For many of you, this is not your first year working with children in award of Life Ministry in your local church. You have your routine down. You can pinpoint the troublemakers before club even begins. You already know what areas you want to improve on from last year. You might be a new leader who just attended the orientations and you are excited to be a part of molding young person’s life. Regardless of your experience level, you’ll want to start out this year with an exciting ministry that bears fruit. Here are a few ideas to help jump-start your fall program.

Scripture Memory

Write out the first four memory verses on paper leaves, writing one word on each leaf. Then allow the older children to find all the words to each verse and place them in order. If you are working with younger children you can write one verse on all red leaves and another verse on all orange leaves so they can participate in the game. Then you can help them put the leaves in order.

Quiet Time

Start a contest between the Personal Training or Discipleship groups to see which group completes the most days of Quiet Time. Don’t forget to include the coaches, as they set the pace for each small group! Winners could receive a prize awarded during their small group time.

Christian Service

Meet on a Saturday at the church and divide into groups. Travel to homes of church members and rake leaves. (See “Games” section below.)When the job is done everyone can return to the church for cider and doughnuts. This is especially good ministry for your church’s shut-ins.

Games

You can play some games while you are doing your Leaf Raking Christian Service. Make sure the person that you choose doesn’t mind letting the children have fun while they are working. Divide your group into two or more teams and play the following games:

• See which team can make the largest pile of leaves (give them five minutes to do this)
• Bury the leaders – pick at least two leaders from each team and have the children bury them in the leaves. (See which team can completely bury their leaders first)
• Have a leaf pile diving contest (Make sure the leaders are out of the leaves!). Judge them on style, height, and creativity.
• Give each team a section of yard to rake. See which team can rake their area the cleanest and the fastest.
• Leaf bagging contest – See which team can bag their leaves the fastest and leave their area spotless.

Fall Décor

Hang leaves from the ceiling. Write a child’s name on each leaf. Then make a sign that reads “Falling in love with Jesus”. Change the leaves to snowflakes in December and you can keep the same idea through the winter!

Halloween Since Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year, use the opportunity to minister on that date. Dress the Children up as Bible characters and send them out to homes in your church’s neighborhood. Make sure each group has a Coach with them. Have the groups hand out tracts instead of asking for candy. Have all groups return to church for games and candy so they won’t feel that they have missed out on getting candy.

[Bonnie Wertz and her husband, Jordan, are Word Life missionaries in eastern Michigan. They make their home in Corunna, MI. Comments or questions about this article may be directed to Bonnie at jordanwertz@wol.org.]

I love the Bible! I think everyone could sing that song with me. In fact, this is one area that distinguishes Vision for Youth from many other evangelical youth ministry organizations. Everything we do is built on a Biblical foundation. Our entire philosophy of ministry is to filter everything we do through the grid of Scripture. Our student ministry must have a strong theological base. We desire to be leaders in a student ministry that is honoring to God, culturally relevant to students, and theologically sound. Sometimes, however, it is difficult not to notice the hurt that is caused by what people consider “good theology”. This saddens me because it is not necessary. Jesus gave us two rules: “love God and love each other”. How can we be strong in theology and yet live up to what Christ has demanded for us? In the process, how will we impact hearts and minds through our theology with students? I believe we must make two essential additions to our theology to most effectively impact students for eternity. We must make the essential additions of KNOWLEDGE and LIFE to our theology.

Essential Addition One, Add KNOWLEDGE to Theology. I do not intend to be insulting when I say we should add knowledge; but, I do mean to say that maybe we are not as smart as we might think. We must know our theology. This seems simple, but it is not. Knowing theology means that we must know what we believe and why we believe it. We must become good friends with the Bible. Knowing theology means that I have a place to begin when teaching the kids in my student ministry. When we communicate to students, our theology needs to be the beginning and not the end. One recent study shows that kids are responding less to student ministry centered on games and activities and they are responding more to student ministry centered on Biblical truth. Much of what is passing in student ministry for theology might reside out on the edges of a theological spectrum. When we are not as knowledgeable as we should be about theology we end up either downplaying or watering it down on the one hand, or on the other hand we elevate preferences and personal opinions to the place of immovable theological standards.

