Several passages in Scripture pose challenges to preaching. Even so, we shouldn’t skip the tough ones. However, when we must deal with tough passages such as this one below, we must take care how we teach them.

Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Heb 13.17, NIV)   

That first part, “Obey your leaders,” poses the preaching challenge. How should we approach the “followership” concept this verse speaks to?

I’ve excerpted a section from my book 5 Ministry Killers and How to Defeat Them below that captures the essence of this verse.  

“Obey your leaders” sounds quite strong. Certainly this does not condone dictatorial leadership, as Peter makes this clear in saying, “Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example.” (1 Pet 5.3, NLT) After all, God calls us shepherds, and shepherds don’t push—they lead. Unfortunately, in our world, where self is king and where those in spiritual authority have abused their power, many in our churches would struggle with a sermon titled “Obey Your Leaders.”

But that’s not the part upon which I believe we should focus. It’s the last part: “that their work will be a joy, not a burden for that would be of no advantage to you.” Often it seems ministry brings more burdens than joy. After a tough meeting I sometimes wish I could get away with giving an elder a swirly. Other times, in response to a critic, I’m tempted to use King David’s words as a club: “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm.” (Ps 105.15)

Other translations render “that their work will be a joy” in these ways:

• So don’t make them sad as they do their work. Make them happy. (CEV)
• Let them do this with joy and not with grief…. (NASB)
• Give them reason to do this joyfully and not with sorrow. (NLT)
• Let them do all this with joy and not with groaning. (ESV)

A similar verse mirrors this one. Paul writes, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. (1 Thes 5.12, NIV)

Other translators render “respect” (Greek: oida) as “appreciate” (NASB), “be thoughtful of” (CEV), “honor” (The Message, NLT), and “pay proper respect to” (TEV). On the other hand, just as “obey your leaders” can sound dictatorial, these statements can sound like they promote the self-serving, egotistical, and narcissistic.

Don’t make us sad…Honor us…Respect us…Make us happy…Appreciate us…Give us reasons to be joyful.

These thoughts likewise might seem oxymoronic when contrasted to our ministerial call to selflessly give ourselves away. But no matter how they’re translated, these verses raise some important questions. Is it wrong to want our ministries to bring us joy? Would we be sinning or at best self-serving to expect from our congregations certain things that would make serving them more joyful, less burdensome?

Should we dare even broach these matters? Did one pastor correctly assess church folk when he said, “Most truly aren’t concerned with my joy”? Conversely, should we affirm the answer of several others that “My joy is from the Lord, not from people”?

I don’t suggest a simplistic solution to pastoral joy. However, God’s Word leaves no room for misunderstanding. He expects believers to respond to healthy pastoral leadership by taking concrete steps to help make ministry more fulfilling for His servants.

Perhaps the key to making this truth become reality in the church lies in this: the church must see us as servants first and foremost. When we model Christ-like servanthood, I believe we create an atmosphere conducive for those in the church to become good followers, without our having to demand it.

What do you think? What do you believe is key to making this verse a reality in the church?

“I just learned insight about how to encourage followership in the church.” (tweet this quote by clicking here) 

Related posts:

• 3 Probing Questions Every Pastor Should Ask Himself
• The 7 C’s of Great Ministry Leaders

It’s all about the brain.

When you preach a sermon or make a presentation and want to maximize your impact with your presentation, keep the brain in mind.

More than anyone else, Cognitive psychologist Richard Mayer has studied the link between learning and multimedia. In his experiments, those exposed to his learning concepts recalled details more accurately and problem solved better, what we hope happens when we preach, teach, or present. Here’s a summary of his findings with practical tips you can easily apply in your next Powerpoint or Keynote presentation.

• People learn better when you use words and pictures versus words alone.
• Application: include applicable pictures in your slides, not just filler type pictures.

• People learn better when you simultaneously use words and corresponding pictures rather than using them successively.
• Application: include words AND pictures on the same slide.

• People learn better when you place the words and pictures close to each other rather far from each other on the slide.
• Application: make sure you keep your words and related picture close to each other on every slide.

• People learn better when you exclude extraneous material.
• Application: keep your slides simple, the fewer words and pictures the better.

• People learn better when you use animation and narration rather than animation andon-screen text.
  • Application: when appropriate, sprinkle animations into your presentations to illustrate key concepts. SermonSpice is a great resource for churches.  

What have you discovered that has helped make your presentations more sticky? 

Related posts:

• Cotton Candy Preaching: why pastors should preach that way. 
• 5 Ways to Get People to Listen to Your Sermons 

I’ve been a fan of the iPad since it came out. I’ve owned the original and the iPad 2 and I began to use it over two years ago when I preached. I even wrote an e-book, Maximizing Ministry with your iPad that you can download free by clicking the image below or by clicking here. 

However, I experienced a few limitations so I purchased a mini-iPad that I thought might address those issues. I preached for the first time with it recently. I loved it. Here are some highlights from that first experience.

• The smaller size made it easier to hold while I preached. With the regular sized one I had to leave it on the lectern or the table and had to return to it for my next point. However, I was able to hold the mini the entire time and my hand never tired. It’s like holding a slim Bible.
• Since the back of the iPads are quite slick, I needed to improve the grip. I boughyt a Poetic ThinShell Back Smart Cover Partner Case that worked great with just the extra tackiness I needed. At $8, you can’t beat the price. 
• I also purchased a new stylus. I paid a bit more, but this one is great. It’s more responsive to my writing. It’s called the amPen New Hybrid Stylus. 
• Finally, I now use a new PDF markup app that is superb. It’s called Notability and as of March 18 it was only $1.99 in the iTunes store, a steal. I create my sermon in MS Word, save the doc as a PDF, transfer to DROPBOX, and open it in Notability. I then can easily highlight and mark up as needed. Simple. One pointer: play with the font size until it’s large enough in the PDF for your eyes. Since the real estate is smaller on the mini, I had to make my font larger for my eyes.

