I recently ran across this video when someone in my network put it on twitter. I have to admit it is one of the most fascinating 4 minute video’s I’ve seen.

Here is a great question for you to consider – would this be an effective preaching / delivery method?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

© Joel for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2011. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Delivery, effective, expository, Preaching, sermon delivery, style

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Smith interviews Dr. Tony Evans on his commitment to expository preaching.  He discusses his personal mindset in both study and in delivery of sermons as well as why expositional preaching is so needed in the church today.  This is 2 minutes of pure gold.  Enjoy the video!

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2010. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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If we’re preaching the Most Important Message Of All, then it’s a tragic irony if the preacher is the biggest distraction from it’s contents.  In this episode, Smith & Southerland discuss the 5 big (very common) distractions preachers commit when delivering a message.

Episode 9 Download

Will you confess your own (past or present) here below?  Did we miss any?  Leave your COMMENTS below!

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2010. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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by Joel Southerland

John Maxwell is set to release a new book entitled Everyone Communicates, Few Connect very soon. I was able to read an excerpt from the book before its release. The opening paragraph of chapter 1 says it all:

“According to experts, people are bombarded with 35,000 messages a day. Everywhere we go, everywhere we look, someone is trying to get our attention….Our world is cluttered with words.”

For the preacher, those are chilling words. We have the Truth that we need to communicate to people. What we communicate changes lives, influences eternity, determines destinies. We can’t afford NOT to communicate!

How does that affect us this Sunday? It means while we are studying the Word of God this week, it is also worth taking time to study how we can make the message connect with the audience. We can have the greatest points and exegesis in the world, but if we don’t connect, we won’t be effective.

How about putting some prep time into connecting before Sunday’s sermon? Spend time praying and planning for your sermon to instantly and eternally connect with those who hear.

(We’ve got some great stuff on the way that will be an extremely practical help to you on this.  Stick around.)

Question: What do YOU do that seems to help the audience connect with YOU and/or your sermon?  Comment below…

© Joel for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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A big challenge for the preacher is to quickly connect with the congregation early in the sermon.

In this episode,  Smith and Southerland five proven ideas to instantly connect with your audience of sermon listeners.

(Don’t miss the special announcement at the end!)

Action Step: Pick one of these ideas that you haven’t tried before and go for it this Sunday.

What are some strategies that you use to instantly connect with your congregation? Leave your comment!

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Posted by Joel Southerland
We’ve been preaching that you need a predictable melody in your sermons in parts 1 and 2. 

But there are also times you really need to break it.

I’m a child of the 80′s – when Ronald Reagan and Rock ‘N Roll were king!  I have repented since, but I grew up listening to Aerosmith, Def Leppard, and other bands with cool fonts.

I remember once that a new station was launching in our area and to kick off the debut, it was going to play one song all day, 24 hours straight.  What song in the early 1980′s would they possibly choose to play all day and all night?  Of course, “I Love Rock ‘N Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.  I thought, Wow! Twenty-four hours of a great song!

I tuned in early that morning and every chance I had I listened all through the day… “I love rock ‘n roll ♪ so put another dime in the juke box, baby ♫ I love rock roll ♪ so come and take the time to dance with me…” ♫ (YELL!)

Great song, great music, one problem… it got old.  By that afternoon I needed something different.

Sometimes we pastor – and our listeners – need a change up in our melody.  Even if the preaching has been connecting, do something to give them a little break from the norm.  It’s good for them and good for you.

Here are a few ideas:

1. Alternate your outlining style. Alliterate then don’t. Use six points one night instead of three.

2. Have a guest speaker. Use a young preacher in the church.  Use a denominational or parachurch speaker.  Often, a guest speaker’s change of rhythm (except the young preacher-boy protege who copies you) will cause folks to respond to things you have been preaching all along. You’re not necessarily looking for a better message but a different rhythm.

3. Preach a topical sermon. There I said it.  Do it (then get forgiveness and move on).

4. Use a “prop.” Do something crazy.  I used a remote control car one time on speaking of the power of the Holy Spirit and I ran it all over the church.  People still talk about it and it broke my preaching rhythm in a good way.

5. Do a character sketch monologue. Instead of preaching a predictable Christmas sermon, write out the Christmas story from the perspective of Zacharias telling the story after-the-fact.  Do the costume and everything.  Go all out.  Your people will love it and it will give them some fresh perspective.  (If you’ve never don this before, it will feel awkward at first, but I’ll bet your people will ask you to do more of them in the future.)

There are many other things to do – but just do them when you feel as if you are in a rut or your people are needing a little variety. Then, when you go back to your singing the next Sunday, it will be beautiful music.

Action Steps:

• Write 3 positive things you that you do stylistically that contribute to your own melody.  This will force you to think about your own “melody” in a way that you probably haven’t before.
• Write 3 ideas that you could do over the next quarter to “change up your tune” a bit.

Let us know your answers to the above!