One side would fear being irrelevant with old fashioned truth while the other side would fear being accused of compromise. We either subtract from our obligation to truth or we multiply our obligations to a place of equality with truth. Adding knowledge will help us to not land in either of these places. Another reason to add knowledge to our theology is to avoid what my father calls “hobby horse” theology. As an assignment, my Crossroads Bible College youth ministry class visited a church youth group for three weeks in a row.

Each week the youth pastor talked about the evils of sex, rap, and hip hop music. Those issues had become his “hobby horse.” Other issues might be musical style, dress code, recreation, or even what we perceive as proper ways to worship. So that we do not become “hobby horse” communicators, we need to add knowledge to our theology. Adding knowledge to theology will cause us to use theology not as the end of things but as the foundation on which to build our ministry. Adding knowledge is learning that the entire story of the Bible is good theology. Once in a while, we spend much energy and time striving to convince students to believe our particular system of theology. So that this does not become our main thing, we must concentrate on the main thing seen through all the pages of Scripture, which is the story of God, His interaction with men and women throughout history, and His provision for forgiveness of sin through His Son –Jesus Christ! That is the Bible story from cover to cover. Our theological energy should not necessarily be used to convince students to follow our particular approach to theology but to use our particular approach to theology to convince our students to follow Christ!

This article is reprinted with permission of the publisher. Article originally published in Vision for Youth Magazine, spring 2007. Tim Ahlgrim is the National Director of Vision For Youth, Inc. and has been actively involved in student ministry for over 30 years! You can reach him at: tim@visionforyouth.com.

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God uses many things to bring glory to Himself. Let me tell you of the most recent thing in our youth group that God chose to use…a Word of Life S.T.O.R.M. meeting. S.T.O.R.M. stands for Sending Teens Out to Reach the Masses. I am a youth pastor at a small church; and, at first, I wasn’t sure how this would work for us. You’ll see that it did! If you’re going to have a S.T.O.R.M. meeting, you need to have a goal. Your goal for the S.T.O.R.M. meeting night is to clearly present the gospel to unsaved students. A S.T.O.R.M meeting is a great way to achieve this objective.

It is also very important that you teach the regularly attending teens the goal of the night so that they know the goal at which they are aiming. Our weeks before the meeting our youth leaders and I began to promote the S.T.O.R.M. event to our teens. In your promotion you need to answer the question that is in your teen’s minds, “Why should I bring my unsaved friends to this event?” In preparation for this event, we had the teens bring a list of unsaved friends they wanted to invite. Then we began praying
during our small groups for those students.

Preparation for this event will include seeking adult volunteers from the church to drive and help transport visitors to the S.T.O.R.M. meeting, bringing the ingredients for the banana split, help make the banana split, crowd control, and most importantly prayer. For us, this was an event with which the entire church helped. Rather than having our regular evening service that night, the entire church body served the teens in our community. This was one of the best things that we’ve ever done. This helped unify our teens and adults in our church. Our normal youth group is fifteen teens and four youth leaders. You can see that your group does not have to be huge to hold this event. The things that we did that night that made it a success included a forty foot banana split, prizes, and the Word of Life ministries team.

Our Area Missionary came and shared the gospel. Having Word of Life there freed up our leaders to focus on getting to know the visitors. We had an outdoor event planned but it rained during the whole event so we moved inside. We average 15 teens in our youth group on Sunday nights and we had forty seven teens for the S.T.O.R.M., of which 31 were visitors. That night after the gospel was shared nine young teens accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The event was the best thing that the Lord has used in our youth group to bring glory to Himself. If you want to grow your group and get the gospel out to more teens in your community, a S.T.O.R.M. meeting is an event that you must do!
[Mike Fritz is the youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Susquehanna, PA.]
Editor’s Note: By planning your S.T.O.R.M. just prior to a Word of Life Super-Bowl you can more than
double the gospel impact on your community.

