Part 7 (1/2)

11.

DETERMINE YOUR GOAL.

What are you trying to accomplish?

We've all walked to our cars after a message feeling like we knocked it out of the park. And, we've all slithered out the back door, hoping we didn't have to make eye contact with anybody. There have been many Sundays when I felt like I owed the audience an apology for making them endure whatever it was I did up there for forty minutes. That's one advantage of preaching multiple times on a weekend. I usually get at least one out of three right. Usually.

For the most part, our feelings about how we did are tied to our own judgement of our performance; how well we delivered the ill.u.s.tration, handled the text, remembered our transitions, made our point, and landed the plane. That's normal.

But, regardless of what we say, we care more about what others think. And, if you are like me, you care most in the hour following the delivery of a message. It is during that hour that we regain the much needed perspective that comes with realizing who we are and who we aren't. It is during the drive home that we realize we can't change the world with a good sermon. But neither will all of Christendom collapse because of a bad one.

But during and immediately following a message, we are vulnerable. Our egos are on the line. We are self-conscious. Easily wounded. If you've got something good to say to me about my message, bring it on immediately. If you have a ”suggestion,” wait until Wednesday. Even if I ask for suggestions, wait until Wednesday. In the meantime, lie if you have to. Tell me it was great. If it wasn't, don't worry, I already know.

Preaching is a performance. Preachers are performers. But unlike the comedian, we are expected to do more than entertain. We are expected to be educational, inspirational, theological, and engaging all at the same time. So there we stand. All alone. All eyes on us. Waiting. Expecting. Hoping. And did I mention that we have to talk to the same audience week after week? Did I mention that all week long they have been driving around in their cars listening to my dad, Chuck Swindoll, Ed Young, and Sean Hannity. Whose idea was this?

It is no wonder that our feelings about how we did are tied to our performance. There's a lot of pressure on us to perform. But in spite of that, the scope of our evaluation must reach beyond our presentation. While we must pay attention to and work to improve our performance on the platform, there is something else to consider as well. Namely, the outcome. What people do as a result of what we say. The audience's willingness to act on what they have heard. Life change.

As long as our feelings about how we did are tied only to our performance in the moment, then the moment won't count for much. If you think about it, your delivery, your style, your humor, your conclusion, your timing is all about a you guessed it a you. At some point we've got to begin caring more for the people in the audience than the person on the platform. When we do, our presentations take on real significance. Until we do, communication is really all about us.

So before we launch in to a discussion about ”How,” let's spend a few minutes talking about ”What.” What are you trying to accomplish? What is your goal in communicating? What is the win? What do you want to look back on as a result of your years of preaching and teaching?

This is an extraordinarily important question. Why? Because our approach to communicating should be shaped by our goal in communicating. Most of us inherited our approach to communicating. We grew up listening to preachers who all took basically the same approach. Then we went to schools where we were taught to develop messages along the lines of the style we grew up listening to. Chances are, n.o.body challenged you to think through your goal as a communicator. They just taught you an approach. But if your approach to communicating does not support your goal as a communicator there is a disconnect. You will spend hours preparing messages that are not designed to accomplish what you are pa.s.sionate about accomplis.h.i.+ng.

So, what is your goal? Your goal will determine whether or not you like my approach. Because the approach we are about to discuss is driven by a very specific goal.

THREE POSSIBILITIES.

It would not be helpful at this juncture to list all the possible goals for communicating from the Scriptures. It might be helpful, however, to focus on the three that fuel the majority of communicators in our churches. The first one is: Teach the Bible to people. The idea here is to teach the content of the Bible so that interested parties can understand and navigate their way through the Scriptures.

This is usually the goal of the preacher or teacher who methodically and systematically teaches verse by verse through books of the Bible. This is the perfect approach for the communicator whose goal is to simply explain what the Bible means. Wherever we left off last week, we will pick it up again next week. This approach requires no creativity. This approach need not include any application. This approach a.s.sumes a great deal of interest by the audience. And honestly, this approach is easy when compared to other methods of communication.

