Sermons for Youth: Thanksgiving Trivia Quiz

How much do you know about the history of Thanksgiving, the pilgrims, The foods we eat at Thanksgiving Dinner, and other things related to the Thanksgiving Holiday Celebration?

There are 66 Questions... can you get them all correct?
Click here to take the quiz

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Children's Sermons: Ways to keep your next YOUTH meeting ENERGIZED!

1. Add Social Time
Start your meetings ten minutes earlier than usual with a fun icebreaker*!

2. Keep It Moving
Change gears every twenty minutes - Every 20 minutes change something! Activity, presentation style, take a break, change the sitting arrangement, change partners or groups, have a team presentations, exercise, game, quiz, etc. You can even throw a related icebreaker* in the middle of the meeting as an attention getter! Just make sure everything ties together!

3. Creative Reflections
After your lesson, break the youth into groups of 5 to 8 people and challenge each small group to perform a creative expression of the lesson as a skit, a song, a rap, a dance, etc. recap part of the "learnings" from the session. You can also use a related icebreaker* to close a session if it reinforces the theme.

4. Change Places
Place the names of the youth and teachers attending the meeting in a bowl. Then, everyone draws a name other than their own. When responding to ideas, youth anonymously assume the persona of the person on their card and respond from their (assumed) point of view. Later they can try to guess who was playing who!

5. Give Them A Chance!
Have soft kids' toys in the room (foam balls, squish toys, etc.) Any time someone crushes another person's idea (e.g., "that won't work...we tried that before...it'll cost too much..." etc.), or says something negative or discouraging, group members are invited to pick up the nearest soft toy and bombard the offender, shouting "Give Them A Chance!"

6. Countdown
Got some people who dominate the discussion? Get a three minute egg timer (miniature hourglass) or electronic alarm clock and use it to time discussions. When the agreed-upon time is up, the timekeeper shouts out "Time!" which is the signal to move on.

7. Call an expert!
During a break, group members call someone (another youth not present in the meeting, a parent, a teacher, a youth worker, etc and get another perspective or insight on a key question! Everyone then reports back to the group!

8. Balloon Toss
Youth must write ideas to a given challenge on a small piece of paper (one per sheet), fold the paper up and put it inside a balloon. The must then blow up balloons, and tie them. Everyone tosses the balloons around for 15-30 seconds (high energy break), and then captures a balloon. Each person takes the new idea or answer they have received, and builds on it and report to the group.

9. Games
Add a game to the lesson or include a game in the middle that teaches an important truth or application related to the lesson... Make your point then continue with the lesson! During breaks, stage games or competitions that challenge people mentally or physically. If energy is lagging, use games that involve some physical activity.

10. Celebrate Success
Award Blue Ribbons, sweets or other treat for good answers, for contributing to discussions, and for being actively involved and participating!

11. Lighten Up!
Ask the youth to identify the most common types of disruptive behaviors in meetings (interrupters, boors, manipulators, side conversations, nay-sayers, etc.) Anytime someone reflects one of these behaviors, any member (or the whole group) can shout out "I Don't Think So!" to lightly remind the "offender."

12. Exercise Break
Rotate responsibility for group members to lead the group in some kind of physical exercise to start the meeting or use during breaks. If desired, award prizes for the best exercises of the week/month. Bring a boom box with upbeat music to accompany.

13. Think Outside the Box
Wear something unusual! Change the meeting location, decor, seating arrangement, dress code, lesson style, or another common feature to something unusual.

14. Thinking Caps
Create hats for different roles in the group... from time to time change hats... Doubter, debater, champion, questioner, Mr Practicality, what if?, Just the facts, gut reaction, What I feel, Optimist, pessimist, creativity, off the wall, Pastor's perspective, Parent's perspective, etc. Members must respond from the perspective of the person represented by the hat. You can even use Biblical characters! Save the hats for future meetings, but don't use them every week! Make them wild, fun and silly.

