Source: A New Year’s Resolution Worth Repeating

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The Church.Digital: Due to COVID-19 churches have been looking for ways to move their online church experience from streaming to a more engaging and relevant worship experience. During this pandemic, the church was confronted with the fact that the overall church experience would not be able to rely on the creative delivery methods of the past. On-stage special elements, enhanced sound, intentional transitions on stage from music to message…you get the idea. These things, which are great things by the way, allow people to experience the message in a very different way. They provide a REAL experience, not only by listening or watching through a screen but also through appealing to three of our basic senses: sight, sound and touch. They are simply ALL GONE. Today, we are challenged to provide this overall experience through the screen of TVs, computers and mobile devices.

There is one thing that remains from our pre-Covid-19 worship experience. Content. The same content that we used to deliver every Sunday that appealed to all those senses, is the same content that we are using today. I believe we are finding new ways to engage with our audience and through engagement, we are leading people to commit to God and His Kingdom more than ever.

Online engagement is necessary, but should not be our final goal. Our goal is to lead people to a point of commitment to God. Here are the top 3 commitments we can already see happening through the online church experience:

1. Commitment to God

People are focused on the message. It is now available to them 24/7. They do not have to wait for Sunday, and can choose a time where they are able to devote their time to the message. People have access to daily Godly content more than ever before, and we need to continue to invite people into a relationship with Him during every opportunity we have. There are always people seeking Him for the first time, or even after reconciliation. Either way, we need to make it easy for people to feel connected. We do this by making ourselves available through different channels to talk, pray and receive confession.

2. Commitment to Discipleship

I see more and more people asking for resources to grow closer to God, and becoming more like a disciple of Christ that we are called to be. By engaging with your audience through relational discipleship on online platforms, you allow attendees to experience God and each other, through community in a more meaningful way.

3. Commitment to Make Disciples

The next natural step for a disciple of Christ is to make disciples. We need to increase the commitment in our churches to drive disciples to GO and MAKE.

When it comes to the online church experience we have one thing we can count on to drive people from watching to engaging, and from engaging to committed followers of Christ. That is content, and content alone. I do not think this principle is exclusive to the online church experience. As we start to consider going back to holding worship experiences in our buildings, we need a fresh look at how we can turn the great content we are currently creating, and apply our creativity to be more intentional on how we make our experience with God more relevant to everyone who may come to both physical and digital churches. Again, our goal is to guide people to see Him through everything we do, not us. By seeing Him we will be part of a plan that will multiply disciples of Christ like never before.

Source: From Engagement to Commitment

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by Jeff Reed: You are a small church pastor, minister, staff member, or volunteer. You want to make a difference. You want your communication to move people. You want your invites to result in guests.

You likely ask questions such as, “How do I use what I have to make a difference in our community? How do I use online tools to reach people? Do I need a new camera, microphone, or software to do online ministry?” It is tempting to think that a new piece of gear, or a new method, or a new program will make the difference.

I want to show you a framework that you can use in a small church with a lot of tools or just a few. This works incredibly well in online ministry. I’m a small church pastor too. I clean toilets and take out the trash. And our church uses this framework to communicate in ways that make a difference online and offline.

The Storybrand framework is a way of thinking of marketing, communications, and strategy from the guest’s or customer’s perspective. It comes from Donald Miller’s book, Building a Storybrand.

Churches tend to think of communications, invites, and marketing from the perspective of the church’s goal, rather than from the guest, attender, or member’s needs, wants, and goals. This is especially true in smaller churches where staff and volunteers do multiple jobs and often have little training for things like communications and marketing.

Think of the difference between “Do you want to go to a marriage conference? Please sign up!” and “You want a great marriage. But maybe you’re hitting a rough patch. We’ve been through our own rough spots and believe every marriage is worth the work! Join us for our upcoming marriage conference.” One is focused on the event and the desire of the church (sign up). The other puts the couple and their desires and fears at the front (“You want…”).

Your communications will be more effective, no matter the tool, as you learn to shift your communication from church-focused to others-focused.

Learning to make this shift will help you reach your online audience, as well as, offline. Any tool you use becomes more relevant and useful. Your communications will make a difference when you reach out with something that is in some way relevant to a need that the user already feels.

