Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

3 Ways to Immediately Improve Your Youth Ministry Sermons

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 241

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Now is the time to grow a healthy, thriving youth ministry...if you'd like to work with us, check out GrowYourYouthMinistry.com *** Ever felt that disconnect when speaking to your youth group? You know—that moment when despite carefully choosing your words, something just isn't clicking?  In this episode, we will dive into three game-changing approaches to immediately elevate your teaching effectiveness in youth ministry.  Get ready to accelerate your teaching and watch your student ministry thrive! This episode is the youth pastor's roadmap to making that happen!

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We love hearing from you all and we do our best to provide powerful and insightful youth ministry content on a weekly basis to be that coach and mentor you may not have, but desperately need.
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You may also enjoy these episodes:

(#163) These 5 Tips Will Help Your Youth Group Retain Your Sermons!

(#089) How to Get Better Engagement During Sermons in Youth Ministry

(#107) How to Deliver Better Sermons - 5 Youth Pastor Tips

(#218) Steal These 5 Tips to Never Run Out of Sermon Ideas for Youth Ministry


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Speaker 1:

Are you looking to improve your teaching skills quickly? Today, we're gonna give you three foolproof ways to do just that.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast where we give you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry.

Speaker 1:

My name is Jeff Laskola and this is is Kristen Laskola, and today we're talking about how you can immediately, right away, improve your teaching skills, and I feel like teaching is one of those things that we could probably do like infinite amount of episodes on, because it's an art and a skill that is not like so concrete of like push this button, do this thing and voila, out comes a talk. I feel like sharpening your skills, even if you're a really good communicator and you've been speaking for a long time and you feel pretty confident. I feel like you can always be improving. And then there's the other side.

Speaker 1:

You know people that are like it is not my A game. I have to do it because of my job as a youth pastor, but I wouldn't say this is where I shine by any means, and this is for all of you. So let's dive in. Number one, something that's really. This is not something I've personally struggled with. However, I see it coming up over and over and over with speakers that I'm coaching and it's this unhealthy relationship with their notes. So do you remember like being in school and like a kid would have to get up to give a presentation and they would like have a piece of paper?

Speaker 1:

and they were reading it or like even like a cue card. You know those little three by five cards and they were just staring at it and I don't know if you remember that feeling and it's like I hear the words you're saying feeling, and it's like I hear the words you're saying. There's still words and it's still information, still ideas. However, I can't like absorb what you're saying. It's not like penetrating, it's not like making an impact. I'm not feeling what you're saying, I'm hearing it, but it is just so much just information.

Speaker 1:

And so what you need to remember is notes are not a bad thing. Like often when I've you know, I have notes right here for our podcast I use notes when I speak. However, it's more of like I think of my notes as almost like a map, and so I glance down and I kind of understand where I'm at in the map and I don't need to read it or look at it or deliver like read the sentence that I wrote. But me writing the notes was me getting it all out and putting ideas like out on in flesh like they exist, and now I'm going to tell you about them, but from knowledge not. You know what I mean. And so if you use prepackaged curriculum.

Speaker 1:

I would say this is a lot harder to do, because these aren't necessarily your words, and so the way that you study the prepackaged curriculum notes will probably be a little different. And so you don't want to sound rehearsed by any means. But I don't think rehearsal is bad, it's like. So, think about, like a eulogy, or a wedding versus a sermon those styles are very, very different. A sermon those styles are very, very different. When someone gets up and gives a eulogy about a family member that died, they usually, if they're not used to public speaking, they will read it. It's still meaningful because you're not trying to communicate like a biblical truth. You're telling a story about yourself, and it's just different. And so that style has a place. But it's just not really like the pulpit necessarily, because what happens is when you're glued to your notes, instead of engaging with your audience, your audience is now disengaging from the material. So think about it this way you are the medium of the message, and we've talked about this before. But in a sense, the medium is the message, like you and the message, where does one end in the other begin? The way that it's heard, received, felt, absorbed is also wrapped up in the medium itself, and that's why two communicators can be saying the same exact thing, yet one is very powerful and you feel it and you understand it and you absorb it.