If you use a mini for preaching, any apps or tricks you recommend?

Related posts:

• How an iPad Improved my Devotional Life
• Interactive Preaching with an iPad

The phrase “cotton candy preaching” is a derogatory term that implies sermons lack depth. And of course no pastor wants to be considered a “cotton candy preacher.” On the other hand I’ve heard pastors say that Christians need “meat and potatoes” preaching which they define as sermons with depth. Such pastors often begin their sermons with, “Please turn in your Bibles to today’s text.” Once they read the Scripture, they’re off to the races to give a deep, theological sermon, a meat and potatoes kind.

But after spending 15-20 hours per week preparing a sermon, how do we really know if it connected with the listener? Is the test of a good sermon simply that we delivered a deep, theological, sound talk? Is it all about good content? Is it up to the listener to get it and figure out how it applies to his or her life? Or is this the true test of a great sermon: that we truly connect to the listener’s heart and mind so that the Holy Spirit changes attitudes and behaviors?

I think it’s the latter. That’s where cotton candy preaching comes in.

In my current masters program I’m completing on the neuroscience of leadership, also called neuroleadership, I’m learning how important the brain plays in persuading others to change. In my 32 years in ministry I’ve faced my share of critics. Some have said that my sermons were too heady and that they didn’t connect with the heart. I’ve been puzzled why I seemed to get those comments. Now I understand why.

The old sage Aristotle helped us when he described three domains that affect persuasion (and preaching).

1. Logos: persuasion through reasoning and logic.
2. Pathos: persuasion by appealing to emotions.
3. Ethos: persuasion through the force of character or personality of the speaker or writer.

People in your congregation are largely persuaded through these factors. Either reasoning or emotion moves them. I tend to be more of a thinker, so I’m persuaded more by thoughtful, reasoned sermons rather than ones that I might classify as cotton candy. I’ve tended to be more of a meat and potatoes preacher. But I’m in the minority because emotions persuade many more people than does logic. Think about TV commercials. Most commercials don’t list the benefits of their products. They tell a story or evoke emotion or move the heart. Dodge Ram’s God Made a Farmer  commercial in this year’s super bowl with Paul Harvey beautifully illustrates how emotion moves the heart. I tear up every time I watch the commercial, yet it does not lack depth.

I had received those criticisms I just mentioned because I had crafted my sermons to avoid being pegged a cotton candy preacher. But I now realize that for any meat and potatoes sermon to stick, we must incorporate some cotton candy techniques, those that we may think don’t contribute much to a message’s depth.

Consider these cotton candy preaching ideas the next time you prepare and deliver a sermon.

• Remember that because most of the people in your congregation came from hectic and difficult weeks, they aren’t in a mindset to listen to you. It’s your job to help them get ready, along with the other elements of the service.
• During the week live a life of integrity and authenticity. Love people and spend time with them so that your ethos works on your behalf. People must believe you are a credible person before they will believe you have a credible message.
• Start your message with pathos and then move to logos. Use emotion, within reason, because it grabs attention. Remember, nothing is learned that is not paid attention to.
• Use novelty. The brain loves novelty (Eide, 2006). Start, illustrate, and deliver your sermons creatively. Don’t become so predictable that people can guess what you’re going to do next.
• Use humor. Humor makes people feel good and when they feel good they learn more.
• Make sure you provide lots of application. Neuroscience tells us that self-referent information (that which we can apply to ourselves) is more easily learned and retained (Rogers, Kuiper, & Kirker, 1977). After all, we teach and preach so that God can take His Word to change people’s lives.
• Keep your messages simple. Less is often more.

What cotton candy ideas have worked in your preaching?

Related posts:

• Are Your Sermons Hard or Easy to Listen to?
• 5 Ways to Get People to Pay Attention to Your Sermons 

Eide, D.F.A.B. (2006) Eide Neurolearning Blog: Shake Things Up - Novelty Boosts Learning. Eide Neurolearning Blog. Available from: <http://eideneurolearningblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/shake-things-up-novelty-boosts.html> [Accessed 8 June 2012].

Rogers, T. B., Kuiper, N. A., & Kirker, W. S. (1977) Self-reference and the encoding of personal information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (35), pp. 677-688.

NO FOOD OR DRINK ALLOWED IN THE AUDITORIUM!

I’ve seen these messages emblazoned in the lobbies of many churches where I’ve attended or where I’ve served. Although we allowed food and coffee at my last church, I was often miffed at how many stains our carpets incurred from coffee spills and donut smudges. The carpet looked terrible. We’d often pay extra for carpet cleaners to clean them. Since I don’t drink coffee, I secretly wished we didn’t allow anything in the auditorium except people. But apparently I’ve been very wrong to want that. Coffee stains and donut smudges may have actually helped my preaching.

I’ll average 15-20 hours preparing a sermon with the end goal that God would use it to change lives. I’ve prayed that with the Spirit’s help the message would persuade others to live more like Jesus. Often I’ve wondered to what degree my message actually stuck in their minds and hearts. Surprisingly, the number of stains may actually have indicated my sermon’s stickiness.

Recently I read about a study at Yale University that examined how eating and drinking influences a message’s persuasiveness (Janis et al., 1965). Colege student volunteers first filled out a questionnaire about their views on certain subjects. Researchers then presented four unpopular or unlikely views to them like, “it will be over 25 years before a cure to cancer is found.” The students then read articles that attempted to persuade them otherwise. One group of students was offered Pepsi and peanuts while they read the articles while the other group wasn’t offered food. Later they all completed a second questionnaire about their views on the same subjects.

The Pepsi-peanuts group consistently changed their viewpoints on those issues to more favorable ones. The non-food students’ viewpoints changed very little.

