Communicating for a Change Part 10

WHEN INFORMATION IS ENOUGH.

I mentioned earlier that there are some rare occasions when presentation is not important because the information itself is so engaging. I'll give you an example. A couple of years ago I had an MRI. A closed MRI. Those are a lot of fun. On the way home I called Sandra and told her I definitely wanted to be cremated.

Actually, I called my doctor to see when I could come and let him tell me what he ascertained from my pictures. His a.s.sistant informed me that he didn't have any openings for a week! That seemed like an eternity. Why? Because I believed he had some information that was vital for me. When my appointment date finally rolled around I got there early. And when he walked through the door he had my undivided attention. In that environment, presentation was irrelevant. I was there for the information. I'm sure you've had similar experiences.

This brings us to a very important communication principle. The more interested we are in a topic, the easier it is to engage us with the information. I showed up at the doctor's office with a high level of interest. He didn't have to do anything to create interest in me. But why? Why was I so interested in his information?

I was interested because I was convinced my doctor had the answer to a question I was dying to have answered. I was interested because there was a tension I believed he could resolve for me. I was interested because I had a problem I was hoping he would be able to solve. Tension creates a hunger for information.

Now, imagine this. What if after finishing with me he had said, "Hey Andy, would you be interested in hanging out in the office with me while I go over MRIs with my other patients? The answer would have been, No, I'm not really interested. Like a lot of churchgoers I might have stuck around to be polite. But would I be interested? Not really. After all, what does someone else's MRI have to do with ME?

Presentation takes a backseat to information when an audience is absolutely convinced that you are about to answer a question they've been asking, solve a mystery they have been unable to solve, or resolve a tension they have been unable to resolve.

When Atlanta hosted its first Gay Rights parade back in the 80's I was working for my dad in midtown Atlanta. As it turned out, we were on the parade route. Not only that, the parade was scheduled for Sunday morning. As you can imagine, it was a big deal. A really big deal. A couple of weeks before the big day, I suggested to my dad that he ought to preach on what the Bible has to say about h.o.m.os.e.xuality. As it turned out, he was finishing a series the Sunday morning of the parade and then leaving town that afternoon. He suggested I do it. Being twenty-seven and not knowing any better, I agreed. On the Sunday morning of the parade he announced to the congregation that I was going to speak that night on the subject of what the Bible has to say about h.o.m.os.e.xuality.

Needless to say, I didn't have to work very hard at being engaging. Everybody was engaged. Especially those from the gay community who decided to join us for the evening. Why? Because everybody a.s.sumed I was going to answer a question they had, resolve a tension they carried, or perhaps make a total fool of myself. Any of those three was worth a trip to church. I've long since taken that tape out of circulation. Tape? You remember those, don't you?

My point is, there are topics so controversial, unusual, or emotional that the information alone will engage an audience. When I announce that I'm going to talk about s.e.x, we have high attendance Sunday. We did a weekend on the subject of p.o.r.nography. It was standing room only. When everybody knew I was going to preach on divorce, the place was packed.

But let's face it, there's just a handful of subjects where the information is so engaging that the presentation is secondary. And even with those topics, presentation still matters. It just doesn't matter as much.

RAISING THE NEED.

I have two reasons for spending so much time on this. First, it's true. Second, these rare occasions ill.u.s.trate an important principle. People engage easily when they are convinced that you are about to answer a question they've been asking, solve a mystery they have been unable to solve, or resolve a tension they have been unable to resolve. When an audience knows ahead of time that you are going to do one of those three things they show up interested. They might even show up early. They are emotionally engaged as soon as you walk up on the stage. But what if the topic is not emotionally charged? What if no one even knows what you are going to talk about? What if your audience shows up with no sense of antic.i.p.ation?

Simply put, you have to manufacture interest. On the average Sunday morning, or whenever you communicate, your first responsibility is to pose a question your audience wants answered, create a tension they need resolved, or point to a mystery they have been unable to solve. And if you launch into your message before you do one of those three things, chances are, you will leave them standing at the station.