Example 1:

Let me show you a way that we used this framework for a recent series. A typical church invite says, “We’re doing an exciting new series that you should join us for. Please come.” We wanted to flip that around and speak to a felt need that most people have as the reason they would want to join us.

Our big Fall series was called “Failure is Not Final.” Failure is not final is one of our core values. We believe God is near to the brokenhearted and that he does his work in and through our failures. Here is how we framed this series:

“Problems, challenges, failures. We all have them. But you don’t want them as your baggage. Join Belgium Community Church online and on Sundays starting September 8th! We’ll see that with God, Failure is not final.”

We created a landing page at belgiumchurch.com/final, did video ads, and sent flyers to every home in our village pointing people to this message.

Notice that the messaging is focused on not coming to church or engaging with us. The focus is on our community and their wants, needs, and fears. We did not start with a felt need. The series was a core value series for us. That was set. It was the communication of that series that started with a felt need. The communication method and messaging changed, not the message itself.

Example 2:

For our second Fall series, we went through the book of Titus. Instead of speaking to ourselves and how we will get more Bible knowledge (which is valuable), we spoke to the situation we all find ourselves in:

“These times can be crazy. Whether it is events around the globe or just down our block, life can surprise and overwhelm us. How should we live in times like these? Do we throw up our hands and retreat? Do we get angry and fight?In the Bible, the letter to Titus is for times like ours. Crazy times are an opportunity for us to live in such a way that we make the good news of Jesus attractive. Instead of being scared or angry, we are called to shine brightly.Will you join us on Sundays and online in October as we learn together what it means to adorn the good news of Jesus?”

Learning and applying the storybrand framework gives you an engaging and motivating strategy that can be applied with any tool. I showed us using text here, but we use the framework with video, audio, graphics, etc.

So then, if you have small budgets and volunteers, you can still communicate in a way that makes a difference.

What do you do?

Get the book Building a Storybrand by Donald Miller.
Read the book. Do it rather quickly (try to block off 2-3 times in a week to read through it. It is not long).
Go to their website: mystorybrand.com where you can build practice scripts or frameworks.
Practice on your next sermon series, community project, etc. Try to do it several times in the first month to get the hang of it.

What difference will it make?

Your communication will stand out and move people. You can use print, visual, audio, and video to communicate and get a response. You won’t waste time and effort anymore putting out content and invites and flyers and videos that no one responds to.

Any digital tool you use will have a purpose and be more effective. You won’t be stuck with a shiny camera with no message and no ideas on how to communicate.

Source: Storybrand for Small Church Pastors

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by unSeminary: If you’re a church leader, chances are you’ve heard some form of criticism that sounds something like this:

“It’s not deep enough.” “I wish we would go deeper.”“I wish our church was more gospel-centered.”

I feel like these criticisms are as old as our faith. In fact, after talking with church leaders across the country, it appears they hear some version of this common comment all the time. This commentary isn’t limited to one particular style or theological persuasion of church; it’s heard throughout various corners of the Christian world. From the happy-clappy to the frozen chosen, from the Bible-centered to community-responsive models, it always seems like there is a segment of Christ followers that are happy to provoke their leaders by complaining that the church just isn’t “deep enough.”

How do you respond to such criticism?

For many leaders, it can feel like a dagger to their very souls. None of us got into ministry because we wanted to have a shallow faith. None of us are sacrificing the things we do just so we can scratch people’s ears or simply present some sort of watered-down version of the Gospel.

Church leaders try to establish a faithful representation of the biblical community they see in the New Testament within their own communities today. The heartbeat of church leaders is to apply the timeless teachings of Christ to the life we experience today. We’re looking for ways to apply the ancient scriptures so that people can live out that faith in a robust and generous manner during their day to day lives.

Practically speaking, how do you react and respond to this question when you’re confronted with it? Like every question that’s asked of you as a leader, it’s good to dig below the surface and understand the real reasons behind the question before responding.

Let’s consider how you can respond to discipleship critics at your church. Here are some ways to think about how to encourage people to understand your mission more deeply and to engage with the community you’re attempting to connect with.

