Three Questions to Ask Before Your Next Sermon, Message, or Small Group

Whether you've preached hundreds of sermons to thousands of people or you lead a small group of seventh grade boys, it's easy to get in a rut when it comes to preaching, teaching, or leading a discussion. Maybe you're feeling like you're not having as much of an impact as you used to, or perhaps you've noticed that people aren't really engaged or connecting when you're speaking or trying to lead a discussion. Or maybe you haven't noticed that all of your messages seem to sound just about the same (believe me, the people who are listening to you have noticed!). To keep things fresh, here are three questions to ask yourself as you prepare your next sermon, message, or small group discussion:

Have I learned anything?
Communicators--small group leaders, senior pastors, and everyone in between--are more likely to communicate with passion and clarity when they are learning as they prepare. If you can prepare a thirty-minute sermon without learning anything new that you can apply to your own life, you probably won't have much in the way of life-altering truth to share with those you're speaking to.

Do I believe it?
Before you get mad at me for accusing you of not trusting the Bible or breaking at least three articles in your church's statement of faith, answer this question: Have you ever had to preach a sermon that your head believed was true, but that you just couldn't get any passion for? Sure, your head might believe the content of what you've prepared to say, but you may not own it. Whether people can articulate it or not, they can tell when you don't really believe what you're saying. So own it. If there's something you're not sure of in a passage or that you struggle with, say that. Don't pretend like everything you're talking about is a neat and tidy set of obvious beliefs you figured out ages ago and have never wrestled with.

Does it matter?
Great theological thinking and funny stories don't mean a thing if you don't help your group or audience understand why what you have to say matters to their life. Look, I know you're armed with a New Testament dictionary and some great Bible software. By all means, put it to good use (see the first question on this list). But if you're not helping people be doers of the word and not just hearers, then you're just creating really smart hypocrites who deceive themselves (see James 1:22). Let me just put it this way: if because of time you have to choose between explaining the Greek root of a word or giving a great application to your message, choose the latter. Every time.

Video of the Week: Dove Real Beauty Sketches

My wife pointed me towards this video this week, and I thought it was a really powerful discussion starter on who God created us to be, and how we often view ourselves. Check it out:

Free Easter Lessons and Devotions from youthministry360.com

My friends (and I really do mean friends...this isn't a sponsored post, just something I think is worth passing along) at youthministry360 have just launched another round of free resources, just in time for Easter. They're giving away three different Easter Bible study lessons, PLUS a set of 10-day Easter devotions for your students. It's solid stuff that will help your teenagers prepare their hearts and minds for Easter. Easter is such a powerful time for Christ-followers. These tools will help you lead students to both reflect on and celebrate Christ's death and resurrection.

To download these free resources, head on over to the ym360 Easter Vault at https://youthministry360.com/blog/youthministry360-easter-vault.

And if for any reason you need help or have questions, their team is great about helping out. Really. This isn't some big publishing house, they're actual youth workers who love Jesus and love teenagers, and they want to help you in any way they can. Like if you took the church van on a trip and you need someone to wash it for you, they'll make it happen. Just ask, and tell 'em Benjer sent you.

Great Free, Helpful Mapping Resource: Batchgeo.com

An important part of our youth ministry is our small groups. Our groups meet on Sundays or during the week in homes, and sometimes it can be difficult to know the best location for a group, or the best group for a student based on what grade the student is in and where they live. Batchgeo.com is a free online mapping tool that we use to easily map where students in our ministry live. It's a piece of cake to use; just export (in Excel format) the names and addresses of the students you want to map, copy and paste, and the website does the rest. It's a handy tool not just for small groups, but for mapping all of the families in your ministry, or perhaps the schools that your students attend. The free version works just fine for us, but if you want to get fancy, there is a pro option as well. Here's what one of our maps looks like:

When you click on each red pin, it gives you the info (name, address, grade, gender, etc.) that you've provided in the Excel document. Pretty handy stuff!

Free Small Group Curriculum

Credit: Creative Commons (Brad Stabler)

One of the hardest parts of leading a small group ministry is equipping your leaders with quality curriculum they can use in their groups. There have been a few occasions where I've written my own series from scratch because I couldn't find what I was looking for from publishers. Still, that was really time-consuming. Even if you've got leaders who would feel comfortable writing their own curriculum, it's a time consuming process that most leaders don't have the time to do every week.

There's a lot of great curriculum out there for small groups, much of it tailored for youth ministry. Here's a problem: much of it is really, really expensive, especially if you're going to use it once then put it on the shelf. What do you do if you've got a tight budget, but you really want to put something in the hands of your small group leaders that will help them be confident they are leading solid, Christ-centered discussions in their groups? Here are a few FREE ideas of curriculum that won't cost you a penny:

Campus Alpha: The Alpha Course is a program that teaches the basics of the Christian faith. They've got a free version aimed at young adults and college students, and we've used it with our high school students. There is a "Youth Alpha" course, but I found that the Campus Alpha program was just the right level for our high school students. Free registration is required, but once you register you get access to all the videos, discussion guides, and even a video training session for your leaders. This is an amazing resource, and honestly, I can't believe they give it away for free.