Speaker 1:

How many times have you heard a speaker Like I remember growing up in church? I'd heard the story of the woman at the well numerous times, and then, out of all the times at church, why can I remember hearing it for the first time from our senior pastor, chris Brown, and I remember my jaw hitting the floor. I was in college and he was a guest speaker at our college group and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's's like I've never heard this before, like it's the same exact material, same exact verses, same exact story, but the way he engaged with us and just started to get us to feel what was going on and the way he, like, was delivering this, these words, it was like I was hearing them for the very first time, because he was a dynamic communicator.

Speaker 1:

Now we can't all be. Chris Brown, don't try to be, because it'll show that you're a imitation. You need to find your own voice. But all that to say, don't rely too heavily on your notes. You should not be reading. You should be giving them a glance, but not. This drives me crazy. Me crazy, too, with speakers where they go um, sorry, hold on, I lost my place. And it's like the quickest way to get your audience to disengage is to pause and have to find your place, and what that means is kind of bringing us to number two before you get there, though, I just wanted to add on a little bit Please.

Speaker 2:

Jeff, I've seen speakers and actually some fairly well-known speakers especially like in the youth ministry space, who really do rely heavily on notes, which is fine, but, like you're saying, right, when they go to start reading their notes tablet, computer, whatever they have, you know, up it Like you're up it, like you're saying it signals that disengagement.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it's like the same thing as when someone is talking to you and they're on their phone where it's like, yeah, you're talking to me, but I feel like you're not connected.

Speaker 2:

And when they're doing that, I feel like the only time it seems to be appropriate going to notes would be to read verses. Or if you're going in your bible to read it, sure, and then that, like loss of eye connection, makes sense yeah, but when you're speaking and you're losing that eye connection and obviously it's. You're not making eye connection the entire time because you can't do it every single person, unless your youth group is just one person, but when you're kind of be awkward.

Speaker 1:

This message is just for you. I'm not going to blink. Don't break eye contact.

Speaker 2:

30 minutes, Lock in what's worse that, or acting like there are other people in the room and pointing at people, and they're really just one.

Speaker 1:

Just set up some stuffed animals.

Speaker 2:

That when you're just when you're not engaged, or when you're reading your notes, you depict this.

Speaker 1:

I'm not engaged with this and so I think just in turn people hearing it kind of lose engagement with it they do and I don't know, some people might be panicking right now like, well, I don't know, I can't like how do you just know what it says and there's hope for that, like if you really struggle with that? I think it's actually pretty common, because I see it a lot. Also this has nothing to do with notes, but can if you misspeak, can you not go?

Speaker 2:

words, words.

Speaker 1:

English. It's like, okay, that could have been a minor, minor little stumble, and you just face planted and showed everyone. It's like maybe someone's arguing well, that's just being like authentic, like it's just I don't know my opinion cringe. It's always kind of cringy, okay. So how do you do that, though? If you're kind of panicking, like shoot, well, I am so reliant on my notes and and I want to say it Like I feel like people sometimes are like I want to say it how I wrote it, because I wrote it perfectly. And you know, there is a difference between people who tend to be good writers and people who tend to be good speakers, and they're not the same thing. If you've ever heard like I probably shouldn't name any names, but there will be authors that I'm like you are brilliant, and then I'll find something they spoke like at an event or a podcast and I'm like you are brilliant. And then I'll find something they spoke like at an event or a podcast and I'm like, yes, I'm like right.

Speaker 2:

Like no.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it's not like they're oh well, they throw everything out that they say it's just wow, you're so much more engaging as a writer than you are as a speaker, and I'm sure it goes the other way too, but that's all I've really observed.

Speaker 2:

So which are you better writer or better speaker? I'm the other way around. I feel like, if I can think about my words and put them down cause I stutter all the time I trip over my words, as you've probably heard on this podcast I can definitely write something much more eloquently than I can just say it. Even though I know what I want want to say, I can't quite get the words out quite right yeah, I mean, I'm really good at both actually but. If.

Speaker 1:

I had to pick, I would say speaking, yeah, I don't know. I think I'm an external processor and I writing could be an external process, I guess. But I just feel like I don't know, it just takes. So you know, I just want to say it and be done Okay. So number two is where we were. So how do we, how do we move forward in this process, cause I'm sure everyone's in agreement, no one's like no.

