Part 8 (1/2)

By committing to build his talk around one thing rather than a list of things that nurture romance, Lane stumbled upon a simple yet profound insight that served as the big idea for the night. His entire talk centered around this one idea: You are the only legitimate source of romance in your spouse's life. Instead of focusing our attention on how to get something from our spouse, he focused our attention on our unique role. Again, simple but profound. Where did that idea come from? A combination of Bible study, discussion, observation, and an overarching commitment to dig until he found the insight around which to build his message. Once you commit to this approach and determine not to quit digging until you find the point, you will be amazed at what you unearth. In Lane's case it would have been much easier to give our folks a list of things. But lists go on paper. Single, powerful ideas have a way of penetrating the heart.

2. Build everything around it.

As I mentioned earlier, once you discover the one thing, the next step is to go back and orient your entire message around your point. Remember, we are taking people on a journey. Once you've identified the destination, you owe it to your audience to make the path clear and direct. That means you cut away the things that are not pertinent to the subject. You know what I'm talking about. The filler. The stuff you've thrown in because you are concerned about having enough to say. Sure, you need some of that in the initial preparation stages. That story you love to tell. That one liner that always gets a laugh. That insight that you are sure is original with you. That nuance in the original language that will impress people with your scholars.h.i.+p. But once you unearth that singular idea, insight, or application the filler has got to go. Ask yourself, Does this really facilitate the journey or is this just something that will get a laugh or fill time?

This can be a frustrating process. If you have spent three or four hours dissecting four or five juicy nuggets from a text, you feel like you need to share 'em all! What a waste to leave so much good stuff on the cutting room floor. But that's exactly what you must discipline yourself to do. Cutting away the peripheral is like narrowing a channel of water. You end up with a much more focused and powerful message people are able to follow, tracking with you as you lead them along. And all that extra stuff? Save it. Sunday comes around every week.

I meet with all our staff communicators two or three times before they deliver a message on Sunday morning. The most painful part of our meeting is when I look at them and say, ”Here's your main idea, now go back and rearrange everything around it.” It is painful because that entails cutting out some really good stuff. And besides, they thought they were finished. If you don't take the time to reorient your message around the one thing, it will get lost amongst the other things.

More on that in the next chapter.

3. Make it stick.

Once you have discovered your point and rebuilt your message around it, the next step is to craft a single statement or phrase that makes it stick. It needs to be as memorable as possible. This will help you as well as your audience. If it is short and memorable then it will be easier for you to blend it in throughout your message. If it is a well-crafted statement, it will be more obvious to your audience that this is your point.

Generally speaking, people will not be impacted by a paragraph. n.o.body remembers a paragraph. People are impacted by statements that stick. You need a sticky statement. Take the time to reduce your one point to one sticky statement. It doesn't need to be cute. It doesn't have to rhyme. But it should be short and memorable. Your statement is your anchor. It is what holds the message together and keeps it from drifting off course. This will be what people remember.

Here are some examples a Your friends determine the direction and quality of your life a Purity paves the way to intimacy a When you see as G.o.d sees, you will do as G.o.d says a Submission is an invitation to lead a Everybody lives forever somewhere a Acceptance fuels influence a Good people don't go to heaven, forgiven people do a G.o.d takes full responsibility for the life fully devoted to Him a Cooperate don't manipulate a To understand why, submit and apply a Others first a Maximum freedom is found under G.o.d's authority Your point can be a statement taken right out of the Scriptures. When I talk to students about their friends the one thing is the first half of Proverbs 13:20, ”He who walks with the wise grows wise.” I developed a message on purity from 1 Corinthians 6:18. My point was one word, ”Flee!”

On occasions the one point has been a question. We did a series on the life of Joseph. The question I asked throughout was, ”What would somebody who is you do if they were absolutely confident that G.o.d was with them?” I just kept coming back to that question throughout the narrative.

When preaching through John 6, my point was a question from the text, ”To whom shall we go?”8 I'll never forget a letter I received about a year later from a college freshman. She was in her dorm the first week of her first semester and everybody was going crazy. She said she sat there wondering if she should put Christianity on hold for a while and join the fun. She wrote, ”As I was sitting there your question popped into my head, *To whom shall I go? To whom shall I go? If not Christ, who?'” That night she reaffirmed her decision to follow Christ in college. By the end of her freshman year she had established herself as a leader in her sorority. She started a Bible study. During her undergraduate studies she led several of her sisters to faith. She points to that night as a defining moment. Those weren't my words. But she heard that question asked so many times throughout that message that it stuck in her heart. And the Holy Spirit surfaced it at a critical time.

