Communicating for a Change Part 9

WE.

Like you, I love to wrap up a message with an emotionally charged story that punctuates the main point in a way that leaves the audience gasping for breath and reaching for their Kleenex. And every once in a while G.o.d graces us with those closing ill.u.s.trations. But for the other fifty-one weeks of the year we need something else. That's where WE comes in.

This final component of the message is an opportunity for you to rejoin your audience as you did in the beginning of the message when you circled up around your shared frailty, questions, misgivings or temptations. WE is really about vision casting. It is a moment of inspiration. It is the point in the message when you paint a verbal picture of what could be and should be. In this closing moment you call upon your audience to imagine what the church, the community, families, maybe even the world would be like if Christians everywhere embraced your one idea.

Imagine a church where "love one another" was the theme rather than a memory verse for children. Imagine a community dotted with homes where husbands really loved their wives like Christ loved the church. Imagine what would happen in culture if thousands of teenagers abandoned the lie that purity was optional and basically irrelevant. Imagine what could happen in one week if everybody here treated everybody they came into contact with like someone for whom Christ died. Imagine what would happen if for three months we all managed our money as if everything really belongs to G.o.d.

This is where you come out from behind whatever it is you preach from and stand off to the side of the stage, as close as you can get to the lip of the stage and dream out loud. Dream on behalf of your church families, singles, kids, churches, the kingdom. This is when you remind your audience that the Scriptures were given not just as a means of making our individual lives better. They were given so that as a body, corporately, we could shine like a beacon of hope in our communities, our neighborhoods, and in the marketplace.

Imagine what WE could do together.

GETTING STARTED.

Okay, that's it. But that's a lot. And I imagine that is very different from the way you are currently outlining, so let me close with a couple of suggestions.

Take your last message, or even one you are working on now, and write these five words in the margin where they apply in your current way of outlining. For example, if you typically start your messages by diving right into the text, write G.o.d out to the side of that section or sections. Write YOU out beside your application. When you are finished, take a shot at rearranging your material around this approach. Use your current numbering system. But just rearrange the parts so that they follow the ME-WE-G.o.d-YOU-WE paradigm. Now go back and add the ones you are missing.

Once you have done that, turn your paper over and see if you can think through your message one section at a time. I bet you can. People ask me all the time how I preach without looking at notes.

Now you know.

But don't tell anybody.

a An outline built around your relationship with the audience, rather than the content, best matches the way they naturally process information.

a ME-WE-G.o.d-YOU-WE.

a Begin writing these five words in the margin where they apply in your current way of outlining. Add the sections you are missing.

14.

INTERNALIZE THE MESSAGE.

What's your story?

Every communicator has notes. But there's no reason anybody has to know you have notes. Odds are, you want to become more conversational in your communication style. To do that, you can't be tied to your notes. The only people who converse with notes are people auditioning for a part in a play. But even the most amateur actors would never dream of walking out on stage with their script. Why? Because a good actor doesn't want to be caught acting. They want their audience to believe that they really are who they are pretending to be; that they really feel what they are pretending to feel; that the words they say come from their heart not a script. And we do, too!

There is a scene in The Patriot when Benjamin Martin, played by Mel Gibson, is saying goodbye to his five-year-old daughter, Susan, who hasn't spoken since her mom died. Throughout the movie, Martin has tried to cajole Susan into speaking. But to no avail.

Towards the end of the movie, Susan is standing next to her aunt Charlotte as Martin and his son Gabriel are preparing to ride off to do battle with the red coats. Just before mounting his horse Martin motions to Susan but she doesn't move. Then he kneels down and gently hugs her and says, "Just a little goodbye? One word? That's all I want to hear."

Susan remains silent, arms to her sides, unresponsive. Martin lets go and she just stares at him. But as Martin and Gabriel mount their horses and start to ride away, Susan, with tears streaming down her face, runs towards her father and cries out, "Papa! Papa, don't go, I'll say anything. Please, Papa, I'll say anything you want!"

Martin turns in his saddle and sees Susan running towards him. He yanks his horse around and begins galloping towards his little angel as she continues calling out. Grabbing her up into his arms, Martin holds her close as he fights back tears. "I'll talk to you," she cries, "I'll say anything you want, just tell me what you want me to say, I'll say anything, I promise, please, Papa just stay."