Speaker 1:

You should read from your notes you know, so if you're a note reader, I'm sure you're like yeah, I agree, how do we, how do we get past that? So here's a couple of ways. Number two so people are looking for you to be, you know, real, not rehearsed, authentic. However, you need to know your stuff, and I heard it said so well, and this is what I've always felt, but never articulated, until I was listening to a Kerry Newhoff podcast and he said the person who taught him how to speak said this. They said don't memorize your talk, understand it. And I'm like that is so true.

Speaker 1:

It's not necessarily like memorizing a script, but it's moving the talk from your head to your heart, kind of of like okay, the information is here, but I need to engage with it now on a heart level and I need to understand it and think about it like this like if you really know something and you're talking to your spouse or a friend at lunch or coffee about something you're very passionate about, you don't need a three by five card.

Speaker 1:

You can engage with them and talk with them. Just ask my dad about the nephelin and you will know, because he doesn't need notes. He's very interested in this and he will just talk and talk and he can quote different professors. And this guy said this. And if you go back in this script and rabbi this said that he knows it all because he's very passionate about this topic, what do you know? What do you know? So, in the same way, moving our talks from our heads to our hearts, it's a different level of engagement, and so you need to spend some time with the message and figuring out where is the passion point. Like, where is that thing? Like I don't know why my dad's passionate about the nephilim it's kind of an interesting topic history but that's his passion point.

Speaker 1:

So you get him going and he can just like, build this whole thing around it. But, like, what is in your whole message? Part of it's delivering information and all of that, but where are you like, where is that moment of engagement of like? There's a moment in the story One of my interns was doing the story of Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene at the garden tomb and I told her.

Speaker 1:

The part of the story that's the passion point for me is two things when he says her name and number two, that he waited for the other two disciples, it's to me it almost looks as if he waited for them to leave and then appeared to her. And uh, tim keller writes this book called the first christian and it's all about mary magdalene and how she is the first christian because she was the first person who believed in the resurrected Christ. Why would he choose a moment when a woman was alone in the garden? And there's just so much in there Like the Bible doesn't explicitly say he did that because of this, but you look back on her relationship with Jesus and you could unpack a whole thing with that.

Speaker 1:

Then you can unpack women in that culture and how Jesus continually was trying to shift that paradigm of a patriarchal culture or nonsense of, you know, re-elevating women to be respected and honored and you know, like the gospel is such foolishness to the perishing world right, why would you believe a woman, especially at?

Speaker 1:

that time in history when there was no one to corroborate her story. Well, five seconds ago there was two people to corroborate her story and they were two men. Why didn't you just like pop out then? But no, like, but you waited. And there's something like Jesus is so calculated, you know what I mean. So there's something to it. So for me that's the passion point of the story. And so now we're diving in and I feel it and that kind of takes my breath away, kind of like whoa, like what is this treasure box? Full of ideas and why and questions, and like it gets exciting.

Speaker 1:

And so, when you're preparing your message, what is your passion point? Because delivering, especially a narrative, can be just like cause some people are so staunch on. Like you, just go through the Bible verse by verse, chapter by chapter, love it. Of course, I've read the entire Bible that way in my own personal time. However, sometimes a narrative is if it's just here's your chapter. Now, figure out a passion point. It can be difficult and you need to spend some time with the text to figure out. What am I trying to unlock here, what am I personally engaging with? And when you are passionate and you have the aha moment, that's what you want to start running with, right, because otherwise you're just up there like, well, we read the chapter, any questions, you know, but you've got to find that passion point.

Speaker 1:

Think of your message preparation as almost like this, like archaeological dig. You know this excavation and you know you can't focus on everything, especially for junior hires. So, like, pick the thing and just start running that ball down the field. So what engages you, what amazes you? Start to spend that time with the message and figure that out and that's sort of what starts to move now from your head to your heart. I know the text. I know the garden tomb story, I know who was there, I know the facts, I know what happened the stone weighed 4,000 pounds. You know, like we say all these things, but now move it to my heart. Like what? Why does this matter? Why is this significant?

