Three Principles For Effective Communication

September 8, 2009 in preaching with 4 Comments

I’m a student of communication.

As a pastor I think I have to be. I figure that in the 3.5 years of ministry that I have under my belt I’ve given over 150 unique messages. It’s not a ton, I know, but I think it’s enough to have figured a few things out and learned from messages that have bombed.

So I’d like to offer up three principles for effective communication. This is a gritty super-simple list. And I think these principles work no matter the arena that you work in. These are things that I’ve seen, but I’d love your help in refining this list and making it better.

1. Give a specific title

There’s two reasons why you want a very specific title. Firstly, it will give your listeners a sense of direction and beckon them to listen. For example, a title like “the cross of Christ,” is essentially saying nothing. I know that you’ll speak on the cross, but I don’t know what you’re going to say about it, and more importantly I don’t know why it should matter to me.

A better title would be something like “Why the Cross Still Matters.” This at least has a measure of direction. It’s going somewhere. Of course, to an unchurched person, and most church people (nowadays), this still doesn’t carry enough of a punch to beckon me to listen.

You may have the best sermon in the world, but if I’m not interested enough to listen to it, it’s of no use.

An ever better title would be “How To Find Freedom From Guilt.” This will directly address a felt need (hopefully) that I might have.

The second reason why a specific title is necessary is because it will give you direction. I was recently coaching one of my leaders through this process. He knew that he wanted to preach on Isaiah 58. So I asked him, “so what are you going to say about Isaiah 58? What do you want to communicate to the people based on the text?” And he began listing about 4-5 different ideas. I challenged him to be as specific as possible, and to address only one of the issues.

Here’s the title we ended up coming up with: How to Survive a Spiritual Drought.

With a title like this you’re addressing a felt need in a very specific way. With a title like this you will have me on the edge of my seat as I listen.

By the way, I believe that every message has a definite question that you’re answering. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing an inductive, deductive, narrative, or expository type message. If you’re not answering or addressing a question of some type, then you’re just giving baseless information. I’m not going to sit before you and listen to you just spew out information. It’s a waste of my time and energy.

And when you frame something in terms of a question, it helps to give your message a razor sharp focus.

For great titles I don’t think there’s anyone better than Rick Warren. Click here to view how he titles a message series and the individual messages in a series.

2. Use a bullet/big idea

Haddon Robinson, one of the great teachers of preaching says that “a sermon should be a bullet, not a buckshot.” In other words, you should be able to summarize it in a clear and compelling statement. Everything in your message will be connected to that one main idea.

J.H. Jowett summarized this principle well. He said:

“I have a conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short, pregnant sentence as clear as a crystal. I find the getting of that sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful labour in my study. To compel oneself to fashion that sentence, to dismiss every word that is vague, ragged, ambiguous, to think oneself through to a form of words which defines the theme with scrupulous exactness–this is surely one of the most vital and essential factors in the making of a sermon: and I do not think any sermon ought to be preached or even written, until that sentence has emerged, clear and lucid as a cloudless moon” (J.H. Jowett, The Preacher: His Life and Work, p. 133).

Some people call it a bullet, some call it a “big idea,” just make sure you have one.

Going back to my previous example. The title I crafted together with my leader was “How To Survive a Spiritual Drought.” Here’s what the bullet to that sermon was, then: “True spiritual blessing comes from serving others.”

It’s clear, effective, and succinct. And when you have a title and bullet like that, the sermon preaches itself. You don’t need any notes. You know the main text you’re preaching on, and you know that everything you’re going to say is going to lead me towards understanding that one principle.

Most recently, I think Andy Stanley, in his book “Communicating For A Change” has done the best job of communicating this principle and method. He calls it preaching a one point message.

3. Apply it clearly

This is often the “so what?” question. Why should I care that David slew the giant with a stone? Why should I care that God spoke to Elijah through a whisper? Why should I care that God is going to create a new heaven and a new earth? Why should I care how Paul delivered his message to the Athenians on Mars Hill?

So what?

This is where you bring it home. Tell me why that makes a difference in my life. If you use an effective bullet, you’ll practically be there already.

In the story of David: God can use the insignificant moments of your life (being a shepherd) to prepare you for moments of great significance (Bullet).

“Maybe right now you’re in a dead-end job and you think you’re wasting your talents…remember that God can use the seemingly insignificant moments of your life to prepare you for…” (Application)

In the story of Elijah: We often hear God the loudest when we’ve closed ourselves off to distractions (Bullet).

Maybe some of you are having trouble listening to the voice of God. You’re wondering if He still speaks. I want to encourage you that “we often hear God the loudest when we’ve…” (Application)

After you’ve answered the “so what?” you must now answer the “now what?” question.

Tell me what you want me to do. This is usually part of the application. Give me something specific to implement and tell me when I can implement it.

“For this week, I want to challenge you to pick two days to not watch any tv at all.”

I remember one of the first sermons I ever preached while in preaching class many years ago. I preached about Moses at the red sea. My bullet was “step out in faith.” Afterwards, the professor challenged me saying, “Rodlie…when do you want us to step out in faith? I was ready to step out in faith with something in my life…but you didn’t challenge me to step out in faith immediately.” Ouch.

These are just a few pointers that I think will help to make any presentation or message better. They’re both part of the application process.

So if you were to make a really simple list of steps for effective communication, what would you add or takeaway from this?

[image by mbowman64]

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4 Responses to “Three Principles For Effective Communication”

Saul Marquez September 8, 2009 at 8:20 pm #

Ultimamente no había visitado tu blog. Pero cada vez que lo leo encuentro algo interesante y aunque no soy pastor, aprendo de tus posts

Reply
rodlie September 9, 2009 at 1:39 am #

Hola Saul. Me alegro tanto que haz sido bendecido por este blog. Por eso es que escribo, para que todos podamos aprender juntos. Y a que te dedicas, Saul?

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BillyGager September 11, 2009 at 2:17 am #

Excellent post. I would add one more – tell a story! Jesus never spoke without a parable.

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Rodlie September 11, 2009 at 9:36 pm #

Oh, no doubt, Billy…gotta sprinkle some of those in there.

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