*Need help for creative icebreakers to add excitement plus a message to your meetings?
Check out "Icebreakers Ahead: Take it to the Next Level!" by Ken Sapp
Visit www.creativeicebreakers.com

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Youth Sermons: Steps to Storytelling

Try this three step approach to improving your storytelling:

1. Read and learn about storytelling. (see below)
2. Listen to others who are good storytellers.
3. Learn good stories and tell them to others.

Preparing the Story

1. Read the main story out loud. If it is a Bible story, read it in several Bible translations and also read the passages before and after the story for context. Look up an unfamiliar words, places, or people. A good background for the story will make it easier to tell and remember.
2. Visualize the story. Rather than memorize, visualize. The better you are able to picture the story in your mind, the better you can relate that picture to the others. Create story boards in your mind of the sequence of the events. Divide the stories into episodes and learn them episode by episode. Episodes change when the action, scene or speaker changes. Use key, repeated words as your guide in "re-experiencing" the story. If you have to look back at the printed copy, you have not spent enough time preparing to tell the story. The story must become your story. Keep it vivid. Use words that paint mental pictures.
3. Adapt the story. The story length should be about one minute for every year of a child's age. This holds true for youth, but you can stretch it a little more with an interesting story. For adults, the art of story telling applies to your illustrations and testimonies of real life applications. Also consider the background, vocabulary level, and characteristics and interests of your intended listener.
4. Practice. Practice stories in the dead spaces of time--while trying to fall asleep, driving the car, waiting for an appointment, taking a bath or shower. Practice telling the story in front of a mirror. Record the story so you can listen to it. By listening, you are able to learn and refine the story, making it your own. The more you practice, the easier the story will flow.

Telling the Story

1. Use a natural and relaxed manner and an expressive tone of voice. Hold the attention of the listeners with your voice. Speed up, slow down. Lower your voice or raise it. Express delight and surprise. Create suspense.
2. Make eye contact with each person or scan the audience. With children, remember to sit on their level.
3. Open the Bible to the correct reference and hold the Bible in your lap.
4. Grab the listener's attention with the first sentence. Get the action going.
5. Alter the timing or pace of the story. Think about how boring music or life would be if everything existed at the same speed.
6. Portray characters and events with your voice and your gestures, keeping in mind that gestures should be genuine, but not exaggerated.
7. Beware of tangents. tangents tend to confuse. Avoid too many details. Excessive detail also tends to confuse.
8. Don't forget to link the story to your lesson. In a simple sentence or two, tell them why you are going to tell them this story or why you told them the story. Keep it brief. Let the story simmer in your listeners’ minds. Let the story speak for itself. Don’t make it a sermon. Stories enhance sermons; sermons do not enhance stories.

Tools for Storytelling

1. Voice. Your voice is your most important tool in telling Bible stories. The tone and mood of your voice should interpret the Bible story. The feelings of fear, sadness, anger, frustration, or even sleepiness should be evident in your voice to the same degree that they are evident in the story. The speed and direction of your voice will communicate. Example: "Jeremiah was put into a hole in the ground. He went down, down, deep, deep down in the hole." Your voice can drop with the words "down" and "deep." Also, using action words and sound words ("Slap," "Crash," "Smack") can add interest, movement, and meaning to the Bible story. The pitch and inflection of the voice should be used from time to time to indicate different characters in a story. Be careful. Too much character can distract from the story. Don't panic in the pauses. Pauses actualy can be used to great dramatic effect. In pauses, listeners feel the presence, not the absence of God.
2. Facial Expression. Your face is the movie screen of the story. It can be blank with sound only or filled with the action of the story. A smile or a frown can help project the image of the place and people. As you portray different people in the story, think about what their faces would look like.
3. Gestures and Movements. It's been said that if you tie the hands of a storyteller, he or she will forget the story. Use your hands and body to tell and live the story. The best rule for using gestures is to use only meaningful gestures and to use them on a limited basis. Storytellers who use gestures and movements for every event or person in the story risk losing the preschoolers or making gestures and movement less significant by overuse.