The implication?

Others eating food or drinking coffee while they listen to your semon may actually make your message stick better. So, paying a few extra dollars to clean those coffee stains and donut smudges may be worth the price. Perhaps we should actually encourage people to bring food into the service.

What is your church’s policy on food in the auditorium?

Related posts:

• Brain Based Preaching: New Age Voodoo, or the Missing Link? 
• How to Make Your Sermons Sticky 
  

I just saw the movie Les Miserables with my family.

I was blown away, had my feet knocked out from beneath me, and was overwhelmed with emotion at this incredible story of redemption, sacrifice, and courage.

I’d never seen the live production nor read Victor Hugo’s novel upon which it is based. I now know what I have missed. If you haven’t seen it, please do. And take a Kleenex.

God was nowhere hidden in this story. Images of the cross, examples of transformed lives, and sacrifice for the good of others filled the screen from the very start. Read Jennifer Graham’s opinion piece here in the Boston Globe about how well it told the Gospel. Pretty amazing. 

Hugh Jackman (Wolverine in the X-men) plays the lead part. Just about everybody is nominating him for some award. I predict he’ll win most of them.

Only after my emotions came back to baseline did I realize how well the movie illustrated several ideas that can make a pastor’s sermon more sticky in the minds of our hearers. I learned these three from the movie.

1. Maximize story. Les Mis is one huge meta-story filled with multiple mini-stories. Jesus Himself was the master story telling. He couched many Biblical truths in the context of a memorable story. Story has the ability to penetrate even the hardest hearts. When you craft a sermon, include stories as much as you can. Ben Arment, a friend of mine, puts on a national conference each year called Story. It’s a great venue to learn how to use story and creativity in ministry. http://www.benarment.com
2. Engage emotions. I’m not a big crier, but a movie can bring it out in me. Les Mis never gratuitously uses emotion, but it weaves powerful emotional moments into each character interaction. In a sermon, well-placed emotion actually helps cement learning into the minds of our listeners. Neuroscientists have discovered that just the right amount of emotion (not too much or too little) can greatly enhance learning.[1]
3. Avoid premature answers. Sometimes our sermons ‘solve the problem’ too soon without allowing our listeners to wrestle with the issue themselves and generate their own solutions. In the movie, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is pursued for years for missing parole by a ruthless policeman named Javert (played by Russell Crowe). In one poignant scene Javert struggles with Jean Valjean’s show of grace. As he struggles, he paces back and forth on a ledge high above a river as he contemplates suicide. This scene lingers for some time before Javert makes his decision (NO spoiler alert here). I was left in suspense long enough to be drawn even more deeply into the movie. When crafting and delivering a sermon, set up a problem and then intentionally skirt around the answer a while to force the listener to wrestle with his answer or solution. It’s called self-referent learning. When we come up with our own applications and solutions, we more easily remember them. They ‘stick’ better in our minds. [2]

If you saw the movie, I’d love to hear the insights you learned that are applicable to ministry.

Related posts:

• Sticky Sermons: Neuroscience Insights that will Improve them 
• 9 Aspects about Adult Learning every Pastor should Know

Every week in the U.S., pastors preach upwards of 400,000 sermons. That excludes Bible studies taught by hundreds of thousands of Sunday school teachers and small group leaders.

I’ve delivered in excess of 1,500 sermons and bible studies myself. But what difference have they made in people’s lives? I suppose I won’t really know until I get to heaven.

In the meantime, however, I believe I should learn everything I can to make my teaching and preaching stickier.

And nothing sticks unless those who listen to us engage their brains.

Unfortunately, though, most pastors seldom consider how brain processes influence learning. It’s a missing link in today’s preaching and teaching. I believe it would behoove every pastor to learn how God made our brain and how it affects learning.

In the last 20 years we’ve learned amazing new insights about how God created our brain and how it’s involved in learning. With the advent of the functional MRI (fMRI), scientists can see what brain neighborhoods activate when we think certain things, pay attention, learn, and feel emotion. These new insights can pay great dividends to pastors who learn about the brain.

I recently participated in a webinar sponsored by the Neuroleadership Institute and ASTD on the brain (click the link to download some cool papers). In one word, fascinating.

Dr. Grace Chang, a neuroscientist at U.C.L.A., presented the first session on making learning sticky. She began by defining one of the two types of memory, declarative memory. Non-declarative memory is the other kind (think riding a bike, you can’t describe how you do it, you just do it). Declarative memory, in our context, would be the kind we would want to foster when we teach. We want our listeners to be able to consciously recall the Biblical content of our sermons so that the Holy Spirit can take that truth and transform their beliefs and behavior.

Dr. Chang said that three main brain processes compose declarative memory.

1. Acquire the information (getting it in called encoding). An example would be what you do to get your sermon into the minds of your listeners (i.e., the spoken sermon itself, visuals you use, dramas to reinforce the point).
2. Retain the information (keeping it in called storing). This happens when your listeners actually remember what you said instead of forgetting it when they walk out of the church.
3. Retrieve the information (using it called accessing). This is simply application. You want your listeners not only to remember what you said, but to apply the truth in their daily lives as well.

So, is brain-based preaching new age voodoo?

Not at all.

Brain-based preaching is an intentional process by which you consider how people’s brains process information and learn. When we keep the brain in mind and in particular these three memory processes, I believe our sermons will become sticker and result in greater life transformation.

If you want to read a great article on brain-based learning, I recommend this one.

Next week when you finalize your sermon, take five minutes and ask yourself what you could do to incorporate each of these three brain processes in your sermon to make it sticker.

In fact, don’t wait until next week. What is one small brain-based change that immediately comes to your mind right now that could make this week’s sermon stickier?

Related posts:

• Sticky Sermons: How Brain Insights can Improve Them
• Are your Sermons Hard or Easy to Listen to?