Speaker 1:

Carrie Newhoff would also say what question is this answering? What problem is this solving? Why does this matter? So you would try to anticipate the questions that your audience might answer. So, for example, why does it matter? Well, for a lot of reasons. It depends what direction you're going to go. But let's just go back to the Mary Magdalene example. Why does this matter? Okay, well, now who's our audience? Why does it not just why does it matter, but why does it matter to a seventh grader? You know. So now we have to go to the audience. Why, what problem does this solve? A lot of problems. But for a seventh grader, what are we solving for them right now?

Speaker 1:

And so I told her when she was speaking this morning. I said so there are so many kids who feel completely overlooked. You know, like that, tell me my friends don't really care about me. You know like I get ignored at school. Or you know, my siblings get all the attention and I feel like I don't matter. Or known, or a child whose father left the family, or a broken family situation that can really play or wreak havoc on your sense of value and identity. So now let's pull out, okay.

Speaker 1:

What was Jesus showing us here is that his gospel, his love, his attention is for the ones, his love, his attention is for the ones, for everyone, obviously, but he made a point to show us it's for those that otherwise would be discarded or very overlooked or not seen as important. But it's like the very first person who gets to preach the risen Christ was Mary Magdalene, who had quite a past, was a woman, and he had other options. It wasn't like, well, she's the only one here. Start to let that soak into their wounds of being abandoned or overlooked. So now we're solving this problem of how did Jesus treat her. That's not just a Mary Magdalene story. This is a God story, a you story, because the heart of God for her is also the heart of God for you.

Speaker 1:

So do you feel overlooked? I know I have, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, and you could tell a story, and now you bring it back to them. Where do you feel unseen? Where do you feel like nobody cares? Where do you feel discarded? Where do you feel like nobody cares? Where do you feel discarded? Where do you feel abandoned? Well, let me tell you, there is a God you know, and you now have moved it to their heart. So what do I care about a tomb and Roman soldiers? But we're moving it to our heart and their heart, and that's where the passion point of the message comes in for them to see that scripture is totally relevant because we're excavating it for the heart of God and how we relate to him. Not just so we leave knowing a story you know it's like.

Speaker 1:

Here's what we do over and over again we're teaching students what to do with the story without telling them. I'm teaching you what to do with the story. It's so that when they are reading the Bible on their own, later they start to look for these themes and these. They start to read it in a way of what does this tell me about God? What does this tell me about myself? What does this tell me about my relationship to him? What is this?

Speaker 1:

So we're getting them to think bigger, and so, as the speaker, you're going to have to figure out what that is for you as the communicator and how you can communicate that. So that kind of brings us to the last thing is, in order to be able to do this, you got to start early. I don't know if you're picking up, but it's like there's a lot there. This is not a Saturday afternoon kind of project and I know that can be difficult depending on your schedule and your family life and all of that. But in order to really give a message, what it means for you to be able to communicate it well and pull out everything you've really, I mean, I would say a week is the least amount of time, and the reason I say that is because I think you need at least three or four days to accomplish this at the least.

Speaker 1:

But if you can give yourself two weeks it's even better. And then if I'm speaking somewhere that I'm not comfortable with or on a topic that's extra hard for me, or in an audience that's not my own, I give it like a month. You know, because, like, I got asked to speak at our college group a couple of years ago and it was like 350 college students I've never spoken at it before and I knew this wasn't like, like hmm, like, let me start on Monday for a Thursday talk. It was like I need to be chewing on this kind of stuff for a month, so start writing it like in full a month out.

Speaker 2:

You're just starting to make steps towards having a finished message when do you think that you're probably done with that message? If, let's say, it's on the last day of the month, where? Where would you think that you would have your message completed by?

Speaker 1:

I would like it to be like three days before you know we're going to execute it. But because when you start to do that, what happens is a lot of things. When we start early and we know what we're talking on and we've been working on it, it kind of goes into like your long-term memory and it starts to become kind of what we were saying before, of like that moving from your head to your heart, like it starts to become you can speak now from like the core, of like who you are. It's not like my memorized script, but because you've been working and chewing on this so long, it becomes a part of you. So the earlier you start, the better. So kind of what I would do is also to add something to that.

