Several years ago, I was serving as the platform chairman of a large youth gathering. I was sitting next to a nationally recognizable youth speaker in the moments just before he was to preach, and I was to introduce him to the crowd. He was attired in well-worn jeans and an untucked flannel shirt. His long half-combed hair and scruffy beard completed his uniform of cool. I noticed him flipping feverishly through the pages of his aging Bible as if searching for something. In the seconds just before I was to present him to the crowd, he turned to me and whispered, “Boy, I just don’t know where I am going with this message. I just can’t get a feel for what direction to take.” Naturally, I was shocked and alarmed to learn that at the latest of moments, our speaker did not know what he was going to say to the hundreds who had assembled to hear a word from the Lord.
When he rose to take the pulpit, he read a brief passage from the Bible and provided the crowd with some vague spiritual commentary derived from his text of choice, then proceeded to rely on old standard lines, coarse humor and theatrics which had him running from side to side on the platform and up into the congregation to engage in impromptu encounters with the listeners. In the end, one could say he was a lively presence who provided some B-level entertainment and offered a little proverbial wisdom for living. However, had we heard the Word of God proclaimed as it was filtered through God’s spokesperson for the occasion? Sadly, it appeared we had not.
In my 30-plus years of ministry, I have seen similar incidents play out countless times. When it comes to preaching to adolescents, youth workers often ditch genuine engagement with the Bible for an unscripted or lightly planned devotional. Most youth workers care deeply about their ministry to the students they serve. Youth workers really want to make a difference in the lives of adolescents, but they also tend to be ministers who put a premium on the relational dimension of ministry (i.e., they are good at hanging out with youth, relating to them one-on-one and in small groups and living flexibly so they can be available during the odd hours in which youth ministry is conducted. However, they sometimes don’t engage in the disciplines necessary to make the preaching of the Bible significant in the lives of the students they serve or believe students are interested in significant biblical engagement. The implicit ministry convictions of many youth workers are similar to the ones of the youth preacher mentioned above, namely that:
1. Cool is king.
2. Funny is the money.
3. Winging it wins it.
These notions appear to be the implicit convictions of many who preach to youth. I am asking youth workers to consider that perhaps those implicit convictions aren’t true and that students want what all humans long for—to hear the truth of God’s Word found in the Bible presented in a way that speaks to the real issues of their lives.
Avril Lavigne, a 20-something Canadian singer-songwriter, summed up the desperate, searching sentiment of much of the youth of her generation in her song “I’m with You.” She writes and sings the following with a deep sense of pathos:
I’m standin’ on the bridge
I’m waitin’ in the dark
I thought that you’d be here by now
There’s nothin’ but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I’m listening but there’s no sound
Isn’t anyone trying to find me?
Won’t somebody take me home?
Chorus:
It’s a damn cold night
Tryin’ to figure out this life
Won’t you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don’t know who you are
But I’m with you
In Jesus’ temptation encounter with Satan recorded in
Therefore, we who preach to youth must order our lives in such a way as to become people who take seriously the study and proclamation of God’s Word, knowing that when God’s Word is broadcast it gives life. So, if all the above is true, the question before us is: How do we go about preparing and delivering messages that will connect with those who desperately need to hear God’s Word? The remainder of this article seeks to answer that question by discussing the work of preparation, the preaching event and things to avoid in preaching to youth.
The Prep
In preparing to preach to youth, you must select a text that will be the basis of your message. How does one choose a text from which to preach? Here are three ways to select a text (though these are not the only ways).
1) Devotional Encounter—Is there a text that God has spoken to you through recently in your own devotional life or through the teaching or preaching of another?
2) Audience Context—What are the issues your students are dealing with in their lives? Select a text that speaks into that need.
3) The Church Year—many churches follow an agreed upon annual movement of time which highlights the narrative of God’s redemptive work at certain times of the year. For instance, Advent is the four-week period leading up to Christmas that observes God’s first coming to earth as Jesus Christ. Each week has a theme and has an Old Testament, gospel and epistle reading paired with the week. These can be found in a volume of lectionary, which also will have suggestions about how to approach a particular text and hints for developing a message. You can secure a lectionary from a local Christian bookstore or go to Lectionary.com. By following the church year and selecting a text from the lectionary, you will be able to preach on the major themes and not just your own favorite subjects.
Robert E.C. Browne, an Irish minister of the mid-20th century said, “All speech that moves men was minted when some man’s mind was poised and still.” Browne argued that any speaker who wants to make an impact on his or her listeners must spend substantial time in solitude thinking about what he or she has to say. Those of us who would preach to youth must do the thing that (for most of us) feels unnatural—that is, spend time away from our youth prayerfully and leisurely reading our selected text and letting it stain us with the truth contained therein. There can be no substitute for allowing the Scripture passage we intend to speak from to get in us and on us. As we read and contemplate the meaning of the Scripture, we’ll be changed by it, and the Holy Spirit will be preparing our hearts and minds to present it to our students. Each of us must develop a determination to discipline ourselves to be in God’s presence with God’s Word in preparation to preach and not to rely on hastily thrown together messages at the last minute. Until we do this, we will not have the impact we truly desire. The earlier we begin reading our chosen text in preparation for preaching, the better we will be prepared. If you preach to your youth regularly on Wednesday nights, then spend five or 10 minutes first thing each Thursday morning reading your text for the following week so the passage starts to shape you and your creativity.