If we give answers to questions no one is asking or attempt to resolve a tension that no one is feeling, then our information is likely to fall on deaf ears. Information that does not address a felt need is perceived as irrelevant. It may actually be incredibly relevant, but if our audience doesn't see or feel the need for it, it is perceived as irrelevant. No one is engaged. They may sit quietly until we are finished talking. But they will not be engaged.

Implication?

Your introduction may be the most important part of your message. It is the equivalent to a railroad conductor yelling, "All aboard!" Or in my case, it is the equivalent of standing beside our SUV, yelling, "Load up, we are leaving." The introduction should provide listeners with a reason to listen. Your introduction should raise the question you are going to answer, create the tension you are going to resolve, or point to the mystery you are going to solve. My impression is that many communicators, especially preachers, are so anxious to get into the body of their message they spend little time preparing their introductions. They leave the station alone.

INTRODUCTIONS.

I usually write my introduction last. Often, I rewrite my introduction on Sat.u.r.day night. It is not unusual for my introduction to take up three-quarters of a page in my typical three-page outline. It is the one section of my messages I always practice out loud. My a.s.sumption is, if I don't capture the audience's attention in the first five minutes, all is lost. My hours of preparation are for naught. My life-changing insights won't change anybody.

Here are three pairs of questions I recommend you refer to as you develop your introductions: a What is the question I am answering? What can I do to get my audience to want to know the answer to that question?

a What is the tension this message will resolve? What can I do to make my audience feel that tension?

a What mystery does this message solve? What can I do to make my audience want a solution?

I believe every message can be organized around one of these three dynamics. Recognizing the one that best fits your message will give you insight into how to approach your introduction. When you have succeeded in narrowing the focus of your message to one central idea, it makes choosing an approach to your introduction much easier.

Jesus did this all the time. "Who do men say that I am?" That certainly surfaced some tension. He was constantly throwing out statements that were so contrary to the a.s.sumptions of the day that He immediately had everybody's attention. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." That's not right. The goal is to be rich in spirit, isn't it? His parables highlighted the tension between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of man. How about this as an introduction: "You have heard it said a but I say a "?

Jesus launched a discussion one day with this statement "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of G.o.d."14 Remember the response? "When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"15 He led them to ask the question He wanted to answer.

If you are successful in creating tension through your introduction you will also have been successful in surfacing some emotion. Emotionally charged environments are engaging. You pay attention when there is tension. Have you ever been scuba diving or parachuting? If so, I bet you were very much engaged in the instructor's instructions. That same dynamic holds true whenever we stand up to speak. Tension gains attention. If we fail to create tension we are wrong to a.s.sume that we will capture and keep anyone's attention.

This is why in chapter 13 I warned you not to transition from WE to the next section until you feel like you have created a tension that your audience is dying for you to resolve. In other words, a.s.sume no interest. Focus on the question you are intending to answer until you are confident your audience wants it answered. Otherwise you are about to spend twenty or thirty minutes of your life answering a question n.o.body is asking.

But as you know, grabbing your audience's attention with a carefully crafted introduction is just the beginning. You need to keep them engaged the whole way through. So here are five suggestions to help you keep your audience engaged past the introduction.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT.

1. Check your speed.

The human brain can process words much faster than the mouth can produce them. This one insight has huge implications for communicators. Jeff Miller, in a piece he wrote for Leadership magazine, talks about a communicator's WPMsa"Words Per Minute. According to Jeff, the average rate of speech for English-speaking Westerners is 150 per minute. "Studies have shown," Miller says, "that speaking slightly above 150 words per minute adds an element of dignity to one's message. Faster speakersa"up to 190 words per minutea"were rated as more objective, knowledgeable, and persuasive than slower speakers."

Bottom line, if you talk too slow, you will be perceived as boring, regardless of how important your content is. Jeff goes on to point out that public speakers need to increase their speed to a number that exceeds normal conversation. Otherwise, people's brains will get so far ahead of what we're saying that the lag time will drive them crazy. They will disengage. Chances are, you have been forced to sit and listen to someone who spoke so slowly that you felt like the life was just being drained out of you. Again, it probably wasn't the significance of what he or she was saying, it was their pace.