I’m enrolled in a master’s degree program in neuroleadership. Yep, that word’s a mouthful. Click on my home page on "Waht is a neuroleader" to see a cool video that explains the term neuroleadership.

I’m learning some fascinating insights about the brain that can help us pastors lead, speak, and live more effectively. In today’s blog, I’d like you to ask yourself this question: Would most people say my sermons are hard to listen to or easy to? Take a moment and stop reading and answer that question for yourself.

Well, we all hope that people would say easy to listen to, right?

I’ve included below a short checklist, based on neuroscience insight, that might give you a clue.

Before I give you the checklist, I want set the stage with a few facts about the brain.

1. The executive functions that occur like concentration, abstract reasoning, problem solving, and attention occur primarily in the pre-frontal cortex, the area roughly behind your forehead. This is the part of the brain you hope your sermons engage. If your listeners don’t engage this part of the brain, your sermon “went in one ear and out the other.”
2. This part of the brain processes information in a serial fashion (one thing at a time). Think of a conveyer belt with one item on it followed by another followed by another, etc. You may recall Lucille Ball’s famous candy conveyor belt episode. If something happens at the front end of that conveyer belt and all the items get clogged up, then nothing moves forward. The same thing happens in the brain. It will only process one thing at a time and if overloaded, it processes very little information. Multi-tasking is a misnomer. See my blog post on multi-tasking here.
3. The pre-frontal cortex tires easily. If a speaker does not give breaks for the listener’s brain to rest, it will take its own breaks.
4. Five fundamental processes summarize what the brain does: it understands, decides, recalls, memorizes, and inhibits (that is, blocks out distractions).

You can see that many complex processes are going on the brains of our listeners. So, how can we maximally engage their brains so that the Holy Spirit has lots of biblical truth to work with to ultimately bring about life transformation?

I’ve included a few ideas below based on neuroscience.

• Start out telling the people where you’re going with your sermon. Give an outline or a metaphor that points in a specific direction. The term is called pre-encoding. Learning is the encoding part. Pre-encoding sets up the listener to learn.
• Don’t aimlessly ramble. If you constantly chase rabbits, their brains will check out.
• Don’t use complex terms and long sentences. When you do, the listener’s brain will tune you out to try to figure out what you just said. They essentially won’t hear what you say next.
• A close cousin: be careful about using abstract ideas. Again, the brain will try to process abstract ideas and tune out what you say next.
• If you do present a complex idea, stop and give a few seconds to allow people to process it and think about it. In other words, mix up the rate at which you deliver your sermons. Pauses are good.
• Simplify your power points. Use only a few words per slide. Pictures that explain your points are even better.
• Don't get long-winded. You may have the ability to keep people’s attention for more than 30 or so minutes. If you do, you don’t need to read this blog. But, in an age when attention spans are rapidly decreasing, shorter sermons will stick better.

What insights have you discovered that help your listeners absorb more?

Related Posts.

Your Brain’s Leadership X-factor   

5 Ways to get People to Pay Attention to Your Sermons 

http://www.charlesstone.com

One of the most disconcerting feelings we pastors experience is when we prepare a sermon and pour our heart into it, yet feel that it didn’t make a difference in people’s lives. It’s equally frustrating when we preach to see somebody tuning us out.

What can we do to help people pay more attention to our sermons? For when they do, there’s a greater chance what we say will stick in their minds to give the Holy Spirit time to ultimately change their hearts.

Neuroscience is teaching us a lot about how people remember things. Two mental processes related to attention simultaneously activate in the minds of those sitting in the pews on Sundays.

• Focus: the ability to attend to what you are saying.
• Inhibiting distractions: the ability to tune out competing information. Those distractions can be external like a baby crying or internal like self-talk or mulling over memories of what happened on the way to church.

So what can we do when we preach to help increase attention? I’ve listed 5 neuroscience insights to keep in mind as you prepare your sermons.

1. Mood matters. Scientists have discovered that when people are in a good mood they pay better attention. We can’t change what happened to a family on the way to church (ie-a fight), but we can take some steps to help put them in a good mood. Humor is a great tool that does that. Don’t begin your sermon with something heavy. Rather, try to interject some humor. Smile and put people at ease.
2. The head cannot take more than the seat can endure is true. Our brains need downtime. They can’t concentrate for long periods of time. In fact, the brain will make downtime for itself when it gets tired. So, build ebb and flow into your sermons. Alternate intensity (something that may require intensive concentration) with points or stories that don’t take much concentration.
3. See your sermons like firing a gun. Three distinct processes take place in the brain for attention to occur. It’s firing a gun: load, aim, fire. To load is when the brain is alerted to take notice. Aim is when it looks for more information. Fire is when it actually acts. So develop your sermon with this in mind. Build each point around the load—aim—fire process.
4. Include novelty in your sermons. Attention increases with something novel or new. Include a couple of surprises. Perhaps you pull out a “show and tell” item unexpectedly to illustrate a point. Maybe you move to a different location from where you usually preach (ie-off the stage and into an aisle).
5. Make it relevant. Preaching is connecting the then and there to the here and now. We must try to help people apply the message to their lives. The brain pays much more attention when it senses relevance. Don’t just wait until the end for application. Provide application points throughout the sermon.

Ultimately, we want our sermons to stick in the listener’s long-term memory. The more they stick, the greater the chance for the Holy Spirit to bring about life transformation.

What presentation techniques you found that helps sermons stick?

Relates Posts:

• How Much Time Should a Pastor Spend on Sermon Prep 
• How an Improv Class Improved My Preaching

Every Sunday something happens over 400,000 times in the US.

 A pastor preaches a sermon. 

If an average sermon lasts about 30 minutes and if roughly 56 million people attend on an average Sunday, then church attenders in America’s churches spend this amount of time listening to our sermons each week.

