Does Your Message SCORRE with Students?

A number of years ago, speaker and comedian, Ken Davis, developed a method for creating student-friendly messages that were both on-point and entertaining.

Ken popularized his SCORRE method through the book, How to Speak to Youth and Keep them Awake at the Same Time. The acronym SCORRE stands for:

     Subject
     Central Theme
     Objective
     Rationale
     Resources
     Evaluate

Here is a brief look at the SCORRE process (from the book):

1. Choose a subject. 

The first step in preparing a speech is to choose a subject from endless possibilities.  Be sure your subject meets the needs of your audience and interests them as well.

2. Choose a central theme.  

Narrow your subject to one aspect.  For example, if your subject is “friendship,” a theme could be “making and keeping friends.”  Be sure to consider the limitations of your knowledge.  Depending on your chosen subject and theme, you may have to research for more facts.  Double-check the needs of your audience and be sure the subject and central theme meet those needs.

3. Clarify your objective

Determining a clear objective is vital for effective communication.  An objective is a simple sentence that clarifies what you want to accomplish in your speech.  You may want to review the steps to writing your objective sentence (see pp. 51-58).

4. Develop your rationale.  
The main points of a speech are called the rationale.  Remember, these points are specific and logical, and they relate to the objective.

5. Gather and use appropriate resources.  
List all the illustrations and support material you could use with your subject.  Depending on how much time you have to work on your talk, you may want to have most of the material readily available.  This is the time to research illustrations and data for points that need more clarification.

6. Evaluate your preparation.  

Answer Ken's eleven evaluation questions.  Then move on to add finishing touches to your speech.

You can find a much more detailed template at the Center for Youth Ministry Training website.:

Better yet, you can purchase purchase Ken Davis' book and work through all of his SCORRE material on your own.

How do You Know if You are a "Gifted" Speaker?

Among those who speak to students, there seem to be those who are "gifted" to speak (it comes somewhat naturally) and those required to speak to students as a part of their job, but have to work significantly harder to build and sharpen their communication skills.

HOW DO I DETERMINE IF I HAVE THE GIFT?

The Apostle Paul writes:

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:7-11 NIV)

Here are a few things you can do to
1. Take a spiritual gifts inventory.

If you score high in teaching, prophecy, encouragement, evangelism or leadership, you may have a strong communication gift. Your own personal spiritual gift mix contributes significantly to your unique speaking style..

2. Try it out.

Sometimes, the only way to determine if you have a specific spiritual gift is to experiment and try it out. You will figure out pretty quickly whether it is a gift that the Spirit has given you in great measure or not.

3. Ask others about your gifts.

Still stumped? Try asking those around you (family, coworkers, volunteer leaders) what they think your spiritual gifts might be.

WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE THE GIFT?

Fear not! Some of the best youth speakers are those who have had had to train themselves to become skilled communicators. Thankfully, having a primary spiritual gift in communication is not a requirement to be a great youth pastor. Strong communication and public speaking skills can be learned.

If you find you are one of those who has to work harder to sharpen your communication skills, here are a few tips to get you started:

1. Take the time to invest in your growth as a communicator.

Notice it takes an investment of TIME and not just money. It's one thing to buy a book, it's another thing to invest the time to read it.

2. Surround yourself with those who are stronger communicators than you are.

Water seeks its own level. You become like those you spend the most time with. You get the point.

3. Read every communication book you can get your hands on.

Reading is the most affordable method of growth. Be sure to put the things you are learning into action.

4. Practice.

Practice makes perfect, right? Even those who are gifted in communication should make it a regular practice to rehearse their messages. The more you practice speaking to students, the better youth communicator you will become.

Gifted or not, if you are ready to take a major step forward in your youth communication skills join the Youth Communicator's Cohort today.

4 Benefits of Pausing

When you speak to students, how well do you rehearse your pauses?

(take a moment and think through that question...)