Your WPMs communicate your interest in and pa.s.sion for your topic. When one of my kids comes running down the hall talking a mile a minute, I'm engaged before I even know what they are talking about. Their pace is fast enough to make me believe that they have something important to say. The pace of our words communicates the importance of our words.

If you listen to your own tapes or CDs and find yourself wanting to press fast forward, you may have a WPM issue. If you aren't in the habit of listening to your own messages, you have another issue. More on that later.

I have a WPM issue to contend with. But it is not a problem with talking too slow. I have a tendency to talk way too fast. After my first seminary cla.s.sroom sermon my professor blurted out, "Andy, if you don't slow down you will be completely ineffective as a communicator." I've never forgotten that. Actually, it is one of the few things I still remember about seminary. But he was right. One of the main reasons I listen to my own sermons is to monitor my speed. Talking too fast can wear people out just like talking too slow. Not to mention the fact that it wreaks havoc with my diction. If people have to think too hard to follow us, eventually they will quit following. It's exhausting. And talk about exhausting, imagine what it does to the poor folks who sign for our deaf congregation. I'm surprised their hands don't catch on fire. On more than one occasion I've put a three-by-five card in my Bible that reads, slow down!

2. Slow down in the curves.

It is easy to lose people in the curves. As you transition from introduction to the text to your point to your application, give people some sort of indication that you are making a transition. Let your audience know you are making a transition. Let everybody know you are making a transition. Yes, I just repeated myself twice. That's one way of letting people know you are moving to a different section of your message.

Saying something one time doesn't highlight it. Saying the same thing a couple of different ways, does. Here's a typical transition I use when moving from WE to G.o.d.

Fortunately for us, we are not the first group to wonder about this. Men and women in the first century shared our concern. So much so that one day a group came to Jesus and actually asked Him about it. So for the next few minutes we have the opportunity of listening to Jesus address this very issue. And once again, we are reminded of how relevant the Bible is to the issues we struggle with today.

Here's a transition statement I used when moving from the text to the application section of a message.

Now, in light of all that, what should we do? How does this principle intersect with our lives? What do you do with this tomorrow morning when you show up at the office or school? What does this look like around the dinner table? Here are a few suggestions.

Notice in this second paragraph I have not suggested any specific applications. I just let everybody know what's coming next. When preparing an outline I always write out my transitions as I have here. These transition paragraphs in my outline serve as a visual reminder to me of my need to slow down in the curves.

Transitions give people a chance to catch back up with you. They provide the audience with an opportunity to rejoin the discussion. They may have lost track of where you are for a variety of reasons, many of which you may have no control over. But by slowing down in the curves; by creating a break in the action, they are able to reengage.

3. Navigate through the text.

In chapter 13 I made the observation that it is the textual part of most messages where things tend to bog down. My feeling is, the text should be the most engaging part of the message. But that requires some work on our part. Here are my rules of the road when it comes to engaging people with the text.

a Have the audience turn to one pa.s.sage and one pa.s.sage only. You may throw a couple of others up on the screen, but don't expect your audience to be able to follow you as you gallop through the Bible. Pick a central text and teach it. It is better for people to understand one verse than to have turned to four verses.

a Don't read long sections without comment. Comment along the way. Even in narratives, don't read the entire story and then begin your sermon. Lead people through the text.

a Highlight and explain odd words or phrases. Think of yourself as a navigator or tour guide. Point things out as you go a but keep moving.

a Voice your frustration or skepticism about the text. If it frustrates you, it is frustrating someone in your audience. If it sounds unreasonable or impractical to you, you are not alone. Whenever you can say what your audience is thinking, your audience will consider you believable and approachable.

"That's just hard to believe, isn't it?"

"If G.o.d would allow me to erase a verse, this might be it."

"Obviously Jesus has never met your boss."

"If I was one of the disciples I might have walked at that point."

"This is where we want to raise our hand and tell our sad story. After all, if G.o.d knew what you had been through, you would get a pa.s.s."

a Help the audience antic.i.p.ate the main point of the text.

