speaking to teenagers | More Than Dodgeball

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: Sermon Preparation Location

Curious in this week’s poll – where do you do your best sermon preparation? Vote in today’s poll!

JG

5 View Comments November 29, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Does Your Talk Have STAR Moments?

In reading Nancy Duarte’s HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations, Duarte refers to messages having STAR moments. The acronym STAR referring to “Something They Always Remember.”

When preparing and delivering talks to young adult and teenage audiences, this piece of advice is even more crucial. Whether the STAR quality is an unforgettable visual, a story, or even a token they take home, it is vitally important for the “stickiness” of your message.

Recently, we did a message called “What’s in Your Box?” where we focused on all of the various “stuff” that each of us carries around inside our little “box” and try to keep hidden from others. The message closed with James 5:16 (confess your sins and pray for each other) and the students were encouraged to come to the front, grab a small box, and find someone to open their box to and share what is hidden inside (sin, failure, mistakes, suffering, etc). Afterward, the students took their boxes home and were encouraged to put them in a prominent place in their room where they would be reminded to continue to live their lives “open” with one another.

Whereas many students (and most adults for that matter) walk away from a message and forget what they have heard fifteen minutes later, you want to leave them with something they will never forget. Not only will it reinforce the principle or scripture that you are trying to teach, but will be a STAR that they (or the Holy Spirit) can draw upon months, years, or even decades later.

Matt Maiberger is the High School Pastor at Southeast Christian Church. This is his first guest post of hopefully many more to come.

2 View Comments November 21, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: #FAIL – Not Ministering to Student with Special Needs

I recently read an article called #FAIL in youth ministry and how to deal with distractions while preaching (you can read it here). Students need to understand the rules and when they don’t follow them during service, a youth leader needs to come along side and correct that behavior.

The illustration that was used in the article turns out to be a special needs student who was the distraction. Granted, the youth pastor or the leaders didn’t know about this student at the time, but the lessons learned from this situation didn’t reflect that they were a special needs student who couldn’t control their actions.

So here are some lessons that could have been learned:

1. Our youth service is not more important than people. I don’t know of very many churches that accept special needs children and their families. If they do, they are very rare. My son, who has special needs, makes all kinds of noises in church that would definitely count as a distraction, but people have grown to accept my son and love on him every time they see him. ::You should see him worship God ::

2. We can use that situation as an opportunity to teach students to love and respect everyone. Teenagers love to be in their groups that are comfortable. Let’s get them to get out of the coziness of their friends to reach out in love to these students. This is not a one time love, but it has to be shown over time.

3. After knowing that the student has special needs, why not create a buddy system for these students where a student would be with them the entirety of the youth service. It would create a sense of peace in the parents to know that someone cares about their child, and buddy would be able to help curb the response of the peers wondering what is happening.

These are just a few suggestions. I am still trying to figure out how to minister to special needs students and their families. I know that it is a huge mission field for sure. If my oldest son didn’t have the needs, I might have reacted the same way. It is my world that I live in all the time, and for a church to rally around these students would shine brightly for Jesus.

Bill Peterson is the youth pastor of Crossfire, a ministry of the Worship Center in Leesburg, VA.

5 View Comments November 14, 2012

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 The 3 Audiences of your Next Youth Group Talk

When you prep your talk, think about three audiences in your youth group. It doesn’t matter if they’re all actually in the room or not, thinking about them will prepare you for when they are.

As you look to an application of your talk, consider these three people in the crowd:

The “So What?” Student
When you’re working on your talk, be sure to address the non-believing or seeking students in the audience. Share the Gospel with them. Invite them into a relationship with Christ, or at least back to hear more about the Jesus you spoke about tonight.

Invite them to process what they’ve heard and let them know you’d be happy to address any questions or concerns they might have as they think about whether what you’ve shared is relevant to their world.

The “So-So” Student
Don’t forget about the lukewarm or apathetic student in your group either. As you turn toward application think of steps big and small that they could take to get back on track. Gently nudge them toward Jesus and invite them to a closer relationship with Him.

The “Sold-Out” Student
In every youth group you’ve got students who are on the right path—compliment them for the way that they’re following the teachings in the message you just gave. Ask them to celebrate what God is doing in that area. Challenge them to stay on the right path and continue their faithfulness to Christ.

Are we missing anyone else? Who else is out there in the group you should think about as a communicator?

This post was written by Josh Griffin and Kurt Johnston and originally appeared as part of Simply Youth Ministry Today free newsletter. Subscribe to SYM Today right here.

2 View Comments October 16, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Duffy Robbins on Speaking with Your Whole Body

Loved learning from Duffy Robbins last week at a Speaking to Teenagers seminar we hosted at our church last week. It was incredible, here’s a little clip from their seminar, be sure to check out their official website to bring them to your area, too!

1. When not gesturing, park your hands some place that isn’t distracting (your pockets, the sides of your chair, or the edges of the podium).

