One of the key roles of a youth
worker is speaking to teenagers. For some this is a gift that comes
naturally—lots of youth workers are gifted speakers, while others have had to
learn how to communicate effectively to an audience. Regardless of your skill
level, these tips will either affirm what you’re already doing or help you push
forward in your skills to speaking/preaching/teaching.
Find Your Own Preferred Style
Everyone has a preferred style
of taking notes or jotting down reminders. Whatever your preferred style, go
into a meeting with the student with some key points that you want to address
with them. These could be questions, concerns, etc. If you must, you can out a
manuscript so that you don’t miss anything, however, this seems less
spontaneous and more like a lecture so be careful.
Practice It Once or Twice By Yourself
Prepare your lesson early
enough to provide time to run over the talk out loud as if you were giving it
live on stage. Work on your delivery, and add new thoughts and ideas to your
outline as you progress through the run-through. So often great lines, dramatic
pauses, or a fresh idea come through when you’re practicing. Too often what
looks good on paper doesn’t work verbally, so get the kinks out before you’re
in front of your students.
Debrief Your Talk
There’s nothing more valuable
than being able to critique your self after a talk. Find someone that you trust
and will in a loving but direct way share with you their thoughts about your
talk. Debriefing your talk can help you improve how you give future talks, so
this is very important. I find that my wife is a good person to do this with.
She serves as a pastor and is a very good speaker herself. You may even want to
get one of your youth leaders to help you with this process. However you
debrief your talk… Do it! You’ll improve greatly if you open yourself up for honest
feedback. The truth of the matter is this: People are critiquing you anyway;
why not give them permission to share their observations!
(I got these ideas from a weekly e-mail
that I get about youth and young adult ministry.)
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