“I think when people come to church
they sit there with clickers in their heads.
They turn you on or they’ll turn you off.
People will decide in the first 30 seconds if you’re going to be
interesting or boring. That’s why an introduction today carries
such important weight.”
—Haddon Robinson—

If you were around in the ’70s, I’m sure you’ll remember these lyrics to the introductory theme song of one of television’s mostwatched sitcoms (situation comedies):

Sunday, Monday, Happy Days.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days.
Thursday, Friday, Happy Days.
Saturday, what a day,
Groovin’ all week with you…²⁵

You may have noticed that since Happy Days first went to air in 1974, a lot has changed in the way television programs are introduced.  Back then, whether it was The Brady Bunch, Gilligan’s Island, Welcome Back Kotter or Little House on the Prairie, a show would begin with its theme music, photos of the cast and the names of the producer, director and writers. Today, whether you’re watching Law & Order SVU or a rerun of Friends, the action begins immediately. No intro theme music, no cast photos, no credits—just action, right off the top. If you miss the introduction, you’ll miss the murder they’re trying to solve or the situation they’re trying to deal with.

It’s only after the introduction to the plot that the theme music plays and the credits are shown. The same elements are still there, but the order has been reversed. First, they hook you with the “who done it” question, in the case of a Law & Order episode, then they segue into the show’s intro, followed by the first commercial break. Why? The answer is simple: to get your attention as quickly as possible so that you won’t click your remote and go off to watch some other program.

In fact, speaking of remotes, it was the remote control that forced TV producers to dramatically change the way they introduced television shows. Invented by a gentleman named Eugene Polley, born in Chicago, Illinois, it’s been said that he is the reason behind many of the large “behinds” these days, all because of his invention—the television remote control. If you were around during those pre-TV remote days, do you remember what it was like to change TV channels? You likely did one of two things. You either sat through what you were watching even though you didn’t like it. Why? Because the truth is you were too lazy to get up, walk over to the TV set and rotate the TV dial clockwise, while you stood there searching for something worthwhile to watch. Or, if someone was in the room with you, you begged and pleaded with them to get up and change the channel for you.

That all changed the minute remote controls came on the scene. You now had a choice to switch TV channels instantly while comfortably sitting in your favorite recliner. This caused TV producers to step back and rethink how they introduced television shows because they couldn’t afford losing your eye balls to another channel’s program.  Hence, the new format to introduce television shows was born. And this is why today, television producers work hard at making the introductions to their programs as compelling as possible to hook you as fast they can.

Have you noticed how movies begin these days? They no longer waste time identifying in big bold letters the main stars or the director, producer or screenwriter. You get all of that information at the end of the movie. At the beginning there is perhaps a quick flash of the movie’s title, if that, and then it’s action! Whether it’s a movie or television program, the same principle applies: introductions need to engage the audience immediately.

ATTENTION, INTEREST, NEED

On any given Sunday morning, you are trying to get and keep people’s attention. Ultimately, you’re trying to take their voluntary attention and turn it into involuntary attention,²⁶ to take the attention they give you because they have to, or are obligated to, and turn it into the attention they give you because they want to.

The truth is, capturing attention is difficult. The difficulty with focusing solely on attention is that it’s very short-lived:

This is the way attention works. It fades in and fades out. It flits from one stimulus to another, incessantly. We can give our primary focus to only one stimulus (or group of stimuli) at a time, and we can hold it there for only a few seconds; then it must shift. So attention is very transient and unstable, moving now to this, now to that, and now to something else. Every moment we are awake, we constantly and inevitably focus our attention upon one thing after another, either within ourselves or within our environment.²⁷

Haddon Robinson adds:

Social scientists say that when you’re driving a car, the focus of your attention can change as much as 200 times a minute. In fact, even while sitting, listening to a speaker, the focus of one’s attention can change five to six times a minute. The reason for that is, a person can think five times faster than a person can speak. So there’s a lot of dead air that a speaker is not able to fill, which in turn makes attention a very fleeting thing.²⁸

Therefore, even though our desire as speakers is to get and keep people tuned in, we can’t concentrate just on getting their attention. We have to go deeper and aim at their interest. If we can touch a person’s interest, we can focus his attention because we tend to give our attention to things that we’re interested in.

