Sweat Your Titles. Titles should be tantalizing and build interest for your message before you speak one word. It's just like fishing: if you want to catch a big bass, you have got to have a lure that turns the bass's head.
It's easy to come up with seminary-friendly titles like, "Sanctification and Social Ethics," or "Unrealized Eschatology in a Postmodern World." You may love these titles, but they are not very audience-friendly. To most people in your church, it sounds like you are from another planet. It is vitally important that everyone in your audience can connect with your title.
What does an effective title look like? You'll have to make that determination based on your communication style and your particular audience. Here are a few series titles that have worked well at Fellowship Church. I believe these titles have helped to bridge the gap between the ancient complexities of the Bible and the contemporary world of our audience.
• God Online (worship)
• Know Fear (fear)
• The Ulti-Mate (dating/spouse selection)
• Sinetics (sin/temptation)
• Parent Map (parenting)
• Got Stress? (stress/anxiety)
• Tri-God (the Trinity)
• You Got Game? (church vision/ministry involvement)
• The Perfect Storm (navigating the crises of life)
• Everything You Need to Know about Life Is in Your Fishbowl (relationships)
• Just Lust (lust/sexual temptation and addiction)
I'm not saying these titles are the best out there or that you need to compare your titles to ours. I've seen many churches and pastors come up with better stuff than this. And you can too, if you take time to sweat the titles.
The speakers at our church exhaust themselves trying to come up with titles that both creatively and accurately describe the main point of the message. It takes a lot of work to take a complex subject and make it concise as well as compelling. Anyone can spout theological jargon, but the road from a complex subject to a simple title is filled with obstacles. And those obstacles must be navigated successfully if you are going to improve as a communicator. The greatest communicators know how to take the complexities of the Bible and make them simple.
Define Complex Terms. Making the complex simple goes way beyond the creation of the title. If you are going to really connect with today's audience, you must take time to define complex terms in your message in easy-to-grasp language. Not simplistic, but simple; there is a difference. Being simplistic is condescending to your audience and communicating in a way that is naive and disconnected from real life. Simple is respecting your audience enough to explain in easy- to-understand terms exactly what it is they need to know and need to do. It is loving them enough to make sure they get it.