Pair of Cleats: Use Debate as a Creative Teaching Style

A paraclete is someone who walks alongside someone.  We’ve got our cleats on to walk alongside you.

In Pair of Cleats, we have often encouraged you to stretch your teaching to new creative “frontiers.”  We strongly believe in the use of many different creative teaching methods and leaning less on “speaching” methods.  So I was encouraged to read this quote from Richard Ross, someone I respect, in the current Group Magazine (January/February 2010):  “A strategy I have grave concerns about is one that places students almost always in a passive, listening mode while leaders speak or talk to them about spiritual things.  I think brain research is just confirming what we already intuitively know and is clear in Scripture—that students who are not engaged deeply in conversations about faith, who are struggling with issues of faith, who are not closely observing faith being worked out in the life of an adult, they’re not growing that much.  We tried that strategy for 50 years, and the experiment didn’t work.  But people are still doing this every week.”

We believe that you are not doing this every week which is why you have subscribed to Pair of Cleats.  Some ideas on creative teaching methods that you’ve received from us over the past 20 years are:

• Using story
• Using testimonies
• Removing the stage set up
• Ask questions, whether it is in small groups or in the middle of the message
• Using food and your church kitchen
• Using creative writing challenges

I’d like to introduce to you yet another creative teaching method—using debate.  Don’t conjure up a nerdy picture of a high school debate team.  This is a real teaching method, often used in the school classroom.  The reasons why this method is encouraged for school teachers to incorporate are:  (These are compiled from many teacher resource websites and I’ve added my twist to how they apply to a youth meeting.)

• Develops abstract thinking (We also want to move teens from concrete thinking such as “God will never leave me” to abstract thinking of “Why God doesn’t answer our prayers when our needs are now.”)
• Develops analytical thinking (We also want to develop analytical thinking so our teens know what they believe and why.)
• Develops citizenship/ethics/etiquette (I’m all for etiquette in our communication with each other.)
• Develops cross-examination/questioning (Questioning is a factor for a growing faith and youth meetings provide a safe place to do that.)
• Develops personal point of view (So one can own his/her own faith.)
• Helps distinguish fact from opinion (So one can know the Truth.)
• Helps identify bias (Or faulty thinking that may have been inherited or from another negative influence.)
• Helps students organize information (Another plus which can help them share their faith.)
• Develops persuasion skills   (Yet another plus which can help them share their faith.)
• Develops public speaking skills (This can also help with their school work.)
• Develops research skills (Tying school life to their faith yet again.)
• Develops teamwork/cooperation (As well as community for your group.)
• The subject is better comprehended over time (So one can own his/her own faith.)
• Another bonus is that research is finding that this is a method that is more effective for the learning style of boys.  (Yes, boys and girls do generally learn differently.)

Honestly, that last point alone convinced me to try this teaching method.  I have lots and lots of boys in my youth group.

Hopefully I’ve convinced you to try this teaching method in the near future.  Here are some helpful tips on how to try this in a youth meeting.  The first thing you do is identify the subject.  You don’t want to choose a subject such as “Is the Bible Real?”  because you wouldn’t want your teens to take the time to find resources to prove the Con side that the Bible isn’t real.  Stay away from the non-negotiable Statement of Faith your church adheres to.  But such subjects as “How Does God Answer Prayer?” or “Does Your Bestfriend Also Have to be a Christian?” or “Is Cussing a Sin?” do work.  As you can guess, these are issues which your teens already struggle with so inviting them to debate either the Pro or Con side moves their struggle to front-and-center and to an open forum to hopefully help them find an answer with enough conviction to live by.

Second, decide if you want to have one person prepare the Pro side of the debate or a small team or half of your group.  The same size group, of course, prepares the Con side of the debate.  You know your group and the size of your group to decide this.  As you are assigning each side, someone may not like the side they were asked to debate.  Challenge him/her that learning the opposite side of his/her belief is also a learning process.

Third, decide how much time you want to give your team to prepare–just the evening, a week, or even several weeks.  Obviously, the more time you give the group the better the debate.  However, you may simply want to incorporate a “quicker” debate as the conclusion to your message and give the group just a few minutes to present their thoughts.

For the actual debate there should be some simple ground rules.  Some of those rules are:

• No put downs.
• You must raise your hand if it’s not your time to speak.
• Standard and structured times to speak:

Opening statements for both sides = 3 minutes each

Arguments for both sides = 3 minutes each

Rebuttal conference = 1 minute

Rebuttals = 2 minutes each

Closing statements for both sides = 3 minutes each

If a debate is done poorly it breaks down to a mixed bag- people yelling at each other, not listening to each other, and/or students reading from scripts that they didn’t write.  But if done right, the potential for remembering and personalizing a conviction are too great to not give this creative teaching method a try.

Another method of debate is called The Silent Debate.  Divide everyone in the group into pairs.  Assign one person in each pair the Pro side and the other the Con side.  Also give everyone pen and paper.  The debate happens silently by writing on and passing the piece of paper back and forth for 10 to 12 minutes with no talking during that time.  When the debriefing time comes to an end, have the pairs present the end results of their debate to the entire group.  This is yet another way for conviction and truth to come to the surface.

We as youth group leaders always feel more comfortable with the tried-and-true.  This is what Richard Ross was admonishing.  I hope to challenge you to try new ideas and new ways to teach, to push your comfort zone a bit but that is just a part of Wild Frontier living.  So continually pray and ask God how best to present “His Story” to the teens He has entrusted to your care, even if the ideas push you out of your comfort zone because the Wild Frontier is where the action.