Help for Young Life Leaders NOW

This may be old news to you, but there was a pivotal moment in the New York Giant’s season that led to their Superbowl victory. Some would say that the moment had nothing to do with the X’s and O’s, or the coaching, the preparation, or anything like that. Some would say, even the players, it came down to an object lesson. The object lesson came when a high school teacher was given the opportunity to speak at the NY Giant’s chapel and handed out poker chips, told them to put their name on the chip, and asked them if they were “all in?” You can hear more about it here:

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I’ve heard lots of great feedback from people who decided to use the book of John for club talks last semester. I’m glad it has been helpful!

My good friend Joey and AD in North Phoenix (such a good friend I’m sure he won’t mind the picture of him and his wonderful wife on this post) took what I started and added to it. It adds some good context for John’s gospel and adds some ideas for chapters I did not cover. He recently sent it to me and gave me permission to pass it along. Enjoy!

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Last night, Danny, one of our excellent leaders did the “need” sin talk. The “need” talk is often used the week before, or the night before, the traditional sin talk to help introduce the impact of sin on our society and our personal lives. This theme is built upon the following week with a talk that focuses more on the impact of sin on our relationship with the Lord. The need talk is a good transition to help people think about sin and its reality.

Danny opened up his talk with references to some of the recent news in the paper and on TV. He didn’t need to, but in the past I’ve even brought in that day’s newspaper to show them how sin is so easy to spot. Then he transitioned briefly about some things that have hurt him, then he played the video below. After the video he walked them through Romans 3:23 and a few other ideas about sin. He closed with some very open sharing about his own life and how sin has impacted it. Finally he gave them a challenge and introduced the talk for the next week and about our hope in Christ as well.

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A few weeks ago I mentioned that our YL region is focusing on the book of John for the entire year. Club, campaigners, leader meetings, region meetings, devotionals, as much as possible. I have written before how much I like going through the gospels in club for talks and campaigners. I know at least one club that is now going through the seven “I am” statements in John for club this semester.

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I am part of a team that trains the student staff in our YL region and I was talking to them last week about the book of John. In our region we are focusing on the book of John this year. One of the unique features of the book of John is the “I Am” statements. As you may know, when Moses encountered the Lord in the burning bush and asked the Lord what to tell people as His name, the Lord replied “I Am Who I Am” (Exodus 3:14). So when we are reading through the book of John we find the author using this phrase “I am” as an important tool to communicate Jesus’ divinity and the Lord’s identity. As I was teaching this I gave our student staff some ideas about how to utilize these in club talks, campaigner talks, team devotionals, etc. Here are a couple of them:

1. I am… the bread of life (John 6:35)

Just like our need for food, Jesus is the food we need for life. I suggested using a loaf of bread as an illustration to talk about how we need food and what happens when we are hungry or don’t have food. A few of the Wyldlife leads said they thought this object lesson would work well with their kids. 

2. I am… the light of the world (John 8:12, 9:5)

Throughout scripture we see a contrast of the “light” and the “dark”. It starts in Genesis and works its way all the way through. I recall my leader, Kathy Mason, doing a talk when I was in high school when she turned off the lights during her talk to illustrate what it is like in the dark. This would be a good time to talk about what it is like when you don’t know what to do, when you aren’t sure where to go for help, when you don’t have answers, when you feel alone, and more. Then, after it almost gets uncomfortable and people’s eyes are getting adjusted to the dark (which is another illustration you can use), turn on a flashlight and talk about Jesus being the “light” of the world. Jesus lights up dark places, shows us the world around us as it really is, shows us who God is, allows us to even see who we really are, etc. There is a lot you can do with this!

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Over the past few weeks a lot of students in our area have been asking each other to prom. It is a simple question with really only two answers.

We are going through a chapter of Mark each week in our club talks this semester. We are on Mark 8 right now. I knew I wanted to do Mark 8:37-40 where Jesus asks, “Who do you say I am?” That combined with all the prom hoopla led me to put together this club talk.

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I’m doing the talk tonight and I had already decided to use Mark 1:9-11, the baptism of Jesus. I was hoping to talk about the incarnation and the start of Jesus’ ministry.

My wife told me of an amazing news story about a woman who, for years, thought she must have a different set of parents, things just didn’t add up with the family she grew up with. Maybe you heard about this story, her name is Carlina White. Basically she was snatched away from the hospital as an infant and raised by another family. Then over the years she grew skeptical of her family and had a hunch that she was from another family. She searched Google, then a national database of abducted children and then got in touch with the police and eventually told them, “I don’t know who I am”. Here is a news clip:

So here is my plan for my talk tonight…

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YLHelp reader Dan from Quad Cities, Indiana sent me this great resource for club talks. It also includes questions and ideas for campaigners for the same topics. Here are the talks included in this resource:

1. Who Do You Say That I Am? Matthew 16:13-16
2. Jesus and H20. Matthew 14:22-33
3. Attempt to Stone Jesus. John 10:24-39
4. The Arrest of Jesus. John 18:1-11
5. Peter’s Denial of Jesus. John 18:15-18, 25-27, Romans 5:12-13
6. Jesus’ Death on the Cross and Resurrection. 1 Cor 15:1-11, Rom 6:23
7. Salt and Light. Matthew 5:13-16

Thank you Dan for sharing your insights and resources! The idea behind YLHelp is to share the best ideas so we can benefit from each other, like a gigantic all area leadership meeting from across the world. If you have some info you can share, send it in!

Last Monday I gave the Resurrection talk. I always like to include a part about what it means to be a follower of Jesus in this talk.

I love the resurrection talk. It is often under-stated most times I see it at club or camp. The resurrection is the power for our new life in Christ! You can even see that last summer when I spoke at YL camp, I moved all the talks a day earlier just so I could do an entire talk about the resurrection. Read the rest of this entry »

I was having an email conversation with my friend Stacy from Santa Barbara about club talks around Christmas.

What do you do around Christmas? Do you just do standard club talks, do you change it up?

I’ve done a few things, here are a couple ideas:

Read Luke 2:1-20

Readers:

Luke 2:1-12 Juan

Luke 2:13-15 Julia

Luke 2:16-20 Vince

Another thing we have done is have an open sharing time for students. I might ask a campaigner kid to be ready to share to get it started. Sometimes you will be amazed what kids have to say. It could end up being a great gift to the leaders.

What have you done around Christmas time for the talk?