The 2007 Word of Life Superbowl season is coming up! As you promote this important event, prayer should play an important role in the process. A Prayer Breakfast is a great way to help your students focus on the lost and the importance of their salvation. Studentswho spend time praying for their friends could see more of them come to Christ. They could come to value prayer more when an emphasis is placed upon it. We should help our students understand that prayer is vital in reaching others for Christ. A Prayer Breakfast gives students an opportunity to talk to the Lord about their friends. We recommend that you schedule at least one Prayer Breakfast before you attend the Superbowl in your area.

Purpose:

To pray for the salvation of the lost people who have been invited to a special event (like Superbowl) where they will hear the Gospel. This will also make your young people more aware of the lost.

Planning the Prayer Breakfast:

When

Before the event on a Saturday is the best time for the Prayer Breakfast. Have it early on Saturday so you do not take up an entire day.

Where

Have it at a leader’s home.

Time

8 to 9 AM. This allows people to use the rest of their Saturday.

Format

8:00-8:15 Eat

8:15-8:25 Devotion & Sharing (who they have invited etc)

8:25-8:30 Pass out prayer list

8:30-8:55 Pray

8:55-9:00 Share details of the next event, activity or update on both.

Prepare to pray:

• Divide into groups of 2, 3 or 4s. Have someone in each group take notes.
• Use different rooms Collect the names of those who have been invited to the event.
• Visualize the names on a poster or paper.
• By the time the Prayer Breakfast is over, have all the names on a master prayer list and give copies to everyone to take home .

How to Pray:

• Pray that the lies they have been told will not be believed.
• Pray that the hypocrites they are using for an excuse will be removed from their sight.
• Pray that God will break down the walls that are keeping them from Christ.
• Pray for boldness & wisdom to speak the Word of God to them.
• Pray that they will hear the truth of your words and the Word of God & believe it.
• Claim the salvation of each person in Jesus name.

[Steve Gledhill is the Word of Life missionary for northern California. Questions and comments may be  sent to Steve Gledhill at sgledhill@wol.org.]

Take the following inventory to see what your spiritual background was like. Then ask yourself, “What am I passing on to the next generation?” Are you giving them the whole counsel of God or just the “fun” stuff? Take this “Spiritual Inventory” from Focus on the Family to see how you were taught as a child.

1. To what degree were spiritual principles incorporated into daily family life?
1. Never 2. Rarely 3. Sometimes 4. Frequently 5. Almost always 6. Consistently
2. Which word captures the tone of how you learned to view/relate to God?
1. Absent 2. Adversarial 3. Fearful 4. Casual 5. Solemn 6. Intimate
3. How would you summarize your family’s level of participation in spiritual activities?
1. Nonexistent 2. Rare 3. Occasional 4. Regimental 5. Active 6. Enthusiastic
4. How were spiritual discussions applied in your home?
1. They weren’t 2. To control 3. To manipulate 4. To teach 5. To influence 6. To reinforce
5. What was the perspective in your home regarding moral absolutes?
1. If it feels good, do it! 2. There are no absolutes. 3. Let your heart guide you. 4. Dogmatic legalism
5. Moderate conservatism 6. Clear boundaries
Results:
Above 24 = Strong spiritual legacy; 19 – 24 = Healthy legacy; 14 – 18 = Mixed legacy — good and bad elements; 10 – 13 = Weak spiritual legacy; Below 10 = Damaged spiritual legacy

If your children or students were given this evaluation, what would be the spiritual temperature of your home or

ministry? Let’s look at some practical ways to make your home or youth room a place where godly disciplines, godly ways and doctrine could be taught.

Deuteronomy 6:6-8 (NKJV), “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them

diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.”

Studies show that once our students graduate from high school only 2 out of 10 will continue to attend church. How can we change this trend? How can we leave our students and children with a strong, healthy spiritual legacy?