I saw The Patriot with a couple of friends that you may know, Reggie Joiner and Lanny Donoho. In the middle of that scene I glanced over at my buddies and they had tears running down their cheeks. Bunch of sissies. What's that about? It's a movie for heaven's sake. And it's Mel Gibson. And that's not even his actual daughter. They were crying as if they were witnessing a real miracle. And so did I. All six times I watched it. But how effective would that scene have been if little Susan kept glancing down at her notes as she read, "I'll talk to you. I'll say anything you want." Not very.

Now I realize acting and preaching are a bit different. But they are not as different as you might imagine. If you are on a stage with a microphone attached to you, you better be ready to perform. Like a good actor, you've got to be believable. After all, you actually believe! People are expecting you to engage them on multiple levels. And in light of what's at stake, you should be both engaging and convincing. If an actor is willing to memorize and internalize a script in order to convince you that he or she is someone other than who they really are, how motivated should we be to internalize our messages in order to convince our audience that we really are who we claim to be?

OWN IT.

Before we stand (or in my case, sit) to deliver a message we must own it.

By own it I mean that you, the communicator, should be able to sit down at a table and communicate your message to an audience of two in a way that is both conversational and authentic. The message must in some way become a personal story you could tell as if drawing from personal experience. When you can "tell" your sermon rather than "preach" it, you are ready to communicate. But that won't happen until you have internalized it to the point where you could do a five-minute version from memory.

If that sounds unrealistic at this juncture it is probably because you are in the habit of squeezing too much information and too many verses and not enough life into your sermons. Information is difficult to memorize. Five pa.s.sages from five different books of the Bible are hard to remember. Life on the other hand is neither difficult to memorize or hard to remember. By life I'm not talking just about personal ill.u.s.trations, though I'm including those. I am talking about experiences that are common to people.

I find something very disingenuous about the speaker who says, "This is very, very important," and then reads something from his notes. Constantly referring to notes communicates, "I have not internalized this message. I want everybody else to internalize it, but I haven't." Consequently, I think every effective communicator must figure out how to internalize all of and memorize the majority of his or her message. No, not word-for-word, not a ma.n.u.script, not an outline, not verbatim. But somehow they need to be able to get up and deliver their message as a story.

Think about it, the only time anybody reads a story is when it isn't their story. You've never heard anybody who was nearly killed or seriously injured in a traffic accident pull out a ma.n.u.script and say, "Let me tell you what happened yesterday." You've never heard anybody open up a three-ring binder and say, "Let me tell you about my kids." n.o.body recounts their son or daughter's championship soccer game with an outline in front of them. When people tell a personal story it's internalized. It flows like water from a stream. Sometimes it gushes like a river through a canyon. Either way, it comes from inside. The same should be true for those of us who claim to have the most important story in the world to tell. The story has changed us, and therefore the story has become part of our story. Somehow, it must be internalized. But that's not always easy. Especially when communicating is your weekly responsibility.

POINTLESS STORIES.

Later in this chapter I'm going to give you several tips on how to use notes on the sly, but the two things that will help you most in this regard are things we have already talked about: One point messages and the ME-WE-G.o.d-YOU-WE approach to outlining. Creating one point messages makes internalizing a message much easier. Remembering one point is much easier than memorizing a bunch of points. Having one idea that everything else supports makes it easy to internalize a talk. When you have one strong point, the goal is to make your point, not cover everything in your notes. If you forget some supporting material but succeed in communicating your big idea, congratulations, you accomplished what you came to do. And let's face it, we are the only ones on the planet that know what we forgot to say. And if you are like most preachers, you probably have too much content to begin with. It is probably good that you left out some stuff. Besides, if you do multiple services, you will get another shot at it anyway.

THE BIG PIECES.

When it comes to internalizing a message your outline is either your friend or your enemy; it either facilitates the internalization process or hampers it. One reason so many communicators don't think they can preach without notes is that their outline (or ma.n.u.script) overwhelms them. This is compounded by the fear of leaving something out or losing their place. But all of that can be resolved by adopting the approach to outlining we talked about in the previous chapter.

The secret is to reduce your entire message down to five or six pieces. Not points, pieces or sections or chunks of information. If you can remember the big pieces and the order in which they come, you are ready to go.

