I still believe that
videoblogging can be a tremendous tool for youth ministry. Today’s generation is tied to stories, and videoblogging is about telling stories. Marv Penner writes in
The Core Realities of Youth Ministry, “It’s no secret that adolescents today are predisposed to experiencing life as a series of intersecting stories….’You will know me if you take the time to get to know my story’ is their invitation. And the one thing that makes Scripture attractive to this generation is that it’s a fascinating story in which they have a role. If I can introduce them to a script in which their personal stories are written, they can embrace the relevance of Scripture” (12).
In youth ministry, we are constantly looking for new ways to tell the “old, old story.” We are trying to get young people involved and interested in what God has to say to them. We are inviting them to be a part of His redemption story. Story is a great part of our teaching, and videoblogging helps tell the stories of life.
Here are a few ways you could use videoblogging as a teaching help:
- Put up an example or a what would you do in this situation video (Decision making, Case studies)
- Put up a parable about what you will be teaching
- Video of a cultural problem which you will cover in the teaching time
- Put up a thought on a topic and invite responses…vary your thoughts to be according to what you think or not
- Interview people on the street about their thoughts on topics
- Interview respected people about their thoughts on a topic
- Get the students to make videos about a topic, interpreting the lesson in visual form
- Make an investigative report and post like a news report
- Cover a local story of interest with your camera and invite responses
- Invite missionaries to show their place of service so you can better pray for them
- Use trailers from movies to provoke discussion
- Look for videoblogs that make you think
Related: Part 1
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Check out this 15 minute video from Francis Chan at
Cornerstone Community Church called “Stop and Think.” In it, he challenges the viewer to think about the world, God, and His love for us in a very informal, relational way while walking to the beach with a surfboard.
Check it out here. (via:
Matt Kingsley)
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Mark Miller, in his book, Experiential Storytelling: (Re)Discovering Narrative to Communicate God’s Message, draws upon his experience as a youth pastor in Ohio to share ideas about how to communicate the timeless stories of the Bible in ways that they touch us on a deeper level than just printed words on a page or spoken words in a sermon. Miller believes that the most remarkable reason why the church in America is declining is because people are “no longer connecting with the redemptive story of the Bible†(p. 6).
The church is in a state of self-evaluation. The post-modern culture is forcing the church to take a penetrating look inside itself to see how it can connect with people today. Truth is questioned everywhere by everyone. People do not simply accept something as a fact because someone says it is true. Out of this self-investigation has come the Emerging Church movement. Church leaders are rethinking their methods, and Experiential Storytelling is part of that process.
In this book, the author tries to get the reader to rethink the way that we tell the stories of the Bible. His focus is on telling the stories of the Bible the way they were told before the Reformation and the invention of the printing press. This new way is one that he thinks will resonate more with the culture of today, and it is one that allows the listener to discover for himself the truth behind the story. Miller believes that the church must change its methods of sharing God’s Word in order to have an audience in the world today.
Continue reading ‘Book Review: Experiential Storytelling’
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Josh Leo, a videoblogger from Michigan, posted
this very good video that makes you think about what makes a person good or bad. He also included these questions:
- What makes a bad and good person?
- What defines popularity?
- Do the two intersect somewhere?
- Can a person be labeled bad or good based solely on their habits, appearance, actions, or morals?
I would include the following questions:
- Who says what is good or bad?
- Why is it this person or these people?
- Can everyone define their own good or bad?
Here’s Josh’s original post.
UPDATE: I used this video in a chapel service at a Christian School, and it really worked out well. I then re-edited it to include the students in it saying, “Bad guys are bad; good guys are good.” It was quite the attention getter.
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