(The authors of this book were fairly ingenious... they talked about the necessity of engaging your audience with a story that took them somewhere to teach them God's truth... in the very same way they used Part One to teach all of the principles in a narrative story format to show it's effectiveness. Part Two is more laid out like a teaching outline, providing a more structured, detailed version of the principles the book already explained - so there might be some redundancy)
The Seven Imperatives to Effective Communication:
1) Determine your goal - what are you trying to accomplish?
- Preachers are performers, but goes beyond the realm of what we think in regards to "performers" - they aren't to entertain, but instead are to be educational, theological, inspirational, and engaging all the same time
- If you preach, you have to remember that no sermon is so great it will ever change the world, nor so bad that it will destroy Christianity (within obvious reason) - need to experience grace, because preaching can be such a vulnerable thing
- However, if your success criteria is about your performance (your jokes, your style, your delivery...), then it's all about you. You need to get to a place where you care more about people and changed lives than yourself.
- Our approach in communicating should always be shaped by the goal of communicating
- Sunday morning services, small group training, lecture seminars... all have different goals, and should likewise have different approaches
- Three possible goals:
1 - Teach the Bible to people - teach content of Bible so those interested can navigate and learn
Typically teaching verse by verse with little application and a lot of information to explain Scripture
Primary concern is generally "did I cover the material?"
2 - Teach people the Bible -teach content of the Bible, but keep your audience in mind to impart Biblical truth into the heart and mind of the hearer
Typically teaching with a mulitple-point message outline with an application question at the end
Primary concern is generally "did audience understand/remember the material?"
(If spiritual maturity were synonmyous with content transfer, either of the above would be fine - however we all know "knowing" isn't enough, and can even lead to pride (the opposite of spiritual maturity) - look at the Pharasees)
3 - Teach people how to live the Bible - teach the Bible in a way that will encourage people change, teaching people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible
Typically teaching that has clear application and inspirational
Primary concern is generally "did audience know what to do with information and do it?" (focuses less on how you did on Sunday and more on what are your people doing on Monday)
(Even though all Scripture is equally inspired, it's not all equally applicable... acts of obidence allow our faith to intersect with Gods' faithfullness, and this is where we see God at work and when our faith grows)
- If your too consumed with how you are going to do, your performance, you're too focused on you... You need to remember how would I preach this if your son was in the audience on the verge of leavining everything morally, ethically, and theologically behind and give God the hand... that's whats at stake, because for someone that might be the case
- So what is your goal?? What is your win? It will dictate your approach
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