When you pause appropriately during a message, it benefits you in four ways:

1. Pausing adds weight to what you just said.

Whether it is pausing after you have just asked a question or after an important statement, either way, a poignant pause adds great weight to what just came out of your mouth. It is typically an even more effective method of emphasis than raising your voice or slowing your cadence.

2. Pausing gives the students a moment to catch up mentally.

Most youth speakers talk fast when speaking in front of a group. Utilizing pauses allows the students to listen better.

3. Pausing makes your message interactive.

Taking the time to pause, moves your message from being one-way communication to being a two-way dialogue. It gives the students the needed time to respond to your content either verbally or nonverbally (head nods, head shakes, etc).

4. Pausing helps you gather your thoughts.

Sometimes when you speak you lose your train of thought. When you pause, it can give you the needed time to regain your direction or communicated more effectively. It is better to pause than to use verbal filler (um, uh, ah, etc).

FREE Illustration of the Month (June Edition)

This month's FREE illustration is a physician's look at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. I have read this manuscript for numerous student messages about the power of the cross. I typically read the text over a soundtrack from the movie, The Passion of the Christ.

THE POWER OF THE CROSS

But, of course, the physical passion of the Christ began in Gethsemane. Of the many
aspects of this initial suffering, the one of greatest physiological interest is the bloody
sweat. It is interesting that St. Luke, the physician, is the only one to mention this. He
says, "And being in Agony, He prayed the longer. And His sweat became as drops of
blood, trickling down upon the ground."

Every ruse (trick) imaginable has been used by modern scholars to explain away this
description, apparently under the mistaken impression that this just doesn't happen. A
great deal of effort could have been saved had the doubters consulted the medical
literature. Though very rare, the phenomenon of Hematidrosis, or bloody sweat, is well
documented. Under great emotional stress of the kind our Lord suffered, tiny
capillaries in the sweat glands can break, thus mixing blood with sweat. This process
might well have produced marked weakness and possible shock.

After the arrest in the middle of the night, Jesus was next brought before the Sanhedrin
and Caiphus, the High Priest; it is here that the first physical trauma was inflicted. A
soldier struck Jesus across the face for remaining silent when questioned by Caiphus.
The palace guards then blind-folded Him and mockingly taunted Him to identify them
as they each passed by, spat upon Him, and struck Him in the face.

In the early morning, battered and bruised, dehydrated, and exhausted from a sleepless
night, Jesus is taken across the Praetorium of the Fortress Antonia, the seat of
government of the Procurator of Judea, Pontius Pilate. You are, of course, familiar with
Pilate's action in attempting to pass responsibility to Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of
Judea. Jesus apparently suffered no physical mistreatment at the hands of Herod and
was returned to Pilate. It was in response to the cries of the mob, that Pilate ordered
Bar-Abbas released and condemned Jesus to scourging and crucifixion.

There is much disagreement among authorities about the unusual scourging as a
prelude to crucifixion. Most Roman writers from this period do not associate the two.
Many scholars believe that Pilate originally ordered Jesus scourged as his full
punishment and that the death sentence by crucifixion came only in response to the
taunt by the mob that the Procurator was not properly defending Caesar against this
pretender who allegedly claimed to be the King of the Jews.

Preparations for the scourging were carried out when the Prisoner was stripped of His
clothing and His hands tied to a post above His head. It is doubtful the Romans would
have made any attempt to follow the Jewish law in this matter, but the Jews had an
ancient law prohibiting more than forty lashes.

The Roman legionnaire steps forward with the flagrum (or flagellum) in his hand. This is
a short whip consisting of several heavy, leather thongs with two small balls of lead
attached near the ends of each. The heavy whip is brought down with full force again
and again across Jesus' shoulders, back, and legs. At first the thongs cut through the skin
only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues,
producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally
spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles.

The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises which are broken open by
subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire
area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the
centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.

