Creative Teaching Techniques
September 16, 2008Synopsis: In order to apprehend the attention of youth on a weekly basis, we must prepare sessions that are more than “just another lecture”. Their schools have likely adapted various teaching methods over the past number of years. Since they are increasingly accustomed to these alternative teaching methods, students will dread classes that do not offer variety. They are likely to lose interest, and may eventually quit attending altogether. Successful youth leaders realize the need and actively pursue creative methods of teaching.
I. Introduction: If teens are not listening to a lesson, it may very well be that the speaker is not doing what he should in order to grasp their attention. While easy to berate a group that is not attentive, genuine response is not fostered through fear of humiliation or correction. Rather, people listen when the presenter has something valuable to say and he presents it in a desirable fashion. An audience will actively receive and respond to a session that is enticing.
II. Enticing Meetings Draw Youth: Concerning the validity of the previous statement, consider the following questions. Does Hollywood “make” kids come to their movies or watch their television shows? Does Madison Avenue “force” youth to buy clothes at Ambercrombie or the Gap? Do Sony or Nintendo “require” kids to rush to Toys R Us and buy the newest video games? Do BMG, EMI, or Warner “coerce” teens into Sam Goody, Wal-Mart, Target, or Tower Records to buy their latest musical wares? Of course not.
Rather than coercion, these companies know to entice their customers. We should know to do the same. If we will work to make our meetings enticing, then we will witness participation by a willing group of teens. We will more readily be able to affect the youth who are in attendance because they have chosen to be there.
III. Enticing Meetings Require Work: It is not easy to host an enticing meeting. Lazy leaders need not apply for this job. When one is short of time, has many other responsibilities, and tries to work youth ministry into his other obligations, it is often easiest to do what requires the least amount of preparation. Standard lecturing requires studying given material and praying for the Lord’s anointing. When very pressed for time, one might pray and study very little. Then that leader stands at the lectern and reads from the teacher’s manual, praying that God somehow honors it. Or possibly, one reads a verse of Scripture and proceeds to share a number of unconnected stories that come to mind, hoping that, in the end, the teens “get something out of it”.
If a teacher makes a habit of studying little, and then asking God to help him make it through this week’s lesson, then that teacher will inevitably lose the interest of the youth within his ministry. They will soon recognize the lack of preparation. Once they feel that the leader is not concerned enough to prepare, they will not believe that the material presented is very important.
Presenting enticing meetings requires a change in attitude and mindset if we are accustomed to merely haphazard lecturing. To prepare meetings that catch the attention of teens, we must work very hard to prepare for each session. A successful youth leader will labor intensely on the meeting’s content and format.
