Entries Tagged 'Communication' ↓

Some of the more popular search topics that bring people to this blog are searches related to Andy Stanley. I’ve written about Andy Stanley’s (and Lanes Jones’) book, Communicating for a Change before (see One-Point Preaching). This book has been the single most impacting book I’ve read on preaching.

The first part of the book is a story about a truck-driving preacher mentoring a young pastor in the art of preaching and communication while on a road trip. The second half of the book discusses the themes that were revealed in the first half of the book.

At one point, Stanley offers suggestions on navigating the sermon using driving terminology (I’d look up the page number, but we haven’t unpacked our books yet). One suggestion is, “Slow down in the curves.”

By that, Stanley means taking it slow when transitioning from one part of the message to the next. Otherwise, you risk jerking listeners (i.e., passengers) around when moving from one section to another.

I thought about this recently after arriving home with groceries. As you can see in the photo here, the chocolate milk didn’t handle the curves too well!

Slowing down in the curves is a good reminder for communicators. When we navigate the transitions (turns, lane changes, etc.), we have to make sure our passengers make the turns with us without getting knocked around.

Ultimately, it’s about flow. Flow has always been important to me in writing and in communicating. And because I’ve focused on flow for so long, I don’t even really think about transitions anymore.

But I may need to revisit my transitions to make sure my listeners fare better than the chocolate milk!

The most impacting book I’ve ever read on preaching/communication is Andy Stanley’s (and Lanes Jones’) Communicating for a Change (Andy Stanley is lead pastor of North Point Community Church in Atlanta, GA). In fact, the book was so impacting that I read it two times back-to-back (which is unusual for me; I normally highlight and just review the highlights).

I read this book over a year ago and immediately began putting the approach into practice. Andy’s approach has given me a renewed passion for preaching!

Basically, the approach involves building the whole message around one point. This is very different for most preachers who were trained to prepare multiple point sermons; however, Andy argues, “In a preaching environment, less is more” (13).

After reading only the first two chapters, I preached my first one-point message in September 2006. Now, more than a year later, I have completed 58 one-point messages. With some experience behind me, I want to review the book and offer some reflection on the one-point preaching approach.

1. Determine your goal
Andy argues that the goal of preaching should be to “teach people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible” (95). IOW, more than simply passing on information, the goal is life change.

2. Pick a point
Narrowing down the message to a single point is the heart of Andy’s approach. Instead of preparing multiple-point messages, pick one point and build everything around that point. It’s “the glue to hold the other parts together,” Andy says (103).

If you give people too much to remember, they won’t remember anything. … everything you say can be life-changing, but if they can’t remember it then it won’t change a thing. … You’ve got to narrow the focus of your message to one point. Then everything else in the message supports, illustrates, and helps make it memorable (39-41).

Narrowing the message to one point is probably the biggest challenge of this approach for many. Andy says that “if you have been preaching for any length of time [...] your challenge will not be finding the one, but eliminating the three” (105). Andy says that while “lists go on paper … single, powerful ideas have a way of penetrating the heart” (109). Single, powerful ideas have a way of penetrating the heart!

Andy suggests crafting a sticky statement, a statement that presents your point in a memorable way. This is a step that many communicators skip, but one that Andy is convinced “makes all the difference” (112).

Narrowing the message down to one point hasn’t been a big problem for me. I’ve enjoyed crafting sticky statements (although some of mine are better than others). Andy gives some examples of sticky statements he has used on page 111 but here are some of my favorite sticky statements that I’ve crafted in the past year …

• Lost hearts run away from giants; brave hearts run toward them!
• Peacekeepers want to make everyone happy; peacemakers want to make everyone healthy!
• Oneness is God’s dream for us!
• Choose your treasure wisely because your heart will follow!
• God blesses the world through generous people!
• To prevent heart disease, change your lifestyle.
• When God calls, just say yes!
• It takes a crew to complete a mission!
• God entrusts his work to trustable people!
• God-followers are mobile followers!
• When you get knocked down, bounce back up!
• God is leading a search and rescue operation!
• God can do a lot with a little!

3. Create a map
In this chapter, Andy offers a basic map (or outline) summarized by the words, ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE. This map “is built around the communicator’s relationship with the audience rather than the content” (119).

• ME and WE are about finding common ground with the audience (how the day’s topic connects with the communicator and as many people in the audience as possible).
• The GOD section is where you talk about the text, God’s thoughts on the topic.
• The YOU section is where the topic is applied to the audience.
• The final WE section is for casting vision – “you paint a verbal picture of what could be and should be” (129).