• 23,000,000 man hours
• which equals 958,000 days
• which equals 136,904 weeks
• which equals 2,632 years

And if the average pastor spends 10 hours preparing a sermon, all told pastors will spend the following amount of time in weekly sermon prep.

• 4,000,000 man hours
• which equals 166,666 days
• which equals 23,800 weeks
• which equals 457 years

Putting it all together, each week sermons gobble up three centuries of  man-hours. If you multiply that over a year’s time . . . well, you do the math.

When I calculated this number, it boggled my mind. That statistic then begged this question.

What spiritual return is our preaching giving us?

I know we can’t measure the eternal impact from our sermons. However, the amount of time we invest in them and the time people invest in listening to them should cause us to pause and evaluate. These numbers caused me to think.

Take a few moments and consider these ten questions. As you read them ask yourself if the Lord is prompting you to make some changes to maximize your sermons’ spiritual impact.

1. Do I spend sufficient time preparing my heart to preach (ie: spiritual disciplines, stillness, character development)?
2. Do I spend sufficient time with people to understand the issues they face that need a word from God?
3. Am I being true to what the biblical writers intended when I preach?
4. Am I willing to get honest feedback from people who can help me improve my preaching?
5. Do I make my preaching more about Him and less about me and what others may think about my preaching?
6. What am I doing to improve my study and presentation skills?
7. Am I willing to preach on unpopular subjects about which the Scripture speaks?
8. Do I spend sufficient time thinking about ways that could maximize the listener’s attention so as to increase their retention of my sermons?
9. Do I always tie my sermons to the overarching redemptive theme of the Gospel?
10. Do I approach preaching as a hallowed trust?

Perhaps the venerable Haddon Robinson captured the essence of preaching when we wrote this in his excellent book, Biblical Preaching.

When you get right down to it, preaching is like farming. I often say, “Lord, here I am. As far as I can tell, I’ve tried to fill my sack with good seed. I’ve done my homework, I think my attitude is right, and it’s the best, most interesting seed I’ve got. I’m going to scatter it now, Lord. So here goes. We’ll see what comes up in the field.” Then, once I’ve sown the seed, I do what farmers do: I go home and rest.

What questions would you add to this list?

In my next post I offer several practical techniques you can build into your sermon to help people pay closer attention. 

Related posts:

• 5 Reasons to Do Sermon Prep Outside the Office
• Sticky Sermons: Neuroscience Insights that Make them Sticky

I'm currently in a master's program in neuroleadership through Middlesex University in the UK and I'm having a blast.  Christian leaders and pastors can learn much from the latest neuroscience discoveries about the brain. Neuroscientists have discovered that the brain profoundly  impacts leadership, emotional regulation, motivating others, navigating change, team building, and effective communication.

If you spend much time preaching or teaching, you'll find this blog helpful.

Every ministry leader wants others to become more like Jesus. For that to happen, their thinking, behavior, and habits must change. Those changes don't occur in a void. Rather, God takes what we learn about the bible, character, and God honoring behavior to transform us. A major input to this new way of living comes through our preaching and teaching.

But for lasting change to occur, our brains must imbed new information into our long-term memory instead of our short-term memory. Think of the difference between cramming for a test in geography the night before the test (we soon forget the facts) and learning a new language (if we continue to use it, the language gets imbedded deep within our memories). Neuroscientists call this embedding process consolidation. The name itself pictures the process. Although initial information comes into our minds through our five senses, it passes through a part of the brain called the hippocampus. However, if we want the new information (i.e. our sermons) to stick, the memories must be spread to other parts of the brain to consolidate them into long term memory.

So if you want to increase the chance that life transformation happens through your preaching and teaching, consider these practical steps to help imbed your teaching into long term memory thus making your sermons more "sticky."

1. Increase focused attention by engaging more senses than just sight and sound. Creatively use taste, smell and touch. When people pay more attention to your sermons, they engage the hippocampus more. And unless it is engaged, people won't remember what you say.
2. Deliver your sermon in an organized way. Use a visual metaphor or picture at the beginning to tie the talk together. If you deliver your sermon in a random way, memory decreases.  This is called pre-encoding which organizes the brain to remember better.
3. Break up the message into two parts and place a different element between each (ie. video or music). In the second part creatively review the content you presented in the first part. The following week again review the previous week's main points. Neuroscientists have discovered that spacing between learning something and practicing it increases memory retention.
4. Use a power point flashcard at the end of the talk by asking the people to fill in the blanks of your sermon’s key points. When someone self-generates information it sticks much better than when they are simply told information.
5. Ask the people to personally apply one aspect of the message to their own lives. This concept called self-relevant processing deepens memory more than almost anything else. It relates to helping them emotionally connect to what you want them to learn. Emotional stamping is a powerful memory enhancer.
6. Ask the people to imagine themselves not only doing the application but also to imagine the context (where) in which they will do it. Again, neuroscience has discovered that people recall memories better when they imagine the context in which they learned or practiced something new.

Run last week's bible study or sermon through this grid and see what improvements you can make for next week.

Related posts:

• 9 Aspects about Learning Every Pastor Should Know
• Ipad Preaching with a Virtual Whiteboard

I'm learning coaching fundamentals through the Professional Christian Coaching Institute's 13-week intensive tele-class. I'll soon begin a new ministry helping senior pastors in mid-sized churches lead at their best. (If you are a senior pastor and would like more info about my coaching, leave me a comment here or email me at chucks9886@gmail dot com.)

This course has been invaluable. One of my teachers, Anne Denmark, professionally coaches church leaders and trains speakers. As a highly credentialed and experienced coach she shares her insights on her blog.

Recently she sent our class nine basic principles of adult learning. As I read them, I realized how each could apply to my sermon prep and delivery. Here they are.