Remember the Scopes Method. One way to study the text so you get at its essential meaning and then can apply it to your listeners’ lives is by imagining you are experiencing the truth of Scripture through the use of a scope. There are three scopes in particular: First, look at your text as if it were through a microscope as it allows you to see minute details that can reveal important facts that unlock meaning. For instance, be on the lookout for a strategic word or words that may reveal the meaning of the text. A Bible commentary or dictionary will be a helpful aid in determining the meaning of a pivotal word once you identify it.
Second, look at your text as through a telescope. The telescope allows a viewer to see distance objects as if they were closer. Look at others texts that have bearing your immediate text, as well as those preceding and following your immediate. Ask yourself what influence these have on determining the meaning of your selected passage. Look at texts that have similar themes, words or concepts in other parts of the Bible and ask what influence they have on the meaning of your primary text.
Third, listen to your text as if through a stethoscope. As you read the text, place a spiritual stethoscope against your own heart and ask what God is speaking to you from this text. Ask yourself: How am I affected by what Scripture is saying? To be an effective preacher to youth, you must be aware of what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about your own spiritual condition. This awareness is a hint about how you should shape your message to your students.
The Event
Question: “When I am preaching, what are the most important things to remember and do?”
1. Gain the attention and favor of your audience. Begin immediately with an interesting story or cultural connection relevant to youth that lays the foundation for answering the chief question you want to preach about. For instance, if you want to preach about the subject of a biblical view of money, you might tell a true story about how someone who won the lottery squandered the winnings with poor choices. Be sure to get your facts right, and make sure they come from a reliable source. Your command of the facts in giving your introduction coupled with a well-told story will gain credibility with your listeners.
2. Tether your claims tightly to your selected text. Your fundamental assumption is that exposure to the truth of God’s Word in the Bible is what students need more than anything else. It is the proclamation of that truth that changes lives and gives hope. Therefore, make sure you order your claims so they emerge from your chosen passage.
3. Answer the “So what?” question. A biblical message is only valuable to the extent that it answers the “So what?” question. For instance, if you preach about Jesus’ feeding the 5,000, you must go beyond the facts of the story. It is an impressive fact that Jesus fed more than 5,000 people with five loaves and two fish—and we believe it’s true—but the larger question for us is: “What does Jesus’ feeding the 5,000 have to do with me?” In other words, every message must have an application for the listeners. Make sure your message is not just a study of biblical facts, but an opportunity for listeners to know what God is saying to them through Scripture and what they should do about what they have heard.
4. Be succinct. Use language strategically and economically. Avoid being long-winded. Seek to complete your message in 20 minutes, enough time for you to say something meaningful and keep your students’ attention.
5. Preach with conviction. Preach your sermon as if souls are hanging in the balance…because they are. Be earnest, honest and genuine. If you take this moment seriously, your students will see it and be inclined to take you seriously. It is important that you not try to be someone else; simply be passionate through the matrix of your own personality. It is your particular voice God wants to use.
6. End with hope. The word gospel means “good news.” No matter how serious the nature of the message, always finish with a spirit of hope. The message of Christ is ultimately one in which the word ruined doesn’t appear. One’s life is never ruined. There is always hope through Jesus, and hearers need to leave with the sense of hope in God’s grace. Adolescents often feel things are irretrievably ruined in their lives. It is important they know it is not so.
7. Rely on the Holy Spirit. In the end, you do not have to succeed (e.g., be regarded as a great speaker in the minds of your hearers). All you have to do is be obedient to God and let Him worry about the results. This is His work ultimately, not yours.
The Detractor Factor
There are mistakes that can derail your preaching to students. Here are three things to avoid.
1. Avoid chatty speech. Youth workers, in an attempt to connect with youth, begin with unscripted, careless, frivolous language. This tends to undermine a speaker’s personal credibility and diminish the culture of the gathering, as well as thwart the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. Skip the tech. There is an increasing dependence on technology for preaching to youth due to the belief that we live in a media-saturated culture where youth expect technological gadgetry to be a part of every episode in life. Therefore, if we don’t include PowerPoint slides, a YouTube video or a clip from a movie they won’t listen. I urge you to give a chance to the biblical message proclaimed through an earnest soul uncluttered by technology and see what happens.
3. Eliminate coarse humor. Youth speakers sometimes feel the need to be funny with edgy language and stories. References to bodily functions, bathroom events or bawdy words cheapen the message you want to deliver for Christ and dampen the possible spiritual response.
We are surrounded by a world of endless options in communicating with students. Almost all of them at first glance seem more exciting and effective than preaching. However, could it be that the Word of God proclaimed through one of God’s faithful servants to students will have the most power? “It is written: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (
