How to Experience Scripture with Your Students

We recently had the opportunity to have David Plant as guest speaker for our high school students at re:generate.  He did an amazing job!  Since then though he had the following article published on Gospel Coalition Blog.

In the story of the transfiguration, Jesus takes his friends high atop a mountain to share with them an unfiltered expression of his glory. And yet, glorious as it was, they didn’t remain there. Instead, they returned to the valley. This is an important lesson for those of us who, day in and day out, walk with students and witness their great desire to experience more of the Lord. While “mountaintop” experiences can be an valuable part of the Christian life, most of our relationship with God isn’t lived out on the mountaintop. How, then, do we spend time with him on a daily basis? We do this through Spirit-led prayer and community, to be sure, but we experience his presence in these things most vividly and assuredly through the Bible.

As John Frame has said, “God’s written word has the same power, authority, and divinity as the divine voice from heaven and the word of the prophets and the apostles.” In light of this glorious definition, youth pastors have everything to gain, for ourselves and our young friends, when we open up God’s Word as a community and experience the glory of Jesus.

Doing youth ministry in New York City means you’re able to work alongside some interesting and accomplished lay leaders. For a teenager to sit across from any one of them is an enriching experience. Nevertheless, as a team we’re aware that the friendship and “common sense” wisdom we provide won’t be enough to sustain the next generation “when the days of trouble come” (Eccl. 12:1).

Our first prayer isn’t that our students will grow to become well-rounded individuals but re-created ones. Therefore, parents, pastors, and lay leaders must joyfully prepare in advance and make the most of the opportunities involved in ministering to youth.

Youth leaders must be able to speak God’s truth into the given circumstances of a student’s life. If you’re ready, this can occur spontaneously while riding in a car, playing Settlers of Catan, or taking part in a service project. No formulas. Just two people listening and responding to one another, their stories made sense through his.

Of course, there’s no shortage of helpful methods for learning Scripture. One that’s shaped me personally is regular group meditation. By “meditation” I mean part rote memorization (chapter and verse) and part prayerful imagination. Beginning on my own, I like to prayerfully consider a cluster of verses based around a particular biblical topic—say, the church.1 Over a week or so, a brief conversational narrative begins to form in my mind that sufficiently explains the topic in a way that’s both orthodox and also unique to my personality. My primary purpose is to know God better through his text, then to share it with others doing the same thing. Once I can distill from a cloud of ideas one or two pithy thesis-like statements, I know I’ve spent transformative time with his Word and am ready to share and discuss with my leader friends.

Sharing is as an act of fellowship. It encourages accountability to the task and is an opportunity to learn from others. As I’m shaped by my time in Scripture, I’m sustained in the valley, and my functional trust in Scripture increases. When we experience and model rich biblical thinking, the incomparable wisdom and power of God’s truth is made apparent not only to ourselves, but to others as well.

At the transfiguration Peter, James, and John witness for the first time what we never want to take for granted: that Jesus is the central figure in the story of redemptive history and therefore the central figure of our lives. Eventually they understand their own cultural narrative through him and interpret every problem—big or small—through the lens of his resurrection. So might our students.

Of course, we’re able to see what that inner circle was only beginning to comprehend—that the glory of Jesus is greater than our own expectations for our lives. Youth communities that continually place the stories of students within the ultimate story of God may radically transform identities and usher teenagers into lives filled with grace, hope, and purpose.

Read the rest here