Sermons: Moving people from where they are to where you want them

This is a secular talk on how to take people from where they are to where you want them to be.

TEDS is a series of “talks” on important subjects. The majority of these talks are really well presented, and well worked out. Although this talk is not about “sermons”, but about a presentation. This is a secular talk, but you can get some good information from it. If you take what he says and apply it to sermons, it can be helpful for our preaching. It is only 10 minutes, and well worth you time to watch it and think through it, and meditate on it. His principle is how to get people to understand your concepts you are presenting, and get them to practice your ideas. (See also a parallel talk, Taking your People Somewhere)

TEDxEMU – Gordon Kangas – Giving Presentations Worth Listening To

The idea of his talk is to get people to do what you want them to do through a talk. He looks at the how. You need to convince people to see your goal, and take it on themselves. The entire presentation needs to focus on this converting people to your goal. Getting them to do what your objective or goal is.

You are not there to be interesting. You are there to be effective.”

The point is that you are not talking to entertain, but rather you are talking to accomplish a spiritual task for the Lord. If you are focusing on being interesting instead of being effective, then you will accomplish nothing at the end of the day. This is a good point. What do your people remember at the end of the day from your sermon. If they remember nothing but that it was funny, you are not being effective for the Lord, but rather you serve Satan by “filling the religious gap”, “I feel like I have done something religious today”, but actually, you were just entertained.

Being effective is to get people to receive, understand, and “own” an idea. If they own it, they are implementing that idea in their own life.

Rule of 3: People love 3s. This is why the best sermons are only three points.

More Posts on Improving Preaching Issues

Pastor David Cox is a missionary. See my ministry updates here.