Principles of Effective Communication

Over the next few weeks I’m going to share some aspects of what I have taught in preaching classes and included in the textbook I wrote called A Primer On Biblical Preaching. If you are a Liberty Theological Seminary student, you may recognize it as the Homiletics textbook. These principles are beneficial to anyone who has to speak for a living. Of course this applies to ministers but should also prove beneficial to teachers, business leaders, and anyone else who has to stand up in front of a crowd and say something constructive.

One principle I stress repeatedly is the necessity of preparation. I do not believe anyone can be over-prepared before they speak. Besides being the antidote to fear (in speaking, the less prepared you are the greater your stress and fear), preparation is also the pathway to excellence. (I wrote some more thoughts on preparation here.) Why anyone would settle for mediocrity when they can strive for excellence escapes me.

Preparation for a preacher or public speaker comes in two packages, the macro and the micro. The macro package is how we plan for the year. I encourage my students to plan their preaching a year at a time. When I was a senior pastor, I would plan my January sermons in September or October so we knew ahead of time where we were going. Then, I would take a week some time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s to plan out the rest of the upcoming year's messages. In preparation for that planning week, I would keep a file folder of interesting articles or notes that I accumulated over the year. If it was interesting, I would save it in my file. Sometimes I would shoot or scan something of interest on my smartphone. Do not be afraid to tear out articles from magazines or newspapers. Evernote is a fantastic tool for this. I would also keep a notebook of observations and insights that I would consult. In my planning week, I would take my calendar, determine how many weeks I would have for a series, then schedule a new sermon series beginning on major breaks.

In my planning week, I would mark resources that I knew I would need in next year's preparation. For example, all New Testament sermons would have a photocopy of the Greek text, AT Robertson's Word Studies for that text, and Reinecker's commentary on the Greek text. Coupled with that were a few select commentaries and any articles I considered helpful.

I would create a file folder for each sermon I intended to preach in the upcoming year. Each would be labeled with the date, series title, sermon title, and the text. By the first of the year, I would have a complete set of files for the entire calendar year. By doing this, I would work smarter, not harder. By taking this approach, I would have better series, better sermons, and better services.

Please be reminded that it is easier to deviate from a plan than to have no plan. Even with a plan, you can be flexible when necessary.

This is a snapshot of my macro approach to preaching. If you will incorporate a model like this, you can save time and preach more effective sermons. Next week, I will address the micro package. What can you do on a week by week basis to be more effective?