“Resonate”: Bringing it All Together

This is the final post in a series of posts on Resonate by Nancy Duarte. Previous posts include …

Well, obviously, I love the book. I knew it was going to be a great book when I first heard Duarte’s Ted Talk several months ago. But now that I’ve written about a few different topics, I want to bring it all together and share what I plan to do with it as I go forward.

1. Improve my process for preparing messages.
On pages 142-143, Nancy includes a visual summary of the process (which I described earlier). I want to internalize this process and adapt it to my own process (see The 4 Ss of Sermon Preparation).

2. Create messages with an understanding of the story pattern.
I love the discussion about the story pattern, especially its use in movies. Now, as I’m watching movies, I think about the “likable hero,” the “inciting incident,” and the shape of the “character arc.” Now, I need to make sure my messages have these elements as well.

3. Build more contrast into my messages.
Contrast is certainly one of the key principles in Resonate. I need to be intentional about creating contrast (in both “analytical” and “emotional” content; i.e., head and heart).

4. Write better sticky statements.
I learned to write single sentences that try to concisely state what I want people to know through Stanley’s one-point preaching approach, which he calls “sticky statements.” But in the past year, this part of my prep has gotten a little stale. I think Nancy’s material on writing statements will help revitalize this process for me.

5. Be more intentional about creating S.T.A.R. moments.
This was one of my favorite concepts in the book (I devoted a post to it). As I said, this concept wasn’t new (Stanley talks about the need to “make it memorable”), but I really like the memorable, creative acronym. It challenges me to be more intentional about creating these kinds of moments—Something They’ll Always Remember. Duarte lists five types of S.T.A.R. moments: memorable dramatization, repeatable sound bites, evocative visuals, emotive storytelling, and shocking statistics. As a preacher, it’s a challenge to create these kinds of moments every week, but one thing that helps is that the Bible itself is full of S.T.A.R. moments that can be tapped into.

6. Help people to cross the threshold.
This was one of the last concepts that jumped out at me as I did a final review for this post. Duarte discusses the hero’s journey …

There is a moment in every story where the character overcomes reluctance to change, leaves the ordinary world, and crosses the threshold into an adventure in a special world. (32)

This is certainly my goal in preaching, to help people cross the threshold in their spiritual journey!

Well, these are some of the ways I hope to incorporate principles from Resonate. Thanks to Nancy Duarte for writing it. And thank you for reading. I hope these posts have been helpful!

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