"Okay, get ready, here it is a "

"Then He drops the bomb."

"At this point Jesus' audience is wondering, *What the heck is He talking about.' Then He tells 'em a "

a Deliberately read the text wrong, inserting a word that means the opposite and then pause to let it sink in.

"As it is written, it is more blessed to receive than to give."

"Husbands, love your wives in the same manner that they love you."

"For by consistency you are saved."

a Have the audience read certain words out loud for emphasis.

"And the truth shall make you a what? What's the word? Say it with me.'"

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will a What's the word? Forgive. He will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

"You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you a What's the next word? Love. Can you believe it? Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you?"

a Summarize the text with a well-crafted statement. Remember, you have promised to address the tension, felt need, question, issue, whatever it is you established up front. Make sure your time in the text actually does that. A pre-prepared and memorized summary statement will insure that you don't accidentally leave the text without making it clear why you were in the text to begin with. That happens frequently in sermons. We think we've made it clear because we've been discussing the text for ten minutes. But covering the text is no guarantee that we've clearly communicated the point of the text.

"Paul's point is that since Christ forgave us, we are to forgive one another."

"Joseph simply did what anyone in His circ.u.mstances would do who was confident that G.o.d was with him."

"When Peter acted on his faith, he recognized who Christ was."

a Use visuals every chance you get. Visuals are engaging. Even bad ones. If you are preaching on the great commission, get a map. If you are preaching on David and Goliath, get a slingshot.

If you are explaining Jesus' insights on the relationship between our hearts and our money, bring some cash. Make a big heart.

One time I was teaching through the verses pertaining to our individual roles in the body of Christ. I got several big gla.s.s containers, filled them with yellow water and put one rubber body part in each. Then I covered each one with a cloth. (By the way, when you have stuff on stage covered with a sheet, you are already ahead of the guy down the street before you even start preaching.) Anyway, it looked like something out of a horror movie. When I pulled the covers off people thought they were real. I explained that that's how G.o.d viewed Christians who refused to act as part of the body. Detached body parts are gross.

Everybody was engaged. Nauseated, but engaged.

a Resist the urge to share everything you have learned in your research. I always have a half page or more of interesting stuff that I love too much to trash but know better than to try and cram into the sermon. If it doesn't facilitate the journey, cut it. If it doesn't help your audience resolve the tension, save it. After all, you've still got YOU and WE to cover. And the last thing you want to do is rush through your conclusion. A hard landing leaves the pa.s.sengers feeling a bit uneasy. The same is true of a rushed conclusion to a message.

Bottom line: Engage the audience with the text. Don't just read it and move on. Don't get lost in the minutia. We want people to love G.o.d's Word. Engage them with it.

4. Add something unexpected to the trip.

The unexpected is always engaging. Always. If you have ever had someone pa.s.s out during a service or had a bird fly into your meeting room you know what I'm talking about. When something unusual happens, everybody is interested. So why not leverage this maxim to your advantage? Plan something unusual.

Not too long ago, Jeff Henderson, the campus pastor at our Buckhead Campus leveraged this principle in a remarkably creative way. Buckhead Church is our video campus. Ordinarily, there is no live speaker, the audience watches a video. There are occasions when we need to have a live communicator. The first Sunday of the year is one of those occasions.

Jeff volunteered to kick the year off with a message ent.i.tled, "Life Interrupted." Since interruption was the theme, he decided to stage one. The service started as it usually does. After the offering, the screen dropped and I appeared and began preaching. About five minutes into the service, Jeff and his crew faked a power outage. Everything went dark, including the screens. At that point, Jeff walked up and delivered an amazing message on what to do when life is interrupted. Everybody was engaged. It was incredible. In fact, it was so well done, about half the audience really believed the power went out and Jeff just happened to have a message prepared.

Granted, that was pretty extreme. But there are plenty of things you can do short of a power outage to challenge the predictability of your speaking environment. Visuals accomplish the same thing. So do interviews, banter with an audience member, bringing people up on the stage, letting someone draw or paint while you speak. One morning I sat down at the piano and played a short song I wrote that emphasized the point of the message. It was terrible. But everybody was engaged.

