READ PART 1: Yesterday I shared 3 things I want my students to know before they graduate – part 1. This second part addresses how we try to accomplish those three things in our ministry.

Obviously, this is all a work of the Holy Spirit. I believe we are all depraved beings and that our natural desire is to peruse things that oppose God, so while I would love to see these three things take place in every graduating senior, I first have to be honest enough to say that these three things are not always present in my own life. My sin issues constantly derail me from being a perfect example for students.

However, without assuming too much responsibility for how each student chooses to respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings, there are a couple things our ministry does to help push teenagers toward each of the three things.

1) 7th and 8th graders go through the entire Bible before high school. Our junior high small groups go through the entire Old Testament one year and the New Testmanet the next. By the time they enter high school, they have a basic understanding of the entire Word of God. Small group leaders do their best to help the junior highers not just fill their head with facts, but daily journaling, reflection, memorization, acts of service, and more help them apply it all practically to their daily life and practice.

2) Teach Bible study methods to high schoolers. This is a hard balance for me. Last year I did an 8 week series on hermeneutics and basically taught a crash course of my Intro to Bible Study Methods class from Dallas Theological Seminary. I whipped out all my old notes, gave them some of the same homework assignments I had in seminary, and provided books for further study. A few students stepped up to the challenge and really took the observation, interpretation and application process very seriously. For most, though, it was way over their head. I plan to revisit this series again next year, but it needs to be simplified and balanced so I don’t loose kids to day dreaming.

3) We youth leaders must model personal worship and evangelism. I do my best never to ask my kids to do something that I haven’t first tried in my own life. That means if I’m going to ask them to share about a time in the previous week when they brought God up in a conversation with an unsaved friend, I’d better have a story to share myself. If I’m challenging them to dig into God’s Word, I need to be doing it first and sharing that experience with the teens. They need to see how studying God’s Word practically plays out in my own life, how it affects my own decisions and values, and how it’s reflective in my personal worship and outreach. Otherwise I’m just another Christian hypocrite.

What it all really comes down to is our youth group’s vision to go Deep and Wide: deep into God’s Word and wide with His message to the people around us. That’s what drives everything we do, including the 3 things I want my students to know before they graduate.

Graduation is coming up in a couple months and it’s caused me to reflect a bit on our ministry overall, from 7th grade through 12th grade. By the time they graduate, what should they know? Where should they be spiritually? What should their lives look like?

This is obviously a very subjective list, but here’s what I’d like to see for our youth group’s graduates before they leave our ministry.

1) An overview understanding of the entire Bible. I’m not saying they need to know everything in it, but at least be able to track through Genesis to Revelation at a 35,000 foot level. Biblical literacy is key because you cannot fall in love with someone if you don’t know much about them. But the more you know, the more there is to fall in love with, and the more you fall in love, the more you want to know about that person. Knowing God’s Word is foundational to knowing and loving God.

2) Know how to study scripture for themselves. I don’t want our youth group kids to graduate and always be dependent on someone else to chew on God’s Word, digest it, and spit it out in bite size pieces for them each week at church. I want them to learn how to feed on the Word of God for their own and not just swallow the assumptions that I, or any other pastor or teacher, throws at them. They should be equipped to dig into God’s Word on their own, study it for themselves, and feed on it’s life-sustaining power, not being content with spiritual milk.

3) Worship and evangelism should be a natural part of their daily lives. 1 Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” And 1 Corinthians 4:20 says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” Learning God’s Word and being able to study it on your own is great, but if that knowledge is just a lot of talk and never turns to love for God and for people (i.e. the Great Commandment), then it’s a waste. The outpouring of their knowledge of God should turn into a passionate love that is exemplified in their lifestyle of worship and a burden for lost people.

Tomorrow I’ll share how we address these things practically in our ministry. UPDATE: Part 2 is now published here.

What 3 things do you want your students to know, do, and/or experience before they graduate? Share in the comments below.

I probably should’ve blogged about this a while ago for you guys since a lot of your graduation parties and events are probably over, but if you’re like me, it’s coming up this weekend.

Animoto.com is the easiest to quickly create professional looking video slideshows from all the pictures you’ve collected of your seniors over the years. Upload your photos, add your own soundtrack, Animoto analyzes the music, and melds it with the photos in a way that feels somewhat like MTV video.

A free account will get you unlimited 30-second slideshows, so if you want something longer than that you’ll have to pay $3 per video or upgrade to an All Access account for $30/year. Alternatively, I heard some churches are scoring free All Access accounts through Animoto’s “For A Cause” program. (Click on “a cause” at the bottom of the screen on their site.)

Here’s a video I made a couple weeks ago mostly with Animoto.com for our Volunteer Appreciation Sunday at church. (I used iMovie to put our church’s intro and outro on it.) Check out our Volunteer Appreciation video on YouTube.

[ Visit Animoto.com ]