teaching plan | 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 How to Plan a Teaching Calendar

How many times have you planned your lesson on a Saturday night while also trying to watch SNL? How often do you pray for red lights on the way to mid-week so the Holy Spirit can “lead you” to come up with something to talk about once you get there (as if the Holy Spirit can’t lead you a few days ahead of time!)? If you’re like Josh, this has happened more than a few times, and if you’re like Kurt, it has happened WAY more than a few times.

We all know that few things are less sexy than planning out a teaching calendar. We also know that few things are more important. But where do you start? Today we want to share with you ONE strategy for creating a teaching calendar. There are lots of approaches…but here’s one of the ways we do it ourselves.

CONSIDER TEACHING IN “THIRDS”
We like to break our teaching into three primary categories: Christian Education, Life Skills, and Felt Need. We try to spend approximately one-third of our teaching calendar in each category. We don’t cling to the schedule, but use it as a loose guideline.

CONSIDER TEACHING IN SERIES
We try to teach each topic in a 3-week series format. The primary reason is simply because it’s tough to cover a subject in one 30-minute lesson. A series-driven calendar allows you to take a longer, more expansive look at the topic on hand.

CONSIDER THE HOLIDAYS AND TIMELY EVENTS
As you prepare your calendar, and as you pencil in the various series at the various times, pay close attention to where Holidays fall and plan the right series at the right time. Consider timely events such as back-to-school season, New Year, and the Prom to help spark creative and timely lessons.

You’ve probably heard (and agree with) the mantra that goes something like this: “Your students will never remember your lesson…but they will remember your relationship with them.” And while that’s almost universally true, lets not make the mistake of using that as an excuse for poor planning when it comes to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ.

Have some tips for planning a teaching calendar? Share them in the comments!

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

Add Comment August 7, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Protecting the Pulpit – Good or Bad

In the past few months I have had the pleasure of visiting several different youth groups, some of them big and some of them small. As I sat and enjoyed listening to the various people who took to the platform to speak and share, I noticed two distinct value systems around pulpit ministry in youth groups.

The first was a very calculated and intentional approach to selecting those that would speak to the students, the other was a much more casual approach, allowing students to speak as well as leaders. I am not totally sure where I lean to, because I think there is tremendous value in both and perhaps the answer lies in the middle.

PROTECTED PULPIT
This idea would place high importance of having only the best, most well spoken speaker in front of your students. Choosing those who have the most thorough knowledge of the Bible to be the core speakers to your students. These people are effective and deliberate communicators.

Pros:
I love the idea of always bringing the best to students and choosing to only put the best most qualified people in front of your students means that they are going to get a solid, scripture based message every time they come to youth. Students deserve the best leaders and that includes preachers and having someone communicate a message well increases the likelihood that the students will remember what was said.

Cons:
If not balanced out, it may seem as though pulpit ministry is only for those who are well polished “professional Christians” who have a clear calling to preaching ministry. This approach can come at the detriment of students and leaders who might be called to the same, but have not place to explore those gifts and can make attaining that level seem out of reach.

OPEN PULPIT
The idea of students and leaders sharing the things that God is teaching them; to me, is inspiring. Allowing students to be a part of the preaching and exploring their gifts and potential calling, it is just so real.

Pros:
There is honesty, transparency and raw faith when students come share about what God is doing their lives. I have seen so many times where a student’s testimony has had a greater impact than the best-crafted sermon. When students share about their faith journey it comes across real and authentic and for the audience, it portrays a faith that is relatable and attainable.

Cons:
If unchecked this can be somewhat of a disaster, where students are allowed to teach, or share their testimonies it can quickly go from God entered to “me” centered. I once found out afterwards that a student told multiple lies in his testimony just to impress our group. If we are not careful, and expecting students and leaders to be prepared to share, the pulpit can become a soapbox for anyone who wants to talk, which can compromise the purpose of the teaching time.

My encouragement to you is to find ways to keep the pulpit open, open to those whose desire is not to glorify themselves, but glorify God through their speaking, those that want to bring a word, a truth. It is up to us as youth workers to make sure that when someone takes the stage, they are prepared and ready. That does not mean, perfect and professional but sharing a Christ-centered message that is from the heart.

Geoff Stewart is the Pastor of Jr & Sr High School for Journey Student Ministries at Peace Portal Alliance Church and regularly contributes GUEST POSTS to MTDB. Be sure to check out his Twitter stream for awesome ministry goodness. Want to get in on the fun and write up a guest post yourself? See how right here.

Josh GriffinMore Posts SLANT33: How do you decide what to teach?

