Speaking

Are you teaching teenagers the Gospel or Moralism/Motivationalism?

February 18, 2013 by doug 16 Comments

But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. Galatians 2:5 (NLT)

From the church’s beginning until today, there has waged a battle to preserve the truth of the gospel message. Every generation, every culture and every heart finds ways to pervert the Gospel. The Gospel is the proclamation that Jesus became man, lived perfect in our place and died shamed in our place. His life and work makes repentant sinners entirely accepted and approved (righteous) before a holy God. It’s a complete work of grace. Tim Keller says it this way: “we are sinful beyond belief but loved beyond hope.”

One of the constant threats to the Gospel message is the moralistic message and motivational message.

Moralistic messages begin and end with: “You SHOULD!”
Motivational messages begin and end with: “You CAN!”
But the Gospel message begins with “You MUST but you CAN’T!”

Thankfully, it doesn’t end there.

In youth ministry there is undeniable pressure to get teenagers to behave. The problem is there is nothing more exhausting AND dangerous than convincing unconverted teenagers to behave like Christians. This problem is exacerbated by the truth that it is possible to leverage lesser motivations (fear, pride, guilt) to manufacture behavior change–even spiritual activity. You can build and grow a youth ministry on moralism and motivationalism!

There are so many reasons our hearts default to moralism. It offers us control. We can measure ourselves. We can measure others. We aren’t truly indebted to the grace of God – there’s a limit to what He can ask of us.

There are four primary responses in the mind and hearts of students when they hear moralistic/motivational preaching:

DEFIANT: “I never get this right and I don’t care.”

DESPAIR:“I never get this right and I never will.”

DETERMINED:“I never get this right but I will now.”

DESENSITIZED:“I never get this wrong/I always get this right.”

In each response, the teenager is focused on self. The radical call of Christianity is away from self-reliance and self-salvation of any kind. We must die to every last ounce of hope in ourselves that we have! The beauty of Jesus is seen when we recognize the full Gospel message:

“We MUST! We CAN’T! He DID! In Him, we CAN!”

Youth workers, let’s be careful in our teaching and preaching that we’re not simply giving GOOD ADVICE instead of sharing GOOD NEWS. Let’s remember the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 1:16 – the gospel is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes!

Question: Why do you think it’s so normal to give GOOD ADVICE rather than the GOOD NEWS? Share thoughts here and David will respond.

Guest Post: David Hertweck served as senior associate pastor of Trinity A/G in Clay, NY for over eleven years. He served as the lead pastor of inside-out student ministries and element young adults ministries and as a worship leader. He is an ordained Assembly of God minister. He presently serves as the District Youth Ministries and Chi Alpha Director.

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Filed Under: Church, Communication, Faith, Guest Post, posts, youth ministry Tagged With: behavior, David Hertweck, guest post, moralism, Speaking, teaching, the gospel, youth ministry

Honey Boo-Boo and the difficulty of message preparation, Part 2

January 16, 2013 by doug 6 Comments

For a recap of part 1, go here

I realize this post isn’t for everyone and many (even communicators who just “get up and preach”) won’t appreciate the element of “craft” that I’m suggesting is needed for effective communication.

Let’s pick up with the email I wrote to some friends on my “speaking team” (all volunteers, friends, people I’ve “gathered” over the years):

The email I sent: “I’m sending this email to a couple of my “funny” friends because I need better lines than what I currently have.

Here’s the context of the paragraph: I’m trying to communicate that saying “no” is easy when it’s said to the bad things in life. Anyone can say “no” to bad stuff! The difficult part of life is saying “no” to the opportunities that are really good, but don’t ultimately matter the most. I need better/funnier comments.”

Here’s what I’m planning on saying: “I realize it’s easy to say “no” to bad stuff. (1) “Hey, do you want to go for a swim to Catalina?” Easy no. (2) “Do you want to try my mother-in-laws three bean salad?” Again, easy no. (3) “Do you want to come over and watch Honey Do-Do?” Uh, no thanks. Friends, unfortunately our lives are not filled with easy choices like: (a) Do I pet a puppy? or (b) put Tabasco sauce in my eye? Our struggle lies in choosing between the good and great.