The big pieces serve as mental mile markers that allow you to keep moving and flag what's coming up next. When you run out of things to say about ME, you just move right on to WE. You may end up leaving some stuff out, but again, n.o.body will know but you. Remember, the goal is not to cover everything in your notes. It is to take your audience with you on a journey; to move them from mile marker to mile marker until you reach your destination.

When I'm coaching communicators, I'll often say, "What are the big pieces? Tell me the big pieces. Give me your introduction in one statement. What's next? What text are you using? Summarize the application. Give me your closing thought." When you can quickly review the five or six major pieces of the message in your head, chances are you are ready to communicate without being dependent on your notes.

The big pieces may vary in nature from message to message. You may want to organize the big pieces using the ME-WE-G.o.d-YOU-WE format. Or you may want to be more specific. Here are some examples: Opening storya"Questiona"Texta"Applicationa"Challenge Opening questiona"Ill.u.s.trationa"Texta"Challengea"Applicationa"Closing Story.

Introductiona"Tensiona"Texta"Visuala"Applicationa"Conclusion Texta"Questiona"Storya"Texta"Application When preaching on the temptations of Christ, I opened the sermon by reading Matthew 4:1a"2 where Matthew tells us that Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. How odd. I made a few comments on how strange that was, especially in light of the fact that Jesus specifically prayed, "lead us not into temptation." Then I talked about my struggle with temptation (ME) and how common it is for all of us (WE) then went back to the text to look at Jesus' response (G.o.d). I think it is great to begin with the text if there is something so odd or unbelievable that it immediately grabs people's attention. I do the same thing when I preach on the prodigal son. The opening statement in that trilogy of parables is that tax gatherers and sinners congregated to hear Him speak. How unusual. People who were nothing like Jesus, liked Jesus.

The point here is to identify the big pieces of your message and practice thinking through them. If you know the big pieces, the mile markers, you won't get lost. You will always know what's coming up next. When you run out of things to say about one, you just move on to the next one, knowing that you probably left something out. But again, you are the only one who knows.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE.

As I mentioned earlier, there are ways to use notes without anyone knowing you are using notes. You don't need to memorize everything. With the ME-WE-G.o.d-YOU-WE approach, there are really only three big pieces you will need to commit to memory, and they are the easiest to remember anyway: ME, WE, and WE. These are the personal sections and these are probably the shortest sections. Best of all, these are the sections where if you accidentally leave something out it probably won't matter. But these are the sections I practice most. These are the sections I rehea.r.s.e over and over in my head. After all, ME and WE is where we connect and engage the audience. WE is where we inspire them to do something with what they've heard. But between those two parts, there are plenty of opportunities to catch a stealth glimpse of our notes.

My guess is that you have already developed a system for writing comments and points into the margins of your Bible. And I imagine you have developed a skill for reading the text while glancing at what you have scribbled in the margins. A few years ago I abandoned the scribbling part and started cutting and pasting the text I am going to use out of a Bible program into a word processing doc.u.ment. That way I can actually print, rather than scribble, what I want to remember right into the text. Then I trim the pages so they fit into my Bible.

There are several advantages to this. To begin with, I am not limited to the s.p.a.ce afforded me by my Bible margins. I can include more notes. That way I'm not bouncing back and forth from my Bible to my notes. It is seamless. Less distracting. And far easier for me.

At the end of my final text I print out a reminder of where I'm going from there. I may print a summary statement for the text I have read like we talked about in the last chapter. Or I may print something along the lines of, "There are three places where this applies." Or, "Here's what I think we should do with Jesus' words." Or if I'm moving from the text to a visual aid, I write "GO TO VISUAL."

The other advantage of printing the text is that on those rare occasions where I'm referencing more than one text, I don't have to find it in my Bible, it is already printed out. Then, when I'm finished I can file the printed text with my outline for future reference. I don't have to use the same Bible or rewrite all my notes in a different Bible if I want to repreach that message.

Another thing I do quite often is write out my main point on a three-by-five card and lay it beside my Bible. The reason I do is that my point is a statement I've spent some time crafting. I want to make sure I state it correctly. In the course of communicating a message it is not always easy for me to pull my statement from memory exactly as I have crafted it. Writing it out in big letters and setting it beside my Bible gives me a chance to glance down at it before I deliver it. Burying it in my notes or even in the text is too confusing. I like having it right there where I can't miss it.