I saw this approach taken to an extreme on an Easter Sunday in Dallas, Texas. I visited a Bible church with some friends. On the way they explained that their pastor was preaching through the book of Psalms. They were in their forty-third week. Easter would be week forty-four. And sure enough, on Easter Sunday this guy picked up with Psalm 44. He made a reference to Easter at some point along the way. But it was a stretch. In his defense, he was teaching the Bible to people. And his approach matched his goal.

PEOPLE FIRST.

A second possible goal is to teach people the Bible. This goal differs from the first in that the communicator takes his audience into account as he plans his approach. After all, the goal is to teach people. Communicators who have embraced this goal are constantly looking for effective ways to impart biblical truth into the mind and heart of the hearer. This goal was behind the ”three points and an application” approach to preaching. The multipoint sermon or teaching outline is a great approach for the communicator whose goal is to teach people the Bible. Outlining makes it easier for the average listener to follow along.

Preachers and teachers who embrace this goal often use alliteration and multiple ill.u.s.trations. After all, alliteration and ill.u.s.trations make it easier for an audience to understand and remember the portions of the text being taught. I worked for a guy once who alliterated the entire book of Jeremiah.

Cool, huh?

Any communication strategy that follows from this second goal requires sensitivity to the audience and therefore some element of creativity. When I was teaching high school students, I developed a rhyme for every chapter in the book of Acts so that they could think their way through the entire book. I'm sure that came in handy on the weekends.

Generally speaking, the primary concern for the communicator whose goal is to teach the Bible to people is: Did I cover the material? The primary concern for the communicator whose goal is to teach people the Bible is: Did my audience understand and will they remember the material? In both cases success is measured in terms of information transfer.

If spiritual maturity were synonymous with information transfer, or more specifically, Bible content transfer, then either of the above options would be fine.

But it's not. And you know that. I know that. Everybody I know knows that. The people that don't know that wouldn't read this book anyway.

You and I know that Bible knowledge can lead to pride; the ant.i.thesis of spiritual maturity.1 It's interesting that the group who knew the Old Testament Scriptures best were the very ones who considered Jesus a blasphemer and arranged for His crucifixion. Knowing isn't enough.

HEARING AND DOING.

A third goal, and the one I subscribe to, is to teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible. In short, my goal is change. I want them to do something different instead of just think about it.

When I'm finished preaching, I want people in the audience to know what to do with what they have heard. And I want them to walk away motivated to give it a try. This goal flows from what I understand the Bible to teach regarding spiritual maturity. The way I read it, spiritual maturity is gauged by application not contemplation. James says it best, ”Faith without deeds is useless.”2 ”Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”3 Jesus weighed in on the subject as well, ”By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”4 When asked which of the commandments were the greatest He summarized the entire law with two action-oriented imperatives, love G.o.d and love your neighbor.

My friend Randy Pope expressed it this way, ”Preaching is not talking to people about the Bible; it is talking to people about themselves from the Bible.”5 So here's my point. Preaching for change requires a different approach to communication than either of the previous two goals we discussed. Every communicator I know wants to see lives changed as a result of their preaching and teaching. But too few communicators have developed an approach to communicating that supports their pa.s.sion. They simply adapted the approach handed down to us from a previous generation.

Preaching for life change requires far less information and more application. Less explanation and more inspiration. Less first century and more twenty-first century. While I'm a firm believer that all Scripture is equally inspired, observation tells me that all Scripture is not equally applicable. Consequently, preaching for life change requires that we emphasize some texts over others.

Now before you close this book and write me off as a heretic, consider this. If a preacher spends a year teaching verse by verse through the book of John, would you accuse him of neglecting the other sixty-five books? I don't think so. In fact, you may applaud him for being thorough. My point is, we all pick and choose. None of us give equal time to every pa.s.sage of Scripture.