Faith in action

The New Testament leans towards the fact that our faith in Christ is not primarily something between our ears but rather something to live out in the world around us. Sometimes when people are criticizing the church for not being “deep enough,” what they’re actually looking for is more trivia acquisition. They’re looking for more Bible facts and figures so they can impress other Christians at cocktail parties (but let’s be honest, this crowd doesn’t go to cocktail parties).

However, that motivation is starkly contrasted to even just a plain reading of the New Testament. Time and again, people ask, “How are we living out our faith? How are we taking what we know about Jesus and putting that into action?” It doesn’t appear that true faith, from a New Testament perspective, is just about information acquisition or a simple verbal or mental assent to a series of timeless truths.

It’s legitimate to push back when someone comments that the church is not deep enough and ask them to explain what a deeper faith looks like. From what I can tell, it would appear that a deep faith is one that attempts to live out the message of Jesus in a relevant manner in the communities around us.

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.” – Proverbs 19:17“‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” – Luke 4:18-19“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.” – Galatians 2:10“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” – James 1:22“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” – James 1:27“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” – James 2:1-4“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” – James 2:15-17“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” – Matthew 25:40“Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.” – 1 John 3:18

“There’s another church across town.”

You’ve got to watch how you say this one, because you don’t want to come across as aloof or emotionally disconnected from someone when they’re asking you a legitimate question. However, it is true that your church isn’t going to be the right fit for everyone in your town.

We need lots of different approaches in order to reach different kinds of people. It’s perfectly acceptable to point to another four or five churches within a 20-minute drive of your church that you could refer people to when they come to you with this kind of complaint.

A great way to do this is to ask them to complete this sentence: “I like our church; however, I wish it was more ______.”  That would be the time to help someone understand there may be other churches in town that are more in line with what they’re looking for.

For example, someone might complain that your church doesn’t “do more worship.” After you process that idea with them and realize that you don’t seem to be coming to a meeting of the minds,  you could say, “If you’re looking for a church with more musical worship, you really should check out this other church across town. I know the pastor there, and they have great people at Across Town Church. They love the Lord, and you know what? I happen to know that they do 45 minutes of musical worship every Sunday. You should check them out.”

People might say, “I really love our church, but I wish it was more focused on expositional teaching.” And you could say, “Well, I’m glad you mentioned that. My friend Pastor Susan across town is in the middle of a 24 week series on the book of Luke. It’s fantastic, I really think the world of them. You should check them out. Would you like me to make that connection for you?” By being disarmingly open with your people, you both clarify why it is you do what you do and show that there really is no competition in the body of Christ. It’s so important to realize that at the end of the day we all want people to get more connected and deeply rooted in their churches.

Challenge into leadership

When someone comes to you and says that the church simply isn’t deep enough, you might consider engaging this person in a conversation about leadership.

Sometimes this concern stems from a very genuine place about the discipleship makeup of a church. In fact, this might be the opportunity to help this person become more connected to the community by becoming a leader in the church. Sometimes people raising their hands like this are the ones you want to get more plugged in!

Rather than deferring them or challenging them about whether they’re putting their faith into action, you could simply acknowledge that yes, we are looking for ways to continue to grow the discipleship culture. Ask them to explain how they would see that the discipleship culture grow, or how they would improve this aspect of your ministry. Maybe they’ll offer to lead a small group, suggest the possibility of a Bible elective, or run a weekend preaching conference. Once they mention their ideas, it would be entirely appropriate to ask if they would be willing to help that idea come to fruition.

Reaching new people

This can be a perfect opportunity for us to talk through the mission of our church. The church I attend has regular conversations about how we’re trying to be the kind of church that unchurched people love to attend. For us, that means that we do feel uniquely called to engage those who don’t normally attend church.

Consider when Jesus was asked questions about faith. He often just responded with more questions rather than diving into long, theological diatribes. Following in that tradition, we are attempting to engage the broader public as they’re asking questions about faith, about things that are relevant to the Bible, and about the teachings of Jesus

I don’t believe that there are church leaders who are attempting to water down the message of Jesus in order to reach people; rather, we are trying to hold to the timeless truths of Christ and engage the broader culture at the same time.  And so, we are going to err on the side of engagement because we think that there’s a bigger mission out there.

