Last night I was doing a load of dishes and realized that most of the things that I was putting into the washer for that particular load were Tupperware or glad reusable containers. I didn’t know what to think about it at first except that our top rack wasn’t large enough for the top rack only assortment that we had to go into the washer. Then I thought about the larger picture. What does this say about the way that we have been eating lately? I was encouraged. It means that we have not been eating out, or throwing away the things that are leftover, but we are eating all that we make (even if it is a day or two later).
In the same way, I was going through some old youth messages and sermons the other day. When I saw the volumes of messages I thought “I talk a lot”. The second thought I had was some comfort that I have kept these in such good order. With some tweaking and updating they could come out again for another series or sermon. Particularly in student ministry there is a feeling of a finite amount of time that we are blessed to have students. Many times (especially around graduation time) this is felt in a sad way. But the good news is that as students age out of our ministries younger student are just discovering what we have going on.
In this way I have taken a lot of time and energy to shape out a well rounded scope plan for our students to encounter a large chunk of the Bible and spiritual teachings by the time they graduate from High School. I have a rotation of topical and scriptural based series I teach. When the rotation is over I can begin again in some organized way. The best part is that I can take the leftovers from the last time and a lot of the legwork and scriptural interpretation is done. New examples and illustrations are used, but I love the time it saves because then I can spend it connecting with students throughout the week.
Do you have a way to deal with your leftovers? Do you “upcycle” lessons? Do you share them with other ministry leaders? What are your thoughts?
