Category Archives: audience analysis

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Are You A High-EQ Preacher?

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EQ stands for Emotional Intelligence. Current research continues to report that EQ is a more accurate indicator of success then having a high IQ. B & G (authors I list below) state that EQ is “the single biggest predictor of performance in the workplace…” (p. 21).

Successful preaching pastors have a high EQ.

In these next few posts I will be summarizing some of the ways in which EQ studies affect our responsibility and privilege of preaching God’s Word.

I just finished reading Bradberry and Greaves, Emotional Intelligence 2.0 (TalentSmart, 2009).

It had been at least 15 years since I read Daniel Goleman’s book on the same topic. My good friend, Andy Bunn, is completing his Ph.D. in leadership studies and he highly recommended this little book. Evidently, EQ is still a hot topic in leadership studies. I have yet to read anything on how it relates to preaching, so here goes…

If you’re unfamiliar with the subject of EQ, the authors define it as

“…your ability to recognize and understand emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behavior and relationships.” (p. 17)

Here’s a quick overview of four EQ skills to get us started:

Personal Competence consists of

  • self-awareness (your ability to accurately acknowledge and understand your own emotions, your typical reaction to certain events and people)
  • self-management (your ability to use your awareness of your own emotional condition so that you are able to consistently act positively in every situation)

Social Competence consists of

  • Social awareness (your ability to accurately interpret the emotions of others and understand what they’re really thinking)
  • Relationship Management (your ability to use that knowledge of others so that you interact effectively with a variety of people in a variety of situations)

And, if you’re wondering if any of this EQ stuff is worth thinking about and developing, B & G write,

“The weaker the connection you have with someone, the harder it is to get your point across.” (p. 44)

See why I’m interested in exploring the subject of high EQ preachers? And all so God can receive glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Making Congregants Smile

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In his book, Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, Carmine Gallo has a chapter called, Lighten Up (p. 159). Gallo states that,

“Humor lowers defenses, making your audience more receptive to your message” (p. 160).

Good to know. But I believe in the “ears to hear” theology, that God grants to some the ability to hear and receive His Word. I don’t want to rely on a human method to “create” a convert.

But then he writes,

“[Humor] also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like” (p. 160).

Okay. That’s different.

I know this might surprise you, but I genuinely like the people I shepherd. We enjoy a wonderful relationship together. Smiling at them and making them smile is a regular part of our teaching times. It’s a natural part of being a faith-family. And this doesn’t detract from the seriousness of the event.

Gallo asserts that “[Humor] will work for you…but you must learn to incorporate humor creatively and naturally” (p. 162). That means not planning times to be funny. We’re not comedians; we’re pastor-theologians.

And we’re also spiritual leaders by God’s calling. And humor is evidently a strategic part of leadership. “The University of Western Ontario psychology professor Rod A. Martin says people use humor to ‘reinforce their own status in a group hierarchy. For example, you are more likely to crack jokes and amusing others in a group in which you are the leader or have a position of dominance than in a group in which you have lower status…than others'” (pp. 163-164).

So, while we shouldn’t plan on how to get a laugh, there should be plenty of times when we preach the Good News in such a way that you “put a smile on people’s faces” (p. 167) so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

 

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Listening to Yourself While You’re Preaching

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Every once in a while I realize I’m listening to myself while I preach. And it’s a good thing because sometimes I need to back up and correct or clarify myself. If only we had an autocorrect feature built into our sound system! It would be helpful because, if you’re like me, you don’t naturally pay attention to what you’re saying while you’re saying it.