The local church is the only organization in the world whose primary focus should be on the people not yet within its walls. In the same way that Jesus sent us into all the world to share the good news, we feel a unique call to reach out to our community and ask, “Hey, how can we engage the people in our community with what it means to follow Christ?” Ask the person who questions the church’s depth about how they’re engaging with that mission and what you can do to help them become more deeply involved in seeing their community be impacted by the message of Christ. This can be a good time to help people get clarity on the mission and to invite them to join in and be a part of it.

How do you respond to critics in your church? I suspect that most of the church leaders reading this have heard this criticism lodged against them at some point in time. What do you say when people say your church is not deep enough? I’d love to hear in the comments below about how you respond to this issue. What conversations have you had that have been helpful in ultimately turning a critic into a more engaged member of your church? I’m cheering for you as you tackle those hard conversations, and I’m honored that I get to serve alongside you as you attempt to reach the people that God has put in your path.

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Source: “It’s Not Deep Enough”: Responding to Discipleship Critics in Your Church

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Source: When to Take Burn-the-Ships, No-Turning-Back, Massive Action

The post When to Take Burn-the-Ships, No-Turning-Back, Massive Action appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: In a world where everything’s changing, how should the church change to reach more (not fewer) people?

The struggle you have is the likely the struggle most church leaders have: reaching new people seems to be getting harder and harder every year.

What if it didn’t have to be that way? What if it became easier and easier?

Here’s a big idea.

Right now we’re in the greatest communication revolution since 1440 and the invention of movable type with the Gutenberg press.

As more than a few observers have said, with the explosion of audiobooks and podcasting, we’re currently in the middle of a shift in which listening is emerging as the new reading.

While Gutenberg opened up reading to people who never had the means or opportunity to read before, audio listening (audio books and especially podcasting) is breaking down an even more massive barrier.

Listening likely has the potential to be as big or bigger than reading, because while people who are literate don’t always take the time to read, many people (especially non-reading men) are discovering that listening to books and podcasts is very doable.

…

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Source: Sermon 2.0: The Future of the Preaching and Reaching The Unchurched

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by Carey Nieuwhof: One of the worst feelings any preacher has is finishing up a message and having no idea how it really went.

I mean you have your own subjective opinion, but we all know ourselves well enough to realize that sometimes we thought our message was awesome when it really wasn’t, and sometimes we thought it was awful when it was actually great.

Ugh.

Making the problem worse is the fact that everybody actually has an opinion about your message. Trust me, they’re talking about it/not talking about it in the foyer, on the ride home or at lunch.

So even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.

So, then, every preacher should get an accurate assessment of how the sermon went. And that’s hard too.

It’s hard because while everyone has an opinion, they’re just not able to give you the kind of meaningful feedback that helps you get better.

By the way—speaking of getting better—I just launched my brand new course, The Art of Better Preaching, a 12 part course I developed with Mark Clark, lead pastor of a rapidly growing megachurch in Vancouver BC. Each weekend for years, Mark and I have preached to thousands of post-modern, post-Christian people.

Hundreds of leaders have already jumped in on the course and (thanks for the suggestion!) we just made it easier than ever, adding a 3 part payment plan to make taking the course even easier (it’s still a fraction of the price of any seminary course you’d take). And one of the big questions from early participants? Where was a course like this when I was in seminary?

Check it out here.

But back to our key question: how do you get an accurate, helpful assessment of your message? I mean that would be amazing, wouldn’t it? Because that’s how you grow.

Here are 5 pro tips.

Preachers, even if you don’t evaluate your message, I promise you everyone else does.Click To Tweet

1. Get Over Your Natural Defensiveness

Great sermon evaluation starts with you. More particularly, it starts with how open you truly are to the truth.

So here’s some truth. There’s a part of me that wants everyone to tell me that I knocked it out of the park every single time I talk. That I crushed it. That I’m the best preacher they’ve ever heard preaching the best message they’ve ever heard.

Except of course, that’s not just not true. It can’t be true.

If I don’t check that part of my spirit, people will tell from a mile away. Because your sermon evaluation process will consist mostly of you fishing for compliments.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies. Nobody wants to burst your bubble or make you feel bad about yourself, so they won’t tell you the truth.

Preachers who fish for compliments usually only hook half-truths and lies.Click To Tweet

Which is why you need to get over your natural defensiveness and seek honest, real feedback.

