Growing As A Communicator

Everyone has to communicate, & most of us have to communicate verbally. Whether you are a stay at home mom, a pastor, a business owner, or a salesperson in the retail world, communication is a big part of what you do. However, it's also something that terrifies a lot of people, especially the idea of some sort of public communication. This week I want to share a few things that I've learned & that help me to be a better communicator & a communicator that is constantly looking to improve.

1) Know Your Message
This sounds like a no-brainer, but it's shocking how many times I've had to listen to someone speak who obviously spent no time actually figuring out what they wanted to say. Recently I sat & listened to someone speak for almost 45 minutes & at the end a bunch of random information had been thrown at me & the audience, but there was no cohesive message. Know what you want to say. Don't talk until you do. Whether you're about to have a discussion with one of your kids or give a presentation at work, you have to know your message. One good rule of thumb I try to abide by is this: Can I distill my message into one memorable statement? If I can do that & then support it & reiterate it throughout a message, there's a better chance that it will be remembered & acted upon.

2) Plan Ahead
This isn't always possible, but most of the time it is. As a pastor who speaks pretty much every week, I know that people expect me to have something to say to them, & hopefully it's something worth paying attention to. Again this seems obvious, but if you wait until the last minute, you may not have anything to say or you may not find a way to say it so that it's actually absorbed. If you have a role where you're communicating to a group regularly, plan it out ahead of time. In my role as a pastor, I go into a year with an entire year planned out. For example, right now I know what my plan is for my Christmas teaching series. For those who say that this doesn't allow you room for spontaneity or the Spirit's leading, the reverse is actually true. Planning ahead actually gives you more freedom to adjust on the fly. If you're living week to week as a communicator, you literally do not have time to think about the bigger picture of your communication. Typically I try to stay anywhere from 2 weeks to 4 weeks ahead in actual completed sermons, & I plan a rough teaching plan for an entire year. It gives me a plan to follow, but it also gives me room for flexibility when the plan may need to be altered.

Throughout the week I'll share some other things I've picked up & lessons I've learned the hard way over my years in ministry & as a communicator. Feel free to share any insights you may have or tips you have that have helped you grow as a communicator.

How To Remove The Pain From Message Prep

Preaching Rocket is a new organization committed to helping pastors grow as communicators of the most important message in the world. After talking to hundreds of preachers, they’ve found most preachers love preaching, but the grind of preparation can often become a pain. Here are three things they’ve seen.

1. Great Preaching Comes From A Great Preparation System. Perry Noble doesn’t prepare in a vacuum. He has a team at NewSpring Church that helps him prepare. Perry will talk about how this works at the PreachBetterSermons.com FREE online event on March 15th.

2. A Preparation Day Is Better Than Feeling Like You Have To Prepare All The Time. Andy Stanley sets aside every Wednesday to prepare messages, and his team helps him keep this time guarded. While Andy is gifted, his commitment to preparation helps make his messages memorable. Andy will talk about the structure of his preparation day on the Preach Better Sermons online event.

3. Developing A Sermon Planning System Takes The Pain Out Of Preparation. There are things you can do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis that will dramatically improve your preparation time and help you deliver better messages. Helping you put something like this into place will be a part of the free online event.

Make a commitment to be a better preacher. Sign up for the free online conference. Here are the details.

• Date: March 15, 2012
• Time: 1pm – 4pm EST
• Speakers: Andy Stanley, Perry Noble, Louie Giglio, Dr. Charles Stanley, Vanable Moody, Jeff Foxworthy. The event is being hosted by Jeff Henderson.
• Registration: Free sign up at preachbettersermons.com

Leadership Lessons From Moneyball

 

Valerie & I watched Moneyball last night. I was shocked that I got her to watch a baseball movie. A big thanks to the rugged good looks of Jonah Hill & that other guy, I think his name is Pitt, are probably in order for getting her to buy in. After all, it's not just a movie about baseball; it's a movie about the business end of baseball. I'm sure it sounded like a riveting topic to my wife who has never seen the baseball classic, The Natural & maybe not even Field of Dreams.

First off , it's a great movie. Great writing, great pace, & Jonah Hill actually does deserve the Best Supporting Actor nomination that he received. It probably won't win Best Picture & Brad Pitt probably won't get the Best Actor nod, but I'm just glad a movie with such mainstream success got attention at the Oscars. Usually it's just a bunch of odd ball flicks like The Artist that get all the attention.

After processing the movie, I was hit by some huge leadership lessons that jump out of this story of how Billy Beane built a winning baseball team with misfits, cast-offs, & nobodies.

1) What Has Always Worked Might Not Work In Your Current Context.
A business as usual approach to that Oakland A's team would have resulted in a mess, but turning the baseball world on its ear resulted in a division championship. It also laid a pattern for the Boston Red Sox to follow as they built their World Series team of just a few years later. What has always been done in your field might not work in your particular circumstances, & what you've always done might not be what you need to do in the specific context you might find yourself in.

2) The Guardians Of The Status Quo Are Ruthless & Powerful.
Billy Beane paid a pretty high price for what he did. His scouts thought he was insane. His manager was less than supportive, & the baseball world viewed him as a heretic...until they started winning. Then Billy Beane was a genius...until they lost. Then it was back to saying, "See I told you that wouldn't work." If there is something you have to change, be prepared to be wounded. Jonah Hill's character, Peter Brand, told Beane, "The first one through the wall gets the bloodiest."

