planning a teaching calendar | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts Why You Plan the Teaching Calendar in Advance

In December HSM is gong to do a series call Instalife about jealousy, pretending and bragging – talking through what the Bible says on these very important subjects. I happened to stumble on an article (poorly titled, but oh well) on the very subject on Gizmodo that is absolutely perfect research for my message. You can certainly read the whole article, but my favorite part of it being the list of questions the author put at the end:

Am I sharing this picture only because I want people to wish they were where I am?
Am I someplace expensive? Is it obvious?
Am I someplace nobody else was invited? Do they wish they were invited?
Am I posting this only because I want people to like it? Or like me?
Am I posting this only because it makes me look good?
Am I posting myself and explicitly stating how good I look?
Am I a nice person?
Have I called my parents lately?
Did my parents get divorced because of me?
Did my parents stay together because of me?
Do I know for sure that my ex follows me on Instagram and I want to make sure she sees this so she’ll regret it—oh, how she’ll regret it all!
If I saw what I’m about to share, would I roll my eyes?
Can I imagine anyone commenting, on this picture, “Ahhh I’m so jealous! I hate u!”
Is this an Instaboast?

Now … this is a completely secular article but points out some great truths for me to now use in my message. If I didn’t know roughly what I was teaching on I wouldn’t know to collect stuff like this right now. If I’m preparing a “Saturday night special” talk for my audience on Sunday morning, they’ll never be as good as when I prepare in advance.

Let me spell it out rapid fire if it isn’t obvious:

Plan in broad strokes your teaching calendar for the season ahead
Be a collector of what you read/stumble on
Listen well to what you hear around you and in the culture
Look for stories on your theme in your community
Pray throughout the process
Deliver a great talk

Good luck as you prepare your talk this week … and the one 2 months from now!

JG

Add Comment October 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts We Teach on These Things Every Year in Our Youth Ministry

Got a great question from a fellow youth worker this week about topics we cover every year in our youth ministry. It was a quick answer for me – and I’ll share those below – but would LOVE for you to share in the comments what you teach on each year as well:

Purpose/Identity
Each year, I try to start the school year with a 1-off message or short series about your purpose in life, the purposes for the church and our new identity in Christ. Every year it is framed differently and people might not even recognize it is intentionally the same message every student needs to hear again and again.

Sex/Friendship/Relationships
This is the easiest one on the list – simply because this is by far the biggest felt need of students so we for sure cover it every year. It is the most widely promoted, best attended series of the year. Last year’s version was called Facebook Official and was really great.

Apologetic Series
This is a more recent addition to our “teach on every year” list but it has become more and more important to see that students are challenged to build a stronger foundation for their faith. The past few years we’ve brought in a special guest speaker who specializes in this (maybe you could find a local Bible college professor or something) to help you bring the heat that series.

Life/Teachings of Jesus
Every year I want us to do a clear Life of Christ series. Maybe 3-4 weeks on the teachings, miracles, statements, sermons, parables – something that centers on Jesus alone.

I think those are the big ones – oh, one last thing – I would have added that we do a Christmas series every year … but this year, we’re trying something new and doing a series called InstaLife in December then joining up with families/parents the week of Christmas. Hope it goes well!

JG