The 30-minute lecture (a.k.a. sermon) anesthetizes the audience every week.
As I reported in my last post, most people remember very little of the typical sermon after a few days. Few show any life change as a result of the oratory. Yet preachers keep following the same old protocol week after week.
A pastor friend of mine once said, “I know over 95 percent of the people check out of each sermon I preach. But if just one person can get a kernel of truth from my sermon, I’ve done my job.”
Really? Is that all we can expect? Well, for the medium—long lecture—that’s about all anyone should expect. Most people today simply aren’t moved by long lectures.
So, how can we see greater results? How can we deliver the greatest message in a way that truly moves people, week after week? Let me suggest a few things.
- Keep it short. We know kids’ attention span is short. But adults’ ability to concentrate on a speaker’s words is very limited as well. Researchers at Indiana University found seriously diminished results after 15 minutes of lecture. And look at Jesus’ example. His messages averaged just a few minutes.
- Change-up the medium. Recharge your listeners every few minutes with a different delivery system. For example, talk for eight or ten minutes. Then do a colorful demonstration or show a video clip. Then pose a thought-provoking question for people to discuss. Then sum up for a couple minutes.
- Share the stage. Allow others to tell how God is working in their lives. Their authenticity more than compensates for their lack of professional oratorical skill.
- Allow give and take. Entertain questions and comments from the crowd. Jesus did.
- Use experiences. Jesus interspersed his messages with active, memorable experiences. He built a powerful point around a paralytic lowered from the ceiling. He challenged antsy listeners to throw the first stone. He washed his people’s feet. He engaged his listeners with numerous spectacular feats.
Jesus was effective. His messages were memorable. He moved people. But he didn’t follow the numbing ways of the religious elite. He challenged the status quo—not only with his words but with his ways.
Thom, you are making a great point and you are maximizing your influence through this blog…
…but you are way off base with your illustration of “Jesus being short in His teaching method. There is some humor here…in that your illustrations are memory/take-aways from the disciples…writing what they have remembered from the Master’s teaching sessions. Actually they weren’t writing a week or two weeks later…they were writing years after the events.
Once again a compliment…you’re good and you can be better!
I have attended churches where several methods of preaching are used. The preachers had good intentions, I am not questioning that. I am focused on the delivery method in these examples.
1) The 30-45+ minute sermon with 5-10 points, not all necessarily related but all wrapped up in a bigger point that says week after week we are to “glorify God and share Him with others.” The worst delivery for me!
2) The thirty minute message, always based from the gospel and epistle message for the day, so the sermon was the second time we had heard them that day (repetition). Better.
3) Exactly what you just described above, by far the best method for me.
The best preacher I have ever heard used the following template every week!
a) He did an introduction by way of a short story based on real historical events or a video based on a fictional drama.
b) Music, video, or live action drama illustrating how the situation might be repeated in our own lives now.
c) The meat of the message leading up to a climax with the resolution.
d) Special music which “highlights the point” or the “emotion of the message.”
e) A conclusion, wrapping the whole message up with application, forgiveness for past failures, and a charge to do our best from this point on because of the grace of God.
Thanks Thom!
Thom,
You wrote: “And look at Jesus’ example. His messages averaged just a few minutes.” Come on, brother, how could you possibly know that? Were you there with a stopwatch? The truth of the matter is that the Gospel accounts are not meant to be exhaustive transcripts of the messages and sermons that were preached. They give us the highlights. Moreover, I doubt highly that the “Sermon on the Mount” took just a few minutes. Further, in Acts 20, it says that Paul prolonged his message till midnight. I am certain that he went longer than “just a few minutes.” And I am certain that neither Jesus, nor the apostles, showed video clips during their sermons. That didn’t even have access to that antiquated and obsolete technology that was the “Sony Betamax.” So let’s strive to be a little more realistic here. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God/Christ.” Can we be better in our techniques? Absolutely. But you’ve built a “straw man” here. Respectfully submitted.
Of course we don’t have a stopwatch record of Jesus’ messages. But looking through the gospel accounts, we see mostly short quotes. That’s why I wrote that his messages AVERAGED just a few minutes.
I like how Max Lucado puts it in his book, When God Whispers Your Name: “We learn brevity from Jesus. His greatest sermon can be read in eight minutes (Matt. 5-7). His best-known sermon can be read in 90 seconds (Luke 15:11-32). He summarized prayer in five phrases (Matt. 6:9-13). He silenced accusers with one challenge (John 8:7). He rescued a soul with one sentence (Luke 23:43). He summarized the Law in three verses (Mark 12:29-31), and he reduced all his teachings to one command (John 15:12). He made his point and went home. We preachers would do well to imitate.”
