Most of us probably think of ourselves as the most balanced Christian in the church.
I’m sure your doctrine is very sound, but I want you to think about balance in another context.
So often we consider our youth ministry from the programme planning perspective. We have meetings to organise and deliver to our group and we have not changed our methodology from one year to the next. Many of us have been to big events where the whole mode of operation is led from the stage. Maybe that is the way it has to be but it doesn’t mean we have to replicate that in our smaller groups.
One-mode meetings?
If we look at our own experience, we learn in many different environments. We have all sat in large gatherings and been blessed by what we have been taught. Most of us have probably been helped by one-to-one conversations which have made a significant impact on our Christian lives.
Yet most of our youth groups operate in one mode most weeks. If we look at a group of 20 young people it is possible to operate with leaders dealing with the whole group or just one individual and anything in between. We need to ask the question about what we are trying to teach and whether that would work well with half the group (split either by age group or gender). If the learning objective is best achieved by putting the boys and girls in separate groups, do it. If the issues are different for a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old split the group by age.
Too predictable
It may work well for the group to be split into pairs for a few minutes of the session time (with or without a leader present) and, even with a group of 20, four small groups of five could add variety to the session. This may feel like a very mundane issue but our sessions can become predictable — we know we start with the notices followed by prayer (hopefully not just to get them quiet) followed by sung worship then the talk then the small groups then some much repeated feedback.
On some days it might be good to start with pairs following your opening up of the topic. We are often only following what happens in church services but I think we can do better than that. If you really want the young people to do a longer time in small groups why not start with the small groups and then alternate with three teaching slots each followed by small group Bible study.
On another day you may feel you want to leave the group with the message of your Bible talk — not every session has to be ‘discussed’ — small groups are not obligatory.
Variety
Using each of these learning models gives you variety and also makes your session more effective and balanced. The main point of the passage you are teaching is the driver of your learning model. How are the group going to best understand what that passage or doctrine is? Then adjust your learning model to suit that.
Don’t be bound by the same order of doing things. Young people appreciate interesting sessions and they can be achieved both by good preparation and variety in your approach.
Another way?
Why not take a look at what you’re planning over the next month and ask yourself if it could be done another way. Needless to say, at the core of any session is the clear exposition of God’s word in a way that is applied to lives of the young people.