2. Keep your gestures high up on your body frame. You don’t want the audience to have to choose between looking at you (your eyes and your face) or looking at your gesture. I usually stage my gestures about six to eight inches in front of my chin. To look at my gestures, you have to look at my face.

3. Match the breadth of your gestures to the size of your audience. A larger audience might mean more exaggerated gestures; a smaller audience allows for conversational gestures.

4. Time the gesture so that it best serves your point. Pounding the pulpit 10 seconds after the preacher has made his point leaves the audience either confused about the preacher’s intent or concerned about his reflexes. Neither response enhances the message.

5. Give your gestures a firm end point. Imagine that a gesture leaves a mark in the air (e.g., a vapor trail). There should be an obvious beginning point and an obvious end point. That helps define the gesture, and it aids the audience in interpreting its meaning.

6. Don’t overlook the power of stance. Pulling your chair closer to the circle, moving closer to the group, stepping over to one side near that kid who is detonating his underwear, even the way the feet are positioned if you’re standing: all of these help to communicate focus, boldness, intensity, importance.

Be attentive to how your whole body communicates. Let them hear your body talk.

JG

1 View Comments October 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Adapting Lessons for Student with Special Needs

So, how might you adapt a grade-level textbook religious education lesson for a child with special needs? Here are some handy tips to help you along the way.

Prepare

Read through the Children’s Book lesson.
Read through the Teacher Guide lesson that accompanies the Children’s Book.
Think about what you might be able to accomplish with the time you meet with the child. Can you teach the whole lesson during one session? Do you think it might take two sessions? Plan with your time-frame in mind.

Plan

Take an inventory of all of the learning tools you have, including balls, puzzles, pictures, toys, and so on. Gather the ones that might work well as you teach this grade-level Children’s Book lesson.
Allow yourself the freedom to adjust the lesson in a way that will work well with your particular student. Imagine alternative ways to share the information in the Children’s Book.
Mark up the Children’s Book and Teacher Guide with sticky notes. Record notes for yourself about what and how you want to teach this lesson. For example:

Children’s Book: Mark the pictures in the children’s book that you want to talk about with the child.
Children’s Book: Mark the articles, features, or stories that you want to paraphrase or read aloud to the child.
Teacher Guide: Mark the spots where you want to veer away from the book and do an activity.
Teacher Guide: Mark the spots where you will use learning tools to help you teach. For example, maybe you’d like to use the dolls to act out a story with the child.

In advance, gather all your materials and make any physical samples of art projects that you want the child to develop during the lesson.

Teach

When you work through the grade-level Children’s Book session with the child, consider doing the following to make the most of the lesson:

Make learning as active as possible, but in a way that will not raise the child’s anxiety.
Vary your vocal tone and volume to match the message of material you are reading aloud.
Make your face and voice congruent and match up with the content. For example when you are discussing something happy, look and sound happy.
Give the child plenty of time to respond to questions. Accept all forms of attempted communication including talking, gesturing, sign language, pointing to pictures, drawing, and so on.
Provide exact models of what you want the child to say or do.
Describe everything the child does using simple sentences.
Take breaks as needed. If a technique is working, move on.
Give verbal praise when an accomplishment or milestone has been reached.

Joellyn Cicciarelli is a national workshop presenter and the director of curricula development at Loyola Press, who oversaw and helped develop the Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit and the Adaptive Reconciliation Kit.

Add Comment September 29, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Make Your Bottom Line Stick

I was recently looking at some old messages and noticed that I suffered from a lack of focus. I would have a thousand points and twice as many examples. If you were to listen to one of these messages you would never be able to guess the bottom line.

According to the Orange Strategy you and I have about 40 hours a year with our teens. If you speak to teenagers you probably give anywhere from a 15 to 45-minute message. In that time allotted you probably want to say a lot of things; however, you really only need to say one. The reason is because your time is limited. You need to know what you can say in those few minutes that will affect the rest of their week. Basically you need to have a BOTTOM LINE to your messages THAT WILL STICK.

To get your bottom line you just need to answer the question, “What do I want them to know?” but to make it stick you need to answer the following questions:

What do I want them to do?
Every message needs to conclude in an action plan. If you are just filling their heads with knowledge it will get canceled out in the next conversation that they have. Give them a tangible action step to make your lesson more concrete.

How can I continue the conversation?
Give them something to chew on. If you just give them answers without giving them questions they either embrace what you have to say or totally reject it. While the former is better than the latter it won’t promote growth. You want your teens to grow.

How can it be packaged?
It’s not always what you say; but how you say it. Therefore use alliteration, or rhyme. Make it into a mantra that they can repeat when facing certain situations. Just be careful not to be shticky to the point where it’s goofy.

When you make your bottom line stick you utilize those 20 minutes to the max. The idea is to use the time you have to influence the moments you do not. Even if you aren’t giving a message, knowing how to communicate to your audiences is key. Always have a bottom line and be sure to make it stick.

How do you craft a memorable bottom line?

Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. You can read more great youth ministry articles and thoughts on his exceptional blog Marathon Youth Ministry.