There have been times when I realize I'm not going to get it right and I'll pick up the card and say something along the lines of, "This week while I was studying I wrote this statement." Then I'll read it. Having read it, I can usually repeat it a couple more times from memory. But I'm such a believer in the power of a well-crafted statement I would rather read it correctly than try to remember it and turn a clear point into a fuzzy one. I've learned that holding up a card and reading it has more impact than looking down at your notes and reading the same words. A single statement on a card communicates the importance of what you are reading. It is a visual way of underscoring the importance of what's being read.

But having said that, it is always best to have your main point committed to memory. As a general rule, don't use notes during those portions of a message that you want your audience to remember and internalize. This is why having your main idea committed to memory is so important. As we said earlier in this chapter, if you haven't internalized it, why should they? If you can't even remember the main thing, is it really that important?

My final memory aid comes to us from the wonderful world of technology. We have a video monitor on the front row facing the stage. Occasionally I will give the production team a short list of things to put on the monitor to jog my memory. Most of the time these are items that fall in the YOU section of the message. These are specific applications that I want to make sure I don't miss. It is much easier to glance down at a video monitor than it is to go scrambling back to my notes to find something. I have seen guys overuse this technology. They seemed as tied to their monitors as most communicators are to their notes. This electronic cheat sheet is no subst.i.tute for the hard work of memorization. But it sure makes life easier on those occasions when application #2 has slipped your mind. Sometimes I will ask our team to put my main idea on the monitor and just leave it up there during the entire message.

SAY IT OUT LOUD.

I'm often asked if I practice my sermons. Yes and no. I never preach an entire message at home out loud. But there are portions I do rehea.r.s.e out loud the night before. I always rehea.r.s.e stories. By telling a story out loud I hear what is not clear and I b.u.mp into what is difficult to explain. At times I rehea.r.s.e my stories at the dinner table and ask the fam for feedback.

The other portions I rehea.r.s.e out loud are my introductions and conclusions. Our opening statements and closing statements are so important. If we don't engage our audience in the first few minutes, it is an uphill struggle from there. If we don't finish strong, an entire message may be forgotten before people get to their cars. Occasionally I will ma.n.u.script my introduction and conclusion. In my opinion, I think it is imperative that our opening and closing be committed to memory.

SAt.u.r.dAY NIGHT.

Here's how it works for me. I stay three weeks ahead in my preparation. On a given Thursday, when I head home from the office I will have the following three sermons completely finished. The advantage of staying ahead is, I'm ahead. If something interferes with my study time, no big deal, I'm still two weeks ahead. The other advantage is that it gives our production team plenty of time to create around the message.

The disadvantage of this approach is that when I pick up my outline on Sat.u.r.day afternoon or evening I haven't looked at it in two or three weeks. So it looks like a lot of information to memorize and digest in a short amount of time.

I spend the first part of my Sat.u.r.day study time simplifying. My goal on Sat.u.r.day is to make it as memorable as possible. I'll look at a line or idea and think, I'll never remember that, and I cut it. When you are committed to internalizing the entire message you will be highly motivated to reduce it to the bare but essential minimum. And if you are only going to make a point, it is not hard to identify what to cut.

If something doesn't support, ill.u.s.trate, or clarify the point, I cut it. I've been preaching long enough to get comfortable with the fact that I can fill up the time regardless of how much I cut. Most of the guys I coach pack their messages full of extra stuff in fear that they won't have enough to say. Then, invariably, they run out of time and are forced to rush their conclusion, which pretty much cancels out the impact of the entire sermon. Having too much to say has almost the same effect as saying nothing. Adding material in order to fill up time is a terrible approach. I understand the pressure. But think about it, do you have a tendency to go too short or too long? Besides, if you end early, n.o.body will complain. Field a few questions and then send everybody to lunch early. Bottom line, less is more.

A FINAL NOTE ON NOTES.

I'm always amazed at how easy it is to retell the entire plot of a movie after having seen it once. And while I'm watching the movie I'm making no effort at all to remember anything. Stories are easy to remember and repeat. So are good sermons. Why? Because good sermons are like good movies or a good book. They engage you at the beginning by creating some kind of tension. They resolve that tension. There is a climax. And then there is a conclusion that ties up all the loose ends. Pretty simple. When you can reduce your message to a few big pieces it will read like a story. It will be memorable like a movie. People will wonder where the time went. But for that to happen you have to internalize it. It must become your story.

