In the previous post, we discovered who the real person behind seeing numbers as success is. The fact…
It has been my experience that in Youth Ministry we generally operate from one of two modes. We either do our best to protect our youth from or prepare our youth for what they will experience beyond the safety of the church. The best approach is undoubtedly a balanced approach that takes both into account.
One of the things I love about the Bible is that it is raw. In it we find the neat, beautiful, and encouraging. We also find things that are messy, ugly, and painful.
We must teach our students the full counsel of God’s word. To do this means we must not avoid those things that are difficult.
Here are three things to help you keep a balanced approach when teaching your students:
1. Allow room for the tension
Scripture is not clear in every area or every doctrinal principle. There is tension found throughout the pages of the Bible. We must teach our students the beauty that is in this tension. By doing so, we help build within our students a passion for God’s word.
2. Allow room for honest discussion
Your students must feel that they can ask even the hard honest questions in your ministry. You can be certain they will ask the questions somewhere. We have the real answers. Having the answers will not help your students if they never feel they can ask the questions.
3. Allow the text to drive the teaching
Too often things are approached backwards. We come to the text with what we want to say, then try to make the text support it. Other times we avoid the messy parts. We tend to teach on things we are comfortable with. We teach things we like. This hurts our students more than we realize. The risk is graduating students with a shallow understanding of God’s word at best.
What mode do you feel you tend to operate from most often? What are the dangers in not being balanced with these? Leave a comment and share below:
Photo credit: kstepanoff / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
