Category KTL: How to Preach/Teach to Teens

Oct 14 2008

Part 5: How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

You probably will think I’m crazy, but the greatest preaching and teaching I’ve ever heard…  I’m talking about the most passionate, most engaging, most clear and understandable, most personal, most theological, most applicable, and even most humorous…  I didn’t hear these greatest sermons and lessons at the coolest, hippest conference around, nor did I hear them from the new, innovative church.  However, the best preaching and teaching I’ve ever heard in my life were from the 4 years that I spend in seminary.  See, I told you that you’d think I’m crazy!

Seminary was amazing.  Honestly, I miss it like crazy.  Being around a bunch of people who desired to go as deep as you do, soaking in the biblical knowledge from professors who were also pastors over the weekend, getting to study the best of books, being forced to study all of the notes, and constantly being pointed to Christ…  Agh, I miss those grueling days.  But to be even more honest, I would never trade it for the church.  There is nothing more rewarding than using what I’ve learned in seminary here in the church.  I’m so thankful for my seminary because my professors weren’t weird, crusty, old, decrepid, boring, antiseptic, snoozers.  Rather, they were pretty cool guys who could put the deepest of theology in the clearest and understandable way. Continue reading →

Oct 13 2008

Part 4: How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

I’ve heard some teenagers say, “I hate going to church because I never can remember everything.”  Those students feel like every message is different with a different moral, a different truth, a different discipline, or a different skill to adopt to their life.  On the other hand I’ve heard teenagers say, “I hate going to church because the preacher says the same thing every Sunday.”  Honestly, I think they are both right…and both wrong.  When we preach/teach to teens, we need to communicate the vastly different stories while always coming back to the same point…the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Continue reading →

Oct 3 2008

Part 3: How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

Free file for youth pastors:

Diagram – How To Preach OT for Christ

I can remember looking out of the car window very intently while riding through Alberta, Alabama as a young little dude.  Trying to see all the way across the street and into the Krispy Kreme restaurant, I usually could catch a glimpse of my Uncle Paul there in the evenings.  From what I remember, he would love to meet his friends there pretty regularly to have a cup of coffee and a doughnut with them.  I always used to wonder what they would talk about so often for so long.  Now, without even ever getting to be a part of those conversations, I’m convinced I know.  How do I know?  I’ve been around people for 30 years now.  Old, middle-aged, married, single, college students, teenagers, and children…we all love to sit and talk about life in stories.  Continue reading →

Oct 2 2008

Part 2: How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

I remember being in Uganda, Africa a few summers ago.  While I was there, a group of high school sophomores from Ireland came through.  They were of the “conservative-Christian” political class in Ireland.  After asking them questions, I quickly found out that “conservative-Christian” has a much different meaning there than here.  Not one of the teenagers believed or even knew the gospel, only a couple of them said that the Bible may be true in some parts, and many of them doubted God’s existence.  Believe it or not, Bono’s(from the band U2) daughter was there.  I preached in the church service at the local orphanage on a Sunday morning with the teenagers also present.  I preached on the gospel of Christ through the lens of being adopted into God’s family as a son through Jesus.  But I didn’t just give the facts, rather I preached the gospel of Jesus emotionally, passionately, and compellingly.  At the end of the service, the Irish students came up and said that if a preacher preached like that in their country…in such a way that it was obvious he believed what he preached…his church would be packed out.

Youth pastors, when we are preaching and teaching our teenagers, we must preach in a way that is passionate and compelling. Continue reading →

Sep 29 2008

How to Preach/Teach to Teenagers

Believe me, I know I don’t have it all together when it comes to student ministry…or anything else.  But I do like to talk to other youth pastors a lot and ask them not only WHAT they are teaching their students, but I’m also wanting to hear HOW they are teaching their students.  Content is not the only key when it comes to preaching and teaching, but delivery is very important as well. 

I had a very close friend of mine contact me the other day who is a new youth pastor at his church.  He emailed me the lesson that he was preparing for his teenagers, and he warned me that it wouldn’t be as deep as what we do in our student ministry because his students weren’t yet ready for the depth.  After reading over what he had prepared for his students, I could tell that his preparation time took hours of study, hours of planning, and it would have taken me hours to teach everything he had down on his sermon notes!  Continue reading →