Attention Preachers!

I just finished reading Communicating For a Change by Andy Stanley — an excellent book on preaching/speaking and sermon prep. I’ve been preaching full-time for almost 13 years, and this book has changed the way I prepare and deliver my sermons (well, I should say that I am beginning to put the principles into practice — it won’t happen overnight).  This old dog is trying to learn some new tricks.
The basic premise is that we preachers put too many points in our sermons and try to cover too much ground. Stanley suggests that you focus your entire sermon on one point, and hammer that over and over again. The people listening to you are much more likely to remember what you said if you focus on one point than if you gave them 5 points (alliterated, of course). There is much more to it, but that’s a quick overview.

The first half of the book is just a story illustrating how one preacher learned the system. I found this section to be little more than filler — and you won’t miss anything if you skip it. But the second half of the book explains the process, and is very practical. I wish this book had been available when I was in college, or at least when I began preaching.

If you want to be more effective in your preaching and speaking, get this book.  I give it my highest recommendation.