Here are two practical truths to put into practice.

► If you are a parent, remember and live out Deuteronomy 6:6-8. Use every opportunity to teach your children about God, His Word, and how it applies to us. To teach others we must be students ourselves. Be in the Word. Why not

use the Word of Life Quiet Time? Discuss with your kids what you got out of today’s Quiet Time. Ask them what the day’s scripture means to them. Guide them!

► If you are a leader, use this opportunity to share the truth of Deuteronomy with other parents. Encourage them to be in the Word, make a Quiet Time Diary available to them, and pray for them. Have a parent meeting within the first

month of your ministry. Lovingly, and with excitement, share what your plans are for the year and the expectations you have for their children and / or students. Take a few minutes to share with parents the importance of knowing and teaching the whole counsel of God.

May Deuteronomy 6:6-8 be a reminder to us as parents and as leaders that we have been given the responsibility to train up and teach our children the ways of the Lord. We must continue to grow ourselves by being in the Word daily.

Then share what we have learned and pass these truths to others—the next generation.

[Earlene Livingston and her husband, David, are Word of Life missionaries in Atlanta, GA. They make their home in Woodstock, GA. You may reach Earlene with questions and com]

In 1947, Lester Wunderman was arbitrarily fired from his advertising job in New York. But he felt he still had a lot to learn from the head of the agency, Max Sackheim. So the next morning Wunderman went back to his office and began working as he had before. He talked to coworkers and clients; he sat in on meetings – all without pay. Sackheim ignored him for a month. Finally he walked up to Wunderman: “Okay, you win,” he said, shaking his head. “I never saw a man who wanted a job more than he wanted money.” Well, guess what? Wunderman went on to be one of the most successful advertising men of the century. He’s credited with having invented preprinted newspaper inserts, plus subscription cards such as those used by Time-Life Books and the Columbia Record Club; ideas that have produced billions of dollars in profit. Now, advertising may not be your thing – but action must be! What are you willing to do to achieve your dream? Work without pay? Refuse to quit?

Success begins at the beginning, and it continues with consistent action. Now, ponder these thoughts:

(1) you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

(2) The first two letters in the word goal, are GO.

(3) Some people dream of worthy accomplishments, others wake up and do them.

(4) Anybody who brags about what they’re going to do tomorrow probably did the same thing yesterday.

(5) You will never be what you ought to be until you’re doing what you ought to be doing.

(6) If you’re having trouble thinking outside the box, you’re probably in the wrong box. Get out of there!

Nehemiah 4:6 “So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

[John Armstrong is a National Coordinator with Word of Life Local Church Ministries. He and his wife, Cathy, reside in Schroon Lake, NY. Questions and comments about this article may be directed to John at johna@wol.org.]

Ed nervously paced the crowded sidewalk outside Holton’s Shoe Store in downtown Boston. His brief lunch hour was nearly over; but, he had not yet done what he had come to do! Inside the shoe store was an eighteen-year-old clerk who was a member of the Sunday school class Ed taught at church. The young man had seemed bored in class and generally disinterested in spiritual things since he began attending church one year earlier. Ed felt burdened to talk to him about his relationship with Christ; and, today was the day he had planned to do so. But, he was nervous about it! What if he won’t listen to me? What if he thinks I’m being too pushy and quits the class all together? What if he gets angry and throws me out?

Breathing a prayer for courage, Ed finally walked into the store and found the clerk busy at work. The young man was surprised to see his Sunday school teacher. Ed quickly got to the point. “I came to tell you how much Christ loves you” he said. They talked for several minutes. Then, the young man knelt down on the spot and opened his life to Jesus Christ. Later, the clerk related the impact of his conversion: “I was in a new world. The birds sang sweeter, the sun shone brighter. I’d never known such peace.”

