How to Write a Message: Part 2

If you’ve taught in front of a room of junior high or high school students, you know that great content and a great delivery is only part of what makes a great message. The reality is there are several things that can be “added on” to a message that will help it be best received by your audience.

We’ve listed a few things we try to employ on a regular basis as we think through our lessons. NOTE: Much of this takes some time and thinking ahead; if you prepare your lessons in your car while driving to church, these ideas probably won’t be of much use!

These are not about personal style, but rather tools in your tool belt to connect the audience to the message. Here’s 6 ways to connect with your audience:

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Humor
One of the universal languages of humanity is laughter. Laughter breaks down barriers and disarms people to accept truth. The highs of laughter make the serious points that much more compelling. We all enjoy listening to people who can make us laugh but cram truth down our throat at the same time. Use humor in some form every week – you don’t have to be a stand-up comedian, just smile and say something a little humorous once in a while!

Call to Action
A great way to connect with your audience is to call them to something much bigger than they dreamed possible. Show them what could be, take them places they didn’t know they should care about. Dare to challenge students to live a different life with a practical action step connected to the lesson.

Authenticity
Find ways to inject yourself into your talk to demonstrate the journey of following Christ. Unpack your life with your learnings, struggles and flaws. Show that you are human and not always the hero. Failure stories always win. I (Kurt) have a zillion failure stories. Josh is pretty much a super human and has a tougher time coming up with failures to share!

Object Lessons
Several of my (Josh) favorite moments of the “talk” recently hasn’t been the talk at all. Illustrations or object lessons can help connect your students to a particular concept more easily. A while back ago we talked about the debt we owe Christ by dropping $100 in nickels on the floor - a compelling image of forgiveness of our debt through Jesus. A few weeks before that we had a little water dropper to show the world’s love, and a pitcher to show God’s overflowing love for us and a challenge to settle for nothing less. Use images like this to memorably connect.

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Using Multiple Senses
I (Josh) heard about a youth pastor who cooked carne asada during his whole message – filling the room with the delightful smell. I’m assuming the talk was about Heaven since that is what it must smell like! Don’t let students just hear you for a half an hour - engage more than the ears. If you’re talking about an upcoming mission trip, have them sample food from the country you’ll be heading to this summer. If the story is of Jesus in the desert, turn up the heat in the room. OK, don’t be lame, but think about ways to connect more than the ears to the message.

Testimony
Students will never pay better attention then when a student is speaking on stage. Just this weekend we had a super powerful testimony of an 18-year old atheist turned Christ-follower. Use a testimony to show a next step and/or the benefit of choosing the way God asks us to live – I bet it will connect.

Share a few ways that you relate to your audience and keep them engaged, too!