Understanding your People
As a preacher you have to understand the message you have been given and the people you are speaking to. One person put it like this: Imagine you are in room, you need to spend time in all four corners of the room:
- In the first corner is the text: What does it mean? How did it get its message across? Why does it matter?
- In the next corner is you: How will this be lived out? How does it change you?
- In the third corner is the people you are talking to: Who are they and what do they need? What does the passage have to say to them?
- In the final corner is the world: How does the passage resonant or create dissonance with the society we are in?
Of these four, the last two are the ones I struggle with the most. So, here are some questions that might help understand 3, our people. These come from Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte. She is writing for a corporate setting and the principles of presentation and preaching are so close.
- What are the like? There is no substitute for knowing your people personally.
- Why are they here? What are they expecting you to do, and what do they expect to get out of this? (Sadly I suspect many people expect 30 mins of boredom rather than hearing God, Himself speak through a preacher).
- What keeps them up at night? What is their fear? This is often different to what should keep them up at night.
- How can you solve their problem? How can you, pointing to Jesus, help them deal with their fear? How does the Gospel change things?
- What do you want them to do? What’s the takeaway, what’s the point of what you are saying?
- How might they resist? What will or can stop them from doing what you are asking?
- How can you best reach them? What is the best way of delivering this information? Inspiring with stories or stats? Challenging with points or repentance?
These are not the only questions you can ask, but they are a good set of questions to help us focus the point so we are producing great disciples for Jesus. What questions do you ask?
Pete Hughes
Pete is the pastor of SOMA church, a community of Jesus-loving-people who've been transformed by understanding him, that meets in the Macquarie Centre, North Ryde in NSW. Click here to visit Pete Hughe's blog