Tag: teaching

1 Thing You Need to Become a Great Teacher

When it comes to improving as a communicator, practice has made a huge difference for me.  But, practice, while a very good discipline, isn’t as impactful as taking one additional step.  That step is inviting feedback.  If you’re working to improve as a speaker, it is absolutely imperative that you seek feedback.  Because, as the saying goes:  Practice doesn’t make perfect…it makes permanent.  You could very well practice for hours only to perpetuate distracting mannerisms, nervous twitches, or filler words like “ummm.”

Let’s be real, we all know that one communicator who always says or does super awkward and distracting things….you don’t want to be that guy and I don’t either!  So, we need to invite feedback.  But, let me warn you.  Feedback hurts.  It can be deflating but it is a crucial step in mastering the art of speaking.

So, if you’re interested in seeking feedback, here are two simple steps to get you moving in the right direction.

VIDEO YOURSELF

About three years ago, I became the primary communicator in our student ministry, which involves teaching through video 2x a month.  The funny thing about video is that you get to watch yourself.  Let me tell you how awful this experience was in the early days!  I found myself saying, “Why in the world do I move like that?”  “I blink my eyes every millisecond!!!”  “I have to stop saying ‘like.’  and “Wow, I used used the word ‘hugely’ 14x in a 7 minute video.”

It was incredibly enlightening (and humbling) to watch myself teach.  I discovered all sorts of things that I do that are distracting or confusing.  And yes, it was wickedly deflating.  But over time, I have improved dramatically just by watching myself.  Now, we video every teacher in every environment so that we can learn and grow as communicators.

So, I would encourage you to video yourself teaching.  At first, you’ll basically want to die.  And to be sure, you will be harder on yourself than anyone in the audience but I guarantee it will help you sharpen your skills and ditch a few distracting habits.

 

INVITE CRITIQUE

If there’s one thing we’ve done in the last year that has helped our student ministry teaching team improve, it is inviting critique.  In our ministry, every large group teaching gets a test drive in front of our team about a week before we go live.  And whoever that lonely soul is, who is practicing that day, gets a heavy dose of feedback from all of us.  In fact, we practice everything that will be said from the stage, including the welcome, games, and announcements.  This practice run-through has dramatically improved our program and the teaching in particular.

LL practice

I realize that many of you don’t work on a team of student pastors but I bet you do have other student pastors in your area.  And, I bet those other student pastors want to improve as communicators.  What if you created a network where the goal was to offer each other helpful feedback on your teachings?  Sure it would be awkward at first, but I’m telling you, the payoff would be tremendous.

If that sounds awful, invite a volunteer to give you feedback or ask a teaching mentor to watch a video of you teaching and offer you a few thoughts.  If you don’t have anyone in your life to help you out with this, I’d be happy to give you my 2 cents.  Just email me a link.

 

How to Teach Without Notes

Recently, after speaking at a student conference in which I delivered a couple different communications without notes, a friend asked me about my preparation process for teaching without notes.  This post is a summary of my answer…

First, teaching without notes might not be the best practice for you.  As a communicator, the goal is to deliver a great communication.  For some, that means notes and others none.  With that said, I think everyone should attempt to go noteless for a season (don’t give up after 1 or 2 tries!) to see if it works because speaking without using notes will help you communicate in a more conversational and authentic voice.  For student ministry, this is paramount.

Also, this is my 13th year of full-time student ministry.  I have been a primary teacher for 8 of those years.  I just started teaching without notes two years ago.

Anyway, here’s my preparation process for speaking without notes:

 

WORK WAY AHEAD

Step one in teaching without notes is to work way ahead.  I’m at my best when I…

  • Map my teaching content for the entire year during the summer
  • Write outlines a month out
  • Work through edits three weeks out
  • Write full scripts two weeks out

Working way ahead creates mental space for creativity and memorization.  For me, cramming will always yield an inferior teaching.

 

WRITE HOW YOU SPEAK

When it comes to preparing notes, I…

  • Write in my speaking voice.  This helps with internalizing the material.
  • Write a full script.  This script is word for word, exactly what I want to say, but never exactly what I will say when I teach.
  • Translate the full script into practice notes, which is an outline of keywords and phrases.