Ed left the shoe store that day rejoicing that he had overcome his self-doubt and fear and let God use him to share the good news with the young shoe clerk. This fearful Sunday school teacher could not have imagined that during the next 150 years millions of people would be just as thankful that he had overcome his anxiety and hesitation that April day in 1855 to share the gospel in a shoe store. Though unaware until now, you may be one of the people whose spiritual journey was influenced by this Sunday school teacher, Edward Kimball.

You see, the eighteen-year-old Boston shoe clerk Kimball talked to that day was Dwight L. Moody. Moody became one of America’s great evangelists in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He had an impact all over the world. In addition, Moody later counseled a young man named J. Wilbur Chapman on the assurance of his salvation. Chapman became a Presbyterian minister, evangelist, and Moody’s friend and colleague in ministry. Moody and Chapman strongly influenced a young professional baseball player named Billy Sunday, whom God used in the evangelistic ministry. It is estimated that three hundred thousand men and women came to faith in Christ during Billy Sunday’s two hundred campaigns.

But Kimball’s legacy didn’t stop there. A 1924 Billy Sunday evangelistic campaign in Charlotte, NC resulted in the formation of the Charlotte Businessman’s Club which continued to evangelize the region. In 1934, the CBMC invited evangelist Mordecai Ham to conduct a campaign in Charlotte. A young man of eighteen reluctantly attended one of those meetings and then gave his life to Christ. His name was Billy Graham. No one has preached the gospel to more people than Billy Graham. Was Billy Graham instrumental in your coming to Christ? If not directly, perhaps the person who brought you to Christ was influenced by his preaching. At the very least, you likely know someone who became a Christian because of this great evangelist’s ministry.

The gripping reality is this: countless millions of people have been brought to faith in Christ through the preaching of D.L. Moody, Billy Sunday, and Billy Graham during the past century and a half. What would have happened if a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball had allowed self-doubt to detour him from living out his passion for sharing Christ with others?

Another significant enemy of the life of passion is self-doubt – the inner gnawing sense that you are unqualified or incapable of making a difference in your world. You may say something like, “Why should I work so hard at pursuing a passionate life? I’m nobody special. I can’t do much. Passionate people have it all together, and that’s not me.”

Had Edward Kimball taken that attitude, he may never have entered the shoe store. And if you allow self-doubt to corner you, you will not only rob yourself of the exciting life of passion God has for you; but, you will also rob others of God’s influence through you.

[This article was excerpted from Life Wide Open—Unleashing the Power of a Passionate Life written by Dr. David Jeremiah and published by Integrity Publishers, Nashville, pages 103-105.]

“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Psalm 119:11 The words of God have the power to keep us from sin when they are hidden in our hearts. But how do we help our Gopher Buddies accomplish this? Working with children between the ages of four and six brings unique challenges. First, most will not be reading yet. That makes it harder for them to study their verses on their own. This puts more burden on you as a leader, and on their parents or older siblings. In this age when parents are showing less and less of an interest in the spiritual growth of their children, the burden will fall more and more upon you. Secondly, and related to their inability to read, you will have to use creative teaching techniques to help them memorize Scripture. Here are some practical techniques:

• Use Visuals: Make a poster for each verse. Find pictures that can represent each word in the verse. Glue them to the poster in the correct order. This can also be done on your computer using clip art and/or graphics found on the Internet. The graphics will help them to associate the words of the verses with the pictures that they see. Be sure to clearly describe and define difficult words so the children understand the words they are memorizing.

• Use Movement: This idea works well for Gopher Buddies. They already like to move and their movements can help them to memorize. I suggest that you develop movements for the different key words in the verse. Don’t worry about words like: of, for, the, that, etc.

• Use Repetition: Repetition is crucial. The more they hear the verse, the easier it will be for them to memorize it.

• Use Games: There are 36 creative game ideas found in the Gopher Buddies Lesson book each year. Children love games, and tying together scripture memory and games will help keep their interest up.

• Use Creativity and Efficiency: What can you do if you don’t have any parental involvement? First, be sure to use your time well for scripture memory before, during, and after the club meeting. Secondly, if you have permission from the parents, you can call the child and work on a verse over the phone. Scripture is what should always be on our minds and hearts (Joshua 1:8). We have a great responsibility to help our Gopher Buddies not let the “book of the law…depart out of thy mouth.”