I recently contributed to the SLANT33 blog when they asked the question – How do you decide what to teach? I gave a wide variety of answers from where I find my inspiration, here is a selection of them, head there for the complete article on the subject:

Create a focus group and run your ideas by them. Every Tuesday during the school year at 4pm, you’ll find me in my office surrounded by a select group of high school student leaders who are my focus group. I run everything by them: rough drafts of sermons, object lessons, ideas, icebreakers, series ideas. They give invaluable insight into what they and their fellow students need to hear and how the message can best be shaped to meet them where they are living. And yes, they have veto power. It kills me when they use it, but I know it is for the greater good.

Be inspired by others. I love nothing more than devouring sermon and series ideas from other people! Youth pastors are creative, so if your idea well is running dry, find some people out there who are killing it. Stolen ideas I’ve had recently: a series on Facebook and a question/answer message where students text in questions to be answered live in the service.

Hit the majors. There are certain topics we are going to cover every year in our youth group. The majors for us would be things like friendship and purity. We make sure that specific perennial topics are being covered, though we might change the number of weeks or the voice speaking so it always feels fresh.

Excited to unpack these and much more at my NYWC seminars this weekend, too!

JG

1 View Comments September 26, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts Spring Teaching Calendar in HSM

During staff meeting today Pastor Rick asked us to make some changes to our student ministry teaching calendar – namely to drop in a 3-week series about parents. He is going to do a series in the adult services called “How to Raise Your Kids” and asked us to do a “How to Raise Your Parents” series at the same time. Should be fun!

Here’s how the rest of our High School Ministry (HSM) teaching calendar shaped up for this Spring:

March
You Own the Weekend: El Toro
You Own the Weekend: Capo

April
You Own the Weekend Celebration
Jesus: His Life
Jesus: His Last Days
EASTER — NO SERVICES

May
Camp Weekend
How to Raise Your Parents (all-church series)
How to Raise Your Parents
How to Raise Your Parents
STAND

June
STAND
STAND
Senior Weekend
Promotion Weekend

JG

3 View Comments March 16, 2011

Josh GriffinMore Posts FAQ About Saddleback Student Ministries Weekend Services: Part 1

This week at Saddleback’s Radicalis Conference some friends and I are doing a session in the youth ministry track about our large group gatherings (our weekend services). We put together a FAQ to go in the notebook to help answer some questions about our ministry. Here’s the first 5 questions if it is of any interest to you:

[Wildside = Junior High, HSM = High School Ministry, Crave = college-age ministry]

1. How long is your typical large group gathering service?
a. Wildside — 1 hour and 15 minutes
b. HSM — 65-75 minutes
c. Crave – 1.5 hours

2. How long is your typical sermon/message?
a. Wildside — we average approximately 20-25 minutes
b. HSM 25-35 minutes
c. Crave – 30 minutes

3. How far in advance do you map out your teaching calendar?
a. Wildside — for the most part, we have a two year calendar that we continually teach thru (we are 7th and 8th grade only)
b. HSM — we do a year in advance during planning, but adjust as needed
c. Crave – 6 to 9 months

4. How frequently are you teaching topically versus exegetically?
a. Wildside — our goal is to teach 1/3 topical (JH survival), 1/3 exegetical (doctrine), and 1/3 other
b. HSM — we are largely topical and felt need, but try to get through a couple books of the Bible each year as well
c. Crave – 70% topical and 30% exegetical

5. How extensive is your stage design/theming of your large group program?
a. Wildside — we go in seasons; sometimes we do nothing and other times we go all out, but a lot of that depends on how the series/topic lends to stage setup
b. HSM — this is a great place to use volunteers. We have a group of students that help create designs as well. It also largely depends on budget, the length of the series, and whether a series is conducive to it.
c. Crave – Less is more for us. We rarely do any stage design.

JG

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Teach Using Different Styles

“It’s not how smart you are, but how you are smart.”

I am from a totally unchurched background (not that unusual in England). Growing up, I can’t ever remember reading a book and was classed as dyslexic with learning difficulties. Yet, at 18 when I started to explore the Christian faith, one of the first things to happen was to be given the gospel of Matthew (possibly the most difficult Gospel to read) and many other books followed (most I didn’t read). Have you noticed how print focused the Christian faith is, how often do you recommend or get recommended a book? How many magazines or newspapers do you read a month and of course we are a ‘people of the book’. I must confess, I have never read the whole bible all the way through, yet I have listened to it all the way through several times. Audio is much more in-tune with my learning style or ‘intelligence’. Yet, the Western Church is very much focused on verbal/linguistic style teaching.

