STUDENT MINISTRY TEXTS: RHETORIC, IMAGINATION, AND
THE ADOLESCENT MIND AND THE ADOLESCENT LISTENER
BRIDGING THE GAP: A METHOD FOR FAITHFUL EXPOSITION
Select the Series
2 Thomas Armstrong, The Power of the Adolescent Brain: Strategies for Teaching Middle and High School Students (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2016), 87. Giving them occasional opportunities to choose future series and books promotes long-term learning and shows them, that their voice is heard within the framework of the larger church. First, the more in-depth information is rehearsed in the moment of learning, the stronger the memory will be.7 To promote long-term retention, trying to reduce each sermon to three rote points simply will not suffice.
Fourth, the more information related to prior learning, the stronger the memory will be. Students should not go one week with only a solitary proposal, and the next week with nothing but worship; instead, they should relate to each other as they relate to the larger theme of the book and the series.
Select the Text
The substantive and significant character of the corpus promotes this use of pericopes in the ecclesiastical environment; the density of this divine discourse, packed as it is with meaning and meaning, makes it possible, even advisable, to engage Scripture in smaller segments. Moreover, when trying to find the appropriate length of text, Kuruvilla's essential definition of a pericope is useful as it provides a rubric for particular texts: “Any given pericope is therefore essentially a self-intact unit of sense, carrying a relatively complete and integrated idea which contributes to the whole, a defined portion of Scripture which reflects a total range of thought and content, and which can be expounded within the limitations of that corporate gathering.” 12. Can the text be integrated and consolidated for the sake of the listener in the larger series theme .
If not, then for the sake of the listeners (and in student ministry, their parents who showed up to drive them home), more polishing and clarification needs to be done. Longer or more controversial texts may require longer time for integration and consolidation to take place; therefore, adjusting the schedule of the evening to meet student needs should be considered as part of this question.
Study the Text
Köstenberger's key tool for the purpose of interpreting scripture is the "hermeneutic triad" of the passage's historical setting, the literary. Regardless of the passage of Scripture, the interpreter must consider (1) the historical setting; (2) literary context (including issues of canon, genre, and language); and (3) the theological message, that is, what the passage teaches about God, Christ, salvation, and the need to respond in faith to biblical teaching. 17. Richard defines studying in two stages: "seeing" deals with the surface questions one should ask about the text in front of them, while "seeking" draws meaning from the collected details that are part of the study.18 For Richard, seeing involves observing the key words and.
My desire here is to incorporate the approaches of Fields and Robbins, Köstenberger, and Richard into a course of study for expository student service. By carefully examining the words and relationships in the text and then asking the right questions about the text, the youth pastor can justify his next steps in formulating proposals and beginning to build a broader profitable message.
Find the Central Proposition of the Text
Robinson finds a central proposition in the early stages of the study when he divides each narrative unit into three parts. The first is simply "develop your own takeaway". This step provides clarity for the rest of the build process. If the central point of the sermon is clearly stated at the beginning, it fulfills Fisher, Frey, and Quaglia's four essential elements of teacher clarity: (1) the teacher.
Considering these three aspects, the student ministry preacher should formulate a central proposition using the following set of assessments: (1) Flow the central proposition from the study of the text. If these five assessments are satisfied, then, and only then, can the youth pastor begin to format the rest of the sermon around this central point.
Sermon Outlining and Structure
Such propositions and points, as seminar students are taught to create, are. essentially stagnant, resulting in "static and fuzzy" sermons: the transitions between points are weak at best, making a three-point sermon "three sermons barely glued together", without a single movement essential from beginning to end that maintains the thrust of the text, maintains the momentum of the sermon, and maintains the interest of the audience.38. Rather, Kuruvilla favors an approach away from sermon construction to what he calls the sermon plot.39 The plot not only allows listeners to grasp a set of learned conclusions, but also enables them to be guided through the process of interpretation and enlightenment as listen: "Instead of giving a pre-chewed and digested meal, the purpose is to guide the listeners to experience the same momentum and excitement that came with the preacher's study of the text, enabling them to see the text in the same way like the preacher. thereby allowing them to grasp the very pillar of the text.”40. By preaching through a planned sermon, the pastor imitates the practice of study for the sake of the listener.
