Rethinking the Way we Communicate to Teens
Tom Pounder
January 22, 2014

Ever been on a plane? I’m sure most of us have. Ever get bored or not pay attention to the pre-flight instructions that the flight attendants give? Again, I’m sure most of us have. After all, if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times. Well, the good people at Virgin America decided […]

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Ever been on a plane? I’m sure most of us have. Ever get bored or not pay attention to the pre-flight instructions that the flight attendants give? Again, I’m sure most of us have. After all, if you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times.

Well, the good people at Virgin America decided that “boring” instructions were no longer good enough for them. So, they came up with this:

https://youtu.be/DtyfiPIHsIg

The result? Over eight million people have watched it, over 400,000 people have shared it on Facebook and there have been over 17,000 tweets about it.

I’ve been doing Youth Ministry since 1997 so there isn’t much I haven’t talked to students about. However, I don’t want to keep using the same old talks over and over again making minor changes here and there. I want some new ideas, some fresh takes on the same subject matter. That is why I got XP3 Students this past year and will for years to come. Looking over their resources has caused me to rethink how I communicate to students. I don’t want to just communicate to them, I want them to hear it, understand it and apply it to their lives. That is why I need to stay current on topics and look through some additional resources on the subject matter.

That is the challenge for all of us today. How can we communicate in a way to TODAY’S students so that they can hear it, understand it and apply it to their lives? Jim Rayburn, founder of Young Life, once said that it is “a sin to bore a kid with the gospel.” I agree, and I think all of us would agree with that. That is why this Virgin America video should give us excitement. They took what was boring and stale and made it fresh and entertaining while communicating the relevant, important information they need to. So, let us all take a page from Virgin America and rethink how we communicate to students so that they can hear, understand and apply it to their lives.

What are some ways you make your messages engaging for students?

This post originally appeared December 12, 2013 at YMSidekick.com. Used with permission from the author.

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Tom Pounder WRITER
Tom Pounder was born and raised just outside of Washington, DC. He has been working full-time in ministry since 1997. Tom has a background in Student Ministry working over 22 years with teenagers and currently serves as the Student Minister and Online Campus Pastor at New Life Christian Church in Chantilly, VA.