I confess, I have become a bit of a prop guy when teaching or preaching.  In fact, if you count pictures on a projector as a prop, I’d say there’s close to a 95% chance that there will be a prop somewhere in my teaching.  If you fly me in to teach, I’ll probably bring my own props as well as ask you to pick some up whatever I could not carry or was too bulky to bring.

Last weekend I gave five different talks at a middle school winter camp over a span of 3 1/2 days and had a prop of some kind in each talk.  In fact, on the 5th and final talk, I decided to ditch my planned “new message” and simply do a response to the previous four messages.  Since I had used so many visuals and teaching props in my previous messages, all I had to do was hold up the prop and ask, “What was this all about?”   This lead to a remarkable response where all over the room of over 500 middle school students, hands were shooting up to tell me what the answer was.  They could literally tell me almost word-for-word my stories, illustrations, scripture that I used, and even the “so what” point.  I really think without the visuals, this would have been all but impossible.   

Simply put, using props and visuals always helps make the illustration or story I’m telling more memorable.  It really helps those who are visual learners and rarely hinders those who aren’t.  It is a no-brainer win if you ask me.  

As an example, one illustration I used this past weekend was one with chocolate milk that I learned in college.  It’s so easy to use and so powerful.  Here’s how it works:

1. Take a regular milk and pour it into a clear glass.  Tell them this is their life.  (If your crowd is big, feel free to use a vase or other large cylinder that can be seen from farther away) 
2. Then take hershey’s chocolate syrup and pour it in.   Tell them the syrup represents Jesus.  (You can have fun with Jesus being brown skinned or sweet tasting or just full of goodness if you want)  But the point I make is this:  a lot of people claim to have Jesus in their life… and they might not even be wrong.  
3. Then point out the pile of chocolate syrup in the bottom and draw the analogy that the problem isn’t that they have no Jesus in them, it’s that you have to look in the right place to see or taste Him.  
4. I show them that if I cover up the chocolate syrup pile that forms in the bottom of the glass, then no one can tell if there’s chocolate in it or not.  The same is true of a lot of “christians”.   They don’t look or taste like they have Jesus in them in about 95% of the environments they’re in.   
5. So I then tell them that if we want to have God in every piece of our lives, then we each have to stir up some stuff and at which point I use a spoon to stir up the chocolate.  

This is a perfect illustration of the filling of the Holy Spirit and never ceases to prove powerful every time I use it.  But without the visuals, it’s so less impactful.  I could explain it, but seeing it live is 100x better.  It just is.  

So… if you want to up your influence in your communication, and especially if you work with teens,… let me encourage you to start using props.  To that end, here’s a series of questions that might be worth processing as you prepare for your next teaching:

1. Is there a way that I can enhance this story with a visual?  For example, if I’m going to tell a basketball illustration, would it be good to have a basketball in my hand?   

2. If I don’t have a physical object to represent or use, can I get a picture instead?  

3. Can I use a brief video to make the point?  

4. Can I give one object in my lesson to everyone?  Can a visual move my audience from observing to doing something?  If so, what should I tell them to do with it or how can we use it in this talk?  

5. Can I use one visual in various ways throughout my talk instead of just one time for one point?  

6. Can I use a drawing board, white board, or flip chart to enhance this talk? 

7. Is my visual a distraction or a help?  Should this visual be used to spark curiosity throughout my talk or should I reveal it from behind a curtain or box later in the message? 

While preparing for a weekend of talk’s to junior high students this past weekend at Forest Home, I found myself wrestling with two truths I was trying to teach.

The theme set by the camp was “everything”.  Not like, teach whatever I wanted everything.  They were basing this on the “shema” in Deuteronomy 6 that Jesus quotes in response to the question, “What is the greatest commandment.”  

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”  

In other words, God wants our everything.   As I read this over and over again for like the five thousandth time, I was reminded of two truths I needed to live out and communicate.  

“EVERYTHING CAN’T BE EVERYTHING.”

First, if I give my all to something, then I can’t give my all to anything else.  I think in a multi-tasking society, where we believe we can do 50 things at once, this is a profound reminder.  I can give parts of me to lots of stuff, but if I want to give my all to God, then I can’t do that and give my all to anything else.  Only one thing can be my everything.

