We’ve all had one of those days where we step off the stage highly discouraged and genuinely wonder why God decided we would be a good choice to preach His word to young people.
Those moments of woe can come from anything: a misguided attempt to make the Levitical rituals “interesting”, an illustration that just didn’t play with your group, or hours and hours of prep that just didn’t translate into anything clear (let alone life-changing).
Rather than give you a pep-talk on being kind to yourself after you preach (which you should, by the way), I want to share a few of my best tips for preaching to teenagers; things I learned from the trenches over 20-years with a microphone in my hand.
1. Ditch the three-point sermon.
Please. Hear me. If there’s nothing else you do, do this: Stop preaching 3-point sermons.
On their best days, your audience (yes… I said audience… because teens and adults are just the same here!) is going to remember one point from your message. When you preach 3 points, you’re not just rolling the dice on what they’ll remember, you’re actually increasing the chances that they’ll be overloaded and won’t remember anything.
If there’s nothing else you do, do this:
Stop preaching 3-point sermons.
I’ve heard Pastors say “… but there are three clear principles here that need to be shared.” Well, as Andy Stanley says in Communicating for a Change, “Congratulations – you’ve got a series.” Regardless of what you were raised to believe, human beings aren’t good multi-taskers in dynamic environments. Oh sure, you can read a 3-point essay and hold onto it no problem… but when it comes to live, dynamic communication? That’s a different story. We have one-track minds and we can really only focus on one thing at a time.
If you shift your preaching style and focus on sharing ONE big idea from the text in each message, two things are going to happen:
- Your audience impact is going to improve. With only one point, the likelihood that your audience will remember the ONE THING that you’re trying to communicate is going to go through the roof. If they remember what you’ve said, the likelihood they do something about it is also going to improve.
- Your sermon prep process is going to become simpler. With only one point to focus on, your brain is going to be more focused; and your messages are going to become richer and more clear.
2. Know your audience.
I’d be a wealthy man if I had $5 for every stereotypical youth sermon that ultimate ends with an application like…
- “Read your bible…”
- “So don’t date an unbeliever…”
- “Stand up for Jesus in your school!”
(And double-points for every time someone invites them to the front to nail some sins to a cross…)
The teens in your community need so much more than these predictable tropes on a youth night. They’re complex persons that are wrestling with ethics, experiencing joys and sorrows, and genuinely in needing to be grounded in the truth of Gods word.
One of the biggest mistakes youth pastors make is preaching one-dimensional sermons from the mistaken belief that their teens aren’t ready for wider content.
One of the biggest mistakes youth pastors make is preaching one-dimensional sermons from the mistaken belief that their teens aren’t ready for wider content.
The solution to this problem isn’t greater complexity (no, you shouldn’t put together a 9-part series on Augustinian Theology for your junior high group…); the solution is listening more.
One of the disciplines I executed faithfully for almost 20-years was the “I have time for you….” coffee meet up. I just wanted to make sure I was available to sit across from a 15-year old and hear about what was “happening” in their lives. Sometimes we talked about faith, sometimes we talked about dreams and future ambitions, and sometimes we talked about really hard things. But taking this time to really know my audience meant that I could preach messages to the whole community that were actually connected to the raw and real realities of their lives.
Rather than get complex, I got simple. I preached sermons that answered questions like…
- What does it mean to find God’s presence in the midst of loneliness?
- What does it look like to live faithfully as a disciple of Jesus in the “ordinary-ness” of our lives?
- How can I “think Christianly” about my mental health?
When you know your community exceptionally well, you’ll avoid the trap of preaching weak sermons based on surface-level assumptions.
When you know your community exceptionally well, you’ll avoid the trap of preaching weak sermons based on surface-level assumptions.
3. Rehearse. Then watch yourself.
I know. You don’t want to. But here’s why you need to:
There’s a HUGE gap between the way you experience your preaching and the way your audience experiences your preaching. And the wider you let that gap become, the less effective you’re going to be.
There’s a HUGE gap between the way you experience your preaching and the way your audience experiences your preaching.
The content of your preaching is really important. But content that’s poorly delivered? Well, it has about as much impact as poor content.
Record yourself and watch. Take notes.
- Where are you trying to make up for a lack of memorization with flailing hand gestures (always while your eyes read directly from your notes…)?
- How many times did you say, “And, um –” or “OK…”
- Was that story you love to tell actually fun to listen to? (Ouch, I know that hurt… sorry)
- Are you comfortable enough in your content that your spiritual leadership is coming through? Or is it just a full-blast max-bandwidth information dump?
Figure out what it’s like to listen to you preach. And then rehearse your message until your delivery matches the quality of your content.
Rehearse your message until your delivery matches the quality of your content.
Week-in and week-out, keep watching you and rehearsing. The biggest benefit will be invisible at first: you’ll be so comfortable with your message that you’ll be able to connect better with the teens in the room. You’ll be more personal. You’ll be more warm and responsive. You’ll be teaching them as their pastor, not lecturing them as their in-person Theology Wiki.