Thursday, June 30, 2005

Snoring in the pews?

(HT Brenton Balvin)
What keeps people awake and engaged during a message
Tony Morgan from Granger Community Church recently posted this on his blog.

1. Be real. Let people see the actual human inside you. Most times that will occur through your personal stories.
2. Talk like normal people talk. I didn’t grow up in the church, so I don’t understand when you talk with a Christian accent.
3. Use humor. If you don’t make me laugh, I’m probably going to tune you out. By the way, the best humor is revealed through your everyday life.
4. Don’t tell me what to think. Lead me on the journey toward truth, but let me reach my own conclusions. In other words, don’t try to sell it.
5. Be honest. If I think you’re credible, there’s a better chance I’ll think your message is credible.
6. Avoid being too polished. In fact, I love it when you leave your prepared statements and share anything off the cuff.
7. Reveal your weaknesses. As silly as it may seem, it makes me smile when I hear about your mistakes. It helps me to respect the areas where you are gifted.
8. Be brief. Shorter is better. I’m probably only going to remember one or, at the most, two things that you say.
9. Make me smart. I don’t care how smart you are, but I like it when you make me feel smart. That’s easier when you use small words and make it easy for me to apply what you’re teaching.
10. Tell me why I should care. Help me understand why I should listen. If you don’t help me understand why it’s relevant to my life, I’ll to be thinking about my next blog post or my next tee time or my favorite 80s slow dance songs.
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I'd love to hear some other people's thoughts, as I'm sure there are more things we could add to this list.

1 comment:

Chris Meirose said...

Thanks for reading B. I too am a HUGE fan of acoustic music.

One of the best ways that can be avoided is self depreciating humor. One of the best examples I have seen of this in preaching is CJ Mahaney of Sovereign Grace Ministries. He is hiliarious while being serious, engaging while educating. You can find a link to Sovereign Grace Ministries under "More Links" on the right side of my blog.