The other thing about a good movie is that the editor leaves a lot on the cutting room floor. At least that's what they did in the old days. That is, they take out a lot of good stuff so that the best stuff can shine. Not to mention, n.o.body wants to sit through a four-hour movie. To make our messages memorable for us and enjoyable for our audience we must discipline ourselves to do the same thing. It is better to be incomplete and engage your audience than to cover every little thing and be tied to your notes. If your audience isn't engaged, if they aren't tracking with you, does it really matter that you got everything in?

Memorize what must be memorized. Develop a method of referring to your notes that doesn't distract your audience from the message. Rethink the way you use the text. Look for opportunities to leave yourself reminders along the way. Internalize it.

a Before you stand to deliver a message you must own it.

a Reduce your entire message down to five or six pieces. Not points, pieces or sections of information.

a If something doesn't support, ill.u.s.trate, or clarify the point, cut it.

15.

ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE.

What's your plan to capture and keep their attention?

If communication can be compared to taking people on a journey, then it is imperative that we actually take them with us. If you have ever sat through a presentation of any kind and counted ceiling tiles or played mental games or worked on your to do list it is probably because the presenter had broken a fundamental rule of communication. They drove off and left you standing at the station. They failed to engage you and keep you engaged.

Not too long ago I was visiting a church with some friends. As I sat there trying to pay attention, I noticed that I was not alone in my struggle. There were probably three or four hundred people in the auditorium. It was evident that the pastor had gone to great lengths to prepare his message. But it was equally evident that the majority of the audience was not engaged. In spite of what seemed obvious to me, he went right on, presenting his material. In fact, he seemed to be so engrossed in his presentation that I'm not sure it really mattered to him that the majority of his audience had checked out. Not only did he leave the station without anybody on board, he didn't seem to notice or care.

When the service concluded we went to lunch. There were about twelve of us. After lunch we hung out until late in the afternoon. Not once did anybody mention the sermon. It was as if it never happened. Now, I'm sure n.o.body noticed this but me. But it bothered me so much that I still think about it. This pastor spent hours preparing a sermon, presented it, and it made such little impact that a group of Christians walked out and never made a single comment about what they just experienced. Granted, I didn't bring it up either. Primarily because I couldn't think of anything good to say. How tragic. But how common.

So how do we make sure our audience is with us? How do we engage an audience and keep them engaged throughout our presentation? Before we dive into some specifics, I want to review a basic principle. A principle that every world-cla.s.s ad agency and filmmaker has embraced but one that doesn't always sit well in the religious community. Here it is: Presentation trumps information when it comes to engaging the audience. Another way to state the same principle is: Attention and retention is determined by presentation, not information. Presentation matters. A lot.

P/I.

How you say what you say is as important as what you say. Presentation determines your audience's attention span. There's a lot of talk these days about people's attention span. The theory is that it is getting shorter and shorter because of technology and options. But I don't buy it. Lord of the Rings was how long? Not only did my kids and I sit through each of those flicks twice at the theater, we bought 'em all and watched again at home. They ended the same way every time but we watched again anyway. King Kong lasted all day. My thirteen-year old and I saw that twice. Every kid I know can sit in front of an Xbox or PS2 (soon to be 3) for hours without being distracted. Most adults can lose themselves in a good book. The point is, when we are engaged, time flies. When we are not engaged time stands still. The issue is not the span of people's attention. The issue is our ability to capture and hold people's attention.

Somewhere we bought into the notion that good content was all that is required to engage an audience. That is rarely the case. I say rarely because there are occasions in which information alone can capture and keep people's attention. These rare occasions actually underscore the point of this chapter. And we will get to that in a page or two. But in most cases, presentation is what captures and keeps people's attention.

Think about your favorite restaurant for a moment. My guess is that they serve beef, chicken, and fish. So does mine! That's amazing. We are thinking about the same restaurant!

The thing that makes your favorite restaurant your favorite is not the animals they serve or the plants they suggest you eat with the animals they serve. What makes it your favorite is the way they prepare and present those animals and plants. Their presentation and preparation is what keeps you coming back for more. The same can be said for communication. It's our preparation and presentation that will keep people engaged.

I saw a great ill.u.s.tration of this when one of our staff presented a familiar Old Testament Bible story three times in a row to the same group of kids within a fifteen minute time frame. She had everything working against her. To begin with, the audience was a mix of first through fifth graders. Most of the kids already knew the story. And these kids had just come from their small groups where they had been in a learning environment for over an hour. At the end of her third time through the story the kids gave her a standing ovation. They were engaged from start to finish. How did she do it?