In his theology of preaching, God’s Human Speech, Bartow writes: “Preachers are self-critical, that is to say, throughout the homiletical process, in the preparation and delivery of sermons, and, afterwards, when the preaching moment is revisited. This does not mean that preachers are ‘uptight,’ forever second-guessing themselves. But it does mean that they are self-aware, conscious of what they are doing, not just before and after, but also while they are doing it.” (p. 129, emphasis added)
It was the “while they are doing it” part that jumped out at me. Being self-critical during sermon delivery is not automatic, but the congregation is better for it when it happens.
Here’s what I’ve experienced that helps me listen carefully to myself while I’m preaching:
  1. The better I know the material, the easier it is for me to listen to myself while I’m preaching. I’m not thinking about what I’m going to say next. When I’m prepared in heart and head I’m in the moment.
  2. There are times in the sermon when I know I didn’t use the right word. When I catch myself, I can back up and use a better word. There’s no shortcuts to expanding one’s vocabulary. Next to my Bible, my thesaurus gets a tough workout every week.
  3. There are times when I know I wasn’t clear. Writing out the sermon manuscript word for word helps decrease the chances of being unclear on Sunday. But there’s usually times when a puzzled look in the congregation tells me it’s time to pause for clarification.
Bartow writes, “Somehow we know that something just said needs modification, amplification, correction. Somehow we sense our involvement or lack of it, our believability or unbelievability. We sense the involvement or lack of it of our congregants too. And we take action as needed on the basis of our tutored (by our criteria) instincts.” (p. 130)

So, before Sunday be ready to listen to yourself preach so that God’s glory is enhanced in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Preaching as an Act of Translation

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I missed my usual Monday or Tuesday post due to traveling to El Salvador with two colleagues. On Sunday afternoon I had the burdensome joy of preaching in Eglesia Bautista Nejapa. Through a translator.

That changes everything.

If you’ve preached through a translator, you know you have to think about the translation process before the sermon begins. It reminded me that preaching is a form of translation even when we’re preaching in our own language.

So, before I preached last Sunday in El Salvador I had to think about:

  • What is the dominant response this Text demands of Christians? (I often ask, “What does God intend this Word to do to Christians?”)
  • What is the big idea (in proverbial or abbreviated form)?
  • What two or three key words are going to be repeated throughout the sermon?

Pretty important questions. I’m asking them before preaching in El Salvador because I’ve got to find the right words. Words that will translate well. Words that the listeners will resonate with. I know what I want to say, but it’s sometimes clearer in my mind than out of my mouth.

The little exercise made me clearer than normal. My listeners at Calvary Bible Church would appreciate that.

Before next Sunday, ask yourself those three questions. Work for even clarity on all three for God’s glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Becoming a Critic of the Human Condition

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If we’ve studied together or if you’ve interacted with some of my material it will come as no surprise that Tim Keller has mentored me in the area of reading and preaching the Bible. Over the next few posts I intend to summarize my best takeaways from his book, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism.

First, let me tell you what I believe Keller’s best contributions have been. Keller is a master of Christ-centered preaching that is not afraid of making creative connections to the Cross. This separates him from well-known proponents of the method such as Sidney Greidanus and Bryan Chapell. Keller is also a master critic of the human condition (both the Christian and non-Christian).

On page 110 Keller writes,

“The Christian preacher must be a critic of nonbelievers….Christian communicators must show that they remember (or at least understand) very well what it is like not to believe.”

If you’re like me and have been a Christian since your youth, this is not easy to do. Another thing that makes this difficult is, due to the nature of most pastorates, we spend virtually all of our time with Christians. Add to that what we constantly read–Christian material.

But I’ve listened to Keller for almost as long as he’s been at Redeemer in NYC. He knows the human condition very well. Therefore, he is in a position every weekend to critique the human heart. And it adds quality and depth to his sermons.

So, here’s what I try to do in order to become more skillful in this area.

First, I try hard to pay attention to my own thinking, the struggles that go on in my head as I fight temptation. I will sometimes say to folks on Sunday, “I know you because I’m like you.”

Second, I try hard to listen carefully to what Christians say to me when they are honest enough to let things slip out (they say things when their guard was down and they were very exercised about something).

Those two cover the Christian condition.

Finally, and this comes harder for me, I try to read reputable blogs such as Church & Culture, and scan media coverage to become familiar with how people think about themselves and their world.

Then it’s a matter of learning how to strategically place those insights into the exposition of Scripture.

Long before Sunday I am trying to see how my preaching portion contains theology that includes some look into our human condition. That requires me to be a critic of Christians and non-Christians.