Nine Basic Principles of Adult Learning

• Recency – what is most recently learned is best remembered.

• Active Learning – people learn best by “doing” through active involvement and participation. Confucious said,  “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand”

• Multi-Sensory –  taking information in through all five senses increases learning.

• Primacy – what you learn first you learn best - put most important points first (the need to know first) and then put the least important ones last (the nice to know) last – tell people your objectives up front.

• Two- Way Communication – ask questions every 1½ minutes to keep learners alert and thinking.

• Feedback – check in to see if they are understanding the material.

• Appropriate – people learn by attaching new information to something they already know.

• Motivate – give adults the reason the learning will benefit their life – their need to know – make it practical enough to take it home and use it.

• Exercise – apply what you have learned as soon as possible. If you do not do this within 6 hours, 25% will be forgotten. If not applied within 24 hours, 67% will be forgotten. If not applied within 6 weeks, 90% will be forgotten.

How can these adult learning principles guide your sermon prep and preaching? Would you add a tenth?

___

Related posts:

• iPad Preaching with a Virtual Whiteboard

• 5 Reasons Pastors Should consider Sermon Prep Outside the Office

I posted a blog entry a couple of weeks ago (see it here) about my plan to use my iPad as a virtual whiteboard.

I used an app called Airsketch which allowed me to create a virtual whiteboard. It connects to a local wi-fi network which lets a computer become the whiteboard. Then the signal can be sent to video projectors used during services.

As I taught on spiritual warfare, I was able to underline, draw, and write words just as if I had used a white board. Here's a picture of one of the screen shots. Everything in red I added while I taught. The icons at the bottom don't show up on screen, but are available to you as the presenter.

I used this tool two weeks in a row. The first week I included my prompts on screen. The second week, I pared down what appeared on screen and used printed notes to the side to prompt me.

Overall, I got lots of positive comments, with one negative one. Here's what I learned.

1. This tool definitely kept the listeners' attention better.
2. It added a 'cool' factor.
3. It helped me visually emphasize words or phrases in the text which in turn left a stronger impression in the listener.
4. I was able to face the congregation at all times. Using an actual whiteboard prohibits that.
5. I was easily able to switch back and forth to different screens to review and further emphasize points.
6. Less text on the screen is better. Too much becomes too busy.
7. Using a stylus is better than using your finger.
8. I had to experiment to get the text size large enough for the screen projection.

I've been a pastor 30 years and only in the last few have I discovered the value of studying outside my church and home office. I'll go either  to McDonalds (cheap food) or Panera (good atmosphere and the place I prefer). Both provide free Wi-Fi. I don't recommend spending all your time away from the office, but I've found that doing so at least once a week benefits me and the ministry in these ways.

1. Productivity: Less interruptions from others.
2. Creativity: A different environment spurs it.
3. Focus: Less distractions help me concentrate better (like cleaning up our office or playing with something on our desks that can distract us in our offices).
4. Energy: A different ambiance/atmosphere gives me more.
5. Stress management: I feel less of it in a neutral environment.

One other suggestion. To block out noise, I use ear buds plugged into my iPhone and listen to nature sounds on the Ambiance app.

Have you discovered any other advantages of studying outside the office?

Related posts: The iPhone App that Improved my Concentration

I've posted a few blogs about my journey using the iPad to preach (see related posts below).

Thus far I've loved using it. I own the original iPad and I'm waiting to upgrade until next year's version releases.

Here's my current sermon prep and delivery process.

1. Write sermons on a Word doc on my Airbook.
2. Convert doc to a PDF.
3. Drop PDF into Dropbox on my Mac.
4. Open Dropbox on my iPad.
5. Open the PDF in Noterize.
6. Mark up my PDF.
7. Enthrall millions with my eloquent preaching (oops, Freudian slip there...I meant preach to a few hundred) :)

Here's a snapshot of what one page looked look from last week's talk on spiritual gifts.

This week I'm trying something new.

I'm using an app called AirSketch which allows me to actually create a virtual whiteboard. By linking my iPad to a computer in our sound booth through our local network, I can project each page of my PDF on our video screens without dragging around a cable. It works amazingly well (at least in practice).

I can then scroll through each page as I preach and use either my finger or my stylus to annotate and draw. MacWorld reviews 12 styluses [or is it styli] here.

Here's a snapshot of the first page of this week's sermon on  spiritual warfare. When it projects onscreen, you don't see the stuff at the bottom however. The red shows where I've practiced annotating.

Next week I'll blog on how things went.

If you want to get that blog and future ones as well, you can sign up  to automatically to receive them by clicking the RSS feed button in the right-hand column on this page.

Related Posts:

1. How an iPad improved my Devotional Life.
2. How Pastors can Benefit from an iPad
3. How and iPad improved my Preaching.

Each year we teach a 4-5 week series on giving and generosity in Feb/March. This year we titled our series The Treasure Principle, based on Randy Alcorn's book by the same name. We also sent a copy of the book to every giver on record the previous year and encouraged the church to read a chapter each week that matched the upcoming sermon theme.

If you've not read the book, it's a quick read and probably one of the best on the subject. I highly recommend it.

If you're a pastor, you probably feel the same angst I feel when I address the subject. Even though my heart is in the right place, I can't help but think some people feel I'm being self-serving when I teach the subject.

Here's what I do to help mitigate those thoughts in people's minds.

First, I make sure my heart is right.

• Do I faithfully  give?

• Do I tithe and give beyond?

• Do I teach from a desire that others experience the joy of generosity or because we are not making the church budget?

Second, in my talk I acknowledge at the beginning what some people feel. I actually say something like, "I recognize that when a pastor talks on money it can appear self serving. I know that some of you may be thinking, "I really don't want to hear some preacher talk about money.' I would just ask that you lower you guard a bit, listen to what I have to say, and then decide how you want to respond. It's between you and God."