Fabarez demands that every aspect of the sermon flow to and through the thrust of the text, while Kuruvilla adds that the processes undertaken to determine and fully understand that thrust must be included not for those who study the Word, but to those who hear it preached. And through the entire structure of the sermon, the text's intended impact on students' lives will be demonstrated.
Study the Flock
To capture the attention of teenagers under the structure of the text, preachers should not shy away from the controversial, challenging or painful. Such work requires, as Keller says of the apostle Paul, that one "take some of the right beliefs of his hearers and use them to criticize their wrong beliefs in the light of Scripture."52 Although many think that youth culture should be completely ignored. or abandoned, Keller says that properly applied contextualization must attend to and confront the culture of the audience. But an empathetic preacher asks how each student's unique culture embraces, or is frustrated by, certain texts and how individual students may struggle with the concepts presented by individual texts in light of the world they inhabit.
One of the great gifts of preaching to a teenage audience is not only the weekly adventure of contextualization, but also the ability to offer new content and frameworks to minds that desperately want to integrate them. In light of these considerations, after deep study and structure, the preacher should ask the following questions about the structure of the sermon in light of his purpose.
Illustration
The basis of illustration practice, according to Fields and Robbins, is "you always want to look for places in your content where a teenager can say 'tell me what you mean.'" A story should be tied at both ends, entering story and coming out of the story."57 Failure to connect a story to the central proposition in any way may allow for a memorable story, but ultimately distracts from the central point rather than adds to it if done aimlessly. While the purpose of illustration can be engagement and retention, the function of illustration in any setting, according to John Piper, is to stir up the listener's affections.60 Any text can be preached in a way that simply addresses the cognitive needs of teenagers; but, where illustration proves powerful it is the provocation of the intense emotional spark - according to Daniel Siegel - inherent in adolescence.
The task of proper illustration is a difficult one in any preaching effort, for "who can find images and analogies that come so near to creating the deep feelings we should have when we consider such realities as hell and heaven?"63 But the task is essential for the sake of the listener. If the illustration is remembered at the expense of the text, then the preacher has irresponsibly set his teenage listeners against the purpose of building and sustaining them.
Listener-specific Application
Having done the work of judging the text's original intent, Fabarez argues that. The challenge now is to carefully determine how you can best reconcile the relevant application of the text with your specific target group. He then gives four questions to help determine the purpose of the intended sermon: (1) What specifically does your audience have in common with the original audience.
He advocates using four questions to get to the heart of the audience's need for the text: (1) “What should I do. In light of the focus of the fallen state, what kinds of questions are students likely to ask?
Compose the Sermon
Good preaching is rooted in gathering fine gospel ingredients out of the scripture before you. The shaping of the fine ingredients assembled into a beautiful meal is analogous to the communication aspect of. Moving the sermon from the conceptual realm to the deliverable realm is an essential step in the process for both clarity and communication.
This process of combining all the elements of research, text plotting, audience exegesis, illustration, and listener-centered application is essential to breathing life into the delivery of the sermon. The nature of the deliverable – whether it is fully memorized, outlined or fully manuscripted – will largely depend on the comfort level and preference of the preacher.
Deliver the Sermon
To do this effectively, the youth pastor must find not only the right method of sermon composition, but also the delivery of the sermon. The delivery of the sermon combines each of the previous nine points into a single feast that is rightly and thoughtfully placed before the disciples for them to enjoy. Integration and long-term retention will absolutely fail if the nature of the text and the delivery system are separated from each other.
Piper says of all preachers of the Word that "lack of intensity in the preaching can only communicate that the preacher does not believe or has never been seriously grasped by the reality of which he speaks - or that the subject is insignificant."77 How much more therefore, an audience will not see the authoritative importance of the Word when their own developmental frameworks are linked to the integration of new emotional intelligences and challenging authority structures. On the contrary, when the delivery systems and methods are effectively integrated into the flow, weight and demands of the text,.
Process the Sermon as a Group
CONCLUDING REMARKS AND LARGER IMPLICATIONS
OUTLINE INTEGRATING THE APPROACHES OF FIELDS AND
