Part 10 (1/2)

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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 finis.h.i.+ng 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 Leaders.h.i.+p 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.