Youth Ministry Communication Avenues - Part 1

There's often a lot of chatter that goes on in the youth ministry blogosphere on communication avenues. How's the best way to communicate with students? What about their parents? How can we make it easy for those within our church to share communications with those outside our church, such as when someone invites a friend to a retreat? This is one of those nuts 'n bolts of youth ministry topics that I don't like to think too much about. Unfortunately, we do need to think about our communication avenues, because the way we communicate not only affects who actually gets the message about what's going on in our churches; it also creates an impression of who we are, whether or not that impression is an accurate one.

Know that I'm no guru on this topic. I usually need to ask for advice in this area, and when something goes right in terms of communication, it probably wasn't me that did it. We are blessed to have an amazing administrator, Angie, that handles a lot of our communication stuff for our youth ministry, and I realize I am spoiled beyond belief because of this. I'm just a regular youth pastor who doesn't also double as a Ninja web and digital design master. That being said, here are some principles I try to keep in mind when communicating:

The church calendar, liturgy, and knowing our roots

In 2009, when my family moved to Utah to serve at our current church, it was not just a changing of jobs and states; we moved to a different church tradition. In my first six years on staff as a youth worker, I was a lay youth director in two different Episcopal churches in Colorado. I am now a pastor at a Baptist church (although you'll notice you won't find "Baptist" in our name) where I serve as one of the student pastors. It was certainly a bit of a change. But as my mentor once put it, I've always been a closet Baptist, and for six of the years I served in the Episcopal Church, I attended a non-denominational-but-formerly-baptist seminary.

One thing my wife (who grew up in and whose parents are on staff at an Episcopal church) and I miss about our "Anglican roots" is the liturgy and an awareness of the church calendar. I'm thankful that in many evangelical circles, celebrating Advent and Lent is becoming more common.

Last day to claim free mp3 from NYWC

Just a reminder that today is the last day to get a free copy of Doug Fields' talk on family and ministry from the NYWC. This isn't a gimmick, and you don't need to "like" me, "follow" me (I don't like stalkers anyways; had one in high school, not a good thing) or sign up for email updates. Just let me know you want a copy by emailing me, sending me a Twitter message, or posting a comment here or on the original post. If I end up with a longer list than copies I have, I'll do a drawing. Just make sure you let me know today! For all the info, check out the original post here.

Advent/Christmas Activity Idea: The Twelve Deeds of Christmas

I tutor at a local high school once a week, and Suzie, the teacher I work with, posted a great idea she does with her family for Advent/Christmas. I thought I'd share it with you:

Over twelve days (you can do this anytime during the Advent/Christmas season, but if your a stickler about the church calendar, you'll do it December 25th-January 5th, the real twelve days of Christmas), do one act of service a day. It can be done as a individual, as a youth group, or as a family. Come up with twelve ideas of ways they can serve someone and write them on 3 x 5 note cards. The cards are then put in a box (you can decorate a gift box to put the cards in, if you're into that kind of thing). Each morning, a card is drawn out, and each person in the family/youth group commits to doing that act at some point during the day. You can choose to debrief at the end of the day how their acts of service went, or they can vow to never talk about their acts in an effort to keep their left hand from knowing what their right is doing (Matthew 6:3).

There are several variations of this out there, but here's a sample list:

Great Advent/Christmas Lesson Discussion Starter

Just pop this billboard up on the screen and let the discussion begin. Warning: be prepared (and willing) to engage in a great discussion on apologetics if you use it!

For related news stories on the billboard, which I believe first appeared in New York City, Google "you know it's a myth."

The First Youth Ministry Game in History

On December 10th, James Naismith's original rules of basketball--which he penned in 1891--will go up for auction. As I was reading the story, it struck me that Naismith's version of "Basket Ball" might very well be the first youth ministry game in recorded history. He created the game as a YMCA physical education instructor, at a time when the "C" in YMCA was emphasized. Like all great youth ministry ideas, the game was created at the eleventh hour just before a deadline. In addition, Naismith reported later that the young men who played the game did not show much interest at first and had a hard time keeping to the rules, including tackling one another, paving the way for other youth ministry games that would suffer the same fate.

So, until I find out otherwise via scrupulous and tireless research, I hereby declare that James Naismith created the first youth ministry game in early December 1891.  As always, I am open to being shown wrong, so please let me know if you discover an earlier youth ministry game.