4. Internalize the Message
Here, Andy talks about owning and internalizing the message. He says, “Until you can stand up and tell a story, you’re not ready to preach.” (53).

The secret is to reduce your entire message down to five or six pieces. [...] Remember, the goal is not to cover everything in your notes. It is to take your audience with you on a journey; to move them from mile marker to mile marker until you reach your destination (137).

The advantage of this approach is that it forces the communicator to reduce his or her material it to the bare essential minimum. Andy says, “If it doesn’t support, illustrate, or clarify the point, I cut it” (142).

5. Engage the Audience
Andy talks about the importance of engaging the audience, and suggests, “Attention and retention is determined by presentation, not information” (146). “It’s our preparation and presentation that will keep people engaged” (147).

Simply put, you have to manufacture interest. [...] 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 resolve. 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 (153).

6. Find Your Voice
Chapter 6 is about finding one’s own individual style. Every communicator is unique and has different gifts. Every communicator must find his or her own style (i.e. “voice”). Andy says …

Be who you are. But be the very best communicator you can possibly be. To do that you must be willing to sacrifice what’s comfortable—what has become part of your style—for the sake of what is effective (170).

Changing/Improving style is probably the hardest thing to do. The more practice one gets, the harder change becomes. As John Maxwell says, Practices does NOT make perfect, it makes permanent!

What I’ve learned/experienced along the way …

• Greater creativity. Switching from multiple-point preaching to one-point preaching greatly improved my creativity. Rather than being distracted by multiple points, I am more focused. Because of this, I’ve been a lot more creative.
• Freedom from notes. Switching from multiple-point preaching to one-point preaching has allowed me to preach (mostly) without notes. I have a small mind map with me with my map/oultine on one side and my Scripture text on the other side. I use the text side of my notes to navigate through my text.
• Now that I’m pretty comfortable with the basic approach, it’s time to start experimenting and finding ways to further develop/tweak the approach.

If you’re considering switching and wondering where to start, here’s what I’d suggest …

1. Read the book.
2. Listen to Andy Stanley’s messages (listen for his point/sticky statement; observe his map/outline)
3. If you’re having trouble narrowing your message down to one point, you could start by turning one of your multiple-point sermons into a series by making each of your main points a sermon in itself. BTW, doing so will not necessarily make your sermons shorter, but they will be deeper, more focused, and therefore, more penetrating.
4. Turn your point into a “sticky statement” - as short/concise/memorable as possible. Delete any unnecessary words. In my experience, Crafting a statement can take a while and it’s usually late in the process till I get the statement the way I want it (and sometimes I get it the way I want it *after* I’ve preached the message!).
5. Follow the ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE map/outline.
6. Once you become comfortable with the approach, you can start experimenting with it.
7. Also, watch for a future post I plan to write on this topic on preparing one point messages. As you may know, I use mind mapping in my sermon prep (see my previous post on StoryMapping). It will include the questions Andy suggests in chapter 7, which I didn’t cover here.

If you’re a communicator, I hope this review has been helpful to you. Feel free to ask questions or offer observations in the comments section!

Andy Stanley has written a must-read book for leader/communicators who want to maximize the adhesiveness of their vision!

Andy Stanley, founding and lead pastor of North Point Community Church, is one of a handful of writers that I read everything they write. You’ll find some of Andy’s books in the sidebar already, but the latest book I’ve read, and the latest addition to the list of recommended books for leaders is Making Vision Stick (see Google Books’ limited preview), part of the new Leadership Library series from Zondervan.

The first thing I love about the book is that it’s only 74 pages long. If all books were as short, I’d be able to read a lot more books!
Here are some of my favorite quotes:

One of the greatest challenges is making vision stick. Vision doesn’t have much adhesive (12).

To get people to sit still long enough to understand your vision is hard enough. But to get them to actually organize their lives around it is supremely difficult. The urgent and legitimate needs of today quickly erase our commitment to the what could be of tomorrow (15-16).

It’s the leader’s responsibility to ensure that people understand and embrace the vision of the organization (17).

5 things you can do to increase the adhesiveness of your vision …

1. State the vision simply.

Andy writes …

if your vision is going to stick in people’s minds, it must be memorable. [...] People don’t remember or embrace paragraphs. They remember and embrace sentences (19). [...] And, If the vision is too complicated, nothing changes (23).

2. Cast the vision convincingly.

In this section, Andy says leaders must define the problem, offer a solution, and present a reason for the solution. He writes …

Every vision is a solution to a problem (25).