When I let the opinions of people, the acquiring of stuff, and the achievement pile become my top priority for a season, then it by default moves God out of first place.  I can’t do that and say yes to this call in the Greatest commandment.

“AVERAGE IS THE ENEMY OF AWESOME.”

Secondly, I found myself wrestling with why it is that I find myself settling for less than “all of God in all of me in all areas of my life.”  To that end, this observation proved profound for me spiritually this weekend as I taught it and personally processed it.

When I accept an average amount of God in my life, I miss out on the awesome that God has in store.  In a world of comparison games, immediately we go to some sort of competition with that phrase.  Like who can you be more awesome than?  But the truth is, this call of God has NOTHING to do with comparison.   Awesome is not defined as “better than”, it is defined as ALL of God in ALL of Me!  That’ is awesome.

It’s deciding that the phrase, “it is what it is”, in this context is flat out a copout.  No my spiritual life is not an “is what it is” reality. Our spiritual connection with God is never all it is or could be. There’s so much more.  And to that end, Satan doesn’t need me to reject God to win, all he needs is for me to accept a moderate amount of God.

Bottom line, when I settle, it’s a victory for the enemy.

So this week, I’m wresting with these two questions as I search my soul:

1. Is my top priority in my schedule this week something God can be and is fully present in?
2. Where have I settled for average when God had a plan for awesome?

You’ve heard that, “The road to success as not paved by good intentions.”  But that phrase is ironic all by itself because quoting a bumper sticker and doing something to solve the problem are two very different things.  Anybody can have good intentions or even be aware that intentions without actions are merely idle talk.  But choosing to mean what we say… that’s a different story.

So this fall we kicked off a small group series with our students for just 3 weeks to try and put some umph behind our intentions and the momentum of January.   We’re calling it.. “And I Meant It!”

Week 1:  I said I wanted to get close to God… and I meant it.  

Week 2: I said I wanted true friendships… and I meant it.

Week 3: I said I believe in the power of prayer… and I meant it.

Last week was week 1 for us and myself, my co-leader kevin, and 10 squirrely A.D.D infested teen guys got together to talk about what it would be like if we had a “tent of meeting” like Moses did where he met with God.  They all agreed that would be a rad, but at one point I had to call their bluff and say some stuff I can’t put on this blog.  It was time to stop “posing” and acting like we cared about getting close to God just cuz we showed up at small groups.  It’s a start, but it’s not like going to class makes someone a good student.  You have to put actual real effort in.  

So we all agreed to hold each other accountable to read our Bible daily.  We passed around mobile numbers.  We prayed.  We said, “let’s do this thing.”  We’re using the One Minute Bible as our tool.  I like it because it’s bite sized readings each day. It’s not cheesy or filled with lame graphics.  It’s enough to start a conversation and get a habit going without biting off more than a teen guy can handle who didn’t read much anyway.

So I’m stoked for what could happen in these 11 dudes if they truly develop the new beginning of a life with God on their own.

If you wanna join us, you can grab a one minute bible here.

You can download the teaching plan here.

For the last 8 years as a youth pastor in San Diego, our youth ministry has been sponsoring kids around the world.  To do this, we put piggy banks on the tables and ask students to bring $1 a week to help us change the world, one kid at a time.

• We started in 2005 with a girl named Luyando in Zambia through World Vision.  
• Then we added a boy named Hector in Tijuana through a local organization that we work with called His Ministries.  We go visit Hector 2 or 3 times a year and bring his family giant amounts of food to use for the months ahead.
• Then we started sponsoring an orphanage in Uganda.
• Then we added Marvin in El Salvador.
• Then Ruby in India. 
• Lastly, we added a girl named Keke in Thailand through Compassion International.

Special greetings to you and your family.  How are you?  I guess you’re doing fine.  I’m fine back here and my family is fine too.  I was so grateful and still am for the money you sent for me amounting to 100 U.S. dollars.  As a family, we are all happy for your support which will go a long way.  We thank you so much and pray that you have a long life.  With the money my father managed to buy me the clothes that I am wearing, books for school, gumboots, a few groceries, and some iron sheets to roof our house which was grass thatched.  It’s rain season here so the money came at just the right time.  Now we no longer worry about the roof, no matter how it rains.  Happy Christmas and Happy New Year to you.  With love, Luyando.  