Speaker 2:

There's nothing worse than waiting at the last minute to do something and then delivering a message, and then, after the fact, thinking, oh, you know what I should have done and it's like when you give yourself that time right, if you have that time to do it, then you can think of those analogies, stories, you know, whatever extra things you want to pull in versus and whatnot, to make sure that point gets hit home you know, like the one we were talking about on Jesus's value for those who have been devalued by society.

Speaker 1:

So you know, like when you're car shopping, all of a sudden you notice every car on the road. I'm looking for a midsize SUV. I see every single midsize SUV. Now, well, that's real. Your brain will like flag those things because it knows I'm preoccupied with this thing, and so it will like extract relevant information for you. So take that same idea with a message. So we're talking about Jesus valuing those who have been forgotten or overlooked. So for the next week, two weeks, however long you're chewing on this, everything you see, everything you read, every conversation you have, your brain will start to flag and collect.

Speaker 2:

You're seeing it through that lens? Yeah, constantly.

Speaker 1:

And then you put those things in your back pocket. You open a file. You have a little notebook. You write it in your notes in your phone, whatever it is, don't you will forget. You have a little notebook. You write it in your notes in your phone, whatever it is, don't you will forget. So do it right away and you start compiling and you're seeing. You know, like haven't you ever wondered?

Speaker 1:

When speakers speak, they'll always say, like this week, this thing happened. You're like what are the odds that you were speaking on generosity and then this week someone gave you a check for $5 billion. You know what are the odds and it's like, no, that's not the odds. It's like well, things, you pick it up because you need it, you know, and you would have just kind of left it by the wayside, but your brain is looking for the gems. So when you have more time, you have more gems to collect, and it's great because and here's the thing you don't have to use them all. So then what you do is you sit down with your topic and your message and what I do is I just like vomit all over the paper. Yeah, it's fine though.

Speaker 2:

And then you write in like finger painting in the vomit Too far, too far.

Speaker 1:

That didn't need to go that far. Could have just left it at oh gross.

Speaker 2:

I get all my thoughts on paper. Let's just say that.

Speaker 1:

As a communicator, I really wanted to paint a picture.

Speaker 2:

I don't want that picture painted for me, though Finger painted.

Speaker 1:

So it's like put all the ideas out there, not just very clean and gentle, right, you just put them on the paper no bile, no chunks, just out there, and it's just everything. I'm thinking about everything, I've read everything, I've heard a story, this and experience, and it's all out there in a big pile, right, and then you kind of sift through it, then walk away. You need to be done. This is why you need some days.

Speaker 2:

It's not funny Kind of is Okay, you walk away.

Speaker 1:

You don't even make eye contact anymore.

Speaker 2:

That's so funny Okay. You put it in the corner and you say Not dealing with you.

Speaker 1:

You stay there, don't bother me, because dealing with you stay there, don't bother me, because your brain needs to, like, disengage from it. Yeah, right, so then you come back the next day and you start to look through it again. Now you're looking for something to emerge like oh, this story and this story go together and I like this connection and then this scripture, and you start to build like a skeleton. But that means you got to get rid of some of those things that you don't need are you doing this like pen to paper?

Speaker 2:

or are you doing this like on post-it notes?

Speaker 1:

no, I do it like I know in a word document I just write everything and then I start pen to paper, but a word document I thought you were being metaphoric, like literally, I'm not gonna write all that out, I type you're a journaler, though, so I thought what is that face?

Speaker 2:

You're a journaler, though, so I thought what is that face? You're a journaler and I could totally see you writing it out.

Speaker 1:

Like maybe little things, but at the volume I'm working at I can't do that If you're not watching on YouTube. That was a noise that he made.

Speaker 2:

It didn't roll. It didn't roll. I don't think I have enough phlegm in my throat V that it didn't roll. It didn't roll. I don't have enough phlegm in my throat vomit phlegm moist.

Speaker 1:

What else we got? Oh, jeff, you're so good at adjectives word pictures pictures. That's what I meant. Um, so you're starting to get you know your direction and so you start eliminating things. So, like all I I won't delete them, I'll just move them to the bottom of the document. I'm like eh. I'm not ready to give you up yet but I'm sensing the directions going this way, so I start to copy and paste things in and kind of like move orders around and then I walk away. Okay, I walk away again.

