Response #4 (to Tyler's #4)-Joel

1. RE: What are your opinions about practicums? Personally, having worked in a church in high school and being a pastor's kid, I have begun to have some similar feelings about practicums. But while they don't always seem extremely helpful, they are still as great of a learning experience as you make them. If nothing else this semester I have learned a lot of ways NOT to teach Sunday school. And the other thing too is that we may not see all the fruits of our labor right away. Even though you're only at this church for 4 months, the fact that you sat down and asked little Johnny how things were going at home last week might have meant the whole world to him and allowed for God to prompt something in his life. Sure, 4 months is short-term, but it can still have a lot of impact. I'm with you that they seem pointless at times, or redundant. But I think there's still a lot we can learn about from them.

2. RE: Are attention spans a hopeless cause? Have you guys ever seen a youthgroup where everyone is fully engaged? If so, how did that happen? How did the facilitator actually accomplish that? What sort of materials did they use, or were they just blessed with a group of super bible kids? Help me out here. If I knew the secret, I wouldn't be in college I'd already be on the track for taking over the senior pastor position of Willow Creek once Hybels keels over... Anyway, attention spans are extremely difficult. I'm going to go out on a limb and even say it might be impossible to keep a youth group focused for an entire message. Even more so in youth groups than for adults I think you need to cut to the chase of your teaching. Doing lots of shorter things versus one long 30 minute message followed by a 30 minute worship set satisfies, to some extent, the "ADDness" of their attention spans. I think it's always going to be a struggle though, and you're ALWAYS going to have kids who won't pay attention.