Understanding multiple intelligences (MI) has really helped me think through and challenge my style of teaching with young people. If you are a book worm, then my guess is that your teaching style is more verbal / linguistic. I am a very visual person so I learn from visual /spatial and I find I produce great presentations, maps, charts etc. But what about the young people who don’t naturally learn in a visual /spatial? What I am now doing is to try and incorporate as many MI learning styles as possible into my teaching. So I will try story, problem-solving, visualizations, drama and so on. I find that inevitably some young people will engage more with one style, but most people can learn bits from each MI, we are not 100% one or another. And that’s the great thing about incorporating MI into our teaching, it engages the whole person, maybe that’s why the greatest commandment, the Shema (Deut 6:4) states to love God with all our heart, soul and might.

This is a summary of the eight intelligences with my added examples of Jesus incorporating a particular MI:

Intelligence Area	Strengths	Preferences	Learns best through	Needs	Jesus Example
Verbal / Linguistic	Writing, reading, memorizing dates, thinking in words, telling stories	Write, read, tell stories, talk, memorize, work at solving puzzles	Hearing and seeing words, speaking, reading, writing, discussing and debating	Books, tapes, paper diaries, writing tools, dialogue, discussion, debated, stories, etc.	Parables, Dialogue, Debate’s
Mathematical/ Logical	Math, logic, problem-solving, reasoning, patterns	Question, work with numbers, experiment, solve problems	Working with relationships and patterns, classifying, categorizing, working with the abstract	Things to think about and explore, science materials, manipulative, trips to the planetarium and science museum, etc.	Some parables
Visual /Spatial	Maps, reading charts, drawing, mazes, puzzles, imagining things, visualization	Draw, build, design, create, daydream, look at pictures	Working with pictures and colors, visualizing, using the mind’s eye, drawing	LEGOs, video, movies, slides, art, imagination games, mazes, puzzles, illustrated book, trips to art museums, etc.	Eye of a needle, Bread and Wine, Plank in eye, Miracles, I am’s
Bodily/ Kinesthetic	Athletics, dancing, crafts, using tools, acting	Move around, touch and talk, body language	Touching, moving, knowledge through bodily sensations, processing	Role-play, drama, things to build, movement, sports and physical games, tactile experiences, hands-on learning, etc.	Washing of feet, Road trips- like ‘gates of Hell’
Musical	Picking up sounds, remembering melodies, rhythms, singing	Sing, play an instrument, listen to music, hum	Rhythm, singing, melody, listening to music and melodies	Sing-along time, trips to concerts, music playing at home and school, musical instruments, etc.	Sung a hymn then went out to the Mount of Olives (Matt 26:30)
Interpersonal	Leading, organizing, understanding people, communicating, resolving conflicts, selling	Talk to people, have friends, join groups	Comparing, relating, sharing, interviewing, cooperating	Friends, group games, social gatherings, community events, clubs, mentors/ apprenticeships, etc.	Gospels are full of Interpersonal teaching
Intrapersonal	Recognizing strengths and weaknesses, setting goals, understanding self	Work alone, reflect pursue interests	Working alone, having space, reflecting, doing self-paced projects	Secret places, time alone, self-paced projects, choices, etc.	‘…but stayed outside in lonely places.’ Mark 1:45
Naturalistic	Understanding nature, making distinctions, identifying flora and fauna	Be involved with nature, make distinctions	Working in nature, exploring living things, learning about plants and natural events	Order, same/different, connections to real life and science issues, patterns	Often teaching outdoors and used nature in examples (lilies, birds)

Paul Tilley is the Associate Pastor, Youth & Children’s Ministry at Malmesbury Abbey, UK and blogs at www.paultilley.com.

1 View Comments December 30, 2010

Josh GriffinMore Posts Most Popular Youth Ministry Blog Posts of 2010

It’s been an incredible year here on More Than Dodgeball (MTDB as the locals call it) – thanks so much for joining with me in the journey of youth ministry. I’ve had so much fun and appreciated all of your comments, emails, Tweets, Likes and guest posts. Close to half a million pages viewed during the course of the year with the blog now totaling 5,012 posts with 13,158 comments. Holy smokes!

Here’s a selection of the top 50 youth ministry posts of the year as told by Google Analytics:

And the most visited static page was My Recommended Youth Ministry Resources page – if you’re looking for some good stuff to use in your ministry setting in 2010 there is a good place to start.

Thanks for stopping by, subscribing and spreading the word in 2010. Here’s to 2011!

JG