I don’t know about you, but I have found that teaching a youth Sunday School class can be exhausting! Even when you take the time to study the lesson for hours in advance, the class can still quickly fall apart. And let’s face it, I don’t always have time to do in-depth studying of the lesson. I know, I know, we should be doing in-depth scripture study every day – whether or not we are teaching a class. But I don’t. I guess I should be ashamed to admit that, but honestly, who does take time for in-depth study? I do “read” my scriptures almost every day. But lots of times that is all I can accomplish in a week, or even in a month’s time.
So a few years ago I was substituting for my husband in a youth Sunday School class. Now my husband is even worse than I am at studying the scriptures. He’s the kind of teacher that grabs the manual and reads it late Saturday night. He’s a great man, but tends to go on and on in Family Home Evening to the point where our kid’s eyes are rolling in the backs of their heads. So I was thinking the youth would be thrilled to have me as their teacher. I had visual aids and a scripture game planned for them, as well as a story and other ideas for making the lesson interesting. Much to my surprise they acted dismayed that my husband wasn’t there. What? I was so shocked! But as I talked to the class, I learned a wonderful “trick” that my husband had developed.
When the class starts, he asks each class member to tell something that happened in their life that week. It can be bad or good, or even neutral. After each class member tells their happening, my husband tells something that happened to him. If there is anything on-going in his life, he tells them installments each week. For instance, we once had some type of animal getting into our garbage. Each week he would give an update to his adventure in trying to find out what animal it was and the different things he did to try and deter the animal.
He later told me that it had all started as a way to fill time, but had mushroomed into an important part of class. The reason was that the class came to really care about each other, and about my husband. They would see him in the hall before, and after class, and make comments about his garbage problem, or whatever he had shared with them recently.
It’s a great idea, but of course you still will want to prepare your lesson well so that you know the class members will enjoy learning something from you! I have written scripts and prepared visual aids, quizzes, and stories for Youth Sunday School teachers. I sell them on Latter-day Village. Three months of lessons plans are only $6.95
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