Preaching To Students: Helping the Message Stick

Picture with me: You’ve spent hours preparing a message. You’ve prayed over it, structured it well, and passionately delivered it. Yet, as your students walk out of your church doors to head home, you can’t help but wonder:

• Did that actually do anything?
• Did they get it?
• Will those words stick beyond tonight, or will they be forgotten by the time their heads hit the pillow?

This is the challenge that youth pastors face. Now, to help set the table appropriately with our role in all of this, I would submit to you that the most important part of our teaching of the Bible is to hold up the Word of God with honor, respect, authority, and accuracy. But for some reason, so many of us feel the weight of wondering if our messages are making an impact.

From my experience, every youth pastor wants their messages to connect. I know it’s one that you take seriously, and at times, you might even sit in guilt because you feel like you don’t give it enough time or prep that it needs. Crafting a message for your students isn’t only about speaking well, engaging, or in a relevant way. It’s about seeing lives transformed through the power of the Gospel.

I wish there was a perfect turnkey solution to this, but there’s not. While the course of our life is to find ourselves on the side of faithful obedience to the Scriptures, we can still think practically about preaching messages that stick. A few things to remember, though: every context matters, every youth pastor's skillset matters, and at the end of the day, this is the true work of the Holy Spirit. My hope is that the tips below will help guide you as you think through your weekly message prep and what framework you have when it comes to preaching to your students.

Pray, Plan, Prepare

Before you ever step in front of your students, please take time to pray, plan, and prepare. I know you’re busy, you have another job, you have that event coming up, and you’re navigating some difficult conversations. But you cannot be too busy with this. In fact, I would say if you skip this part, the following tips would likely be in vain. Maybe, maybe not. Be a leader who has prayed over and for your ministry and the messages that you are teaching.

As you pray, see where God would lead you with what to teach. Make plans to teach what you know your students are currently engaging and facing in their world today. As you plan, consider trying to be one step ahead. Start thinking through a series or message that will answer what they’re already asking or thinking about.

Side Note: If you find yourself constantly struggling to plan out what to teach, maybe utilizing help from a curriculum or pre-packaged series would be a huge help for you. If so, I’d encourage you to CLICK HERE! You’ll find a ton of series that have been written with you and your students in mind that help create impactful moments in your ministry as you teach.

Take time each week to prepare. This not only means preparing in your own study but also thinking about how the message will flow, sound, and be received by your students. You know your students best, so you should have some insight into how this will help them meet where they are.

Understand Your Audience

Here’s where things start to get a little more practical. In order to preach messages that stick, you’ve got to know who you’re preaching to. Teenagers are a different breed. They think differently, process differently, and engage differently. Consider their world as you craft your message.

When you preach, do it in a way that makes sense to them. You might want to push back on this next thought, and that’s okay, but maybe the days of a 30-40 minute sermon on a Wednesday night aren’t the best way to meet your audience where they are. If that works for you, then GREAT! To understand your audience, consider what you teach, how you teach, and for how long you teach. Is your current model most effective? Could it be done differently? Have you considered asking your students what would help them?

I know you want to hit a grand slam home run every night you preach, but remember that you get to see them and stand before them every week. Think about that strategically. I recently heard a story of a CEO who was jealous about what a pastor or preacher gets to experience every single week. They get uninterrupted time with their people every single week to stand in front of them and speak. Keep that in mind as you preach to your students. Know them. Understand them. Bring the truth of the gospel into their world week after week.

Remove Distractions

Teenagers, remember? If you have a light bulb that is out or flickering, change it! Don’t let your student tech team shine a laser on you while you’re speaking (yup, this happened to me). Take a look at your space and evaluate what could be distracting. Oftentimes, you’re always on the stage, so you’ll miss out on some of these distracting things. Make sure you have a leader who can look out for these things.  Don’t let a distraction in the room keep them from engaging in the service.

Use Interactive Learning

In my experience, students don’t want to just sit and be lectured to; they want to participate. They want to engage. In fact, I would argue that when they are able to, it can help with their opportunity to learn, remember, and apply.

As you teach, find ways to incorporate different teaching methods to keep them engaged. Students can lose attention fast, so changing your teaching style will help reengage them throughout your message. Here are a few ways to use interactive learning:

Tell Stories: Jesus taught in parables for a reason. Stories stick. Look for ways to share a story to help communicate a biblical truth. Sharing stories can help reel students back in. Your message is a deep dive into a passage in the Bible. You want them to swim deep to explore the truths of Scripture, but in order to swim deep, you have to come up and take a breath. Telling a story might be the breath they need to take before they dive deep into the next point of your message.

Use Visuals: Whether it’s an object lesson, a video, or a teaching slide, visuals help reinforce your point. I’m a prime example of this. My wife tries to explain things to me on a regular basis. At some point in the conversation, I get this look on my face. I can’t explain it or even recreate it, but she knows it when she sees it. When I get that look, she knows to stop talking and either draw a picture, show me an example, or explain it in a different way. You have students in your chairs every week who need a visual explanation throughout your message to better understand it.

Ask Questions: Be interactive. I often ask questions that I want them to answer live and in the moment. This helps keep them engaged. Another way to do this is to pose a question and tell them to talk to the person next to them about it (For example, tonight we’re going to talk about prayer. Turn to the person next to you and tell them what you think prayer means.) Be brave enough to have an active engagement time in your message. In essence, don’t just talk at them; talk with them.

Clarity Is Cool

A complicated message is a forgotten message. Fight for clarity as you preach. If a student can’t summarize your main point in one sentence, it’s probably too complicated. That’s why I always preach with a main idea. You might call this your bottom line, big idea, key takeaway, etc. You can’t afford to make your message complicated or confusing. Clarity matters, and it helps.

Anchor In The Gospel

No matter what you’re teaching, always bring it back to Jesus. Your messages aren’t about offering good advice, a change of behavior, or a helpful thought. Your messages are about the life-changing good news of Jesus.

Be anchored in the Gospel and remind students of their need for Jesus, His grace, and how His truth can change their lives. Whatever you say is of little use if it’s anything other than the gospel. My challenge to you would be that as you preach, the gospel should never be assumed. It is meant to be shared boldly and in repetition. This is the message that brings dead hearts back to life. 

Don’t Forget Application

After the students have heard the message, what do you want them to do?  Answering the question, “So, now what?” helps bring your message to a close. You want them to put into practice what they just heard. If your students leave and don’t know how to answer, “What do we do with what we’ve heard?” odds are, you may not have been clear in your message or response.  I think students respond better when they have a clear, take-home challenge that helps them apply what they just heard. 

Preaching to students is a big deal. It’s not something to take lightly or not take advantage of. Preaching to students is an essential tool to make disciples. Remember that what you teach matters. You’re teaching students the truth of God’s Word. It helps form them. Shape them. Disciple them. It matters. Don’t forget it.

  So, if you’ve ever walked off the stage and thought, “I hope that went well or I wonder how that went?” you’re not alone. Did I say everything I wanted to?  Did I hit this point clearly? Did my illustration make sense? These questions fill my head after speaking. Hopefully, using these tips will help you as you lead your students. The power of your message doesn’t rest only upon your delivery but in the truth and transformation within it.

Share your thoughts with others in our YM360 community:

1. What is one tip you can focus on to help you grow as you preach? What is one tip you would add?
2. What is the most difficult part of preaching for you and your context? Can you take steps to make that less difficult? Why or why not?