Preaching well so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Three Takeaways from Cox’s, Rewiring Your Preaching

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I recently finished reading, Richard H. Cox’s book, Rewiring Your Preaching: How the Brain Processes Sermons (IVP). Here are three takeaways from the book that may help you as you prepare sermons this week:

One. Repeating key theological and practical concepts is helpful in making disciples. On page 35 Cox writes,

“Specific brain changes result from repetitive learning….The brain responds to repetition.”

That helped me because I often shy away from any kind of repetition. I tell myself repeatedly, “They already heard this before” or “They already know this.” I didn’t realize how valuable repetition is for transformation into Christlikeness.

Two. Anyone who addresses the congregants, such as pastors or song leaders, needs to help them take their attention off the temporal and place its squarely on the eternal. Cox states that parishioners…

“must make the neural switch from daily problem solving to thinking about eternal matters if they are to hear and listen” (page 46).
Our listeners don’t make that switch automatically when they enter the church service. I need to do a better job helping them make that switch with cues such as: “We’ve all arrived having spent an entire work week in the daily grind. It’s time to spend some minutes together thinking about God and the world He is creating for us.”
Three. Our sermons must contain critical matters in God’s Word and help our parishioners realize those words are critical. On page 73 Cox writes,
“The sermon must contain things that we must hear. It must also convince us that we need to hear those things.”

Of course, it takes some effort to convince some of our listeners that the Word of God is a “must hear” kind of communication. Actually, that is God’s job of creating ears that can hear. Our job is to make sure our sermon contains His Word, not our opinions. Our own faith and intensity can help our listeners realize how desperately we need to hear from God.

Before Sunday, keep these three things in mind so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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“Let’s be honest. That’s bizarre!”

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Some things just don’t look right in the Bible. Period. And when we come across those things, we do our listeners a favor–especially our relatively un-churched attendees–by pointing it out.

One of my friends at church, Craig, gave me a great example of this a few weeks ago. He was talking about how weird it is for Jesus to be called the good Shepherd, but then for Him to send His sheep out among wolves. What kind of good Shepherd would do that!?!

That’s the kind of stuff that doesn’t look right when you think about it.

Over the years I’ve benefited from James Emery White’s blog, Church & Culture. In Volume 12, No. 53 he imagined what the unchurched would tell us if we listened to them. Number 7 was, “Can we agree that there’s a lot of weird stuff attached to Christianity and the Bible? Okay, it may be true, or real, or whatever, but can we just agree that some of it is a bit…bizarre? For some strange reason, it would make me feel better to hear you acknowledge how it all looks and sounds to someone from the outside.”

Well, one reason it would make them feel better to hear us acknowledge some weirdness in holy Writ is because it’s TRUE. God has recorded some strange stuff in His Word. Another good example is the Judges’ narrative I’ll write about in weeks to come, often labeled, Jephthah’s Tragic Vow. Jephthah promises that if God gives him a strategic victory in battle, he would dedicate the first thing that comes out of his house to greet him. That first thing was only daughter! And what’s totally bizarre is that God allowed Jephthah to carry through with his promise (according to my un-inspired reading of the narrative).

There are a whole lot of well-churched folks who appreciate any time we point out such weirdness. Before Sunday, see if your preaching portion has some bizarre aspects to it. If you bring it out, your listeners will appreciate the honesty and, depending on how you proceed, the mystery that is our God. That assumes you will fight the temptation to explain everything in God’s Word, especially the things that are impossible to explain.

Preach well so God receives glory in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

P.S. I usually don’t ask for feedback because I know pastors are busy. However, I am curious to hear your thoughts on why the generation of preachers before us were very hesitant to bring out the bizarre aspects of God’s revelation. Are there any dangers to this approach to interpretation and preaching? Thanks for chiming in.

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“You’ve Got Church All Wrong” (part 7 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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In this series of posts, I’m summarizing some of Linda Mercandante’s research contained in her interesting book, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious. My goal is to help you understand what some of your parishioners might be thinking. They may consider themselves to be in the SBNR camp. Remember, however, that every one of us breathes air containing particles of this kind of thinking. Every Sunday our preaching collides with these notions.