Thank the messenger, don’t shoot them. If it hurts, grieve privately. Go for a ride and get it out of your system. But always thank people for whatever they have to tell you.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts. Sometimes especially when it hurts.

Growth-minded leaders know the truth is your friend, even when it hurts.Click To Tweet

2. Don’t Settle for What. Discover Why.

Now that you’re working on your defensiveness, you’ll discover that you get all kinds of feedback casually.

Think about the foyer. Most people will tell you it was a good message if they liked it. And I usually go out after a service and find some core staff or volunteers and ask them what they thought. We also have a Monday evaluation meeting with staff where I try to get feedback. So I’m actively seeking feedback.

Here’s the problem with that though: most people will only tell you that they liked your message or didn’t like your message. They’ll say it was good or not so good.

And the conversation almost always stops there (even with staff  and team members who are not preachers)—which makes it rather unhelpful.

When you get that kind of feedback (even through casual conversation or formal evaluation), go one step further and ask the person this simple question: why? 

Why was it good? Why was it not my best? Tell me more….I’m open.

Do that, and you’ll learn a ton.

Maybe some of your ideas didn’t flow logically. Or your passion level was low. Or your delivery was too fast/too slow. Maybe one or two of your points weren’t clear.

That’s helpful feedback. And if you’re going into another service, it will help you do a mid-course correction.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why. Why is helpful. It’s where the real learning comes.

When it comes to sermon feedback, don’t settle for what. Ask why.Click To Tweet

3. Watch Yourself. Listen to Yourself.

I’m well aware that most non-narcissists hate the sound of their own voice. I have spent most of my life getting used to my voice and thinking “Do I really sound like that?”

Want to make it even worse? Watch yourself on video. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought I actually do that? Man, I look so awkward.

So I get the natural inclination most of us have to not listen to ourselves or watch our messages back. And that’s a mistake.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to. You should never expect hundreds or thousands of people to watch you if you won’t watch you.

Preachers, as painful as it is, watch yourself preach. Everyone else has to.Click To Tweet

You’ll learn so much. From verbal ticks (um, ah), to annoying habits (why do I always touch my glasses or put my hands in my pocket?) to moments in the message that just didn’t work, you’ll see yourself more accurately.

But it’s not all negative. You’ll see what worked too. You’ll see what connected and what didn’t.

I have learned so much listening back to my messages and watching myself on video, even though every time I have to make myself play the message back.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.

So endure the pain, and watch and listen.

You may be your own worst critic, but if you’re not, everyone else will be.Click To Tweet

4. Watch and Listen with a Friend

I haven’t done this as much as I should, but whenever I have done this it’s so helpful.

Watch and listen to yourself with a friend you trust who will give you honest, accurate feedback. Someone who loves you enough to tell you the truth.

You might think you’re moving around awkwardly and they’ll say that actually you’re not. That it’s fine or endearing. Conversely, you may think you’re as smooth as butter and they may tell you that all your slouching or weird arm movements take away from the message.

The combination of your own commitment to self-improvement by watching and listening back and doing the same with a friend from time to time will improve your preaching immensely.

5. Get A Peer To Review It

Saved my favourite and most valuable tip to last.

You know who the best evaluator your preaching will be? Another preacher who will tell you the truth.

The challenge with getting a non-communicator to evaluate your communication is that they will be hard pressed to tell you exactly why something worked or didn’t work and how to get better. They don’t do what you do, so their ability to help is limited.

Imagine knowing nothing about race cars, heading to a track and trying to advise a pro racer on how to shave 2 seconds off his lap. I mean what would you say? Go faster? You just don’t have the expertise to give meaningful advice.

That’s why a fellow preacher (who’s maybe a bit better than you) can be your best evaluator. He or she can tell you why something worked or why it didn’t, why your treatment of the text was solid or why you got lost in the first century and didn’t bridge things well for the 21st century. In the same way, another preacher can help you brain storm on better application examples, better intros, better endings.

They’re practitioners. They have studied both theology and the craft of preaching.

Don’t have anyone on your staff who can fit that bill? Ask a colleague or preacher across town. Even doing that a couple times a year can immensely improve your preaching.

