So
really what we want to do in our messages is create tension but not too much.
Sometimes you have to let the line go. Every message has ebbs and flows -- they’re
where energy increases and energy decreases. Usually the things that require
more energy — meaning more thinking power and that is more draining —
are concepts. And the thing that is kind of a release — but it reengages
people — are stories. You can just see them physically — if you’re
talking about concepts, after awhile people start to look around because you’ve
lost them, and as soon as you then go back to a story or joke or illustration
— BOOM — you can see the heads go up, eye contact made, people are
listening again. So that’s the process you have to do throughout the message.
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You want to start
with your second best point and you want to conclude with your best point, and
in between you’re going to have peaks and valleys. It’s like ocean waves. There
are going to be highs and lows, and what you want to do is very intentionally
think, “OK, have I gone too low? Is there too much concept here? Do I need to
bring them in with an illustration or joke or something to reengage them?” We’ve
all listened to terrible professors in college classes who droned on and on
and on and they lost their audience.
When we preach
we tend to be speaking to more of a popular audience than a sophisticated, motivated
audience, so usually popular speeches or talks require a little bit more illustration,
a few more stories. That’s why you look at the great communicators –they’re
usually story tellers. They would tell a story and then they would make a point.
I think that if you study where our culture is headed you realize that more
and more we’re going toward a visual storyteller mode of communication, which
really is going to require most of us to change how we do what we do.
It’s kind of hard
to describe but I think that once you think about it you say, “Oh, yeah. I understand
that.” And again it’s a little subjective in terms of the ebb and flow but if
we think that through we can really see how designing a message is really dependent
on the audience. There again I think its artificial — in the book I set it up
as kind of an artificial difference but in my mind the difference between traditional
preaching and 21st century communicating is that traditional preaching
starts with a message. Modern communication starts with the audience. And it’s
not a slam to the Word or anything — it’s really thinking that the Word is so
valuable that we cannot afford to fumble it. We really have to make sure that
we make a connection, and that means understanding our people.
Preaching:
You’ve talked about the need to “Avoid the Bore-Snore Factor,” and one of the
things you cite is the use of multi-sensory services. Why is that important
and what would be some examples of that?