about the dumb things I’ve done in student ministry.  If you’re wondering, it doesn’t feel that great, but I think it’s important because what we do as student pastors and volunteers is crucial.  My hope is that by reading about my mistakes, you’ll be able to avoid them in your own life and ministry.  So, here we go with number 2 in my top 10 list:  Saying Too Much

I’ve always considered myself to be a decent public speaker.  I usually receive good feedback, other than the first sermon I gave, after which, a crusty old man came up to me and say, “You’re going to be a good preacher someday.”  I mean, how do you interpret that?  “Thanks?”

In my opinion, becoming a great student ministry communicator requires answering three questions.

1. What’s the focus?

2. Who is my audience?

3. What’s the goal?

WHAT’S THE FOCUS? 

I believe that the greatest temptation for someone who communicates to students is to focus on entertainment rather than biblical truth.  This is incredibly difficult because it’s hard to keep the attention of students, particularly students who have grown up in church.  They know all the stories.  They’ve sat through about 3 million sermons.  How do you grab and keep their attention?

For me, the answer is almost always comedy.  To be honest, it is easy for me to get on stage and perform stand up comedy disguised as a sermon and receive great feedback.  However, comedy alone doesn’t change lives, God’s truth does.  The skill we all need to learn is to tap into the natural tension, character development, and inherent conflict of the biblical narratives and let them propel our communications.  And, to be clear, all my communications are funny.  It’s a gift God has given me and there’s nothing wrong with throwing everything you have into crafting a great communication.  But, the point is, if your focus isn’t God’s truth, what’s the point?

WHO IS MY AUDIENCE?

I was trained to preach at a conservative bible college.  I was taught to preach using three points.  These concepts were drilled into me.  Then, I was hired as a youth pastor at a church that believed in the same model of communicating.  Now, it isn’t that this model is wrong, necessarily.  However, as I prepared my communications, I had the wrong audience in mind.  I prepared to impress my professors and the adults in our congregation who believed in this model of communicating.  I failed to ask these important questions:  How does my audience learn?  Where are they developmentally?  What will grab their attention, focus their thoughts and move them?  In other words, what do students need to hear, based on where they are at?

I’ve come to believe that in order to be effective, communications must be targeted and tailored to the audience.  If you’re following a communication model because that’s “the model,” it’s very likely that you aren’t engaging your audience.  For me, I spent the first few years of my career saying way too much and yet saying nothing.  I don’t believe my audience of students learned much during my first few years of ministry because I wasn’t aiming for them.  Three points meant no points.  That was a hard lesson for me to learn.

WHAT’S THE GOAL?

Allow me to be vulnerable for a moment.  I love being told, “That was a great talk!”  It feels so good! You’re probably the same.  We’re hard wired to thrive on encouragement.  The problem comes when you aim for this.  I think that many of us, if we are honest, subconsciously prepare our communications with the goal of getting congratulated.  This focus is dangerous for a number of reasons, but to the point of this blog post, it isn’t the right goal for an effective communication.

I’ve learned to aim for different feedback from students and volunteers.  These days, what I want to hear is this:  “Our small group had a great conversation tonight!”  In our ministry structure, small groups immediately follow the communication.  This is intentional because we teach for the conversation.  The goal of the sermon is to set up conversation in the small group.  My hope is that the focus isn’t on me, as the communicator, but rather on the small group leader and the dialogue.  Students learn by engaging.

In the end, what we want, is life-change.  We want students to embrace Jesus and become more like Him.  We believe that the path to life-change is biblically centered communications that are developmentally appropriate and set up a conversations between students and their small group leaders.  Small group leaders help put handles on the communication.  They help students engage and implement what the Bible says.

ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

As I see it, great student ministry communications are built on the answers to three difficult questions:  What’s the focus?  Who is my audience?  What’s the goal?  If you answer these questions well.  You’ll likely become a great communicator.

Lastly, not every student pastor has the time, or is wired to write great communications.  If you find yourself in this situation, that’s ok!  If it would be helpful, I’d be happy to send you any of our teaching series, complete with teaching scripts and graphics.  Comment on this post or email me if you’re interested.  Also, reThink’s XP3 curriculum is fantastic.

 

image credited to Elyce Feliz via Flickr

 

How to Write Killer Curriculum

Almost every student pastor wants to be a great communicator.  For many of us, this is the #1 expectation from the churches we work for.  In my opinion, the key to a great teaching is great curriculum.  Most of the student pastors I know write their own curriculum.  I don’t think this is always a win.  Over time, I’ve learned that naturally gifted speakers are not always strong curriculum writers and the best curriculum writers are not often gifted public speakers.  My point is that just because you speak well in front of a crowd of students doesn’t mean you are a great communicator…unless you are using great curriculum.

I spent the first half of my student ministry career believing I was a strong communicator.  I wasn’t.  I was a naturally gifted speaker who taught about whatever book or section of the Bible I had just read.  In other words, I wasn’t remotely strategic.  What I’ve learned over the last 5 years is that great curriculum involves an immense amount of planning and strategy.  Here are a few thoughts on what it takes to write killer curriculum:

1.  YOU’RE NOT ANDY STANLEY

Rule #1 for writing killer curriculum is understanding that you’re not Andy Stanley.  I don’t know how he does it but the guy consistently comes up with the most brilliant phrasing I’ve ever seen.  He’s an absolute genius…and I’m not, and neither are you.  The smartest thing you can do as a curriculum writer is collaborate.  On our team, I usually craft the initial phrasing and we rarely use exactly what I write.  We end up using the collaborative result of our collective brainstorming.  Our team curriculum is ALWAYS better than what I write on my own.  The 13 of us together might make one Andy Stanley.  The verdict is still out.  My point is that if you want to write great curriculum, you should collaborate.