Your best sermon evaluation will always come from a colleague who understands the craft.Click To Tweet

Some Practical Help…Instant Access

Another way to quickly improve your preaching is through my new course, The Art of Better Preaching.

I teamed up with Mark Clark, lead pastor of Village Church, a growing mega-church in post-Christian Vancouver, and in the course Mark and I share everything we’ve learned over decades of preaching and communicating at conferences and events around the world.

So what do you get in The Art of Better Preaching? You get 12 video training sessions, a comprehensive, interactive workbook that will help you create, write, and deliver better sermons and numerous bonuses (cheat sheets, game film of Mark and I breaking down how we teach and much more).

This is the complete course you need to start preaching better sermons, including:

7 preaching myths it’s time to bust forever
The 5 keys to preaching sermons to unchurched people (that will keep them coming back)
How to discover the power in the text (and use it to drive your sermon)
The specific characteristics of sermons that reach people in today’s world
Why you need to ditch your sermon notes (and how to do it far more easily than you think.)
How to keep your heart and mind fresh over the long run

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity.

We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Don’t miss out! Check it out today and gain instant access. Special introductory pricing is time-limited, so don’t delay.

And we just introduced a payment plan to make jumping in the course even easier. Hurry while the pricing is the lowest it will ever be. The price increases tomorrow (Thursday, June 28th) at midnight.

What Helps You?

What helps you improve as a preacher? Scroll down and leave a comment!

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Source: 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback

The post 5 Pro Tips on How to Get Amazing Sermon Feedback appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Carey Nieuwhof: If you preach with any regularity, you know the pressure that comes with staring at a blank screen with a deadline approaching.

And if you communicate regularly within the context of the local church, like I do, you quickly discover that Sundays come around whether you’re ready or not.

I get asked regularly what I do to prepare for my messages, and there are a few things I practice and that I’ve seen other leaders do that I think can gain any communicator an edge.

They’re not talked about that often, but they work for me and for other communicators I admire. But even more than that, it took me years to get there.

Here’s to shortcuts. Five of them actually—for every communicator and preacher.

1. Focus initially on the quality of your thinking instead of the quality of your writing

So how do you get to a killer message, article or post? You think your way there before you write your way there.

Look, I admire great writers and communicators. They can make anything sound interesting, fun or even meaningful.

But I appreciate great thinking even more.

So will your audience.

A great idea adequately expressed is worth more than a bad idea eloquently expressed.

If you put lipstick on a pig, it’s still a pig.

A great idea adequately expressed is worth more than a bad idea eloquently expressed.Click To Tweet

If you’re trying to develop fresh angles, perspectives and insights, time is your best friend. I often start thinking through a sermon series or book a year or two in advance. I’ll keep notes in Evernote and just let the ideas simmer, refining them or adding to them regularly.

If time is your best friend, change of venue is your next best friend. I personally find that ideas get better not when I’m sitting at a computer keyboard, but when I’m doing something else: cycling, cutting the grass, washing the car, listening to a podcast or music or even cooking. Something in the back of my brain will connect dots I didn’t think connected.

When that happens, all you need is a place to record the idea. Again, Evernote is so handy. I have recorded dozens of voice files in Evernote during bike rides. It’s a convenient way to save key ideas I don’t want to lose without stopping.

This approach may not get you to next Sunday or your Wednesday deadline, but don’t get discouraged.

Instead, this week, why not start keeping notes on future series, articles and posts? Use whatever system you want, but just write your ideas down and let them gestate.

If you keep notes like this and refine your thinking over weeks and months, you’ll develop a catalogue of great ideas that can be put into use at any point in the future.

A good idea gets better over time. A bad idea gets worse over time. So give yourself time.

When you jot down your ideas and revisit them as time passes, you’ll have a much clearer sense of which is which, and the pressure to get to Sunday disappears. Plus you can keep refining them and making them better.

A good idea gets better over time. A bad idea gets worse over time. So give yourself time.Click To Tweet

2. Spend a lot of time on a few key words or thoughts

When you’re keeping your journal of ideas and concepts for the future, keep them simple.

My notes look like a series of key phrases and ideas that I keep refining until they resonate.

If your thinking is strong (see #1 above), then the next most important thing is to phrase your thinking so it’s both memorable and impactful.