3) Vision Must Be Cast & Re-Cast.
Leaders know this, but it's easy to get sidetracked by tasks. The result is that we & those we lead begin to lose focus on the ultimate goal. In the movie, the team doesn't really begin to take shape & fulfill their potential until Beane & Brand are shown meeting with players explaining what they are trying to do & how each player fits into the team.

4) Know The REAL Problem You're Trying To Solve
There is a great scene where Beane is sitting around the table with his scouts looking at the overwhelming task that faced them following the 2001 season. The scouts perceived the problem as one of simply replacing the player(s) they would lose in the off season. It's the same problem scouts & GMs have had to face every year. However, Billy Beane understood it wasn't that simple. They couldn't replace the guys they were losing because they couldn't afford to keep them, so how could they go sign someone to "replace" him. Beane understood that the real problem was that the baseball business system was inherently unfair. Therefore, they had to adapt or die. What is the real problem you & your ministry or organization are trying to solve? Don't spend your time focused on a symptom of the bigger issue.

Moneyball is a great movie. It's entertaining, funny, & really insightful. There's a little bit of language in it, but for a PG-13 movie, it's actually light on questionable content. It was really interesting to watch the movie & actually remember the events on which it's based. I'd recommend it to everybody.

Lessons From Walls

For the last few weeks, our church has been going through the series "Walls", which looks at the story of Nehemiah in the Old Testament. Whenever we do a straightforward book study, I try to also read along on my own in order to not only try to keep up & anticipate where our pastor is headed with the series but to also hear the things from God that He wants me personally to get during the series. Now Nehemiah is easily one of my favorite books in the entire Bible, so narrowing all the good stuff in there down to a handful of nice, concise lessons is really hard for me, but here goes.

1) You Don't Have To Have A Pedigree To Lead A Great Movement Of God.
Nehemiah was a cup bearer, not a prophet, not a priest, not a teacher, yet God used Him greatly.

2) Once God Gives You A Burden, Pray & Plan
Nehemiah HAD to get back to Jerusalem but it seemed impossible, so he prayed, he planned, & when the opportunity came to present it to the king he was ready & God blessed it.

3) You Need Others To Accomplish The Mission God's Called You To
Nehemiah had a burden & a call, but it wasn't one that he could pull off alone. God always calls us to something that requires Him & His people in order to fulfill it.
4) You'll Need Extreme Focus In The Face Of Opposition
Nehemiah faced almost constant opposition. Whether they were simply degrading Nehemiah & the people or actually plotting to take Nehemiah down, enemies were around. Who your enemies & opponents are will tell others almost as much as who your friends are.

5) Doing Something That Lasts Must Include A Commitment To God's Word
Immediately after rebuilding the walls, the people were pointed back to God's word. While they had accomplished a huge project, the real project, the rebuilding of their fellowship with God, was at risk. Even with rebuild walls, the people could have easily fallen back into the sin that led to their exile & the destruction of the city. Real change comes from the transforming power of God's word at work in us. Make sure that your mission is rooted in God's bigger purpose revealed in His word.

Whine, Whine, Whine

The other day our pastor was preaching from Philippians 2 & the idea of "working out" our salvation & faith in Jesus Christ. The point of the message was that God has done a work in us, but we have a responsibility to work what God has done in us out through our life. As I was looking at this passage, I was struck by the fact that immediately following this instruction to "work out our faith" is the command, "Do everything without complaining or arguing..."

Could it be that our level of complaining & arguing & what we choose to whine & complain about is an indicator of how spiritual growth & maturity? After all, Paul goes on to say that the result of cutting out the whining & complaining is that we become "blameless & pure" & that we "shine like stars in the universe."

So why is this important? How does this really have any impact on our spiritual maturity? Here are a couple of my thoughts:

1) Whining, Complaining, & Arguing Is Usually An Indicator Of Selfishness
Sure, there are times when speaking up & pointing out something is not only right, it's necessary. However, my own experience & the experience of some people I recently talked to about this is that we complain about mostly meaningless stuff that our complaining won't change anyway. We just don't like it, so we let everyone know we don't like it. What that communicates is that everything is about what we want, & that's selfish. And I'm pretty sure that selfishness is the antithesis of Christ-likeness. So if we're known as a whiner or complainer, there's a good chance we are not growing in our faith.

2) It's Just A Waste Of Energy
Think about it, of all the things that you & I have ever whined & complained about, how often did we really end up getting our way? Everybody I've asked that questions to said they couldn't really remember a single instance where incessant complaining got them what they wanted. That tells me one of two things. First, what we put so much time & energy into complaining about was so insignificant that we don't even remember our "victory" when we got what we wanted. Secondly, our whining doesn't really work, & eventually we have to just learn to live with a situation or decision we're not crazy about. Why not put our energy into learning to live with it on the front end? After all, weeks, months, & years from now we won't remember it because it wasn't really that significant, & there's a good chance we're going to have to learn to live with it anyway. Why waste the time & energy? As believers we've been called to an urgent mission to advance the Kingdom. We need to make sure that when we speak up against something that it doesn't end up distracting us from that mission.

So maybe Paul was actually on to something. Maybe our willingness to let things go & a willingness to not always have to have our way is a major mark of growth as a follower of Jesus. And as a result, we are used by God to shine like stars in the middle of the darkest darkness imaginable.