Speaker 2:

I say don't look at me.

Speaker 1:

You're always looking at me, stop looking at me. And then I come back the next day and then I see, is that the decisions I made yesterday after kind of marinating on it for a while? And I'll be like that story, oh my gosh. Or oh, that movie I saw. Or you're walking the dog or doing yard work or cooking and all of a sudden that's the missing piece I needed. So be ready to include and then move stuff around. So that's kind of day three for me is all right.

Speaker 1:

I started heading a direction yesterday. Do I like that direction? And it's really hard for me to give up a direction once I've started because I feel like, well then, what was it yesterday for? Like no, it was a waste of time. But sometimes I'm like, no, I need to, I need those things that I discard, I'm going to put them back, and now I'm going to kind of move this way. And that's why, again, you need the time.

Speaker 1:

And so now you start building this thing, and walking away and coming back for three or four days is so helpful because when you come back at it with fresh eyes, or maybe you prayed about it, or the Holy Spirit gave you something, or you were reminded of something, you will be able to see it more clearly. But I've noticed for me anyways I don't know if this works for everyone the longer I try to just murder it, like like I get frustrated and I'm like good enough, you know, and I I I'm out of very sharp, creative thinking. Like I get about an hour of that. So I get like a huge spurt of creative, sharp thinking and then it dramatically drops off and then I have to come back to it the next day and see it after a good night's sleep, after you know, with fresh eyes, and then I can see it differently.

Speaker 1:

So that's why a Saturday afternoon prep is just not going to work. So then, once you feel like you have your direction and you're good with it and you know what you want to say and things are connecting, now you want to add a little razzle dazzle, and so I like to figure out where can I make this tangible? What element can I bring in to make it age appropriately fun, like last weekend? I told a story about how not proud of this and I'm very sorry, but when I was in junior high I threw lunchable meat into a noon duties car and and cheese and crackers.

Speaker 1:

It was almost like we were playing can jam because her windows were cracked and so we were just like oh, I wonder if you can get the turkey in her car. And I wasn't trying to be bad, it was just like this is a great game.

Speaker 2:

That's a middle school mentality like you're not ever thinking of like hey, maybe this isn't a good idea. It was just like I've gotta make it when the ones that didn't make it in the car. Would you go walk over pick?

Speaker 1:

them up? How many?

Speaker 2:

lunchables were you going through?

Speaker 1:

I mean, lunchables were bigger back then maybe we went and picked them up, I don't know. A few of them like would hit the rear view mirror the side, stick to the side of the car?

Speaker 2:

I don't think so.

Speaker 1:

Well, so what I did during that part is I sat down like I was sitting down at the bench and I opened a Lunchable and I just started throwing turkey and cheese in the middle of church and the kids thought it was so funny and they were like trying to catch it and I was like no, no, no, you're blocking my shot and I pretended I could see the car and I'm like I just got to get a little closer. Darn it, you know. And it was like cost me $1.99 at the grocery store and it was like a fun, just something that brought it to life.

Speaker 1:

You know what I mean. So little things that just kind of engage an audience, make it fun, bring in a visual. I think is always like that extra notch or like a movie clip. You know, I did a talk on Pontius Pilate and Jesus on Easter and I did a clip from the Passion of the Christ that I found on YouTube, so it was very easy. You know, it was said like and subscribe at one point and that was probably should have edited.

Speaker 2:

I like this, jesus fellow like and subscribe they would start laughing when that came up.

Speaker 1:

Kind of broke them the like focus so would not recommend.

Speaker 2:

If it has all your eyes closed and heads bowed. Who about who of you would like to go ahead and smash?

Speaker 1:

but I was trying to bring some visuals and different elements to break up. It's just me talking again.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it's a good correlation and not to go on a side note, but if you are watching on youtube, make sure you like and subscribe it does might as well if it's a correlation that, because sometimes the visual might be really fun to watch or hilarious. So the analogy is really, you know, funny. But then when a kid has to recall well, what exactly did that have to do with, I don't know, you know then you missed the mark.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you totally did. That's kind of what I was telling one of my leaders who's learning how to teach. I, your talk owned you. You didn't own your talk. I said you were very engaging and the kids liked you and you were very. But there were so many random rabbit trail stories that were all very entertaining and fun.