The process of writing an outline, then a script and then practice notes helps me memorize the content, and even more importantly, the flow of the content.  Specifically, this is what I memorize:

  • Intro
  • Transitions
  • Bottom Lines
  • Conclusion

If these elements are memorized, the rest will fall into place.

 

PRACTICE LIKE YOU PLAY

During the week I will be communicating, I…

  • Practice three or four days out using my practice notes
  • Practice repeatedly while driving around in my car (this makes me look like a crazy person at stop lights)
  • Do a full dress rehearsal three hours before teaching (on the stage with lights, mics, slides and everything)

In order to teach without notes, I simply have to practice a lot!  The key here is that I’m gradually moving away from my notes and adjusting as I go.

 

For me, learning to teach without notes has dramatically improved my delivery.  It isn’t terribly complicated or difficult, it just takes a whole lot of discipline.  Give it a shot and let me know how it goes.

 

image credited to Matt Roberts via Flickr

Check Your Flow

I’m currently blogging about the secret sauce of speaking…at least my secret sauce.  I don’t pretend to be a guru.  Anyway, so far, I’ve written about engaging the internal conversation of the audience and the importance of tension.  Today, I writing about flow.

What do I mean by flow?  I’m talking about the structure of the teaching.  I believe that every good communication is a journey from a starting point to a destination.  It should move because the purpose of preaching and teaching is to motivate people to move, change and grow.

One of the most difficult aspects of writing a good communication is creating a clear flow of thought that moves from starting point to destination.  Too many communications have rabbit trails and side notes that detract from the overall flow.  One thing that I’ve learned is that what makes sense in my head won’t make sense to the audience unless the flow is logical and linear.  An audience that is confused is an audience that will tune out.

WRITE THOUGHT BY THOUGHT

The way I was taught to write a sermon or teaching is not at all how I write today.  I was taught: introduction, 3 points and conclusion.  In my opinion, there is too much potential for confusion when we write and deliver this way.  When I write, I think journey.  There may be 2 or 3 stops along the journey toward the destination but there aren’t 3 unrelated points.  So, instead of writing a point and then writing a second point, I write thought by thought.  Each thought flows into the other.  As I write, I use a conversational voice because writing in the voice I speak in helps me remember the material.  And, writing thought by thought keeps everything I write in relationship and therefore connected and linear.  In other words, you will be clear.

I do often have 2 or 3 “points’ (although, I never call them points) but they flow into each other and are all on the way to the destination.

TELL THEM THE PLAN

Another technique that I use, that I was taught by our senior teaching pastor, is to simply tell the audience what you plan to do.  Why keep it a secret?  When the plan is known, people can follow more easily and also have better expectations for how long you’re going to talk.  Here’s an example from the teaching I plan to deliver this week:

My goal for tonight is to describe 3 different friendships that we all need.  In each of these friendships, I’ll show you how your friends shape your future.

They know upfront that there will be 3 different friendships that I’m going to talk about, they have a general idea of how I’m going to try to influence them, and during the 2nd friendship conversation they will probably say, “OK, he’s almost done, I can hang in there for a few more minutes.”

CUT, CUT, CUT

I get pretty violent with my scripts.  I firmly believe that less is more and any ideas that aren’t directly related to your destination will be distracting at best, and confusing at worst.  My best communications have been parred down for the sake of clarity.  I try to keep in mind that within two days my audience is only going to remember one or two things that I say anyway.  Cut every rabbit trail, side note and parenthetical idea.  Clarity is better.

TALK IT OUT

If you’re like me, something can read brilliantly on paper but fall flat when communicated verbally.  Over the last two years, my communicating skills have grown significantly, largely because I’ve begun to practice out loud.  Nearly every time I practice, I find myself saying, “That doesn’t make sense” or “I don’t think these two ideas are as connected as I thought.  Basically, practicing out loud is another way to improve the message and make sure that the flow of thought is clear.