Creating a statement that sticks is a step most communicators skip. I understand why. By the time I get to this point in the preparation process I'm tired. Surely after thirty or forty minutes of hearing me talk people are smart enough to know what I'm saying. Possibly. But as soon as they head for their cars it starts slipping away. It is not enough to say it. We need to say it in a way that makes it stick. Unless a unless your goal is just information transfer. If you are simply teaching the Bible or even teaching people the Bible, a well-crafted, memorable statement is not necessary. Just cover your material and leave it at that.

I am convinced that this one extra step makes all the difference. But again, I know why most communicators don't do it. You don't need it to keep people awake or engaged. But if you are concerned about what happens once they leave the room, you better make it stick.

BURDEN BEARER.

Thus far our discussion has been somewhat academic. Get a point. Make it memorable. Yawn. But there is another aspect to one point preaching and teaching that is anything but academic. In fact, it is this dimension of the one point message that drives me to keep searching for the one thing among the many. My dad has a word for it. He calls it the preacher's ”burden.”

My dad and I have a standing breakfast appointment on the first Thursday of every month. It is something I always look forward to. Eventually the discussion always makes its way around to church stuff. On this particular morning we got on the subject of preaching. Now if you have heard my dad preach, you know he is the master of points. Why have three when you can have eight? Or twelve? He's been preaching that way for years. Note takers love him. Actually, a lot of people love him. Anyway, I was going on and on about this idea of building the message around one point when he interrupted me with, ”You've got to have a burden. That's the thing most preachers are missing. A burden. If they don't have a burden it's just a bunch of fluff.”

As we continued our conversation, it became apparent that when he talked about a preacher's burden he was referring to the one thing. That one message, idea, principle, or truth that had to be delivered at all cost. The one thing isn't just information. It is not just a carefully crafted phrase. It is literally a burden. It is a burden that weighs so heavily on the heart of the communicator that he or she must deliver it. And he was right, you can tell when a communicator is carrying a burden versus when he is simply dispensing information.

At some point in the preparation process, you must stop and ask yourself, ”What is the one thing I must communicate? What is it that people have to know?” If you don't have an answer to that question, you aren't ready. Think about it. If after all your preparation you can't answer that question, what's the point in preaching? If YOU don't know what it is you are dying to communicate, the audience certainly isn't going to be able to figure it out.

Is there anything you are so excited about sharing that you can't wait until you get to that part of the message? If not, you aren't ready. You don't have a burden. You may have pages of information and it may all be true, but if you don't have something that people need so badly that you feel compelled to share it, you still have work to do.

The sermons that have put you to sleep were delivered by men with information but no burden. A burden brings pa.s.sion to preaching. It transforms lifeless theology into compelling truth. When I talk to high school students about purity, my message is simple: Purity paves the way to intimacy. But it is more than a principle. It is more than a cute phrase. It is a burden I carry for teenagers. It is something they've got to know.

Reducing your message to one idea will allow you to create an entire talk around the one thing you most want to communicate. It makes memorizing, embracing, or owning the message so much easier. Why? Because your goal is to deliver that one point. As long as you're making sense and moving in the direction toward the intended destination, then it doesn't really matter what you leave out along the way. What matters is that you're bringing the audience along with you.

BUT WHAT ABOUT a On occasion someone will ask, ”But isn't it the job of the Holy Spirit to take the Scripture and work it into the heart's and minds of the listener as he sees fit? If so, who are we to limit the work of the Spirit by limiting the scope of the message to one thing?”

I agree, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to take the spoken word and convict, convince, and change the hearer. And we have no control over which part of what we say the Spirit might choose to use. Further, I think you would agree that the Holy Spirit often takes different ideas, ill.u.s.trations, and insights from the same message and applies them to different people in various ways. After all, He's like the wind. You can't harness Him. He will do as He pleases.

But if we are going to let that truth shape our preparation, why organize a message at all? Why not just get up and start talking, sprinkle in a few verses and trust the Holy Spirit to do His thing? Actually, I've heard guys speak that left me with the impression that that's exactly what they were doing. It was interesting, but not all that helpful.

