The Reason Review is So Important
Remember this scene from Jaws 1?
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSo5fNkNKlw)
Of all the things that old guy had going on, I think it’s hilarious that the police chief chose to comment on his hat! Well anyway, I can hear you thinking right now, “What in the world does this have to do with youth ministry?” Hang with me here, I’ll get around to that.
I’ve probably seen the Jaws movies a hundred times, but even so, when I would see this following clip at the end of some shows on TV, I never could put 2 and 2 together.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT5TAy7hJ_8)
Bad Hat Harry Productions is a production company created by famed producer Bryan Singer. I was always so confused by that clip though. What did it mean?
Then one day my wife and I (before we had kids) had a rare whole day off and something possessed us to watch the Jaws movies. We ran down to the video rental place and got them all. We settled in at about 10am for a long day of fear instilling fun! We weren’t half way through the first one when we saw this scene.
I shot off the couch like a rocket! I screamed in wild exclamation, “That’s It!” … I looked at my wife, she looked at me, crickets chirped….. Then I began to explain why it was such a monumental discovery… an epiphany in my life. I FINALLY knew where Bad Hat Harry Productions got their name. My wife said something along the lines of, “That’s nice honey, can you sit down now and watch the rest of the movie?” She just didn’t appreciate the significance. Oh well….
The Point?
Has that ever happened to you? You know two separate pieces of information. Perhaps you’ve even known them for a VERY long time. But then one day…. EUREKA! The connection is made! This happens to me in my spiritual life. And do you know when it happens? It’s usually when I’m reviewing something very familiar…. something I’ve known forever. Just like watching Jaws when I’d seen it a million times before. But you look at the same thing one more time and boom, the light goes on.
In youth ministry, I sometimes hear this philosophy. “I don’t want to stick to a teaching plan and I definitely don’t want to teach doctrinal stuff because I don’t want to teach the same old thing over and over. I want to do what’s new…. what’s hot.” Sometimes from some students I hear, “Not this passage again…. Not this topic again…. not this story again…..” But can I tell you something? It’s the review that gives you the EUREKA moments.
I’m not advocating the same old thing every week. I’m not advocating killing creativity. I’m just saying we ought to find out what’s important and then teach it. Regularly. At Word of Life, we help accomplish this with teaching materials that have been well thought out and keep the main thing the main thing. In fact, we have a 6 year scope an sequence. You can grab a sample of those lessons out at our Teacher Source Demo site.
Whatever your curriculum, whatever your style, don’t be afraid to repeat the important things. The Bible isn’t. When there’s a particularly important message in a passage, it gets repeated over and over.
We’ve got to be giving our students the meat of the Word and we’ve got to do it unapologetically. If your students just don’t seem to get it, keep repeating. Be patient. God is patient with us. One day two and two will come together and they’ll finally get it.
That’s some bad hat Harry!