Buy-in by others hinges on your ability to convince them you are offering a solution to a problem they are convinced needs to be solved (26).

Further …

A leader points the way to a solution and gives a compelling reason why something must be done now (30).

3. Repeat the vision regularly.

As committed as I am to the idea of casting vision on a regular basis, sometimes I feel a bit guilty. I like I’m repeating myself (35).

I was glad to read this statement. I’ve been saying/feeling something similar in the last couple of years. But as Andy points out, the repetition is an essential component of vision-casting.

4. Celebrate the vision systematically.

Celebrating a win incarnates the vision, bringing clarity in a way that words cannot. (40)

5. Embrace the vision personally.

Your willingness to embody the vision of your organization will have a direct impact on your credibility as a leader. Living out the vision establishes credibility and makes you a leader worth following. When people are convinced the vision has stuck with you, it is easier for them to make the effort to stick with the vision (47).

Andy wraps up the brief book saying …

If God has given you a picture of what could and should be, embrace it fully and refuse to allow the busyness and urgency of life to distract you. [...] Seeing a vision become a reality requires more than a single burst of energy or creativity. It requires daily attention. Daily commitment (72-73).

Making Vision Stick is more good stuff from Andy Stanley. A must-read for leader/communicators.

Defining the puzzle is a good place to start when preparing your talk.

In a previous post, I reflected on the question, “What’s the puzzle?” in relation to our dissertation projects. Since then, I’ve been incorporating the question into my sermon prep. I thought I’d say a little about it here for other communicators who may read this post.

The first step in our dissertation process is to define a problem. Our faculty mentor, Dr. Russell West, likes to use the word puzzle. Questions like “What is not as it should be?” help get at the heart of the problem. In a sermon context, I might ask, “What kinds of things are happening, or not happening, that are contributing to the problem/puzzle?”

Once the problem is identified, the purpose is revealed. The purpose flows out of the problem. For example, last Sunday, my problem statement was, “Because people don’t face their storms with faith, they don’t grow.” My purpose, then, was to try to encourage people to face their storms with faith in God. My point flowed out of this purpose: “We grow when we face our storms with faith in God.” To challenge my listeners, I talked about the story of Jesus’ calming of the storm while he and his disciples were on a boat in the middle of a fierce storm (Mark 4.35-41).

The challenge when preparing a talk is to focus, to discover the main point, and then to build everything around it. Even when studying a passage of Scripture, there are usually a number of directions a communicator can go. But focus is absolutely critical. Knowing what the problem/puzzle is goes a long way toward helping you find focus.

How to use mind mapping for sermons and presentations.

I have been using mind mapping ever since I read Doug Hall’s Jump Start Your Brain several years ago (a great book on creativity, BTW). Also, check out this site for more on mindmapping as well as this Wikipedia page.

Mind mapping is a non-linear approach to brainstorming and note-taking. IOW, instead of starting at the top of the page and working my way down the page, I group thoughts/ideas together on the page as they connect to each other. I use mind mapping for brainstorming, project planning, my master to-do list (which I print weekly), research, paper/dissertation planning, sermon prep, and just about anything else that involves generating ideas.

For the past couple of years, I have been creating mind maps to use for my sermon/presentation notes, which I call StoryMapping. Here’s a recent example (PDF) of my map/notes. The image in this post is last Sunday’s map. To see how they’ve progressed, check out this an early example and even this earlier one. For other examples of maps for sermon notes, see this blog post at creativepastors.com to see how Ed Young uses mind maps. Ed also includes examples in his book, The Creative Leader.

On my maps, each section is color coded. I start at the top and work my way around the page, clockwise. My maps are a lot less complicated now than they were when I started. That’s due mainly to a change in my preaching approach (but that’s another story which I’ll write about later). My maps are currently divided into three sections: Introduction, Scripture, and Application/Conclusion.

I normally try to internalize (not memorize!) the map so I only use my printed MapNotes to read the Scripture text, but I have it with me in case I need to refer to it. I don’t normally include notes on what I want to say about the text, but if I’ve studied/internalized the text well, I pretty much know what I want to say about it. I do this because if I include too many notes (as I used to), I feel too constrained and scripted, and I don’t like feeling that way.

Using mind mapping for my sermons has been one of the best things I’ve done for my communication. I’m not suggesting it’s the best/only way to do it, but it has been helpful to me. I use a Mac OSX program called OmniGraffle to produce my maps. There are also some free online tools, including bubbl.us.

I hope this is helpful for other communicators. I’d love to hear your comments, experiences with mind mapping, questions about mind mapping, and/or recommendations of any mind mapping resources.