Saturday Morning
The AM session I attended had the title, "Communication that Connects: Teaching Effectively by Teaching Inductively" given by Craig Smith.
He cited the Veggie Tale phenomena produced by Big Idea Media. Indeed, he said that the secret of their success: the stories are built around one idea.
For teaching youth, one wants to try to identify from the Bible passage the ONE BIG IDEA they should get from it.
One way people teach is to tell them what they are going to say and then tell them. This is the standard deductive teaching method and this method has advantages and disadvantages and should be in the arsenal of every teacher.
However, he made his case for the inductive method. The main idea of the inductive teaching method is to show the various pieces of the puzzle to the student and journey with them and at the end, put it together. He also stressed the need to be creative in helping the Bible text comes to life. It is too easy to just dryly read it and teach it. Instead, he encouraged us to do whatever we can to show the reality and deep emotion of the people in the Bible.
Saturday Afternoon
Kurt Johnston lead the session "Freaks, Geeks and Squirrels: Understanding 11 to 14 Year Olds."
He quickly established his humble attitude by playing an audio tape of one of the embarrassing moments from his life as a youth pastor. He wanted to do a demonstration where he pushed a wheelbarrow off the stage and down a set of steps. Unfortunately, wheelbarrows can't do that and so when he did it in front of his youth group the wheelbarrow went down the stairs and got snagged and he flew over the wheelbarrow and crashed onto the floor.
He also then shared when he was a junior high kid in a small church with two other kids. They had a teacher who wasn't the most organized or most articulate but he loved the students. At the end of our class time, he shared that 10 years later while his car was stuck someone stopped to help: it was his old Sunday school teacher!
They shared what was happening in their lives and Johnston told his old junior high teacher, I'm a junior high youth pastor!
Another memorable moment in the class was when Johnston drew a graph of the growth of a Christian. His first graph was a arrow going upward toward the Cross representing greater Christ-likeness. He said we all wish it was just a straight climb up. He then put up a second graph where there are peaks and valleys but the general trend is up. He said for most adults after many years in the faith you began to realize this is more likely what is going on. The third graph he put on was a tangled line going up, down, sideways and backwards. He said, this is where junior high school kids are at and if you feel the need to try to straighten out that line then you might want to work with another age group. But if you want to journey with them through it then you are in for a tremendous time.
For me, the session was terrific encouragement. In particular, just seeing so many people there and to see the range of ages who are involved. Johnston had us meet briefly with others in our age bracket. In one group was 17-19, there was the 20-somethings, there was the 30-year olds, there was my group of 40-ish people, there was a group in their 50s and even a few who were in their 60s!
Johnston showed on his powerpoint, his 70ish volunteer! He said, he just loved the kids and made a little portable cart with good Christian books and would help kids pick out books to read!
General session Saturday AM
The morning speaker was Matthew Barnett the founder of the Dream Center in Los Angeles.
Powerful! He was 20 years old when he came to LA to become a pastor of a small church. He shared how one day a young man was shot dead at the doorstep of his church and when he met with his tiny congregation he said, we need to do something for the mom of that boy. He took up a collection of which netted $28 and told them please pray for me when I go meet his mom.
He told the story very vividly which I won't even attempt to recreate here. But the bottom line was he was terrified. It was a gang shooting and the people he had to meet to find the mother were all gang people. Please note: Barnett, now probably about 30, is a smallish white guy and hardly an intimidating physical specimen.
Anyway, he handed off the money and offered his condolences and they gathered around and prayed together. Initially nervous, he gave a "canned prayer" but then he realized that wasn't enough and he prayed with greater boldness. But the end of the prayer time, the people were sobbing and ready to turn over their lives to Christ.
Barnett's bottom line point was simply this: don't try to be a success just be a blessing to the people in your community and God will do amazing things.
General session Saturday PM
The evening speaker was Mike Pilavachi. On Friday morning, Kenda Dean gave a talk that was thoughtful and as a woman not given to a raised voice but of someone who is making observations that were hitting home. Friday evening, Efram Smith gave a talk with the cadences of a black preacher passionately lifting up the name of Christ. Saturday morning, Matthew Barnett gave a talk with the conviction that comes from a man who has seen some amazing things and wants all of us to know we can be a part of it where ever we are.
Mike Pilavach went with humor to illustrate the great encounters of Jesus with the outcast. His point was that Jesus was rarely "strategic." Or at least not strategic in the sense business minded people would call it. Instead, he always noticed the outcast. Pilavach took us in moving fashion through the encounter with the woman at the well, the calling out of Zacchaeus from the tree and finally the healing of the demon possessed man.
In each case, these are people who would be overlooked and even rejected. But Jesus reached them.
His bottom line: we are to be loving people one at a time no matter who they are.
UPDATE: While web surfing, I came across the blog of Youth Specialties President Mark Oestreicher. He shared his observations on the just completed Anaheim conference. God's fingerprints indeed!
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