If you’re like most catechists, you plan your lessons to cover the information in the textbook and complete the learning objectives.
You’ll have to add something though if you want to change their lives–the intention to do something big!
When it comes to thinking big, Steve Jobs is the master!
Here’s what Steve can teach you about having an attitude that inspires catechetical greatness.
The first step is motivation
Recently, I wrote a post about getting your students to care. In it I said the first step in selling your students on what you’re teaching is motivation. Not their motivation but yours!
It can’t just be that you want them to learn some facts about God. That’s not enough. For them to care you have to move them emotionally.
You do that by having a motivation that’s big–something enthusiastic that inspires you. Then, if you go into the classroom feeling that emotion, you’ll transfer it to them. Your students will feel it too and you’ll move them.
Steve Jobs on what motivates people for greatness
This is a video of Jobs talking to Apple employees after he became CEO for the second time in 1997. The company was failing in profits after Jobs’ 10 year absence and his mission was to bring it back.
The whole video is awesome but if you’re short on time, start watching around minute 3:00.
Jobs says, at it’s core, Apple is not about making boxes. Apple is about the belief that people with passion can change the world. And, those people that are crazy enough to think that way are the ones that actually will do it.
In other words, for Apple to turn out truly ground-breaking products, their intention had to be more than just making computers. That wasn’t enough. Their intention had to be they were changing the world!
Under Steve Jobs, every business decision, every single product at Apple had the motivation of putting a “dent in the universe.” It was about crafting an alternate reality, a whole new way of doing things.
That’s the kind of motivation that inspires greatness! And, it has done just that for Apple in the last decade.
Jobs-style motivation for catechists
I think this kind of motivation must extend into the catechetical world. If your intention is merely getting through a lesson or imparting information, you won’t even do that. Instead, your motivation has to be that you are putting a dent in the universe!
You have to believe that what you teach is going to change the lives of your students. That they will be impoverished without it. That it is THE way of life that leads to peace, happiness and fulfillment. And, you know what? It is!
Catechetical Takeaway
As you know, the world is complicated and busy. We don’t get much of a chance to impact our students. They won’t remember much about what we teach. We have to make it count.
Think about your motivation as a catechist. Do you believe you can change the hearts and minds of your students? As a catechist, are you striving to make a dent in the universe?
Your motivation and intention walking in might be the thing that makes the difference!
It’s your turn:
- What did you get out of that video?
- Did it inspire you?
- Does it have relevance for catechesis?
- Talk to me in the comments and let me know!
It is so important to think BIG. Great thinking outside the box, Marc.
I wonder how students would respond if we wore jeans and a black long-sleeve shirt every day?
Ha ha! Yeah, that would be the next step huh? 😉
I think Android may be a better analogy. The iPhone took over the smart phone market, much like the world, the flesh, and the devil have taken over the moral ideologies of our time. We need to be more like Android and take back the marketplace, allowing our OS to be developed on a host of different phone systems (inculturation) and becoming all mobile OS’s to all people (St. Paul roughly said that).
Good piece Marc. I linked to you from my blog and forwarded to all of my catechists.
Craig King, AKA Theologygeek
theologygeek.blogspot.com
That is so funny Craig! Love the analogy of inculturation and becoming all mobile OS’s to all people.
Thanks for the link too. I appreciate it!
Marc, were you sitting in on my leadership training a couple weeks ago? We watched a video from Simon Sinek, where he talked about Apple, and how they think differently than most organizations. He used Apple and the Wright brothers as examples. It’s a little long at 18 min, but well worth the watch! I think many times we focus so much on what we are doing that we forget why we are doing it in the first place.
Here’s a link to the video: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html
I must have gotten the vibe through the air waves huh? I’ll check out that video.
Great insight on focus. That’s exactly what I was getting at–not forgetting why we’re doing something in the first place. And, getting in touch with deeper motivations and inspirations that can carry us even further. That’s a great way of starting well before you even walk in.
Thanks for the comments!
Marc – Well said! What we do is about our passion of introducing our youth to Jesus. Today we have so many ways to engage them. We need to understand what makes them tick…and to walk and talk their language…so that they will understand what we are sharing with them – Jesus!
Marc – Well said! What we do is about our passion of introducing our youth to Jesus. Today we have so many ways to engage them. We need to understand what makes them tick…and to walk and talk their language…so that they will understand what we are sharing with them – Jesus!
Absolutely! I think that’s one of the keys to reaching our youth today. We have to engage them and understand what makes them tick. Then we’ll be able to share Jesus with them.
Thanks for the comments!
tks Marc…
and who was the greatest leader and public speaker of all time – Our Lord Jesus.
I believe we need to ‘be the Word’ living as much as possible for all who meet us…
and that will transmit to Christ Himself among us… then yes media is important but this, I think, has to come first.. and the media is useful to communicate Christ-The Word to a broken world.
Hi Mary,
I absolutely agree! First and foremost comes a study of how Jesus communicated…how he transmitted himself, the Word, among believers for the transformation of souls. Then comes the human elements that can shore up that message of truth.
Thanks for the comments and valuable insights.