Talk Tips: Sanctified Fellowship Brother Jeremy

Jargon is specialized wording that is not easily accessible by people who aren’t in the know.  That includes words like fellowship, sanctification, and even salvation.  Even normal words used in an unusual way, like brother, can count as jargon. My main concern when using these words is that it makes God feel inaccessible, bookish, and irrelevant.  What's worse is that if your students pick up this stuff, walking into your youth group can feel like walking into some weird cult or foreign country to those on the outside.

While it is important for them to learn what many of these words mean, keep in mind that your audience has not spent nearly as many years in church as you have.  If you use these specialized words, make sure you define them, but try to use easily understood synonyms when possible.

And yes, I see the irony:  "jargon" is usually jargon.

Talk Tips: The Giglio Effect

This is one in an ongoing series of posts to help you hone your skills as a speaker either in an up-front setting or a small group.

I can't tell you how many times I have heard Louie Giglio's talk, How Great is Our God, the one with the planets and the cross-shaped molecule, and only once has a person actually given him credit. Besides the obvious moral problem, you are not Louie Giglio.  You will almost never be as effective giving someone else’s talk as you will giving an original.

There’s nothing wrong with using source material and even those prefab talks you get in a lot of ministry products, but make them your own. Change the order, illustrations, and wording so that it makes sense to you.  And please, please give Louie credit for his amazing work.  If by some fluke, you are one of the few that have not heard this talk "borrowed" (without credit) you should check out Laminin... it is really interesting!