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What is the biggest impact an adult can make in the life of a young person?
I don’t even have to blink. The answer is, constant dialogue.
The key word there is dialogue, not monologue. Adults are pretty good at lecturing… but listening? Not so much. The lecturer misses out on what is going on in the world of a young person. The listener hears the heart of the person and draws out the truth.
Last week my son texted me, all excited about a discussion in one of his classes at APU, his college down in Southern California. The teacher had read the new CDC report about binge drinking among girls (the scary subject of the brand new Youth Culture Window article I just posted yesterday, Binge Drinking Unrecognized). Instead of lecturing, the teacher began asking questions.
“When does drinking become dangerous?”
“How many drinks does it take?”
Conversation erupted. It doesn’t take much when you ask teenagers the right questions.
Don’t underestimate the power of mentorship. This younger generation actually craves coaching. They want someone who will dialogue with them about the real-life issues they are facing.
Are you ready for these conversations?
Are the adults in your church equipped for these conversations?
IF YOU LIKED THIS POST, YOU’LL LOVE JONATHAN’S BOOK CONNECT: REAL RELATIONSHIPS IN A WORLD OF ISOLATION
Posted in Parenting, Youth Ministry Philosophy | | Leave A Comment
Thanks for this reminder. One of the best things about doing small groups is you hear what students are thinking, learning, and saying. Sometimes I get more from small group discussion than I do from the message I did. Jesus was big on dialogue and questions too. Josh Hunt has great resources for discussion and questions and a great book called “Teach Like Jesus.” We need to learn to be better listeners.
I agree. That’s why we include small group questions in almost all of our resources. All our MOVIE CLIP DISCUSSIONS and MUSIC DISCUSSIONS on TheSource4YM.com have small group questions. I even included small group questions in the back of both my 10-Minute Talks books. It’s so important to let kids discuss the material so they can begin to flesh out what it looks like in their world.