Editor’s Note: The following article is a summary of material presented at the Center for Youth Ministry Training’s conference From Txt2Speech: Proclaiming scripture to youth in a digital age, held Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, 2012 in Nashville, Tenn.
Are youth engaged in your youth ministry talks or sermons? Can we give them hearing aides to help them receive the Word better? No, not the in-ear hearing aids that some of your congregation’s older members use; instead, are there tools that we can use or ways we can present the Word so that youth can hear and process better?
What if they were good active listeners? We can use these tools to help youth (and adults) be active listeners and receivers of the Word. Some of the primary things that prevent people from hearing are distractions, mind wandering, environment, and disinterest. The tools and techniques to active listening help to overcome these issues are:
We as teachers and preachers can improve our communication and our audience’s ability to listen if we build active listening techniques for our audiences into our sermons and presentations by doing the following:
Using active listening techniques as a part of your teaching methods will serve as hearing aides for your youth or congregation so that they can hear and respond to the Word.
CYMT is excited about its newest endeavor, Theology Together. Theology Together educates both teenagers and youth workers as they engage in theological reflection, spiritual practice, vital service, and vocational discernment. The Theology Together process produces reflective action that is embedded in the fabric of youth ministry in all of its contexts. We believe strongly that youth are theologians and belong at the center of tough, life-changing dialogue around faith, relationships, and life. We place teenagers in the driver seat alongside their youth pastors and leaders, equipping each individual to think differently about youth ministry, to provoke a sense of awe and wonder: a WOW moment.
Youth theology is theology built upon the simple doctrinal principle of the priesthood of all believers, and takes that principle right down to its natural conclusion: that all believers, including youth, teens, adolescents, etc. are theologians. It is theology that values all youth as theologians. Here we will share with you how to engage with youth theology in your own ministry.
A few weeks ago, we shared the launch of Theology Together 2.0. Today, Dwight (the director of Theology Together) will be sharing with us one experience […]