Third, I tell my giving story. In my message this past week I explained that my wife and I had faithfully tithed and beyond since we were married. I also shared that my parents taught me to give at an early age and that a comment from my 5th grade Sunday School teacher left an indelible imprint in my life that put me on the path to generosity. When people hear our honest stories, it can help lower their guard and resistance to the message.

When I began in ministry 30 years ago, I'd often shy away from the money subject. However, I now realize that giving is as much a part of discipleship as is Bible reading and prayer. I can't shy away from it, but must approach the subject with tact and grace.

If you'd like a great guide to help you develop a stewardship system, I highly recommend Maximize: How to Develop Extravagant Givers in Your Church by Nelson Searcy.

So, what has helped you get the money message across?

If you are not a pastor, what advice would you give to us about how to effectively encourage people to give?

Related posts:

The 4 Reasons People Give to Their Church

Titherosity: Motivating others to Become More Generous

How much time should a pastor spend preparing a sermon?

Recently I watched a video where a rather famous pastor answered that question. His response, "I study and read all the time and it takes me about one to two hours to put a sermon together."

Yikes! When I heard that I felt guilty because there's no way I can prepare a sermon that quickly. I'm sure this pastor's heart was right, but I wish he had qualified himself more. I doubt very many of us are that speedy.

In Haddon Robinson's book, Biblical Sermons, he wrote that experienced preachers he surveyed spent an average of 16 hours preparing. That sounds more like it to me. That's probably my average and I've been preaching for 25 years.

So, how much time should you spend? It depends.

It depends on...

1. how long you've been in ministry. If you been in ministry several years, you have a backlog of study material. If you haven't you will probably need to set aside more study time. I did in my early ministry years.
2. how well you've kept your previous study notes, sermons, and materials upon which to refer back
3. how well you manage your time
4. what's happening around you. Sometimes unexpected family and ministry demands arise that require our time that we other wise would have spent on sermon prep. No need to wallow in guilt when that happens
5. your personality...some pastors have the gift of gab and can 'make up stuff on the fly' :), some of us don't; some personalities require the preacher to process what he wants to say more thoroughly

Here are a few thoughts to consider as you answer this question for yourself.

1. Schedule your study and prep time during your best, most alert hours.
2. Set reasonable expectations. An hour or two is too little time for most just as 35 hours is probably too much
3. Use computer tools readily available. I own a Mac and use both Accordance and Logos. I rarely use paper books. These tools have made my study time more efficient.
4. Trust God to use your faithful preparation. Seldom do ministry demands allow us to study as much as we'd like. We must do our best and trust the Holy Spirit to fill in the gaps.

How much time do you spend preparing your sermon?

Related posts:

• How an Improv Class Improved my Preaching
• Retro Preaching in a hi-tech world: How I used a Flannelgraph

I'm convinced God gave me a 'Geek' gene.

From my monopoly on science fair first prizes in high school to my toy tank that fires bb's to my radio-controlled helicopter that shoots plastic missiles, I love any gadget that runs on electricity. I'm also among an elite 50,000 who bought the very first Macintosh in 1984. I sold a life insurance policy and used the cash value to pay for it. Since then I've owned over 20 different Macs and I now sport a brand new MacBook Air. I also use an iPhone 4 and an iPad.

Like I said, God gave me a geek gene.

At the same time Mac blood has flowed through my veins, God infused into my bones a passion to teach God's Word. I've preached over a thousands sermons and I've seen my preaching evolve over the years in this progression.

1. write sermon notes in the margin of a wide column bible (my eyes can't see teeny-tiny print now :) )
2. type out the sermon on one half-page and insert into my bible
3. type up the full text and insert small pages into the bible so that it looks like I'm not using notes
4. print out the full text and place the full sized pages on the lectern
5. Preach from an iPad

I love using the iPad now. It took a few weeks to getting used to it, but I don't think I will ever change. I see three advantages in using an iPad.

1. Easily mark up and highlight on the fly
2. Keep all your sermons in one place
3. You look really cool, especially when the house and stage lights are off...it casts a holy glow on your face :)

Here's how I now prepare my sermons and get them to the iPad.

1. I write my sermons on my Mac with Word. Accordance (easy to use and trusty) and Logos (quite expansive yet rather slow and cumbersome at times) are my primary study tools. Note: My iPad still has not replaced my laptop and I don't expect it to.
2. I save my Word doc as a PDF file
3. I drop the PDF into Dropbox (a free app that allows you to easily move a pc file to the iPad via shared wi-fi)
4. I open up the PDF in Dropbox and then open it in Noterize ($2.99). Many PDF markup programs exist. This one tends to be a bit slow in turning the pages, but thus far it works best for me. I would love to use Apple's Pages program, but at this point they don't offer highlighting options.
5. I then mark up, highlight, and make changes as needed. Our service production team always has a paper copy available in case my iPad goes down.

Here's a screen shot of what an iPad page looks like.

If you are an iPad user, what apps do you use for preaching? Any tricks you've learned?

Related posts:

• How an iPad improved my devotional life
• How Pastors can benefit from an iPad

One of the most precious commodities a pastor has is time. Ministry always beckons us to do more than time permits. I once heard a researcher state that most people have 35 hours of unfinished work ahead of them. However, if we use the time we have most effectively, we'll become more fruitful for the Kingdom.

Preparing sermons, at least for senior pastors, is one of the most time consuming Kingdom commitments. Although I don't preach every week, I still must prepare over 35 original messages each year. Each week I study 15-20 hours to prepare one sermon. That's a good chunk of my week which requires concentration.

A year or so ago I purchased a $2.99 iPhone app that has proved invaluable to help me concentrate when I study. When I fully concentrate, I make much more progress than when my mind gets distracted.

