Communicating Your Message, Part 3
By Dan Reiland                 

Since I told a story on Kevin Myers in the last article, it's only fair for me to tell one on myself. This happened some time ago on a Sunday morning at Skyline Church near San Diego, California. I was on deck to preach on Sunday morning. I was both excited and ready for bear. I stood and did exactly what I watched John Maxwell do hundreds of times--I said exactly what he always said: "Open your Bibles please to..." and then gave the passage. So far so good. Confident, poised, prepared, and apparently stupid, I read the wrong Scripture. Not just a few words, either, but verse after verse with extraordinary "thus saith the Lord” confidence. I did wonder why the congregation stared back at me as if I had something green hanging out of my teeth. They kept looking around and looking at each other’s Bibles. The truly sad part is that I never figured it out. I delivered an entire message based on a text that had nothing to do with that topic. Talk about a green communicator! Needless to say, that was embarrassing.

I'm using this story (there were many to choose from) to illustrate a point I want to make before I begin the main theme of this article: that is, the long argued controversy over content versus delivery.

I remember with fondness the passionate discussions in seminary on the content versus delivery debate. While those talks served as stimulating conversations, we were obviously inexperienced communicators. My fellow students who wanted to remain safe dug in with the notion that it's not either/or--both are important. Well, of course both are important, Mr. Politician. They are critically important. But the question was, "If you must choose, which one is more important?"

Delivery is more important. If my wife Patti sends me to the grocery store to buy a dozen eggs, and I bring them home all broken, the delivery has ruined the content. No matter how extra-large grade AA the eggs were, they are now useless.

The message I referred to in my opening story was a strong and well-written sermon, but I messed things up so badly at the beginning that the message was spoiled by my poor delivery. The only thing remembered today is that a young pastor needed to work on how to read the right Scripture.

The Holy Spirit is the master-deliverer who can take our broken eggs and deliver them perfectly. However, that doesn't mean we can lessen the priority of delivering each message as if it were your last.

This article is written with the hope of helping you deliver God's Truth in the best way possible. The following "five h's" will serve you well in designing, delivering, and evaluating your messages.

1. Heart.

Heart is about connection. It's about being real. It's about the authenticity of a real message for real people. When you reveal your humanity, people are able to connect with you. When they can connect with you, they will begin to trust you. It is only when they trust you that they are then able to hear what you have to say and begin to translate that to life change. In short, if they don't think your message has first changed your life, they are not interested in it changing theirs. This does not elevate you above the truth of the Gospel and certainly not above Christ Himself, but it does communicate the importance of you as the messenger being real.

Connection is best accomplished through storytelling. You don't have to be a master storyteller to get the job done. You must simply be honest, think your story through (don't wing it), know why you are telling it and what point of life change you want to land. Heart will always win over cleverness and even creativity.

Heart is also about caring. When you genuinely care about the people you communicate with, it will show. You can't fake this, at least not for sustained periods of time. Live your life in and out of the pulpit in such a way that people know you care.

2. Humility.

Humility deals with several important issues. At the core of it all is conquering pride. People are turned off by egotistical and arrogant communicators. This is more often a subtle expression than a flagrant violation. Pride may find expression through a slightly superior tone, or ever so subtle hint that you are above the listeners in some way.

I don't want to sound preachy, but you must ask the tough question about your communication: Are you more concerned about doing a good job and what the people will think of you and your message or are you more concerned about the people and how their lives are impacted?

This is difficult to fully conquer but easy to discern your progress. I'm not suggesting that I have fully conquered this issue, but I have made substantial progress. Let me illustrate. Twenty years ago it was all about me. I would ask my wife Patti, not once but ten times, "Did I do a good job?" And of course there was only one answer I wanted to hear. And I wanted all the details of why I was such a wonderful communicator. The issue is not how great you are, but how great God is.

Let's take this issue of humility a little further. You may be a gifted communicator, but if you are tempted to teach on your own power, you are flirting with grave danger. Christ expects you to be fully dependent upon Him and His power, and He longs to grant it to you. But if you live in such a way, even subtly, that suggests you can handle it on your own, He will remove His anointing from you.

3. Help.

Help is the practical element of your communication that offers the listener useful takeaway truth in principle form that can be applied immediately. Test every message and make sure that you package the Word of God in such a way that your congregation can wrap their heads and hearts around God's truth in practice.

This doesn't necessarily have to be a "how-to" section in every message and it certainly doesn't have to be 27 points. Candidly, the best messages have one big thought broken down into a few clear sub-thoughts and that's it. The entirety of the message is then dedicated to a partnership of good communication skills, strong content, and the power of the Holy Spirit. The combination of all three is the catalytic formula for life change.

4. Humor.

In part two of this series on communication, I got us started on this topic of humor under the heading of Cheerfulness.

"Church leader, no one wants to listen to a serious stick in the mud. You may be Godly and smart, but if you are dull and depressing, people will miss the richness of the truth of God. Take God seriously, but don't take yourself too seriously because no one else does. Lighten up. It will help your communication immensely."

The use of humor to a good communicator is much like timing to an accomplished musician. A pianist may know music theory and the right notes to play, but without artful timing it sounds like a mechanically memorized and uninspiring piece of music. The same is true for a communicator. He or she may have strong content and even know the goal, but without humor to allow the message to breathe, it's like pancakes without syrup...hard to swallow.

"Remember, people need to laugh. It's important to their soul and even their physical body. People need to see the joy of the spirit alive in you and your messages, as well as in the life of the congregation. Life is often tough, and humor is medicine for the soul."

5. Hope.

Hope is the anchor to every message you deliver. It is not the positive mental attitude mantra that presents false ideas to your listeners, nor is it the abandonment of self-responsibility that says, "God will take care of everything."

At the core of the message of hope is the partnership between God and the believer that says: "God will do for you what you cannot do for yourself." Hope rightly delivered is about the relationship between the people and God. It's about how He loves them and wants the best for them. As a loving Father would do anything for his kids, so would God for His "kids." But even a loving Father places expectations and responsibility on his kids based on their level of maturity.

God expects much from us, but throughout our lives we encounter moments and seasons where we truly can't handle what life has thrown our way without His divine intervention. This is the hope that we are given while here on earth, and the ultimate hope for eternal life with God in Heaven. God through Christ will intervene. Hope connects living on purpose in the now and living for eternity with God. Hope is oxygen to the soul. Deliver it in generous quantities.

I encourage you to use the 5 H's to help you design your messages and also to help you evaluate your messages after you give them. You might use a simple tool like the following:

This article is used by permission from Dr. Dan Reiland's free monthly e-newsletter 'The Pastor's Coach' available at www.INJOY.com.