SSOT Lesson Preparation

1. You should prepare your speaking to be around 25-30 minutes for each session. This means you won't have time to cover every point. Please consider one or two main points or burdens for your speaking. Furthermore, please select some portions from the lesson books for the young people to read during the group times.
2. It is very important to realize that the nature of the Summer School of Truth is that of a restaurant. We are here to feed the young people and not merely giving them some teaching. We don't want the young people to just "look at the menu" without "eating any food."
3. We want to serve fresh food to the young people, not something old and stale. For this we must enjoy God's word as His breath! We need to pray over and enjoy the lessons to inhale the word into our being so that our speaking would be an exhaling full of spirit and life.
4. It cannot be stressed enough that we need to apply the lessons to the young people to make it relevant to them. When we share something, we need to always ask the question "so what?" This is to consider why the lesson we are sharing would be important to a junior high or high school student. This is especially true for these lessons on the two spirits. For this we need to have much consideration of the environment the young people live in, the problems they face, the struggles they have, etc. This will help us reach them at their level. As we prepare the lesson, we should pray not only for the lesson, but even more for the young people. Often through this kind of prayer, the Lord will give us a fresh burden as well as the appropriate applications.
5. The young people need practical and experiential handles of the truths we present to them. For this consider the appropriate examples, personal testimonies, experiences of others. They often remember stories and illustrations much better than points. However, we need to be also careful not to let the stories and illustrations distract them from getting the point. It's also helpful to give personal testimonies in the lessons. In Thessalonians we see the best way to feed the young and new believers is with patterns.
6. Talk to them. Don't preach. It is best not to take the position of a teacher, like that in a secular school. We are not here to pass on knowledge but life. Instead, be an older brother or a father full of loving concern. We all need to be saved from having a critical spirit toward the young people, which disqualifies us from ministering life to them and takes away the ground for us to shepherd them.
7. We are all learning together, so don't be afraid to make mistakes. None of us are perfect, but we are under the Lord's perfecting. Through our prayer, fellowship, and coordination in oneness and one accord, the Lord will have a way to fill up all our lack, cover all our shortcomings and pour out His blessing in every lesson! It's also good to take a look at the previous lesson both for the line you are on and the other line. This may help give some continuity.