That app, Ambiance, is a simple collection of natural (and man-made) sounds that I play on my iPhone through my headphones. In case you are wondering, I don't make money on the sale of this app and I'm not connected in any way to the company.

The standard iPhone headphones work ok, but I purchased a pair of noise canceling headphones (Philips SBC HN060) that block out most ambient noise. You can purchase more expensive ones, but this set works great for me.

So when I study at Panera or MacDonalds ($1 cokes there) I plug in, play a repetitive waterfall or beach sound, and become totally oblivious to the people and sounds around me. My ability to concentrate skyrockets.

As Paul the Apostle wrote in Ephesians 5.16, ... make every minute count. (CEV) This simple $2.99 purchase has helped me put that command into practice.

Related posts:  How an iPad benefits pastors

For more Resources for Pastors, visit Pastor Stone’s main site.

I'm a techno geek ... I stood in line for 5 hours to get the latest iPhone, I use a MacBookPro, I use an iPad on stage when I preach, I twitter, and I write a blog.

Our church is techno ... we use video extensively, power point, YouVersion which allows people to follow the sermon on their mobile phone, and we've done texting feedback during services.

Yet, sometimes I feel like I'm drowning in too much technology.

Recently during our programming meeting, our creative director suggested that we use a different medium to help the sermon delivery...the old flannelgraph.

In case you've never heard of a flannelgraph, it was a Bible teaching technique extensively used many years ago. Sunday school teachers would prop up the flannelgraph on an easle (a large piece of cardboard with flannel on the outside) and as she taught us the Bible lesson that day, she'd stick cardboard images of people and Bible objects on the flannelgraph. The flannel on the back of the images would stick to the flannel on the board. Thus, the flannelgraph. Today the flannelgraph is being used quite extensively in areas around the world with illiterate populations.

This past Sunday we tried it. I taught from Ephesians 2 and 3 where Paul uses several word pictures. These metaphors made it easy to find and cut out images.

Here's how it added to my teaching.

1. It was drastically different from how I usually teach. Its novelty helped the message stick.
2. It helped those familiar with the flannel graph feel a bit of nostalgia, which endeared them to the medium which enhanced the message.
3. It helped me easily remember the next point. I simply picked up the picture and stuck it on the board.
4. As I walked back to the board, it was easy to keep reviewing the main points when I referred back to the images.
5. It built interest as the people wondered what was next.
6. It helped visual learners stay more focused.

So, if you'd like mix things up a bit, give it a try. All it takes is a board (wood or foam core), some felt, and some pictures (I used velcro on the back to make them more sticky) and ... PRESTO, you have a flannelgraph.

Although we still used powerpoint images on the screens so people could see the images in detail, I now have a new tool in my preaching toolbox.

Related posts:

• How pastors can benefit from using an iPad, part 1
• How and iPad improved my devotional life

For more Books, Help and Resources for Pastors, visit Pastor Stone’s main site.

Drew Carey hosted a TV show called Whose Line is it Anyway that ran for several years until 2006. You can still see re-runs on cable.

The show, based on what is called 'short-form' improv, included four characters, most memorable being Wayne Brady. They would take suggestions from the audience and would create characters, scenes, and songs on the spot.

The few times I watched it, I couldn't believe they just made that stuff up.

Well, about four years ago while at lunch with a professional speaker who attends our church, I asked him what he'd suggest I do to improve my speaking. He told me that attending an improv class in downtown Chicago was a great help for him.

I tucked that thought away until about a year ago I learned that a local comedy club, the Comedy Shrine in Naperville, IL offered improv classes. I signed up, and have been taking classes ever since.

To give context, I've always considered myself a very funny guy. The only problem is that hardly anybody else did. I can tell a joke in a sermon that I thought would bring the audience down only to hear cricket sounds in response rather than laughter. When I did get laughter my son would often say, "Dad, don't let it go to your head. Those were courtesy laughs."

I've finally surmised that my humor is at such a high level that most people simple can't grasp it. :)

As I've almost completed five series of improv classes, the most recent a musical improv one, I've learned these lessons that have improved my preaching and made me a more rounded person.

1. I've learned to separate the language a person uses from their value in God's eyes. Sometimes the language used in classes can burn your ears. I remind myself, though, that God deeply loves people, regardless of the language they use.
2. The classes have helped me connect more with current culture. Often we pastors can get so focused in the Word that we lose touch with what the world is thinking. We must be in the world but not of it.
3. I've built friendships with people who aren't interested in God, and I really like them. I pray regularly for opportunities to engage them spiritually, yet even without the spiritual connection I have with those who know Christ, I truly enjoy being with these guys. I've had some great conversations about Christianity and two of my classmates have even attended our church.
4. I've been able to break the mold many people hold about ministers. I'm afraid many outside the church see pastors as legalist finger-pointers. At first when my class found out I was a pastor, everybody felt a bit awkward. But, now that they see I'm a normal guy that likes to have fun doing improv, I believe I've helped tear down the 'sometimes true' stereotype many hold about us pastors.
5. I've actually heard more laughs when I preach, even when I don't tell a planned joke.
6. I'm more comfortable and loose when I preach. My engineering background lends itself to more linear sermons and a linear delivery style. Now, I'm more open to allowing God to use more of my creative right-brain when I preach rather than relying on my left-brain logic side.
7. Improv teaches you to respond to what your scene partner says or does, rather than to pre-plan how you will respond. As a result, instead of always pre-planning what I want to say, I'm learning to be more spontaneous with my thoughts and words. I'm finding that those spontaneous thoughts can become some of the most powerful. Perhaps I'm listening more to the Holy Spirit's voice.
8. I'm learning to laugh at myself more and not take myself so seriously.

If you have a hankering for such an experience, give it a try. I bet you'll find the experience will enrich your life as well.