stanley

My grandpa used to say that a driver’s job is getting passengers to their destination as comfortably as possible. You won't be surprised to learn he was not a taxi driver. There’s a big difference between riding with someone who knows where they’re going and someone driving like a tourist. The first scenario is a pleasant riding experience, but the second might have your body cascading throughout the vehicle as your driver makes abrupt stops and turns.

Andy Stanley compares communication with truck driving to illustrate the difference between a preacher who uses an outline and a preacher who uses a road map.* Outlines help speakers organize their thoughts, but each thought is a different idea related to the same topic. The “three points and an application” approach to preaching relies heavily on an outline. Stanley offers this outline as an example: “God wants a man to (1) love his wife (2) lead his wife (3) learn from his wife… but never ever… (4) leave his wife.” Each point is related to the topic, but unrelated to each other. The problem with this approach is that listeners don’t know what’s coming next and they miss the how one statement is connected to another.

A road map is different—it leads a preacher from their starting point to one clear destination. This method offers a simple way to introduce, support, and apply a teaching point. Essentially, the map provides speakers with the best route to their endpoint. Here’s how it works:

ME (orientation) - begin with a dilemma or problem that you are facing. 
Key question: What am I talking about? (Remember to focus on one topic that will lead to one point.)

WE (identification) - develop common ground with your audience around the same or similar dilemma.
Key question: How does this dilemma relate to each person who will be listening?

GOD (illumination) - respond to the dilemma by transitioning to the biblical text and uncovering your main point (read about how to develop a main paint here).
Key questions: How does this text relate to the dilemma? How does the main point of this passage provide a helpful alternative?

YOU (application) - challenge your audience to act on what they’ve just heard.
Key question: what step do I want my audience to take?

In my last blog, I explained the three approaches of communicating the Bible that Andy Stanley outlines in his book, Communicating for a Change. Instead of teaching the Bible to people or teaching people the Bible, Stanley is an advocate of teaching people how to live a life that reflects the values, principles, and truths of the Bible.

This objective will change how you develop your message because your goal is no longer transferring information but helping people reach a destination (Stanley compares a speaker and their audience with a truck driver taking passengers on a ride). The journey is valuable, but its main purpose to guide listeners to the final destination that a speaker has in mind. The fastest (and often easiest) way to get from one point to another is a straight line. So instead of crafting multiple points and driving people through a series of S-curves, Stanley urges speakers to pick one point and stick with it.

All of us have sat and listened to speakers who crammed too many messages into a single talk. It’s hard to follow in the moment and it’s nearly impossible to remember days later. But what’s worse is that messages like these rarely change our lives.

The messages that have stuck with me the longest are ones that were simple and action-oriented. The point was clear and the application was specific. If you don’t have a central point that you can repeat multiple times, you won’t have a message that will stick with your listeners. Your point doesn’t need to rhyme, but it should be short and memorable. Here are some examples that I've used in past sermons:

• A hardened heart is slow to listen.
• Giants aren’t always what they seem.
• What God has joined together should stay together.
• No excuse is a valid excuse for disobeying. 

It takes me a while to craft a finely-tuned point, but this short phrase is what ultimately defines my roadmap. I typically don’t establish my point until I’m at least halfway through my preparation. This means that I already have several pages of scripted content and ideas that I’m sifting through. My point helps me determine what to keep and what to delete. It can be frustrating to cut good content that I’ve already spent hours developing, but in the end, I believe this makes my message stronger.