Last week I had some writing to do and found myself for a variety of reasons, sitting for hours in a coffee shop that has free wifi and that I don’t frequent that often: Panera Bread.  I used to have this rule that I can’t go there without my wife, but I ventured out and decided to sit there in a cubicle, plug in my computer and go to work with free coffee refills.

Since I had never really spent hours in this place, I learned something that I had somehow missed in my previous visits.  Several times each day, like about once every 2 hours or so, someone on the staff would yell, “HOT Bread!”  This would then be echoed by the rest of their team who would then start successively shouting “HOT Bread!”It got me thinking of the “hot donuts” sign at Krispy Kreme and how somethings, you simply have to “get ’em while they’re hot”.

In youth ministry, this is both a truth and a lie.

TRUE- GET IT WHILE IT’S HOT:  There are seasons and moments where as a leader, you have to read the times and seize the opportunity for change.  Here are some:

• SEASONS:  The fall when school restarts and the new year after Christmas break are moments when it’s easiest to launch new programs.  Both are “hot bread” moments when people are ready for change and if you want to change your service times, your ministry structure, or your programs, these are time when change is hot and people are more apt to expect them.  Good leadership leverages these moments.
• WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE IS SAYING:  Reading an audience is not an idea, it is a necessary skill of all up front leaders.  You cannot run a game, give a talk, or lead a group in musical worship well without the ability to read your audience. This is more art than science, but one will quickly discover that if you don’t seize critical moments, they will pass and an inability to read a an audience that has left you can bomb an experience instantly.  If a game is a miss, smart leaders either adjust it on the fly to fix it or cut it short and call it a failure before it kills momentum.  Worship leaders figure out when people are engaged and when they are not and make changes to tempo and engage the audience with instruction accordingly to keep them with you.  Teachers change tone, volume, pace, interaction level, ditch or add a story… all for the same purpose.  
• WHAT GOD IS DOING:  God-honoring leadership also follows God’s unique move when it’s out of season or not on the plan.  Especially if a student shows up with 10 new friends, if an audience has been moved to tears, if the response to a service project was overwhelming, then you go with it and follow the Spirit’s lead.  Don’t wait to respond, do it now while the bread is hot and the people are hungry.  

FALSE- LET IT COOL DOWN FIRST:  There are also mythical “hot bread” moments where someone irresponsibly flips the switch and says, “we gotta do it now or we’re gonna be in trouble.”  Sometimes that’s a lie.  Here’s some I tend to doubt are as “HOT bread” as they seam:

• CRISIS:  Every crisis has a “hot bread” feel to it.  This relationship, this conflict, this concern must be addressed NOW.  This fire will burn down the building for sure.  However, not every time someone pulls the fire alarm in youth ministry, should the building be evacuated.  Smart leaders learn to discern through the panic and look for other signs.  They don’t jump just because others are in crisis.  Like a healthy first responder in an emergency 911 call, they stop, think, pray, and respond with wisdom that many in the middle of the crisis simply cannot.  
• GOSSIP:  Youth ministry is the land of “so-and-so said” and “such-and-such happened”.  If you try and become the gossip police and shut down every irresponsible thing said in a small group, typed on Facebook, or put into the air, you’ll do nothing else for your entire career.  But if you learn that some gossip is more deadly than others and let some simply die of it’s own stupidity- stepping in only on the one’s that are lethal- then you’ll discover that not all moments are as “hot” as they seemed.
• CRITICISM:  Want a great way to ruin your reputation and your ministry?  Just respond to every criticism while it’s hot and let nothing cool down to evaluate what’s inside.   Wise leaders learn that some things are better dealt with when they’re cool.  Giving an angry critic enough response to calm them down before diving into their concerns is wise.  Taking time to think and pray and sleep on it for a day before responding to a critical email is healthy.  Some things are simply better enjoyed when they have had time to cool down.