Hotshots

A series of short high impact talks that are primarily aimed at being used in school assemblies but can be used in a variety of contexts – particularly as ‘God Slots’ in youth groups where most young people are unchurched.

The basis of the talk will appear as lo-fi i.e. no media input – music, powerpoint, film clips etc, but suggestions will be made as to how you could adapt it –powerpoint slides, film clip etc. The talks will also use anecdotes & quotes, from past and present you may have heard before but perhaps never used to discuss the point in hand. Volunteer interaction may be acquired to drive home points as well.

Also the basic talk will be aimed at a high school audience of mixed faith backgrounds. This means there may be no direct emphasis on Christianity unless the talk deals specifically with a Christian festival such as Easter. If your relationship with the school is such that they don’t mind more direct Christian input you’re free to adapt the talk as you wish although suggestions will be made as to how you can incorporate Biblical teaching. Pointers provided will also help you develop the talk if you need to make it longer.

TITLES: 

1. Who's the Greatest?
2. Curiosity - Sex and Alcohol
3. Global Poverty and Broken Promises
4. Holding Grudges
5. Loyalty
6. One Good Idea
7. Preferential Treatment
8. Relationships
9. Religion and Media
10. Value It
11. A little bit of hard work
12. Changes
13. Dedication
14. Facing Challenges
15. Getting Your Goal
16. Odd One Out
17. Self Worth
18. The Language of Love
19. The Real Thing
20. Take the Risk?

These talks originally appeared as Ready-to-use-assemblies in Youthwork magazine and are reprinted here with their kind permission www.youthwork.co.uk

 
EXAMPLE ONE

 
Title: The knock on effect.

 
Preparation:

You will need one small bar of chocolate, one huge bar of chocolate (fair trade of course) a plate and a blunt knife to chop the chocolate with.
Secure two volunteers before the assembly begins, particularly if it’s a large crowd, so that you don’t waste time trying to get people up to the stage.

 
Talk:

Make sure the large chocolate bar is out of sight, unwrap the small bar place it on the plate and say to the first volunteer:

‘This is your bar of chocolate you can do with it as you wish you can keep it all for yourself, it’s yours or you can take the knife and cut off as many or as few chunks as you wish to share with your friend here.’

As soon as they’ve made the decision bring out the big bar of chocolate and present it to the other volunteer. Repeat the offer!

Chances are if the other person shared they will if they didn’t the second volunteer may keep the whole thing for themselves.

 
Point:

Whatever we do in life we have to be aware of the Knock on effect, -just like dominoes knock each other down, our actions affect the world around us, our actions may influence someone to make a good or a bad choice. If someone treats us harshly, disrespects us, does that mean we’re more likely to show other people disrespect. You have a rough day at school you’ve been insulted, maybe bullied so maybe when you get home you can’t wait to dish out the same treatment to a younger brother or sister.

Nobody likes to be on the receiving end of a negative knock on effect. And we don’t like to think of the damage making a wrong decision can have on other people’s lives.

Imagine if you felt you’re whole life’s work had a negative knock on effect:

Tell the story of Alfred Nobel – the Swiss inventor of nitro-glycerine - dynamite. He saw his own obituary in the paper one day, the paper had mistaken him for his brother who died in an accident. The paper reported that he had created the most destructive force known to mankind – dynamite. Alfred decided that he didn’t want his family remembered for destruction so he ploughed huge amounts of his own money into the creation of the Nobel peace prize.

(for full story head to www.meaning.ca/meaningful_living/worthy_lives/alfred_nobel.html)

 

You know you can break the chain of the knock on effect, imagine what would happen if when someone was downright mean to you but you showed them nothing but generosity in return.

You don’t get revenge you don’t insult. Sometimes it can seem like the hardest thing in the world but it can do so much good. You’ve all seen domino rally’s thousands of dominoes set up to knock each other down. But just take one domino out and it all comes to a halt.

Sometimes in the world all it takes is one person to say no I will not repay bad with good, and they can have such a positive impact it affects the entire world. Are you prepared to be a person like that? END

 
Further Illustration points:

Christian Input: Christ is the person whose actions affected the entire course of history for good – reversed the knock on effect ‘you have heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’

Other Stories: Martin Luther King, (www.holidays.net/mlk/story.htm)

Ghandi, input name at www.biography.com

Film Clips: Pay it Forward, The Butterfly Effect, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Powerpoint Hints: Key phrases from point, picture of Alfred Noble, Picture of dynamite and explosion! Picture of film (TIP: sometimes if it’s a popular film you don’t need to show the clip just show a picture and talk about it!TIP: less is more with powerpoint the fewer words on screen the better, the bigger the words are the better, always use dark font on light background are vice versa eg – Motorway signs use white text on blue background ‘cos it stands out from a distance.)