Boring Begone!

The 7 Secrets of Church Communication that Works               

Boring Begone!

by William Cowles

Preachers, do you ever wonder why people check their sports apps and glance at their watches right when you’re revealing your most important theological insight? Ministry leaders and communicators, do you often wonder why people don’t respond to the requests, invitations, and change notices you send out?

There must be something wrong with them! Right?

Probably not, and let’s not sugarcoat it – they’re simply bored. Nobody intends to bore their audience, but it happens to the best of us.  Is there a cure? A preventive formula that insures every word is a sparkling, magnetic inspiration? Again, probably not.

There are, however, five tools you can use in your communication planning that will give you the best chance of capturing your audience’s attention and interest, holding it through the end of your message, and inspiring them to the action you want!

Our tools are light and easy to use, so hike up your communicator coveralls and get to work on your next incredible message. (We won’t take the space or time to lay out a bunch of examples here, but will create that resource and post it on our Website soon. Yes, we’ll let you know when and where.)

So here are the tools…

1.       Humor – A lighter approach is always easier to swallow. Laughter releases positive juju that encourages people to stick with you longer. One joke at the beginning will not do it. Humor is not joke-telling; it’s an attitude and a style. It's about putting people at ease in ways that they can see and laugh at themselves in a situation that has an odd twist or turn.

2.       Surprise –Everything I’ve said so far, by the way, is a lie. Uh-oh, did you expect me to say that? Did you think I’d deliberately try to deceive you, and now you’re shocked that I’ve turned on you? Good. That’s the idea. Use an unexpected story or reference that re-initializes the listener’s/reader’s antennae. Take a left turn when the road goes right. Jump up -- literally – when everyone thinks you’re starting to climb down. You’ll be surprised at how quickly you can re-ignite interest and attention with a simple surprise.

3.      Stories – What do you most remember from the Bible? Noah and the ark? Jonah and the whale? The prodigal son? Whatever your best memory, chances are that it caught your favor because it was a story. Parables, the theologians call them. Your audiences/readers won’t care what you call them as long as you use them. And, whenever you can put yourself in the story, the more interested your readers/listeners will be. This, by the way, is a great lead-off device.

4.      Variety – People learn best – they listen/read best – in small chunks. Sound bites. 140-character tweets. When you change the pace and tone of your writing or speaking, people will pay closer attention because you’ve made the effort easier. Show a picture. Cite statistics. Just break down your communication bites into easily digestible portions.

5.      Secrets – Let your listeners/readers in on something you discovered or that you’re going to share before the rest of the world gets it. People love to peek behind the curtain, so feed them some insider information – this kind is not only legal, it’s also highly communicable. You know the power of gossip -- people will spread a secret faster than a Facebook post. So give them good secrets to share.

Breaking boredom is not as hard as Breaking Bad, but it does take some effort. Take a long look at your next sermon script, newsletter story, event flyer, worship bulletin, or social media post. Where can you use some humor, a surprise, a story, variety, and a tasty little secret to draw your listeners/readers into your message? Don’t settle for boring; they won’t.