2.  LEARN THE GAME

If you want to master any skill, you must learn from the best.  When it comes to curriculum, I read the best stuff I can find, simply for the purpose of learning.  Personally, I think the team at XP3 from the reThink Group creates the best student ministry curriculum available.  I’m in the habit of buying series from them either to use or learn from.  Look for the ways that great curriculum writers structure their teachings.  Pay attention to their phrasing and contextualization.  My own curriculum has improved dramatically from learning from the best..

3.  CHANGE YOUR GOAL

In my early days of student ministry, I thought that the goal of a great teaching was to have a great teaching.  If someone told me I did a good job then I win!  These days, I’ve changed my focus.  The point is transformation.  I firmly believe that transformation happens when God’s truth is engaged in the context of community.  This means that the goal of a great teaching should be the conversation that follows it.  First, I believe in a ministry structure in which small groups immediately follow teaching.  Secondly, I believe that the most important question you can ask as you prepare a teaching is:  “What conversation do I want small groups to have following this teaching?”

These days, I know I nailed it when small group leaders tell me about the conversations that took place in their groups.

4.  SIMPLIFY

I’m a firm believer in clarity. Say too much your audience will remember nothing.  If your goal is transformation, the smartest thing you can do as a curriculum writer or teacher is to make one point and to make it with crystal clarity.  Here are the crucial questions every great teaching must answer:

  • What is the one thing you want to say?
  • Why does it matter?
  • What do you want your audience to do with your one thing?

If the Scripture you are teaching from says 5 things either pick 1 and run with it or create a 5 week series.  Simplify your content for the sake of clarity.

5.  CREATE A MAP

The big questions my mentor Brian always asks about my curriculum are: “Who do you want students to become?” and “Where are you taking them?”  In other words, what’s the point of your curriculum?  To speak a little Orange:  Teach with the end in mind.

Killer curriculum functions as a map that leads your students to a destination.  What is your destination?  Who do you want your students to grow into?  The best way to uncover this is to spend a few hours with a white board dreaming about what a mature graduating 8th grader or 12th grader looks like.  Once you have a solid picture then work backwards.  If your dream includes students who are passionate about evangelism then you probably need to teach about evangelism on a regular basis.

As youth workers, it isn’t enough to be good speakers.  We need to become strong communicators.  To do that, we need solid curriculum.  My advice?  Take the time to learn the art of curriculum writing.  Or, if you simply don’t have the desire or  time, use ours.  Email me and I’ll hook you up.  Or, go out and get the best curriculum available and adapt it to your setting…XP3.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on what it takes to write killer curriculum.

 

 

image credited to Jonathan Kim via Flickr

God Loves You Too Much To Leave You Where You Are

This past weekend we polished off our Selfie Series which is was all about identity.  I’ll post all the graphics, bumper video and teaching scripts soon if you feel like stealing them.

Selfie_Title

Here’s the video teaching we used in our houses during this series.  It ended up being one of my favorites of the year.

Selfie: Baby Habits from LifeLine Student Ministries on Vimeo.

What have you taught lately that has been awesome?  I’d love to hear about it.

My College Transition Curriculum

Look, I’m not famous or anything but I did develop a college transition curriculum.  Well, actually, I borrowed most of it but it’s still pretty awesome.  I’ve been perfecting it for a few years now.  Below is this year’s version.  You’re welcome to use some or all of it.  Check it out.

KICKOFF

We play a trivia game about college.  My slideshow is as basic as they come but the point is to get students thinking about the next phase of their life.  After playing the trivia game we set the stage for the year–talking through our topics and generally getting the students amped about their senior year.  Here’s the slideshow:

FIRST SEMESTER

Our entire first semester is devoted to Donald Miller’s Storyline workbook.  It’s a great journey for graduating seniors.  The book generates a ton of great conversation and helps the students think through their gifting, God’s mission and what a meaningful life looks like.

storyline-cover

JANUARY

We’ll spend January going through a few key concepts from Andy Stanley’s The Principle of the Path.  I think this book is perfect for helping students understand how the decisions they make over the next few years will be connected to the rest of their lives.

The_Principle_of_the_Path__87586_zoom

 

FEBRUARY

1. Leaders Share:  Our small group leaders share their post high school experiences, offering advice on colleges, majors, partying, money, friends and whatever else they feel like talking about.

2.  Money, School Loans and Debt:  My approach is to help students understand what their lives will actually be like if they take on a heavy debt load.  My goal is that anyone who is paying for school on their own would think seriously about cheaper options.

MARCH

1. Graduates Share:  Recent graduates return to LifeLine to talk about what their college experiences have been like.  I ask them to talk about money, finding a new church or campus ministry, partying and whatever advice they have for our current seniors.

2.  Senior Sneak:  This is our retreat designed for seniors.  It includes a whole lot of fun and 3 senior specific teachings.  Sorry, the content and location are secret.

APRIL

1.  Understanding God’s Will:  How do you make decisions based on God’s design, plans and calling?

2.  Dating, Marriage and Divorce:  How exactly to you end up happily married?

 

Well that’s my curriculum for this year.  I firmly believe that helping students transition well begins with helping them ask the right questions and engage in the right conversations.  This curriculum is designed to spur on these conversations.  In the context of small groups that have been together for 4-7 years and an invested adult mentor, these conversations can be very powerful.

Transition is my passion so if you have ideas I’d love to hear them!