speaking to teenagers, part 3

Youth workers are typically known as fun-loving people who love God and and really like teenagers. Our calling is to do the possible and help teenagers know God while we rely on the Holy Spirit to do the impossible and transform lives. But even the best intentions can lead to poor communication habits. We're going to end our 3-part series by looking at two common mistakes that plague many youth workers as they work hard, with a pure heart, to clearly communicate to students.

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Together, Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins show you how they craft their own messages and give you the tools to do it yourself. Whether you’re crafting a five-minute devotional or a 30-minute sermon, Speaking to Teenagers is essential to understanding and preparing great messages.
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The first mistake is called DISTORTION.
This trap lies in wait for the youth worker who really wants students to like him or her. In an effort to gain approval, God's message is changed in hopes that teenagers will listen. This youth workers believes that a softer teaching is easy on the ears, and truth becomes a casualty when the message is distorted to build an audience.

The second mistake is called DISREGARD.
A youth worker can fall into this trap when he or she is so focused on the purity of the message that they don't take the time to think about their audience. The gap between teacher and student becomes irrelevant (or less relevant) than the construct of the message. The youth worker ends up building a bridge to nowhere because no one in the audience is listening to the message.

Walking the line between distorting God's message and disregarding our audience requires discernment. Fortunately, we don't have to figure this out on our own! We believe the Holy Spirit can be heard by anyone willing to listen to his promptings.

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Together, Doug Fields and Duffy Robbins show you how they craft their own messages and give you the tools to do it yourself. Whether you’re crafting a five-minute devotional or a 30-minute sermon, Speaking to Teenagers is essential to understanding and preparing great messages.
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But, what sets us up for these two mistakes?

Past failures and feeling like our teaching is powerless and ineffective. We love students and love God, and we so desperately want students to know God's love. In the pursuit of being more effective ministers, let's be "OK" with our failures. We can't fix them by "watering down" the message so students like us more. We'll want to feel better about ourselves if kids listen intently, or think we’re funny, or think we’re a good speaker... but what happens when they stand faithless before God?

On the other hand, we can't explain away our communication weakness with self righteousness, deceiving ourselves by saying, "Well, I just preach God's Word, it's not my fault if they don't listen." Our goal is to communicate as if God was making his appeal through us (2 Cor. 5:20), teaching the truth in a way that deeply cares for our audience.