There you have it.  That’s my basic methodology for creating a communication with a clear flow of thought.  Next time I post, I’ll share a few ideas on how to speak without using notes.

 

photo credited to drestwn via Flickr

The Secret Sauce of Speaking | Tension

I’m currently blogging about what I’ve learned about teaching over the last few years.  My last post was all about engaging the internal conversation of your audience.  Today, I want to share a little more about tension.  You should probably know that these ideas are stolen from my senior teaching pastor, Jeff Manion.

As we teach, it’s crucially important that we answer the question every listener is asking, “Why should I listen to you” by creating tension in our introductions.  But, that initial burst of tension only buys us 5-7 minutes of attention.  In other words, your introduction, even an amazing introduction will only buy you, at the max, 7 minutes until your audience will start asking, “Why should I continue listening to you?”  If we fail to answer this question, our audience will begin daydreaming and in the case of middle schoolers, probably throwing something..  Opportunity lost.

Movies utilize tension in the way I’m describing.  There is an initial burst of tension and then tension is reintroduced every few minutes.  For example, Star Wars…

  • Initial Tension: Darth Vader captures Princess Leia
  • New Tension:  Luke can’t go to the Toshe Station (what a whiner!)
  • New Tension:  Luke gets attacked by the Sand People
  • New Tension:  Luke’s struggles with whether to become a Jedi
  • New Tension:  Stormtroopers attack Luke’s family
  • New Tension:  Han shoots first…
  • New Tension:  You get the idea.

A great movie reintroduces tension every few minutes, and while preaching or teaching is considerably different than Star Wars, the same principle applies.  If you want to capture and keep your audience’s attention, you must reintroduce tension every few minutes.  So, how do we do it?

One of the easiest ways to do this is through transitions.  There is a way to use transitions in a way that reengages the minds of the audience and points back to your central question. If you’re unfamiliar with this idea, it might sound like crazy talk.  Let me explain.  I’ll use the example of John 11:1-7, and the transition between Jesus’ apparent lack of concern for Lazarus and then his emotional response and the resurrection of his friend.

First, a typical transition that does nothing to help reintroduce tension and reengage the mind of the audience:

“Jesus gets word that His close friend is desperately sick.  Surprisingly,he waits for two days. But then Jesus goes to his friend.  Let’s read what happens.”

QUESTION

Here’s an example of a tension loaded transition using the tool of a question:

I just have to ask a question here.  Is this how Jesus responds to his friend when they are desperate?  Is this how Jesus will respond to me when I’m desperate?  What’s going on here?

The imagination of the listener is drawn into the drama of the story and they put themselves in the story.  The purpose of a question transition is to ask a real or imaginary question that the audience is or could be asking.  When you use this technique, tension is reintroduced to the communication.

OBJECTION

Here’s an example of a transition statement that raises an objection:

As we read this story, I know that some of you are thinking, “This is exactly why I walked away from the church.  This story about Jesus confirms my experience with God.  When I needed Him, He was silent.  When things fell apart in my life, He went missing.”

The idea behind an objection transition is to raise a real or imaginary objection that members of the audience are or could be asking.  Even if the listener hasn’t personally experienced the objection, their mind will be reengaged in addressing the objection.  And, if you address a real objection that your audience is actually asking, the impact is tremendous.

REVERSE

A reverse is when you draw a contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.  Think football.  Here’s an example of a reverse from John 11:

Lazarus’s sisters send word that Lazarus is dangerously sick.  Everything we’ve read about Jesus to this point would lead us to believe that he’ll drop everything and run to save Lazarus but, if you’re familiar with the story, you know that’s not what happens.  What in the world is happening here?

A reverse can be effective when you’re sure the audience is expecting something other than where the text or a story you are telling is going.  You’ve nailed it if the internal conversation of the audience says, “Wait, what?!?”

 

These examples may sound too simple or perhaps even silly but I am telling you they work.  And, think of what’s at stake here.  So many sermons and teachings start out strong with a good introduction, plenty of tension and then gradually run out of steam as tension evaporates and the audience engagement wanes.  One way or another, if you’re going to teach effectively you must reintroduce tension and one easy and effective way to do this is through transitions.

