Ten Tips on Preaching to Teenagers
Note: this article is a lightly edited from my notes for the Student Pastor Summit, hosted by Spurgeon College. The video of that message is at the bottom of this article, shared with permission.
I’ve been asked to reflect on what I’ve learned by preaching to teenagers over the last 18 years… in 30 minutes. Right. No problem. Here are my Top Ten Tips for Preaching to Teenagers… five are more doctrinal, and five about delivery. These aren’t in order of priority or importance, but the first five are in order of progression.
On Gospel-Centered Preaching:
1. The Role of Preaching in Gospel-Centered Ministry
There are three postures the gospel can take in your ministry. Of course, every Christian ministry likes to assume they are gospel-centered, because what Christian would aspire to be gospel-absent… but it’s important for us to honestly evaluate our ministry’s relationship with the gospel.
Gospel-Absent - no gospel, legalism and self-righteousness
Gospel-Present - Narrow gospel only… the gospel is preached for evangelism but is mostly only an evangelism tool
Gospel-Centered - Narrow gospel and Broad gospel at the heart of every aspect of your ministry, so your ministry culture reinforces what you’re preaching. If you ignore gospel culture then you can preach the best sermons and undermine them by how you treat one another… that’ll make the gospel just a good idea.
2. Narrow Gospel, Broader Gospel
Early in my ministry, I only had one way to talk about the gospel, and it was solely focused on the cross, empty tomb, and atonement for sins. Of course, that is the message of the gospel. But years later when I began to shift towards a more gospel-centered approach to ministry I realized I needed another way to talk about the gospel. (see these two YPT articles for more: here and here)
Narrow Gospel: The message of the cross and empty tomb. It focuses specifically on the Person and Work of Jesus Christ
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will be saved.” Romans 10:9
Broad Gospel: The entire message of God’s saving work - Creation, Fall, Redemption, Glorification
Peter’s sermon on Pentecost, Stephen at his martyrdom, Paul on Mars Hill
Yes, make a beeline to the gospel… but do so in a way that rightly honors the text. Don’t Jesus juke the Bible. This narrow/broad gospel language will help you locate where the biblical text is in salvation history so you can faithfully exegete the passage and proclaim the gospel to your students.
3. Understand Law & Gospel
It’s nearly impossible to lead a gospel-centered youth ministry without a strong and clear theology of Law & Gospel (podcast episode here). As we proclaim Christ and call students to receive grace and mercy and all the promises of God, it’s real easy to preach about the gospel in a way that feeds into a type of Christian universalism.
At the same time, sometimes youth workers want to be so helpful and practical they end up giving “three ways to ____” type of sermons that make every application point a new law.
So what are we talking about by Law and Gospel?
Promises and Commands
God’s Promises - these are God-given, and we receive them
God’s Commands - these are matters of obedience, and require some sort of action on our part
4. Don’t Show Your Exegetical Underwear (but you do need to wear it)
I heard this advice from Dr. Sean McDonough when I was in seminary at GCTS. It’s both memorable and true! He explained that preachers need to do their exegetical homework so we’re preaching from a place of depth, but our task is to proclaim the Word to normal people who already assume we know more about the Bible than they do. We don’t need to show off all our exegesis to preach the main emphasis of the text.
People can tell when you’re speaking from a place of depth and when you’re making stuff up or unsure about your message.
You don’t need to prove your theological qualifications to your students. They already trust that you know more about the Bible than they do.
Don’t try to impress your seminary professors or mentors, because they aren’t in the room anyways. And don’t try to impress your youth leaders or prove the haters wrong. All said and done, stop trying to be impressive. Just preach the Word to serve your students.
5. Effective Communication is About What’s Heard
There are three components of communication: a sender / a receiver / a message. The sender has a message, and the receiver receives a message… but those aren’t always the same message… and that’s a problem.
People don’t hear what they want to hear… they hear what they expect to hear. So if you say “ABDEFG” and they expect you to say “EFG”, then guess what they heard?
Effective communication only happens when the message that’s sent and the message that’s received is the same message.
This is why we pay attention to youth culture, to understand GenZ’s religious worldview… and so we can teach the Word and apply the gospel with wisdom and clarity.
On Delivery:
6. Introductions and Illustrations
Introductions shouldn’t entertain or get their attention, they should make students ask the question you’re about to invite them to consider through Scripture. Students already care about what you’re going to teach from Scripture; your task in the introduction is to show them they already do.
Illustrations have two functions
Show: They aren’t there to merely entertain or keep students’ attention, they’re there in order to show… to make your message more than a good idea.
Onramps: They re-engage students who have taken a detour, and they lead them up the onramp back into the message
7. Ask Your Youth Leaders if You Have Verbal/Nonverbal Tics
A number of years ago, a church member named Ray came to me and told me that I had a habit of saying “right” during pauses in my sermon, and he lost count during my most recent sermon… but it was a lot. I asked my wife youth leaders about it and they all laughed at me for not knowing that I did that.
You have verbal and physical tics that you don’t realize, and they may be genuinely distracting… ask people what they are so you can work to get them under control.
8. Ladder of Abstraction
Delete “things” from your vocabulary when you speak and write. It’s a cheap word that we use when we’re speaking off-the-cuff. Be thoughtful about what you’re trying to communicate. Use descriptive words…
Ladder of Abstraction Example
Human
Man
Musician
Guitarist
Eric Clapton
As much as possible, be descriptive not generic.
Example: Jesus didn’t merely say, “Pray, because God will provide for his people.” He tells a parable about a woman asking her neighbor late at night for bread because she needs to take care of unexpected visitors, and then he says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:5-10)
Don’t merely teach ideas, or they’ll be easily brushed away and dismissed.
9. Pitch, Pause, Pace, Punch
Part of expository preaching is the delivery… the way you preach it should also reflect the text. A sermon isn’t a written thing, but a spoken one. If it’s only written, then it’s a letter or an essay or a book. Sermons are preached. So good expository preaching embodied the tone and message of the text.
Pitch - vocal tone carries your message and keeps you from being monotone
Pause - give people time to catch their breath after big statements. Let them know this is something worth meditation on… selah…
Pace - do you say it fast and with excitement, or slowly and softly
Punch - not a shout, but an emphatic statement. It’s a vocal exclamation mark.
10. Fill their Cup (you don’t need to over-fill)
This is one of the most common questions I receive: “How long should I teach?” unhelpful as it is, “It depends” is the best answer. Personally, the older I’ve gotten the shorter I’ve taught for. We simply need to “fill their cup” and trust the Lord to grow that over time.
It’s much easier to preach for 30-40 minutes than it is to preach a 15 minutes message that holds students’ attention, directs them to the Word, engages their mind and heart, and invites them to receive the grace of Christ.
Take your listeners’ average age, and then subtract a few if you’re new or starting off. You need to challenge yourself to be able to deliver a good, rich, crisp sermon in 12 minutes and then grow yourself and your audience’s ability to go longer. If you’re seasoned and have a mature group then I still recommend 30 minutes for a maximum length youth sermon.
It’s important to emphasize that I’m assuming your students participate in the church’s gathered worship and are regularly listening to preaching with the church body.
Don’t underestimate what the Holy Spirit can do through a cup of Scripture, delivered faithfully throughout a lifetime of ministry.
At the end of the day, your goal is very straightforward… teach the Bible, apply the gospel, and pray for the Spirit to do his work. If you’re doing that, you’re doing well.
Mike’s presentation for the Student Pastor Summit, hosted by Spurgeon College in Kansas City. Video shared with permission.