Preaching for life change involves picking those pa.s.sages that are most appropriate for and applicable to our target audience. This is what Jesus did. This is what the apostle Paul did. They addressed felt needs and supported their teaching with references from the Old Testament. Nowhere in the Scriptures is there an example of, or reference to, anyone teaching through a book of the Old Testament. They knew better.

I find it particularly amusing when I hear of pastors spending months preaching through one of the epistles. Think about it. Each epistle is a carefully written argument addressing the specific issues of a specific church. So what do we do? We carefully exegete a letter written to a first-century church about the issues they were facing while ignoring what's happening right in front of us. If we really want to take our cue from the apostle Paul we should address the specific issues confronting the people in our audience. That's why I weave a message about s.e.xual purity or money into just about every series we do. It's why we program an entire series around family life every spring. Those are three issues that consume the time and attention of the average man and woman. Fortunately for us, the Scripture has a lot to say about all three.

When you commit to preach for life change, your preparation is not complete until you have answered two very important questions: So what? and Now what?6 Our preaching won't make much difference if our people don't understand what difference it is supposed to make. Our audience won't do much with what we've taught until we tell 'em what they ought to do.

With the first goal we discussed the teacher feels successful if he covers the material. A preacher or teacher who embraces the second goal feels successful if the audience is engaged. But if you decide to preach for life change you won't be satisfied until the behavior of your audience is transformed; and you will be willing to do just about anything to see that transpire.

At the end of the day, I want the people in my congregation to trust G.o.d with every arena of their lives: family, finances, career, relations.h.i.+ps, everything. That kind of trust is developed when we act on what we know. Acts of obedience allow our faith to intersect with G.o.d's faithfulness. It is at that intersection that we see G.o.d work. And when we see Him work our faith gets bigger.

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE.

So what's your goal? How do you define success? Which concerns you more, how you did on Sunday or what your people are doing on Monday? And if it is the latter, does your approach to communicating support what you are trying to accomplish? Or does it compete?

You may not embrace my approach. That's fine. But I pray you will embrace this goal. We have enough hearers. The church in America in particular has been listening for generations. We need doers, appliers. That means we need sermons that are loaded with application and preaching that is communicated with inspiration. Will you make it your goal to lead your people to do and not just hear? And would you commit to doing whatever you have to do to bring them to that point, regardless of the changes it requires of you?

Several years ago I was talking to one of our communicators right before he was about to go out and deliver his message. I could tell by his body language that he was trying desperately to keep everything straight in his head. He so badly wanted to get it right, to do a good job. That's always a red flag for me. He was about to walk out and do what we've all done so many times. He was about to step on the platform consumed with how well he would perform. So I called him over to the side and gave him a version of the same talk I give myself when I sense that I've become so concerned with my content that I've forgotten my audience. I said a ”How would you communicate this message if your eighteen-year-old son had made up his mind to walk away from everything you have taught him, morally, ethically, and theologically, unless he had a compelling reason not to? What would you say this morning if you knew that was at stake? Because for somebody's son out there this may be his last chance. Now quit worrying about your outline. Go out there and plead your case like your own son's future was at stake.”

And he did.

So what's your goal? What are you after when you speak or teach? What is the win? Smarter people? Changed people? People with more confidence in G.o.d? This is a very important question. Because your approach to communicating needs to match your goal. If at the end of the day the win for you is stories of life-change, then perhaps we can help you develop an approach that fits your goal. If you are satisfied with simply teaching the Bible to people or even communicating to people about the Bible, I'm not sure you have the right book. But now that you've gotten this far, you might as well keep reading.

a Our approach to communicating should be shaped by our goal in communicating.

a Our goal should be life change. Specifically, to teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible.

a When you commit to preach for life change, your preparation is not complete until you have answered two very important questions: So what? and Now what?6

12.

PICK A POINT.