[Jordan Wertz is the eastern Michigan Word of Life missionary specializing in children’s ministry. Jordan and wife, Bonnie, make their home in Corunna, MI. You may reach Jordan with questions or comments about his article at jordanwertz@ wol.org.]

Would you like to reach teens that have never been in church before? Would you like to share Jesus with students who have never heard about Jesus as Savior? Would you like to increase your Student Ministry attendance for one night by double or triple? Would you like to increase your average attendance by 10% or more? Would you like to take more unsaved students to Superbowl to hear the Gospel? “STORM” IS THE ANSWER!!!

STORM (Sending Teens Out Reaching the Masses) is not just an event, but a process of getting the students and adults of your church excited about evangelism. If you follow the evangelistic STORM event with follow-up, it becomes a process for discipleship and long term growth. The discipleship process is easier with the right tools. The first tool that we recommend is a powerful little book by our LCM director, Mike Calhoun. It is called First Steps – The Adventure Begins (See the Product Catalog, page 19). Order several of these booklets ahead of time so you can give them as free gifts after each person has made a decision at the STORM. Following the STORM two other discipleship tools should be used: Biblical Beliefs and Growing Biblically in Your Faith. These booklets appear and are also described in the Product Catalog also on page 19.

In your planning meetings, you need to do the following:

• You should schedule a date (during STORM month). My favorite time to conduct a STORM is on a normal Student Ministries meeting night. However, you must realize that your STORM will need to start about two hours before your normal meeting time.

• You should engage a speaker. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT! Your speaker needs to be able to do three things.

1. Communicate the gospel in a clear way.

2. Share or preach with excitement.

3. Give a clear invitation for the students to receive Christ. (I would encourage you to have your Area Missionary speak for you; especially if you never had a STORM before.)

• You should schedule a room/place that will hold up to three times your normal attendance.

• You should choose a “hook”. This is usually food, since students like to fellowship over food. Oh yeah—so do I! Two of the favorites are pizza and ice cream.

• You should choose who is going to do the orientation with your drivers and students. Not sure what to do? We have the answer with a STORM DVD. The orientation DVD will be with two crazy, awesome guys: Aaron and Kyle. They will make your orientation fun, informative and motivating.

• You should find people who will help (from your church—not just from your leadership team). Remember if you are a small church each person can double up on responsibilities. Below are some areas to think about:

1. Supplying and serving food for teens and workers before the orientation.

2. Supplying and serving food after the Student meeting.

3. One driver for every two students of your average attendance. The drivers need to be at the orientation with the students two hours before the normal meeting.

4. Hospitality People will greet and sign in the students. They will also have extra activities for those who are brought in early—like Volleyball.

A STORM Manual is also available to help you. The STORM Manual will help you with the detailed planning. The manual will also go over follow-up ideas to continue the impact of your ministry in each visitor’s life. The DVD has three video clips. The first is a promotion skit. The second is the actual orientation that you can use on the night of the STORM. And the third is for counselor training. DVD and the STORM Manual are available from your Area Missionary. Gospels of John, Decision Cards, Misty tracts and beautiful STORM T-Shirts are available in the Word of Life Product Catalog. This article is not intended to help with all the detailed planning; but, its intent is to give you the big picture from which you can plan an awesome fall event that can dovetail with Superbowl and start a process of ongoing outreach through new teens introduced to your Student Ministry. Whether you see 1 or 51 teens trust Christ as Savior, your efforts will impact your Student Ministry for God’s glory.

Plan now to be a part of National STORM outreach September – October 17

[Ken Dady is the Word of Life Missionary in western Ohio and northern Kentucky. He has run dozens of STORM meetings and seen hundreds of students trust Christ. His heart beats for evangelism. Ken and his wife Pam make their home in Bellefontaine, OH. Questions and comments about STORM may be addressed to Ken at kdady@wol.org.]