Illustration Idea for Faith and Works (James 2:14-26), or What to Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

Halloween was this weekend, and my wife and I have a tradition of getting the really big candy bars to give out and attaching our church's invitation/promotion postcard for our next sermon series (which happens to be "Hard Questions"). The candy bars are always a hit. My wife was quite pleased this year to hear some kids leaving saying, "This is the best house on the block!" She definitely has the gift of hospitality and didn't mind a few repeat trick-or-treaters. We don't know if the cards result in guests, but we hope at the very least they will couple generosity with God and will seek him more. Even if there are no practical gains, it's fun to bless the kids who come to the door. And I do love messing with the teenagers who are too old to be trick-or-treating. It's nice to know that ALL teenagers see me as a dork, not just the ones in our church.

This week, we had a lot of leftover huge candy bars at our house, which is not good for the health of anyone in our home (although our two-year-old daughter might try to convince you otherwise). This past Monday, I was scheduled to speak at our church's Boy Scout troop on "Reverence." I had been at a loss on how to teach a lesson on "Reverence" because I was never a Boy Scout.  So, I knew I was going to talk about what a genuine walk with Jesus looks like using James 2:14-26, but I wasn't really happy about the ideas I had for making it "stick." Then, my wife and I had a conversation before lunch about another idea, and I went quickly to work:

The Seven Sins of Game Leading

A great video on how not to lead games from The Source For Youth Ministry:



Thanks for the video, Jonathan and team! By the way, if you've never checked out their website, it's well worth your time to do so.

Five Truths of Youth Ministry (An Introduction)

There are a lot of youth ministry resources out there. When considering materials to purchase for a special series or for our small groups, I often feel overwhelmed with all the options there are out there. Just about every curriculum or program promises to transform lives or positively effect your average teenager's relationship with Jesus. I recall one summer event that once boasted in its promotional material, "Over 90% of campers report growing closer to God!" The message I get is this: "Our special thing will change your students' lives."

That can't be true, can it? Isn't it God who transforms?

Now, perhaps I'm a bit jaded because of all the advertising that comes across my desk for youth ministry resources.

Blog: The Sacred Sandwich

I recently discovered the blog, "The Sacred Sandwich: Illustrated Journal for Small Town Christians in the Big Bad World" (sacredsandwich.com) and I look forward to perusing it regularly. Here's a bit of a "taste":

The blog's also got some pretty insightful stuff, too. Enjoy!

Youth Prayer Idea: Add-on Prayers

I found this idea on how to structure a time of individual and group prayer among a group of youth. It seems like the impact gets greater the more students are involved, but I'd be willing to give it a try with a smaller group of students, too. Make sure you check out the full post on the idea from RETHINKING YOUTH MINISTRY:

Each person was invited to go sit by themselves somewhere in the worship space and pray silently for several minutes for whatever was on their card. Next, we invited each person to join with someone sitting near them, share their pray cards, and pray for those concerns together. Next, each group of two joined with a group of four. We continued the process until the entire group was sitting together in a circle and we closed with a prayer together. It was a moving experience, both to pray with just one other person and also to share the different ways each of us articulated prayers for the various concerns.

YouVersion Bible App

I love using the YouVersion Bible app (free) on my iPhone. In fact, LifeChurch.tv has a lot of free resources available. Here's their new video promoting the Bible app:

Backpacking Trip This Week

This week, I'll be in Colorado on a backpacking trip with students. We're going through an organization called Noah's Ark in Buena Vista, Colorado, and I highly recommend them. I've scheduled a few quick posts this week, and I'll look forward to giving a recap of our trip next week when we return.

Egad! Ideas Website Redesign

One of my ideas go-to sites is www.egadideas.com. It's simply a list of ideas for games, studies, etc. I love just plain "ideas" sites because it helps me when I'm looking for a game that can go along with a lesson or just a few things to spark my brain. "Egad! Ideas" used to have a pretty frustrating format for searching through ideas, but now they have a much better design on their site. Check it out!

30 Hour Famine

A couple of weeks ago, the students at our church took part in the 30 Hour Famine. When challenged, it's amazing to see what teenagers can do. Our students raised $16,136.13. Their reward? They got to shave their youth pastors' heads the following weekend:







The 30 Hour Famine is a great event. Essentially, participants spend 30 hours going without food. The goal: to get a taste of what it is like to be hungry (for many students, this is their first time fasting), to raise awareness about the hunger epidemic, and to raise money to feel children in Jesus' name.

For most of the 30 hours, we were together as a group doing different activities, such as worship, learning about poverty around the globe, and putting together "Manna Bags"--which include a clean pair of socks, a bottle of water, granola bar and crackers, and a list of local resources for those in need to hand out when one encounters a homeless person--to sell for $5 each at church (and raise more money toward our goal). At night, we slept outside on the pavement in cardboard boxes, which were ruined when it rained and hailed on us (we had to go inside at 2:00am for safety reasons when the lightning started).

There are a wide variety of approaches to the 30 Hour Famine, so the event can be customized for your particular group. Our students were impacted by what they learned as well as the experience of being hungry and sleeping outside int he cold. We will definitely do it again next year, and I commend it as a fantastic event for just about any youth ministry.

By the way, here's a video I created with Animoto.com from photos we took at the event.