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Sermon 4 Kids: How to Use Object Lessons

1. Choose the idea you want to illustrate and find an object that can represent that idea.
2. Plan every step for using the object lesson carefully in advance.
---Make an outline of the required steps.
---Keep the demonstration simple.
---Do not digress from the main ideas.
3. Practice using the object to illustrate the truth until it is smooth.
4. Rehearse your demonstration with a “guinea pig” if possible. Try to find someone around the same age as the intended audience.
5. Tell a story the listener can relate to along with the object lesson. Stories have an emotional impact on the listener and provide a means by which younger children, who think in very concrete terms can identify with the truth.
6. Be sure every member of class can see demonstration.
7. Check frequently to make sure the demonstration is understood.
8. Keep summarizing as you go along.
9. Don’t hurry the lesson or drag out the lesson.
10. Keep the punch line to the very end and build the suspense if you can. Make sure your draw the connection between the object and the idea.
11. Resist the temptation to explain all the deep symbolism you've been able to uncover. The power of an object lesson is in its simplicity. One of the quickest ways to ruin an object lesson is try to make it more than it is. Make just one truth visible to your students - that's enough. Be sure that all details are authentic.
12. Remember that it's the Holy Spirit, not your object lesson, that instructs and changes students. Never use a visual aid because you are caught short. They must work for you, not instead of you. Remember: They are a means to an end, not an end in themselves

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Sermon for Kids: Building Bridges - Part 2

Building bridges requires you to take stock of where you are and where you want to go.

Every bridge has a starting point and an end point. Too often, teachers think all they need to do is explain what the Bible means. But knowledge for the sake of knowledge is meaningless. While we must surely begin with this, we must then explore how Biblical truths apply to the lives of our youth. We need to choose a destination.

With each truth, there are many possible destinations. Some applications will be very closely related to a truth, while others may be a little far off. We need to explore those that are closely related and choose a destination, a landing point. When we do this, it will be much easier to determine the direction and links that will take us to our chosen destination. Anything else is just extra weight. Add too much weight and we risk the possibility that the bridge may collapse before we reach our goal!

Where do you want to go? CHOOSING YOUR GOAL!

An effective goal reveals in relatively broad terms what the student should learn. Instead of stating what the student will do to prove he has learned, it sets in relatively broad terms the direction of learning.

Read the following statements. Which ones do you consider “relatively broad” statements of the direction of learning.

1. The student arranges in chronological order a random list of ten events in the life of Jesus.
2. The student knows the teachings of Jesus.
3. The student matches the 10 beatitudes of Jesus with examples of each.
4. The student demonstrates understanding of the meanings of the beatitudes.
5. The student understands the teaching of the "sermon on the mount"

The ANSWER?
The list contains some very specific statements-one and three. They specify rather minute indicators that the learner has achieved a goal. So we do not call them goals. Numbers two, four, and five express learning intent in relatively board terms.

Next: More about choosing your goal!

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Sermons for Youth: Acrostic

Description
A word is chosen and each letter in that word is used as the first letter of another word.

Examples
GRACE = God's Riches At Christ's Expense
FAITH = Forsaking All I Trust Him

How to use it to spice up your teaching
1. Pick an important word from the lesson
2. Have participants in the group or subgroups create an acrostic using the key word.
3. Have volunteers share the acrostics they have created.

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Children's Sermons: Word of Life

"The Bible is the Word of Life. I beg you will read it and find this out for yourself--read, not little snatches here and there, but long passages that will really be the road to the heart of it.

You will not only find it full of real men and women, but also of things you have wondered about and been troubled about all your life, as men have been always, and the more you read, the more will it become plain to you what things are worthwhile and what are not; what things make men happy--loyalty, right dealing, speaking the truth, readiness to give everything for what they think their duty, and, most of all, the wish that they may have the real approval of the Christ, who gave everything for them; and the things that are guaranteed to make men unhappy--selfishness, cowardice, greed, and everything that is low and mean.

When you have read the Bible, you will know that it is the Word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness, and your own duty."

Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States of America

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