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Table of Contents
Give Them What They Want — Strategies for Meeting Felt Needs
Consider these options when trying to rebuild your Sunday school or other discipleship effort to provide what people are looking for:
THEY WANT FRIENDS.
- Find ways to get your students to talk to each other rather than just to you.
- Help students get better acquainted by using creative introductions. A "student of the week" segment would let you provide more detailed information.
- Have students work in groups to answer discussion questions.
- Share follow-up responsibilities. Let students call on those who are ill or absent.
THEY WANT A SENSE OF PURPOSE.
- Help every student find a place of ministry.
- Tackle a few meaningful group projects.
- Highlight successful ventures, or pray each week for a ministry of your church.
- Share the meaningful benefits your efforts of ministry have brought to your life.
THEY WANT TO HAVE FUN.
- Use a variety of methods.
- Keep your methods and your students moving. Nothing will bore a student faster than sitting still doing the same things repeatedly.
- Involve students in experiencing truth.
- Lighten up. Have fun yourself. If you are not having fun, your students won’t either.
THEY WANT TO MEET GOD.
- Point your students to God as their answer.
- Give opportunities to receive from God or listen to Him.
- Include elements of worship, such as letting students speak sentences of thanksgiving to God.
- Share your own journey.
THEY WANT TO BE UNDERSTOOD.
- Understand and meet students’ emotional needs.
- Use your students’ gifts and abilities to enhance the class.
- Highlight your students. Share their hobbies or accomplishments.
- Take time to listen.
THEY WANT ANSWERS.
- Facilitate student discovery. Help them find answers rather than trying to always provide them yourself.
- Encourage interaction.
- Don’t be afraid of tough questions. Find the answers together. Even a good debate will attract students because they realize we are searching for real answers.
- Insist on relevance.
- Be aware of real issues your students are encountering in life.
THEY WANT TO LEARN A BETTER WAY TO LIVE.
- Make forgiveness and repentance normal. Finding God’s way to live is a process of recognizing failure and turning to God’s direction.
- Help students find healthy relationships. Many Christians need to evaluate the key influences in their lives and adjust them.
- Give homework. When you discover ways to live, assign your students the task of implementing those discoveries.
THEY WANT TRUTH.
- Use your Bible every week. Get students in the habit of turning to the Bible for the answers they seek.
- Insist on biblical interaction. Establish a foundation that affirms God’s Word as your source of truth.
- Discuss secular ideas of truth honestly. Don’t be afraid to revisit why we believe what we believe.
- Focus on principles rather than cultural expressions.
- Acknowledge your limits. If you don’t know the answer, admit it. Help your students learn to discover truth rather than merely listening to it.
Michael H. Clarensau, Wichita, Kansas
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