Level Up Your Students

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Jeremy Pettitt talks about giving students in your youth ministry steps to take to grow and mature in the things they do. This video comes from the AwanaYM YouTube Channel.

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Video Transcript

I don't know about you, but when I was growing up I played a lot of video games. Now I have children and they play video games too. I got to play Super Mario Brothers when he was a little tiny dude who looked like a bunch of pixels, and now my son is playing Super Mario Galaxy and Mario Kart, and he looks like some kind of animated cartoon. I love video games. I'm glad my kids love them, because I love playing with them as well. I think video games provide us with a way of thinking about how we engage young people. I've used this with my kids and I've used this with students as well. See, in a video game when you're playing, you actually get to the point where you have to be able to complete something. Beat a boss. Get past a level. Do something complicated. Involves a trick. Something that you have to know, and when you get past that, that knowledge, that information sets you up for what you have to know next for the next level, for whatever you're supposed to do after that.

You had to beat Bowser one time to get past and move on to the next level. You had to get past and do tricky jumps that then helped you in that following level to know how to do the jump better, or you had to do it five times instead of one time. I think this is a helpful way for us to think about how we engage students. I've actually started talking with my children and with my students that I've worked with about levels. How do I know that you've leveled up? Well, when you've completed a certain set of tasks, when you've proven you can accomplish or handle what's been put in front of you, then you can move on and move to the next level. Chores, they started off mowing one small part of the yard, and now they mow the whole yard.

They started off being able to clean one part with help, and now they can do it by themselves. Then they can move on and start doing more and bigger things. The same thing applies to your students. As you work with your students, understand that when they start playing an instrument, they're not going to be very good. When they start running a soundboard or helping you with video or whatever, they're going to kind of not be that great at it. Give them a challenge. Give them something and put it in front of them and make it very clear so that they know, "Hey, I did this. I moved on. I helped run a soundboard, and I helped this person get through the entire service."

"I ran a small group with a leader and then I ran it by myself, and then I ran a large group by myself." You get to the point where they start realizing, "Hey, I can do this." We have to give it to them like video games do, in smaller chunks, so that everyone builds on the last. Start thinking through as you look around with your students, what skills and abilities do they have? What do they need to level up on, and what plan can you help them put in place that they can begin to see, "Hey, if I'm going to film video, or if I'm going play music, I have to be able to do this. After that, I would have to be able to do this. Then after that, I'd have to be able to the next thing." Then they'll know that they're leveling up and they're improving.

There's that sense of reward that I got past something. I learned how to do it. Now I'm ready for something bigger and better. You don't have to hand them the full responsibility for a thing. You have to help them think through, how did they get there step by step, so that they level up to become the kind of leaders, the kind of disciples of Jesus that they're called to be.

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