I've never been much of a fan of bringing in "professional" speakers to teach students in our ministry. And I'm pretty sure that most of our students don't really care much either. That being said, I am a big fan of using "guest teachers" within our student ministry. The main difference between the two, in how I'm defining them, is that the professional is someone brought in that costs money and has no connection to your ministry; the guest speaker is someone that is a volunteer within our ministry and already has strong relationships with the students. I think that using guest teachers is not only helpful to myself as the leader, but I think it's a very important component to our teaching times.
4 Reasons to Use Guest Teachers
1. You need a break. Teaching every week of the year, sometimes multiples times a week, can be a huge burden. That's a ton of messages to develop, create, and communicate. Allowing someone else to teach and yourself to have a break will help you to stay creative and a few weeks ahead.
2. Kids like hearing other people besides you. Having other voices speaking to the students is a huge value; as students get used to your speaking, it becomes extremely valuable for other teachers to come in as another voice reinforcing the same message.
3. You can train new preachers. The best way to get better at preaching is to preach more. If you have people on your volunteer team that like preaching and teaching or college-age students that are considering ministry, you have an incredible opportunity to help teach them how to preach.
4. You're not the only one with something to say. As you start developing leaders within your ministry that have a heart for preaching, not only will the develop skills but they might also have things on their heart that they want to share with your students. Let them share what's on their heart and work with them as they say it.
What are some other reasons that you have found to use guest teachers?
Photo Credit: Ganatronic