There is another way that communications run out of steam and that is when the audience gets confused.  In my next post, I’ll share some ideas on teaching with clarity.

 

 

Image credited to Kham Tran via Flickr

The Secret Sauce of Speaking

When it comes to student ministry, my favorite role is communicating.  I find so much joy and fulfillment in brainstorming series, writing content, speaking, and developing the other teachers on our student ministry team.

Over time, I’ve learned quite a bit about teaching–from trial and error, listening, mentors and from attempting to formalize my method so that I can help others improve.  Over the next couple of weeks I want to share some of the secret sauce.  Here’s lesson number one…

One of the most important skills a speaker can develop is the ability to view the communication as a conversation.  In other words, this is more than a presentation, sermon or lesson.  This is a relational connection.  There is so much more going on than content exchange.  Think about it:  Whenever you listen to a sermon or presentation (and you’re actually listening) there is a conversation running in your head.  You say things like:

  • “I’m not sure I agree with that.”
  • “Wow.  I know exactly what she’s talking about.”
  • “I’m not sure I like this person.”
  • “How did he know exactly what is going on in my life?”
  • “Why is he still talking?!?!”

A master communicator knows how to tap into this conversation and even guide it.

The internal conversation begins as soon as you step on the stage or in front of the class.  The first questions everyone asks are:

  • “Do I trust this person?”
  • “Why should I keep listening?”

How do we tap into the internal conversation and guide it?  Give your audience the answers to these questions as they are asking them.

DO I TRUST THIS PERSON?

When I’m sitting in a coffee shop, writing an introduction for a teaching or presentation, I’m asking myself,  “How can I connect with my audience so that they feel like they know me and trust me.”  This usually involves a personal story that connects with the overall topic and demonstrates some vulnerability and understanding.  In a few days, I will be teaching on conflict in friendships.  My introduction includes a personal story about a friendship from college that meant the world to me, but I accidentally wrecked it. The story relates to the topic and builds trust with my audience because I am vulnerable, real, and demonstrate an actual working knowledge about the topic.   My story builds trust.

WHY SHOULD I KEEP LISTENING?

Now, about the second question:  It takes energy to focus.  It takes discipline to engage with a communication on a heart level.  And we all checkout when we feel like the teacher or presenter is talking about something that doesn’t actually matter or doesn’t relate to our lives.  As a teacher, it is easy to blame the audience for not paying attention but here’s the thing:  It isn’t the job of the audience to pay attention.  It’s the job of the communicator to capture their minds.

So, the task for a communicator is to convince the audience that they NEED to stay engaged.  As my friends at Orange say, “you have to create tension.”  You’ve created tension when your audience’s internal conversation says:

  • “I need to know this.”
  • “He’s right, I don’t understand this issue.”
  • “This topic could change XYZ in my life.”

A great introduction creates tension.  It answers the question everyone in the room is asking, “Why should I keep listening?”  In my teaching about friendships, I will say, “I’m not the only one who has wrecked a friendship am I?  We all have someone in our lives who was a close friend.  Is there a way we can navigate conflict in our relationships without blowing up the friendship?  This is what we’re going to talk about tonight…”

A great introduction answers two questions everyone is asking, “Do I trust this person” and “Why should I keep listening.”  Think about it:  Within the first few minutes, every great movie convinces you to root for the protagonist and care about the tension.

  • You fall in love with Nemo and care about whether or not he will find his dad.
  • You think Matt Damon is hilarious and really don’t want him to die alone on Mars.
  • You root for Forrest and want him to win Jenny’s heart.

Every great movie answers these two questions and so should every presentation or teaching.  Just remember two words:  trust and tension.

But here’s the thing, from what I’ve learned, your injection of tension only lasts for 5-7 minutes.  Then, the audience’s mind start wandering again.  Then what do you do?  I’ll share some ideas in my next post.

 

 

image credited to wisepig via Flickr

 

 

 

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

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…

The Law of Magnets

The Law of Screens

The Law of Glue

The Law of Robots

 

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.