Speaker 1:

But where are you taking us? You know, like your talk started to own you after a while, instead of harnessing the power of an illustration to lead them somewhere meaningful. It was just. Let me tell you some funny stories Now.

Speaker 1:

The Lunchable story was funny, but it had a purpose and it, you know, was tied to pilot, of giving into the crowd, you know, and it's like I'm sure you saw where that was going Very simple connection, but it was just something different and extra. So and then you know, when you plan early, not only do you have time to think of a creative element like that, but what I like to do. Then it gives us so much more time to dive deeper into the passage that you're using and sort of pray through that. And it's amazing, like what the Holy Spirit like, you know how God's word is living and active and it doesn't return void when you really pour and pray over scripture, like the Holy Spirit wants to be revealed obviously, like God wants to expose truth. And so when you pray over that scripture and dive in, you know, before you're teaching, you know what is the Holy Spirit revealing and bring your students along on that journey. But you know, sometimes you need some more time.

Speaker 1:

And I think the biggest mistake I made as a young youth pastor was like under the gun oh shoot, I left this to the last minute and I was like God, I'm sorry, I didn't prepare, do a miracle please. You know I remember praying that prayer so many times of just like I'm about to get up on stage and this is gonna just tank because I'm not ready. You know, I've just kind of glanced at it and was like all right, let's just like do this thing. But it's like oh, like what a wasted opportunity. So yeah, I feel like if you can incorporate those things, you can become probably a better speaker by next week. You know, like these aren't like.

Speaker 2:

So not immediately, but close to immediately.

Speaker 1:

Should we change the title of this episode?

Speaker 2:

I'll have to move that and put something else. Question so you are a manuscript style speaker, correct? Yeah, you do that partly because you want to vomit it all out there, gross, you want to get it all out on paper, but you're able to follow along like I could never do a manuscript style because I'd be have to stop and say, okay, wait where? Where am I in the middle of all?

Speaker 1:

yeah, I understand that. I I think it's because again it's become a map in my head. So sometimes what I'll do is, in the margins, I will draw a little hieroglyphic.

Speaker 1:

It's like a little picture and it reminds me of what that is, so I can see the text. And the text helps me because then I know about how long that portion is and I can circle and pick out key words from that paragraph. But in the margin maybe it's like a picture of a little car I drew and I knew, oh, that's the story about the car and you know. And so I'm not reading the paragraph, but because the paragraph in the car next to each other, like the map of the paragraph, exists in my brain and I I can see where I'm at in it. And I don't know if other speakers are like that. I just assumed everyone kind of had a map of their talk in their brain, but it's almost like I know what it says just by looking at it kind of thing.

Speaker 1:

But if you, I have to do manuscript, because if I just write car story I haven't developed that. I'm like what do I want to say about this car story? So when I manuscript it, I get it out and now it exists, because the car story doesn't exist until I say it, if that makes sense. Like I know what happened, but I can't give you the details until I say it because of the way I process information. You know what I mean. Like I can't paint the picture until I've painted the picture, you know you lost me on that, oh no.

Speaker 2:

I can't do manuscript, I can only do bullet points and transition words or sentences and things like that. That is probably the hardest thing when I do a talk is that I always I can here's this part and here's this part and I forget. Well, how did I go from here to here? Like sometimes it can just be a word or just a sentence, and so I just put bullet points and transition points and then I can do it If I have a manuscript. I'm completely lost on it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it doesn't mean I don't get it out verbally, and that's so interesting. Now I'm thinking about it, I do better writing things all out, and yet for a talk I would rather go off of bullet points and not write the whole thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, or you know, I'll use headings, you know, and then I can just read the heading and know what's underneath it. But I think that is a huge piece of the of the puzzle here is, like, what kind of prep do you respond to? Of the puzzle here is like, what kind of prep do you respond to? Because if you're having trouble really honing in on your talk, your prep method might be the wrong fit for how you process and deliver information.

Speaker 2:

Do you, do you um like give your talk ahead of time in full? It depends like a weekend message uh, Not a weekend message.

Speaker 1:

A guest speaking talk like where I'm not comfortable with the audience or the place.