I would imagine that you have missed dozens of opportunities to apply this principle simply because you didn't think about it. You were happy to have an outline. Whose got energy left to plan something unexpected? Here's a suggestion. Get somebody else to think about it. Pull a team together at the beginning of your next series, give 'em your big idea and then a.s.sign them the task of helping you spice things up. My prediction is that they will come up with a bunch of really bad ideas, one of which can be tweaked into a good one. Over time they will gain a sense of what you are comfortable with, and what just won't work for you. Bottom line, look for opportunities to introduce the unexpected. No one will be expecting it.

5. Take the most direct route.

In short, be direct. Your audience needs to know where you are going early in the journey. No doubt you have experienced the frustration of being ten or twelve minutes into a presentation and thinking to yourself, "Where is this going?" Now stop and think about that for a moment.

If you were to have the audacity to actually stand up and shout out to the communicator, "Hey buddy, where are you going with all of this?" Two things would take place. Well, maybe three, if you include being thrown out. The first thing that would happen is the communicator would be surprised that you don't know. Because in his or her mind it is perfectly clear where the message is heading. The second thing that would happen is that the speaker would probably tell you precisely where it was heading, to which you may respond, "Well then why didn't you just tell us that to begin with?"

So where am I going with this? Err on the side of being too direct when it comes to orienting your audience to the question you are going to answer, the tension you want to resolve, or the mystery you want to help them solve. Get there quicker than you think you need to. And be more specific than you think you need to. And repeat it more times than you think you need to. They want to know what you are going to talk about. They want to know where you are going as soon as you begin talking. The longer you hold them off, the greater risk you run of having them disengage.

I was a journalism major in college. That may come as a shock. I hope not. I had a professor named Dr. Davis. He was great. One of his favorite things to do was call students to the front, read the opening paragraph of their story, and ask, "What are you trying to say here?" On most occasions, the student under fire would rattle off a very cohesive and direct summary of the opening paragraph. Then Dr. Davis would hand the paper back and say, "Then say it."

Like you, I've sat through too many messages where I wanted to stand up and say, "What are you trying to say?" I'm sure they knew. But I didn't know. And they weren't helping me. They were dancing all around their idea but wouldn't just come out and state it. Very frustrating. Worse than that, they had no clue as to the frustration they were creating in their audience. As a general rule, it is better to tell your audience what you are going to talk about before you begin talking about it. Otherwise, they have no context, no frame of reference, for the information you are giving them.

If you run across a topic or narrative that merits a more indirect approach, then do your audience a favor and let them know that you know that the message doesn't appear to be going anywhere. A simple, "Hang with me, this is going somewhere" will allow all the super linear people to relax. Sneaking up on a topic through the back door is a wonderful communication technique. But there is an art to keeping an audience engaged while you lead them through the dark. If you have credibility with an audience they will trust that your seemingly random information is all going to come together in the end. But for the average communicator, direct is better.

LISTEN AND LEARN.

Some communicators are more naturally engaging than others. But we can all improve. You can become more engaging. Next time you hear someone who you just can't get enough of, ask yourself why. Why are they so easy to listen to? What are they doing or not doing that makes the time fly and the information so accessible? And next time you find yourself counting ceiling tiles and flipping through your Bible waiting for the speaker to stop speaking, ask yourself the same question. Make a list of everything they are doing wrong. Ask yourself what they could have done to make their message work. Rewrite their talk the way you would have delivered it. Then go up afterwards and hand it to them. They will appreciate it. Probably take you to dinner.

Remember, listening is not like reading. If you are reading and lose your place or lose track of the story line, you can back up and read it again. But if you get lost in a verbal presentation, chances are you are lost till the end. So do what it takes to keep your audience with you. Your message is important. Besides, you spent hours putting it together. Don't leave people standing at the station, load 'em up before you leave. And don't lose 'em in your transitions, slow down. And please don't let 'em bail out in the middle of the text. Navigate them through the Scriptures. Take a few risks. Try some new things. Engage your audience.

a Engage your audience.

a Engage your audience.

a Engage your audience.