Many communicators I know and respect summarize their thinking in a bottom line: a short, memorable statement that outlines the main point of the message you’re delivering.

Here are some examples of bottom lines I’ve written:

Changing your mind can change your life. 

Moral compromise compromises you. 

God doesn’t runaway from runaways.

You can make excuses or you can make progress but you can’t make both. 

God is bigger than your circumstances, and he’s better than your than your circumstances.

The best sex life is a surrendered sex life.  

It can take me weeks or months of letting an idea simmer to reduce to a simple statement like the statements above, but it’s so worth it.

I find that once I have a key idea stated as simply as that, the message becomes relatively easy to write, because the statement has so much pre-loaded into it.

Why is this so important? It’s simple. If you’re not clear on what your message is about, no one else will be either.

If you can’t state the main point of your message in a simple phrase, then you don’t understand it well enough to deliver it.

If you’re not clear on what your message is about, no one else will be either.Click To Tweet

3. Test your key ideas on a team

I personally do a lot of my writing alone, but I employ a team at key stages.

Some of my favourite writing moments happen when I walk a rough draft of the bottom lines and a short summary of the talk or series I’m working on into a meeting and bounce them off my team.

Three things happens when I present my outline to a team:

1. I learn which ideas resonate and which don’t. Better to find this out now than when giving the talk.

2. The team will frequently offer better ways to phrase key ideas than I’ve developed on my own. This makes the message or talk far better.

3. Verbally processing my ideas in front of a team often helps me discover better ways to say things than I would have discovered on my own.

I like to walk ideas into a meeting like this a month or two before I need to finish the message.

Then I go back and finish up the talk on my own, sometimes checking back in, but sometimes not if the talk or piece is now resonating well.

4. Think more about God and your audience than you think about yourself

When it comes to delivering the message, most of us naturally over-focus on ourselves. Here’s why you’ll think about if you don’t stop yourself.

Will:

Deliver this well?

People laugh at my jokes?

I knock it out of the park?

I have those thoughts too. But when I focus on them, I tend to do less well than when I focus on two other elements: God and my audience.

A sermon is not really about how you ‘did’ as a communicator; it’s about God’s interaction with his people.

A message isn’t about how you ‘did’ as a speaker; it’s about whether you helped your audience meet Christ. So don’t focus on how well you did as a preacher, focus on how well you brought Jesus.

Put a filter on your thoughts about you.

For sure, you need some personal elements in your talk…some stories, and maybe even some humour. But even while those elements are about you, they’re not. They’re about God using you and about your audience.

When you take the focus off of yourself, your insecurities lessen their grip. You begin to serve God and serve your audience through your communication, and you find you actually help people far more.

Don’t focus on how well you did as a preacher, focus on how well you brought people to Jesus.Click To Tweet

5. Focus on understanding your message, not memorizing it

This one’s for speakers.

How do you memorize a 45 minute talk?

I have no idea. But I regularly give 45 minute talks without using notes.

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received on how to ‘learn’ a talk is this: don’t memorize your talk, understand it.

Think about the next conversation you have today at work or with your family. You don’t memorize what you’re going to say before you say it. Instead, you understand what you’re trying to accomplish (I need to talk about the third quarter results, or what we’re doing for dinner.)

A talk is obviously more complex, but not much more.

If you do this, all you have to remember is the big idea of what fits in each part of the talk. Sometimes it’s as simple as thinking “How do I get to the main point again? Right, the story about last summer’s vacation!”

Personally, I will write out some stories and key phrasing in detail, but I don’t write a full manuscript any more.

I just write enough so I understand what I’m going to say.

That takes the pressure off of you as a communicator, because if you forget something the only person who knows is you. And the talk is shorter, so everyone wins.

Don’t memorize your talk. Understand it.Click To Tweet

Tomorrow’s a BIG day for Preachers

Tomorrow, Mark Clark (Lead Pastor of Village Church, a rapidly growing megachurch in Vancouver) and I open up our brand new course, The Art of Better Preaching.

You can still get a free Preaching Cheat Sheet  if you visit the website today.

The full course opens for registrations tomorrow, Tuesday, June 19 2018.

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity. We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text, to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Don’t miss out!

Any Tips?

What tips have you discovered for better preaching and communicating?

Scroll down and leave a comment!

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