Speaker 1:

Yes, A hundred times, like if I'm doing a winter camp for a church that I'm not familiar with. I don't know one kid. Yes, I am saying it out loud over and over and, over and over again until I understand it and it's moved from my head to my heart. I don't know why, but when I'm speaking for my own students, I feel so much more conversational and I don't feel like it's not like well, I don't care about the quality, because it's just you guys, but I feel like I can like deliver things so much easier in that environment. I don't know why.

Speaker 1:

So, um, I will look at the notes and circle key things and get ready to go, but I don't need to say it out loud. If I'm doing a pre-record, I have to say it out loud, like we do these things at our church, called a daily dose, and it's like a four or five minute Devo that's recorded in one take. I need to say that out loud before for a lot of reasons. You know you have to time yourself and you can't make a mistake, or you have to start all over, you know. So it depends on what I'm doing whether I would practice or not. So, however, that's a good question, because when I was just starting out with speaking and everything kind of felt new and I didn't have this comfortability anywhere I was saying it out loud I would go in the junior high room during office hours, so nobody was in there, it was just an empty room and I would stand on the stage and start talking to the empty chairs.

Speaker 2:

It's hard.

Speaker 1:

Someone had video of that, oh it's hard because, as an extrovert, you're engaging with people, and so I would just have to visualize that there were people there, you know, and you look like an idiot when someone comes in, but it's what. I needed at the time so. I think, you can grow and change in that area over time too, and if you're changing.

Speaker 2:

you're changing, you're growing. And if you're growing, you're changing, put in the comment section below what are you? A manuscript, a bullet point, completely memorized, and I don't use notes at all. Put that in the description.

Speaker 1:

I would love to earn the comment section, or just we in it Getting up there like, wow, what do we want to talk about today?

Speaker 2:

What are we talking about today? Today, I'm just going to flip through and here we go.

Speaker 1:

So I had to do that once.

Speaker 2:

One time I had to do that once, and I'm not even yeah, cause you were sick and left Sorry. It was about how we're compared to sheep a lot of times and just kind of, I just had at that time I had a lot of facts about sheep and how it correlated to people and yeah, it was just off the cuff.

Speaker 1:

So one time I went to go speak at a Christian school for chapel. I wasn't there to speak, I was there to listen. Yeah, like a student was going to give their testimony and she was in my youth group. So I came to support her and the chapel director was like where is she? I'm like I don't know, forky, I don't know, and someone's like oh, she just posted she's at the airport on her Instagram.

Speaker 2:

She's going to Hawaii he goes can you just do a message?

Speaker 1:

I'm like gulp, give me five minutes, don't talk to me, and I like went outside.

Speaker 2:

I'm like Holy Spirit activate, give me a plane ticket to Hawaii immediately.

Speaker 1:

I pulled off something I don't even remember I'm not even going, gonna try to go back there. I was like and it was not my home turf, like I could probably do that in front of my students. Be like all right, guys, I'm gonna give a quick last minute message so like I could probably. This was like these, like a whole chapel at this private school of like I knew like three of the kids.

Speaker 2:

So rough times but the Lord came through. We have we've done actually several messages not messages episodes about giving messages, if you want to check those out. One of them in particular is how to help students retain your messages, which is actually very vital in giving a message. So make sure you check that out. We're going to do a community comment of the day which comes from Joshua from Akron, who says I'm sorry. Joshua of Akron says thank you for all you do and your wise counsel. It's completely changed our student ministry. When I was made the new director two and a half years ago, there was only two teens coming to youth group anymore. Now 35 to 50 teens come every Wednesday and Friday night. God blessed us through your ministry. God bless y'all. Thank you, joshua. That's awesome to hear.

Speaker 1:

That is. That's a huge like-.

Speaker 2:

Two to 50.

Speaker 1:

That's probably the biggest increase we've ever heard of. That's incredible. Wow Go Joshua. I'm glad it's been helpful.

Speaker 2:

Yep. Thank you, joshua, and thank you guys for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Are you looking to improve your teaching skills quickly? Today, we're going to give you three ways that are going to help you do just that. Are you looking to improve your teaching skills quickly? Today, we're going to know. Are you looking to it? Are you leaking battle bottle beetle?