The half-fainting Jesus is then untied and allowed to slump to the stone pavement, wet
with His own blood. The Roman soldiers see a great joke in this provincial Jew claiming
to be king. They throw a robe across His shoulders and place a stick in His hand for a
scepter. They still need a crown to make their travesty complete. Flexible branches
covered with long thorns (commonly used in bundles for firewood) are plaited into the
shape of a crown and this is pressed into His scalp. Again there is copious bleeding, the
scalp being one of the most vascular areas of the body.

After mocking Him and striking Him across the face, the soldiers take the stick from
His hand and strike Him across the head, driving the thorns deeper into His scalp.
Finally, they tire of their sadistic sport and the robe is torn from His back. Already
having adhered to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, its removal causes
excruciating pain just as in the careless removal of a surgical bandage, and almost as
though He were again being whipped the wounds once more begin to bleed.

In deference to Jewish custom, the Romans return His garments. The heavy patibulum
of the cross is tied across His shoulders, and the procession of the condemned Christ,
two thieves, and the execution detail of Roman soldiers headed by a centurion begins
its slow journey along the Via Dolorosa. In spite of His efforts to walk erect, the weight
of the heavy wooden beam, together with the shock produced by copious blood loss, is
too much. He stumbles and falls. The rough wood of the beam gouges into the
lacerated skin and muscles of the shoulders. He tries to rise, but human muscles have
been pushed beyond their endurance.

The centurion, anxious to get on with the crucifixion, selects a stalwart North African
onlooker, Simon of Cyrene, to carry the cross. Jesus follows, still bleeding and sweating
the cold, clammy sweat of shock, until the 650 yard journey from the fortress Antonia
to Golgotha is finally completed.

Jesus is offered wine mixed with myrrh, a mild analgesic mixture. He refuses to drink.
Simon is ordered to place the patibulum on the ground and Jesus quickly thrown
backward with His shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression
at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square, wrought-iron nail through the wrist
and deep into the wood. Quickly, he moves to the other side and repeats the action
being careful not to pull the arms to tightly, but to allow some flexion and movement.
The patibulum is then lifted in place at the top of the stipes and the titulus reading
"Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews" is nailed in place.

The left foot is now pressed backward against the right foot, and with both feet
extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees
moderately flexed. The Victim is now crucified. As He slowly sags down with more
weight on the nails in the wrists excruciating pain shoots along the fingers and up the
arms to explode in the brain -- the nails in the writs are putting pressure on the
median nerves. As He pushes Himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, He
places His full weight on the nail through His feet. Again there is the searing agony of
the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.

At this point, as the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles,
knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability
to push Himself upward. Hanging by his arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and
the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot
be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally,
carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream and the cramps partially
subside. Spasmodically, he is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the
life-giving oxygen. It was undoubtedly during these periods that He uttered the seven
short sentences recorded:

The first, looking down at the Roman soldiers throwing dice for His seamless garment,
"Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

The second, to the penitent thief, "Today thou shalt be with me in Paradise."

The third, looking down at the terrified, grief-stricken adolescent John -- the beloved
Apostle -- he said, "Behold thy mother." Then, looking to His mother Mary, "Woman
behold thy son."

The fourth cry is from the beginning of the 22nd Psalm, "My God, my God, why has
thou forsaken me?"

Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint-rending cramps, intermittent partial
asphyxiation, searing pain where tissue is torn from His lacerated back as He moves up
and down against the rough timber. Then another agony begins...A terrible crushing
pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to
compress the heart.

One remembers again the 22nd Psalm, the 14th verse: "I am poured out like water, and
all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my
bowels."

It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level; the
compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissue; the
tortured lungs are making a frantic effort to gasp in small gulps of air. The markedly
dehydrated tissues send their flood of stimuli to the brain.

Jesus gasps His fifth cry, "I thirst."

One remembers another verse from the prophetic 22nd Psalm: "My strength is dried
up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou has brought me into
the dust of death."

A sponge soaked in posca, the cheap, sour wine which is the staple drink of the Roman
legionaries, is lifted to His lips. He apparently doesn't take any of the liquid. The body of
Jesus is now in extremes, and He can feel the chill of death creeping through His
tissues. This realization brings out His sixth words, possibly little more than a tortured
whisper, "It is finished."

