Listen, Interact, Act

"We know that within two hours after leaving a church service, the typical individual cannot recall the theme of the sermon they heard. But, if they have a discussion about the principle and it's application to their life, or if they have a multi-sensory experience with those principles, they retain the information much longer and the probability that they will act on that information rises dramatically."- George Barna

George Barna seems to quantify what I somehow suspected, but never was able to put it quite so intelligently. As a youth pastor, there is a brief moment of stressful anticipation whenever parents ask their children the typical after church question, "What did you learn about today?". This is the moment where I hold my breath and think, "Please make it sound like we did more than play 'extreme musical chairs' ".  The truth is, a lot of church goers, not just kids, sometimes have a tough time recalling the main point of the pastor's message. I know it's hard to believe that a message that took us hours in research and preparation, sprinkled with well-timed humor and strategic illustrations could be so easily forgettable to students, right?

Well, I believe, like Barna, that there is more to student's spiritual and Biblical understanding than just listening and leaving. This is only step 1 in the process. Here's how I see it: Sunday morning church is where students simply listen to the material and process it on their own. There is some interaction here, some questions get asked, but for the most part students listen while we talk. They process things in their own hearts and minds, through their own perspective, and God speaks to them as individuals. Then, a couple days later on our youth group night step 2 happens: In our big group, I reintroduce our Sunday topic from a slightly different angle so that they don't tune me out with the "I've already heard this" attitude. Then, we move from our big group to small groups of ideally 8 (ish) other students of the same gender lead by an adult volunteer. These are like mini youth groups where they go through and discuss the topic on a personal level. Now students get to ask personal questions that they're wrestling with, listen to what other students their age think about a spiritual idea and form meaningful connections with other Christians. They get to move from just listening to the material to interacting with the material, seeing how it applies to their life. The goal is, through a consistent small group, students will start to get real with each other and their relationship with God letting their walls and opening themselves up to accountability and discipleship. The third step is challenging the students to now act on what they've heard on their own. This can be as simple as leaving them with a relevant challenge at the end of the small group and have a follow up discussion about it the following week. Or it can be something like a service project or an individual challenge to students depending on where they are personally at. Good small group leaders will follow up with their students about how it went.

I now see each part of this process as part of my "talk". As much as I would like to think that students are growing more and more spiritual the longer my talk goes on Sunday, I'm seeing this is not all it takes to have a student grasp the Truths in the Bible. A meaningful and challenging mulit-sensory experience is what takes it from "what I heard" to "what I know".