If you are going to use any kind of organizational structure at all, albeit one point, three points, four points, storytelling, or testimony, you have already made a decision to limit the scope of what you are planning to say. Face it, once you pick a text (or two) you have limited the scope of the message. All I'm saying is pick one and stay with it.

Besides, it is easier for people to follow a message built around a single idea. Easy to follow translates into enjoyable to experience. And if they enjoy the communication experience they are likely to come back for more. And if they keep coming back for more they are going to be exposed to more truth which gives the Holy Spirit more opportunities to speak to them. So you could argue that a one point message is more conducive to the work of the Spirit.

Let's face it, the reason so many churches are half full on Sunday morning is because a whole bunch of people decided not to come back. Why? The preacher didn't give 'em anything to come back for. There were plenty of points, but nothing worth coming back for the following week.

In the next chapter I'm going to introduce a new kind of outlining technique that is designed to keep a single point in view throughout a message. But honestly, the next chapter isn't going to do you much good unless you are willing to pick a point. I know that for many this runs against the grain of everything you've been taught and seen modeled. I know it leaves you wondering, ”But what am I going to talk about for twenty or thirty minutes?” But I also know that if you will try it, if you will make up your mind once and for all that your goal is not to fill up your allotted time, but to communicate for life change, then this approach may liberate you as a communicator. Now go pick a point.

a In a one point message it is essential for the communicator to know the answer to two questions: What is the one thing I want my audience to know? What do I want them to do about it?

a For most communicators the biggest challenge will not be finding the one idea, but eliminating the other three.

a The process for developing a one point message is as follows: 1. Dig until you find it 2. Build everything around it 3. Make it stick.

13.

CREATE A MAP.

What's the best route to your point?

Once you pick a point, you need a way to introduce it, support it, and apply it to your audience. So now comes the tedious work of developing an outline. If you have been communicating for any length of time I'm sure you have a style or format that works for you. I have friends who ma.n.u.script. I know a guy who mind-maps. One well respected communicator that we all know confided in me that he prepares everything in his head. No written outline. To each his own.

Now while it is true that there is no one ”right” way to outline a message, I have discovered a method that has proven to be extraordinarily effective for organizing material around a single point. This outlining method is built around the communicator's relations.h.i.+p with the audience rather than content. After all, the way we organize material on paper is very different from how we process information in a conversation. (Try outlining a conversation with your spouse.) For that reason, this method allows the message to retain a conversational quality.

The outline revolves around five words, each of which represents a section of the message. They are: ME, WE, G.o.d, YOU, WE.

With this approach the communicator introduces a dilemma he or she has faced or is currently facing (ME). From there you find common ground with your audience around the same or a similar dilemma (WE). Then you transition to the text to discover what G.o.d says about the tension or question you have introduced (G.o.d). Then you challenge your audience to act on what they have just heard (YOU). And finally, you close with several statements about what could happen in your community, your church, or the world, if everybody embraced that particular truth (WE).

Each of the five components plays a specific and important role in facilitating the communication journey. ME orients the audience to the topic. It answers the question, ”What is he/she talking about?” WE a.s.sures the audience that this is a relevant topic for them. It allows the communicator to identify with the audience. The G.o.d section serves as illumination. Here is where we bring a new perspective to or s.h.i.+ne fresh light on a specific tension. YOU is simply application. WE is the placeholder for inspiration.

ME WE G.o.d YOU WE.

Orientation Identification Illumination Application Inspiration Perhaps an example would help. Let's a.s.sume your topic is marriage. There are dozens of things you could say about marriage, but you have narrowed it down to one thing: Submission is the best decision. The idea being that our first response should be to put the needs and desires of our spouse ahead of our own. With that in mind, here's how the MWGYW outline might look.

INTRODUCTION:.

MEa”Sometimes I find myself wondering how to respond to situations in my marriage.

WEa”I imagine you have found yourself in situations where you weren't sure what to do either.

G.o.da”The Bible teaches that we are to submit to one another; put the desires and needs of our spouse ahead of our own needs and desires.

YOUa”Next time you aren't sure what to say or do, ask yourself this question, ”How can I put the needs and desires of my spouse ahead of my own in this moment?”

Conclusion: In a marriage, submission is generally the best decision.

WEa”Imagine what would happen in our community if all of us began to model that kind of mutual submission before our friends and neighbors.