His mission of atonement has completed. Finally He can allow his body to die.

With one last surge of strength, he once again presses His torn feet against the nail,
straightens His legs, takes a deeper breath, and utters His seventh and last cry, "Father!
Into thy hands I commit my spirit."

The rest you know. In order that the Sabbath not be profaned, the Jews asked that the
condemned men be dispatched and removed from the crosses. The common method
of ending a crucifixion was by crurifracture, the breaking of the bones of the legs. This
prevented the victim from pushing himself upward; thus the tension could not be
relieved from the muscles of the chest and rapid suffocation occurred. The legs of the
two thieves were broken, but when the soldiers came to Jesus they saw that this was
unnecessary.

Apparently to make doubly sure of death, the legionnaire drove his lance through the
fifth interspace between the ribs, upward through the pericardium and into the heart.
The 34th verse of the 19th chapter of the Gospel according to St. John reports: "And
immediately there came out blood and water." That is, there was an escape of water
fluid from the sac surrounding the heart, giving postmortem evidence that Our Lord
died not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure (a broken heart)
due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.

Guard Your Doctrine

The Apostle Paul writes to Timothy:

Command and teach these things. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. (1 Timothy 4:11-16 NIV)

In a day and age where our culture is offended by the idea of absolute truth and the authority and inerrancy of the scriptures, it is worth answering the question:

Do you watch (take heed, guard, protect) the doctrine that you teach from the Bible when you speak?

As a minister of the Gospel, you are called to:

-Set an example...

-Devote yourself (be dilligent, give yourself wholly) to publicly read scripture, preach & teach

-Watch your life & doctrine closely

-Perservere in living a righteous life & in teaching correct doctrine

Insterestingly enough, in doing so, you will save yourself and your hearers.

The next time you are preparing and delivering a message, take sufficient time to ask and answer the question, "How well am I guarding my doctrine."

Last Chance!

This is your last chance to register for the Youth Communicator's Cohort that begins in September. FREE registration closes at 11:59pm on Friday, May 31.


For more information about the cohort CLICK HERE...

To listen in on a call CLICK HERE...

To listen to a recent Master Class on Preaching by Tommy Oaks CLICK HERE...

To register for free CLICK HERE...

Make the investment of your time to sharpen your speaking, preaching and communication skills to students.

Register now, before it's too late!

How to Determine Your Speaking Style

What kind of speaker are you?

There are numerous styles of youth speakers. Determining your speaking style can help you hone in and maximize your speaking strengths. There is no "perfect" style of speaking or preaching. There is just YOUR style.

The most important principle to remember when determining your style is to BE YOU! If you try to just immitate or copy another speaker, you are doing yourself and your listeners a huge disservice.

Here are five different styles of speaking:

The Teacher
You love to dig in and study scripture as you are preparing your message. You also want to share and convey everything that you have learned to the students. You have a gift that allows students to understand the truths of God's Word in a new and simple way.

The Motivator
When you speak, students walk away feeling inspired and encouraged. You like to use stories and illustrations when you speak. You find it easy to include practical action steps that the students can put into practice right away.

The Prophet
You call students to God's truth and repentance when you speak. While you may not use the phrase "thus saith The Lord," you feel an urgency to deliver the message you have prepared and typically speak with great intensity and enthusiasm.

The Storyteller
Everything you do during your preparation and delivery revolves around story. When students listen to you, they walk away feeling like they just experienced and lived the stories you shared.

The Conversationalist
You view your message as more of a dialogue than a monologue. Your style puts students at ease. You love to use questions and tension in your delivery. Students walk away feeling like they have been "talked with" rather than "talked to."

Most youth speakers are a mix of two or three of these styles. Each of these styles has it's own strengths and weaknesses.

I recently came across Tim Elmore's Growing Leaders' Communication Assessment. It is a free tool that will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your communication style.

So... What kind of speaker are you?