If simply telling someone something is the best way for them to learn, many children would be equipped for life at an early age. Consider the parent who has told their child again and again to wipe their feet before entering the house. Yet, a child with muddy feet who has been told a hundred times to wipe their feet will often walk into the house without a second thought to a parent’s words.
Likewise, simply telling biblical information to the youth in your group may not have a great impact on their lives. For the greatest impact, you should seek to involve them in the biblical material. Howard Hendricks, in his book Teaching to Change Lives, says that "maximum learning is always the result of maximum involvement."
We teach the "living and active" Word of God (see Hebrews 4:12) that has the power to change lives, not just a history book. Too often, however, our teaching is passive, based on the "sit still while I instill" principle. Frankly, it's much easier to lead a session in the passive manner. But in so doing, often we have not really taught anything. An age-old question says, "If nothing was learned, was anything really taught?" Though we cannot always see immediate results from our teaching, we can greatly encourage the learning process by helping our youth be active in the learning experience.
Involvement by the learner must be purposeful. We can have our youth doing a variety of things during the session that appear to have no relation to a specific end, but those activities themselves should be chosen so that they carry their own meaning. The activity itself is not the only end, but it is also more than a means to the end. The end we seek is to see the scripture change the lives of those we teach, whether they learn this through participation in an activity, or through the discussion that follows.
How can we develop purposeful activity? Consider the following ways:
• Offer guidance without being a tyrant. Provide direction, but don't seek to be the authority. Expect your youth to ask questions, but don't have them expecting that you will give (or even have) all the answers.
• Emphasize activity that focuses on application. You and I can only learn so much at a time that will really stick with us. Your goal during a session should not be to cover all the material, but rather to help the youth apply what the scriptures have said to them. Too often we want our youth to experience every part of a long scripture passage, which results in "information overload."
• Determine an objective. Don't have your group jumping around the room on one foot simply for the sake of activity. Have a purpose behind the activities you propose.
• Help youth understand the process. Often they want to know why they are doing something. If an activity was designed to help them learn to make good decisions, tell them that that was your goal.
• Incorporate problem-solving experiences into your teaching. Focus on their problems, not yours, otherwise they may not have any interest in the experience. To do this, you must get to know your youth-what are their concerns, their struggles, their temptations? Where are they in their relationship with Christ?
Jesus often involved the disciples in an activity in order to help them learn an eternal truth. Often they failed to understand or to learn, as will the youth in our group. Yet, they will be much more likely to learn, and to hear from God, if we involve them in experiences and activities that help them learn for themselves.
From Intersection, Christian Resources for Younger Youth: Year 2, Book 2, by Carol Younger, pp.10-11