Slapshot, I understand your concerns. Keep in mind that the scripture given to us is adequate and complete for our needs. God inspired. Also Jesus, Paul and the others spoke in the “techniques” that were appropriate to the times AND the audience.
With the church in Acts remember they were very mature in their passions at the time of delivery and the particular message you are referring to was more of a seminar then a weekly meeting. Paul was an evangelist not a Shepherd/Teacher. Jesus spoke in many parables, I submit divinely turning to the appropriate people to whom he was directing the message at that moment.
You are right when you quote “Faith comes by hearing,” does it matter how we hear? I again suggest it is more important to communicate rather than just hear.
BTW, the Holy Spirit works with “straw men” everyday and has succeeded immeasurably. God asks for our best, not our success, God alone is responsible for that.
As I continued to think about this post it occurred to me that the one most important ingredient missing from communicating to comatose listeners is us. Let me explain.
In Matt. 13 Jesus shares why he talks in parables. But then He also charges us. “For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand.” NLT
We must take personal responsibility to see and hear. Likewise as preachers and teachers we must be praying for those we have been charged with, SO THAT “they look, and really see. Hear, and really listen and understand.”
The Holy Spirit choses to whom and when He will speak but also the Bible also shows us over and over how God conforms his will to our desires through prayer.
Thanks again for this very thought provoking Post!
Thom,
Your stuff is good! But you missed my point…according to you…Jesus got in Simon’s boat and gave the crowd 2-3 minutes of dynamic thougt and then went fishing. Or…gathered a group for an afternoon in a borrowed house [now crowded inside & filtering to the frenges of the yard and rooftop]…gave them 10-12 minutes of remarable insight.
Once again…you’re good and can be better.
Dewayne – I think you’re right. There are certainly instances where Jesus spoke for a long time. Long being relative. But taking out the Bible and reading an account in which Jesus was teaching shows us that there are some instances that Jesus talked for a while. But they are few and far between. It seems to me, that most of Jesus teaching is him telling stories on walks, asking questions when disciples ask him direct questions ( he gave very few answers actually) or making a comment while they were eating dinner. Jesus, as I read the scripture, didn’t typically talk at people for a long time. The sermon on the mount for instance may be his longest “sermon”. (sermon being our word, not the Bibles much like the “great commission” which isn’t a Biblical term either.) You’d have to make a case for Jesus being a very slow talker to get to the length of a modern sermon.
And if he’d talk s l o w l y chances are that “sermon” is 25 minutes tops.
What we do is talk for 30 min per week (if we only count 1 “service” on a Sunday and not all the other Bible studies) and we do this 52 weeks a year for decades on end.
After enough of this, I can understand why someone entrenched in that kind of routine might struggle with a Jesus who may have done this 4-5 times tops in the scriptural accounts.
Now, it could be that the disciples were bad note takers, or that Jesus didn’t give them handouts with blanks to fill in or it could be that if it didn’t happen much.
Jesus didn’t do what we do in most of our churches. Scripture doesn’t point to this as a rule, only in the exception. Maybe we value the sermon more than Jesus did? Maybe we value preaching more than Jesus did? Maybe, and this might hurt a bit, maybe we care more about the response people have to what we teach than Jesus did? or that we care in all the wrong ways?
Regardless, Jesus is a far better question asker than a question answerer. What is truth? Who do you say that I am? Why are you afraid? Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? Do you yet not understand? Did you never read the scriptures? etc
Sorry for the long post that’s just a few of my thoughts…
oh and one more thing – the compliment you’re leaving for Thom at the end of your comments doesn’t come off as a compliment as I read it. It comes off as patronizing and belittling. It may be your catchphrase that you end all your correspondence with like, “And that’s our world tonight” or “carpe diem” or “if you build it they will come” or “Oh God they killed Kenny!”
but it’s not working in this case.
Interesting, also, is that Jesus didn’t have a weekly talk He gave to a large gathering. Additionally, He sent people out to preach. If Jesus is the model pastor, why aren’t we hearing more about outreach? Why aren’t we spending more time talking about our missionaries, and why aren’t we being challenged to go into our own mission field? We don’t even hear much about our first mission field, which is our home.
Stop it! That hits a little too close to home! You are obviously correct. That said, Thom is talking specifically about those in the pew. So should we have them in the pew or does something more like LifeTree Cafe and “over the backyard fence” evangelism make more sense? Can they coexist?
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