How do you read and make them want to listen?

Sometimes you find a discourse or a passage that is too good not to use. Using it, however, can be tricky. I know enough of teaching young people (especially at 6.30am) to realise that it does not take long for them to zone out if you are just expounding from a text.

So how to engage them and help them take it in and process it?

I shared one idea, the wiki, here. Another way I was pleased to think of (and by that, of course, I mean receive inspiration about) happened in my first week. We had yet to turn to the first chapter of Matthew, and were first studying the intertestamental times. There was a lovely narrative at the back of the manual detailing all the civilizations which overran Judea in those years. I wanted to use it but knew they would need a reason to listen to it. The inspiration I received at 11.30pm the night before, which in fact allowed me to go to bed, was simply a prop. I got a sword (we have a few of those lying around) and as I started to read gave the sword to the person at one end with the instruction that every time Judea changed hands they were to pass the sword on. At the end of the history each person then had to tell us who they were with a couple of sentences about themselves. As well as the need to listen they also had the benefit of being able to associate each ruler with one of their peers helping them to remember both the characters and the sequence. Thus an activity which could have been entirely aural became accessible to visual and kinesthetic learners. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for that one.

So - your turn. Recognising that we can't all be John Bytheway, I would love to hear other ideas for how to read (or share conference-type videos) in a way that your audience will absorb it.