We add life to our theology in at least two ways. The first is to properly interpret the Bible; and the second is to creatively apply the truth of the Scriptures. Too often students have decided that the life of faith is not for them because their youth workers have not properly reflected the exciting life of theology.

Their conclusion is that theology is boring, and therefore the Christian life is boring. Jesus said that He came to give us life which includes both eternal life and life lived to the fullest on the earth (John 10:10)! This is exciting – and we should communicate the excitement – the life of theology. Throughout Scripture God has used descriptive words, creative concepts, and incredible stories to express His truth. We must read, search, discover, and convey the life of the Scriptures. This takes work. I recently researched Psalm 46:10 “Be still and know that I am God.” I found that the Hebrew meaning of being still is for me to put everything down, drop everything out of my hands. That makes sense when looking at the previous verses. In them God says He will break the bow, burn the shield, and shatter the spear. He takes the weapons from our hands and destroys them. The conclusion is when things are dropped from our hands; we must trust God because we have nothing left to trust in ourselves. This has exciting applications to students. What is in their hands that needs to be dropped so they can be still and know that God is God? Is it popularity, computers, phones, schoolwork, or fear?

The concepts of salt and light, from the Sermon on the Mount, are two more biblical concepts that are exciting to students when we effectively communicate them. They include ideas about making a difference, having an impact on their world, and becoming significant in the work of Christ. Add life to theology by doing the work of interpreting what the Bible is saying. Do your students know that Daniel stood up for God as a teenager, (Daniel 1) but by the time he is thrown into the den of lions he was in his late 90’s (Daniel 6), that he read a letter from Jeremiah and thought that God was going to deliver him (Jeremiah 11 and Daniel 9), or that the king was in terrible torment during the night while Daniel was with the lions? This is just one story with such a strong fragrance of life that your students should be caught in the aroma as you tell it!

Check out Jonathan and his armor bearer, David and Goliath, Hezekiah and Sanacharib, any story about Jesus, or countless other Bible stories. Read them with new life and communicate them so that your students will enter into what God is saying! The Bible is not boring in any way; but we make it that way by not allowing the life to stay in our theology. Continued on next page… The second way we are able to add life in theology is to creatively apply the truth of Scripture. Tell stories! Remember the following guidelines. Always use an illustration to breathe life into the Scripture. Do not use a passage of Scripture to illustrate your interesting story. Tell an interesting story to illustrate the passage of Scripture. Add life by using stories of current events, referring to news that is happening in the student’s cultural areas of music, media, or celebrities. If it is within your personality, use humor. When using humor, it is important to stay within your personality. I can’t tell jokes so I don’t try. There is only one David Letterman. Be yourself. Be creative when we add life to Scripture by using the talent the Lord has blessed you with. If you are an artist, use art. If you are musician, use music. If you are a poet, use poetry. Creativity is surprising when giving an invitation. Nail notes to a cross, burn slips of paper with idols written on them; hand out nails, stones, as imaginative ways to add life to student response time.

How can I improve the chances students will remember theology? Add life. Some youth workers of my generation were taught to not use humor, not tell stories, and in so many words not show any personality when communicating the Gospel. The proper way to present theology was by being boring. When a particularly entertaining chapel speaker appeared, our instructor would spend the next class explaining why entertainment was wrong in presenting theology. If this is or is not your background, I have good news for you. Add life, it is ok to tell stories! We must Add LIFE to Theology!

These essential additions to our theology will cause us to reach the hearts as well as the minds of our students. We will also have a good balance between our theology and the words of Christ. The addition of KNOWLEDGE and LIFE are essential to our theology!

(This article is reprinted with permission of the publisher. Article originally published in Vision for Youth Magazine, Spring 2007.) [Tim Ahlgrim is the National Director of Vision For Youth, Inc. and has been actively involved in student ministry for over 30 years! You can reach him at: tim@visionforyouth.com.]