As the pastor of a church, I am constantly thinking about how to communicate in a way that actually helps people live the kind of lives that they dream of living.
We’ve all heard messages that contain lots of great information (some, not so much), but which do very little to help or inspire us to make changes in our lives… that’s the nice way to say it.
As communicators, we work hard to make everything we do accessible and helpful for people who are just exploring how God fits into their lives.
Recently this great post came across my Facebook feed. I’ve been following these guys since I attended a conference of theirs in Houston years back. It’s worth checking out. I think Bill does a great job capturing the difference between a message designed for the people who live on our street and one designed for the people who have been coming to church for years.
He summarizes it this way:
Preaching to the Churched Start with scripture. Explain it. Apply it to real life. The presumption is that those hearing the Word ostensibly believe that it carries some authority and that the truths can be applied to their lives. Preaching to the Less-Than-Churched Start with and explore an issue/concern/interest of the target audience. Look for culture’s answers (for good or not). Note how scripture speaks to the issue (compare and/or contrast). Apply the scripture to real life.
I think where you start is huge.
The first 15 seconds are the most important seconds in your message (followed closely by the next 2 minutes)
If you don’t take time to convince people that what you are talking about is important, and why, they won’t care what you have to say about it.
People don’t care about the solution until they buy the problem!
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