One prevalent opinion has to do with what a “good” church should be like:

“When I think of going to a community, I think of them making demands on me and my work and my family and my marriage life. It’s life-draining. I haven’t found a community that nourishes.” (pp. 163-164).

Or…

“The majority insisted their ideal group would have: no dogma, no written tenets, no labels, no belief systems, no symbols, no pressure, no fixed leadership, and would be entirely non-judgmental.” (p. 189).

Look at those two quotes again and note how many times our preaching centers on God’s perspective on the Church, what it is and how if should function. Look at how many of these beliefs are combatted each Sunday.

As you know, we can’t apologize for what the Church is or for what parishioners are responsible to do. We can provide a theological apologetic for why, for instance, God makes demands, why we have belief systems and fixed leadership. While that can’t win the day on its own, we’re trusting that those that have ears to hear will embrace Christ’s Body.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Some Listeners May Not Think They’re Sinners (part 6 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?)

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In this post I’m continuing my summary of the book, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious, by Linda Mercadante. Of all the things I learned about the spiritual but not religious (SBNR), what surprised me the most was how prevalent is the notion that human beings are basically good.

This information is important to me, not because I have many SBNR’s in our faith-family, but because their mindset is in the air we breathe. These notions are at war with our Christian faith.

Look at how prevalent the belief in human goodness is: “The one thing nearly everyone said—the one thing they most often started their comments with—is that human nature is inherently good” (p. 129). Here are some telling quotes:
“I think we’re born all good in terms of spirit” (p. 130)
“I think that the little child is born in goodness”
“I believe in essential goodness….Basically we’re very good.”
“We are good and doing wrong is out of character.”
“I think people are essentially good. Each one of us has a nugget of basic goodness.”
“I feel like every person is born pure and innocent, good all the way around.”
“We’re all divine….We’re all masters….We’re all perfect and all we have to do is remember that.” (p. 134)

Did you think it was that blatant? I didn’t.

It reminded me how important it is to explain original sin and sin in general whenever preaching portions contain those concepts. I can’t assume everyone knows our predicament. No predicament, no need for the Gospel. Or, how about this? Decrease the belief in our sinfulness and we decrease the need for God’s grace for our growth.

Anyway, remember that belief in human goodness is in the air and that air leaks into the sanctuaries each Sunday.

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal

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Church Has Left A Bad Taste In Their Mouth (part 5 of What Are Our Listeners Thinking?!)

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In this series I’m highlighting some of the insights gained from reading, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious (by Linda Mercadante). I wanted to get a better understanding of what many of our congregants bring to the equation each time we preach. This kind of information affects sermon content and delivery.

For instance, many of our listeners have had previous relationships with other churches (it would be interesting to know what percentage of our parishioners have no history with a prior congregation). And many of those relationships were not good. This was one of the experiences shared by all five types of spiritual but not religious (SBNR’s) interviewees.

That means they already have a bad taste in their mouth when they sit down at your table and eat your spiritual food. One person reported:

“my mother and father would get mad at the church and pull us all out and I was too young to have a voice in the matter…” (p. 44).

Mercadante summarizes a common refrain: “[they] would find a tenet with which they disagreed, or they became disappointed with the all-too-human qualities of the average congregation, spiritual group, leader, or participant. Either they found the beliefs ultimately unbelievable, or felt that members were not living up to them.” (p. 52)

Here’s what I’m trying to do to help them reconnect with our church while I preach:

  • before Sunday morning, pray for their healing
  • showcase the relationship I have with the connected congregants through friendly sermon dialogue (it has a way of showing the hesitant that this is a safe place for their souls; they tend to get caught up in the relationship)
  • let them know you know they might disagree with a statement and address their concern as you prove your point (quasi-apologetics)
  • talk frankly about what one of my colleagues calls being a “messy church” (admit that we don’t always live up to what we believe; be honest about who we are)
  • mix in genuine smiles with all the serious sermon stuff (I’m still amazed at how strangers react to smiles in and out of church)

Preach well for the sake of God’s reputation in the Church and in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:21).

Randal