Brian: [He sent me several better options and then ended his email stating]: “In regards to the reference to Honey-Doo-Doo… the little pageant queen’s name is Honey Boo-Boo.”

Doug: “Brian, great stuff as always! Thanks for your contribution to this message. BTW: I was going for the obvious mistake because I thought Honey-Do-Do would sound funny (as in doodoo—can’t escape the youth pastor in me and my love for cheap humor).

Brian: The Honey-Doo-Doo line breaks the “joke within a joke” rule. While you’re thinking the audience will get how clever it is to do a riff on Honey Boo-Boo, they’ll probably just think you don’t know the correct name of the show. The underlying joke is just the idea of having to watch Honey Boo-Boo, which is horrible enough… trying to get an extra satirical joke out of it is “gilding the lily.” It would have to be done as a secondary joke after the first joke scores. For instance, after the laugh from saying the initial “Honey-Doo-Doo” line, you play naive and add, “that’s her name right? The little beauty queen girl, little Honey-Doo-Doo… Little Doo-Doo.” You milk that a little bit until somebody corrects you with “Boo-Boo,” then you just play it straight and say “that’s not as funny as Doo-Doo” or something like that. Sorry if that’s a lot more than you’re asking for, but that’s just what 8 years in a half-hour comedy room taught me.

I love it! I’ve been teaching every week for 30 years and I love learning from people like Brian.

By the way, here’s how I ended up crafting that particular paragraph:

It’s easy to say “no” to bad stuff.

(1) Do you want to try my mother-in-laws 3 bean salad? No.

(2) You want to listen to my niece play the accordion? No.

(3) Do you want to come over and watch Honey Boo-Boo? No.

Life is not filled with easy choices like: Do I pet a puppy? or get a colonoscopy?

What about you? Who are you learning from? Who have you “invited” into your message preparation? Are you taking intentional steps to improve as a communicator?

Question: What do you think? Is word-choice really that important? Especially word choice that’s connected to humor or illustration? Share your thoughts here.

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Filed Under: Communication, posts Tagged With: Communication, Honey BooBoo, public speaking, saying no, Speaking, team

The difficulty of public speaking–message preparation, Part 1

January 14, 2013 by doug 3 Comments

Writing good message is hard work.

As I wrote in my book (with Duffy Robbins), Speaking To Teenagers, I believe that the craft of writing impactful messages is a very difficult task. There’s so many moving parts: the right word choices, the content, and the illustrations all work together to create something that people want to listen to and will move them toward life-change.

All good communicators want life-change!

But, it’s so difficult… especially to do it well week after week.

While I’m working on a message I’m always thinking about how to allow my content to “breath” a little so my audience stays with me. I try to give my audience enough space to listen so they feel like they’re in a conversation rather than a lecture. I’m constantly thinking illustrate, show rather than tell, relieve the tension, surprise them, drop a laugh-line, grab their attention, etc…

Because I take this craft very serious, I have gathered some friends along the way whom I will occasionally “run things by” so they’ll read my message (or a portion of my message) and give me feedback.

One of these guys is Brian Bird. Brian was one of my youth ministry volunteers for many years and the dad of several kids who went through our youth group. In addition to being an amazing man, he’s got a cool job. He’s a writer. He writes TV shows, movies, etc… He was the executive producer for Touched By An Angel and wrote on sitcoms for many years prior to that. He’s the real deal, and he’s on my informal “communication team.” [His blog is here and Twitter is @brbird.]

Last weekend I was preparing to teach at Mariners Church and I sent out a “help” email to a few buddies to get some help with word-choice. Every time this happens I get a new education of communication.

Tomorrow, in Part 2, I’ll show you the string of emails that took place between Brian and I and all that I learned. I think it will be helpful for those who communicate on a regular basis and have a desire to improve.

Part 2: coming tomorrow.

Question: Do you have a communication team? If so, how do they help you? Share here.

[Are you getting Doug's daily blog in your email inbox?] If not, it’s real easy–go here.