© Joel for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Preaching, sermon delivery

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Posted by Scott Newton Smith

The showdown.  The “early service.”  You know… the get-it-over-with crowd.  They sat there, droopy eyed and lifeless.  They had barely survived the song service.  The music guy, bless his heart, had done the best he could.  Just before I went up, he glanced at me as if to say, We’re fallin’ back, Cap’n, troops are demoralized.  We gav’er all we had.

I took the pulpit with a twitch in my eye and a bit wider stance than usual. Anticipation was rising in me.  Moisture began to form on the back of my neck.  (Click “play” now below for effect and keep reading.)

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They looked at me — or through me — I couldn’t tell.  I had been here before… and had been beaten before.  But not this time.  I was ready.  When I drew, it would all be over.  They’d be hooked.  I’d be sure of it.

What was my secret weapon?

It wasn’t anything I took with me into the pulpit.  It was something I took with me into the study.

It was an assumption.  It was the assumption that they would come into the service with no desire to listen. It was the assumption that they expected me to be boring, low-key and dry, that they would tune me out before giving me a chance.

So, I did my sermon development with the mindset that I have to help them listen.  I have to make them listen.  I have to provide irresistible, interesting content.

That one mindset trick alone boosts my creativity every time by at least 50% or more.  While it doesn’t always guarantee that every sermon will be a zinger, I always at least get better ideas faster and with greater ease.  I always start thinking outside the box more.

I work harder than most might, but it’s because I’m going for a bigger expected payoff in audience interest.  The result will tend to be far better than just passing the sermon time hoping the congregation will be spiritual enough to grab a nugget or two, rather a life-changing message that grabbed their attention and therefore, gripped their heart.

How ’bout you?  Do you have a mindset that helps you boost your creativity when preparing for delivery time?

If they don’t listen, is it their fault or ours, preacher?  What do you think?  Leave your comments below.

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: attention, Delivery, Preaching

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Posted by Scott Newton Smith

So, how do you achieve melody in your preaching?

1. “Take it To The Bank” Sermon Structure

Predictable consistency is fundamental in achieving melody.  When you understand the way the mind catches ideas, (for instance, that illustration naturally follows explanation and application naturally follows those), the pattern becomes “baked into” the structure of each message.

2. “Subliminal” Signals

I’m tongue-in-cheek here in saying “subliminal” but truthfully, your soft transitions between points, the similar ways that you introduce an illustration, or even the message, become consistent “cues” that subconsciously signal how your development material is about to change.

The listener may not consciously be aware that there is a pattern here, but would notice if it changed… even if he could not quite put his finger on it.

3.  Cadence

Lep!  Lep!  Lep, Right, Lep!  Yep.  Cadence.  There is a meter and a pattern — sub-patterns as well — that develop based on your personal preaching style (although this one often reflects the preacher that mentored you).

In the early years of preaching cadence is choppy, if there.  In the later years, it begins to smooth and flow.  Regular patterns emerge and become familiar to the listener.

Which of these three do you see most regularly present in your preaching?

Which one is hardest to achieve?

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cadence, Delivery, melody, pattern, Preaching, structure, style

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Posted by Joel Southerland

Does your preaching have a “melody”?  It should.

If you will listen closely, you will notice that good preachers have a melody to their preaching.

What do I mean by melody?  Good preaching has a rhythm to it, like a good song.  A random collection of musical notes does not make a good song, and a random collection of words, points, illustrations, and appeals does not make a good sermon.

The message needs a melody, an almost predictable rhythm that the listener can subconsciously “sync up” with as the sermon flows, both in the content and the delivery.

In order to have melody in your content, the sermon needs the words and principles organized into a consistent logical order that the listener learns to anticipate and follow. You get melody in delivery by having a rhythm to your voice and body language.

Now, in case you’re wondering, I’m not talking about a “preacher voice.”  That kind of “patterning” can be distracting.

I’m not talking about something overt either, as in, say, the African-American tradition.  Nothing wrong with that per se, but this melody is one white boys can have.  It’s just subtle.

The melody needs to be there, nonetheless.  And the better your listeners learn to follow the melody, the more relaxed and attentive they will be while listening.

If you are a preaching pastor, the congregation needs the benefit of the same melody from sermon to sermon.  Not the same message, the same melody.

When a preacher’s delivery style and sermon organization are consistently prepared and of good quality week to week, this creates a beautiful “pulpit “song.  Your congregation will learn to trust you.  They will give you an energy while you preach.  They will learn to “sing” with you.

The melody is not a rut – it is a rhythm.  The rhythm is not something with which the listeners get bored.  The rhythm is the music that helps deliver the words and message.  Develop the melody of your preaching and your preaching effectiveness will take a giant leap forward.

In the two upcoming posts I’ll share some ideas on how to develop a melody and then how to keep the rhythm from becoming a rut.

Until then, keep singing!

© Scott for The Sermonators: Preaching Effectiveness & Time Management for Busy Pastors, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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