First she had a group of actors act out the story. Then she had the same actors present it again as a silent film. Then she asked them to do the story as if it were an opera. It was amazing. My eleven-year old said it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. When I asked him to tell me the point of the story he shot back, "It was about resourcefulness. Resourcefulness is using what you have to get a job done."

Often we think we need new content to keep people engaged. Not true. We need fresh presentations. Let's face it, it's always Moses who comes down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments. David kills Goliath every time. Daniel never gets eaten by the lions. John the Baptist never escapes from Herod's dungeon. Jesus is born in a stable. The stories don't change. The variable is our presentation. Two communicators can tell the same story with two completely different results. It is all in the presentation.

PUSH BACK.

"But wait," you say, "doesn't G.o.d's Word stand on its own? Does presentation really matter when it comes to the Scriptures? I would answer no to the first question and yes to the second. And here's why. Drive over to your local Korean church and ask them for a copy of the Bible in Korean. Spend an hour or so reading through and meditating on the Korean Scriptures. Now, if you can read Korean, that might be a very profitable exercise. If you can't, it won't. Why? Because a Korean presentation of G.o.d's Word to a person who can't read Korean is neither engaging nor helpful. Presentation matters.

Not convinced? Think about it this way.

The apostle John writes, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with G.o.d a "9 As long as the Word was with G.o.d it didn't really do us much good did it? We know that to be the case because of what follows.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."10 Why? Wasn't it enough that there was a Word? Did it (or He) really need to show up among us? Absolutely. When the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, that's when the impact was felt.

He continues.

"We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."11 The world was presented when Jesus, the Word, showed up clothed in humanity.

"No one has ever seen G.o.d, but G.o.d the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known."12 Jesus presented the Father to the world. Creation presented the glory of G.o.d. Jesus presented a side of G.o.d that n.o.body had seen until the Son made it known. This became most evident in a conversation between Jesus and Phillip. Phillip, in what was probably a moment of frustration, asked Jesus to show him the Father. Like many of us, he wanted to see, or at least catch a glimpse of G.o.d. Remember Jesus' answer?

"Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, *Show us the Father'?"13 His point? Phillip, seeing Me is as close as you will ever get in this lifetime to seeing the Father.

My point? Jesus was a necessary expression and presentation of the Father. G.o.d wasn't satisfied with the fact of His existence. He wanted to be presented in a way that allowed His prize creation to understand and embrace Him. Some did. Some did not. But the presentation was there for all to see. G.o.d went to great lengths to make Himself known to this world. Seems to me we should be willing to do the same thing. Jesus was the living Word. Shouldn't we do all we can to make the written Word come alive for our audience? I think so.

I'm sure grateful for men and women who brought it to life for me when I was a disinterested teenager. I owned a Bible. But it didn't own me. G.o.d's Word was living. But for all practical purposes, it wasn't living in me. Then one summer a guy named Dan Dehaan showed up at camp and captured my attention through his presentation of the Scriptures. I was so impacted that I began reading the Bible on my own for the first time. I've been reading it ever since. Dan is one of the reasons I'm in ministry. I spent fifteen years teaching the Bible to teenagers. Thanks to Dan, I never once a.s.sumed that it was enough to just preach the Word. My responsibility was to present the word in a way that engaged my audience.

In the first century people loved or hated Jesus. But n.o.body fell asleep. He was engaging and enraging. He pulled out all the stops when it came to communicating the truth and nature of the Father. He didn't simply speak. He spoke with authority. There was a marked difference between Him and the other teachers of His day. He was creative, direct, compa.s.sionate, and offensive. He was the master communicator. People who were nothing like Him, liked Him. Sinners and tax gatherers flocked to hear Him. On several occasions, thousands gathered to listen. He had a limited amount of time to communicate the most important message that would ever be delivered to this world. And He communicated it in such a fashion that His word pictures and parables have laced the literature of every generation since. Read the gospels. Jesus wasn't content with being right. He was committed to being heard. So how can those of us who feel called to leverage His words to impact our generation be content with anything less?

In this next section I am going to address a facet of communication that may appear to be in conflict with what I have said thus far in this chapter. But these two ideas actually work together as we will discover a little later.