“What is irrelevant, in my opinion,
is our style of communicating the Bible.
We tend to still use the style from 50 years back,
which doesn’t match who we’re trying to reach today.”
—Rick Warren—

Whether it’s the 6:00 evening news or one of the numerous daily talk shows, television is a very conversational and relational medium. Even the set designs, complete with coffee tables and couches, contribute to their laid-back conversational presentation. The guests drink coffee while they’re being interviewed, and the viewing audience listens in, feeling like they’re part of the chitchat. There may be millions of people watching a particular show, but each viewer feels as if he or she is the only one they’re speaking to, because television has mastered the art of getting personal with its audience.

I believe what drives television’s instant rapport with the audience is that they speak in a language the viewers understand and they do it in a conversational manner. In short, it’s all about what they say—their choice of words—and how they say it—their delivery—the what and the how.

WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE

When I first started attending church, I couldn’t understand a word the preacher was saying. It was as if he were speaking a secret code to only the few select fortunate people who understood it. There were more Sundays when I left church confused than Sundays when I actually got something out of the message.

THE KJV FAN CLUB

The first church I attended used the King James Version of the Bible exclusively. Everyone, including the pastor, truly believed that the KJV was the most accurate translation and that no other version came close. When I brought a different version with me because I couldn’t understand what was being read, let alone said, it was like breaking the 11th commandment.

Today, I use the New Living Translation because of the everyday common language that’s simple to understand. Check out the difference for yourself:

King James Version—Genesis 6:14-16:

¹⁴Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. ¹⁵And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. ¹⁶A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second and third stories shalt thou make it.

New Living Translation—Genesis 6:14-16:

¹⁴Make a boat from resinous wood and seal it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. ¹⁵Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. ¹⁶Construct an opening all the way around the boat, 18 inches below the roof. Then put three decks inside the boat—bottom, middle and upper—and put a door in the side.

King James Version—Philippians 4:6,7:

⁶Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. ⁷And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

New Living Translation—Philippians 4:6,7:

⁶Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. ⁷If you do this, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

In both cases you can get a solid grasp of what’s being said in the NLT passages with only one read-through, because it’s reader- and listener-friendly. But you may have to read the same verses in the KJV a few times to figure out all that’s being said. The NLT version translates outdated words like pitch and cubits into modern-day words like tar and feet, making it easy for people today to get a visual of what’s being said.

For eight years, I did monthly prison chapel services, and at first I would read from the New American Standard Version, a close cousin to the KJV. And every time I would look up after reading a portion of Bible text, the inmates had an I don’t understand what you just read look on their faces. When I switched to the NLT, their faces looked relaxed, their eyes were wide open, and they sat upright, which clearly communicated that they were tracking with me. Do your own experiment. During your family devotionals or in sharing something with a friend, read from the KJV, NKJV or NASB, and then read the same passage from the NLT, NIV, or the Good News Bible, and see what the reaction is. Without a doubt, they will prefer the more reader-friendly version that uses common everyday language. Why? Because that’s the language they themselves speak and are used to hearing every day. So why muddy the communication of God’s Word with a translation that’s difficult to understand?

With more than 11 million copies sold, The Message by Eugene Peterson has been one of the most popular Bible translations of recent years because of its effort to translate biblical language into contemporary American speech. Eugene says the way he preached shaped the way The Message came out.

I never thought of myself as a translator. I was always trying to translate—I was having this war between American culture and the Hebrew and New Testament cultures and wondering: how can I say this? If Isaiah had been in my pulpit how would he say this? That is what was going on in my head all the time.⁵⁹

“If a message does not have a single point,
then the preacher does not have a single sermon,
but three or four sermonettes.”
—Fred Craddock—

There is one communication principle that television never violates, whether it’s an hour-long documentary, a half-hour sitcom, a single news story or a 30-second commercial—one single idea governs whatever is produced. Those who work in television know that people can’t handle more than one main idea at a time. That’s why they always build their shows around one big idea. In fact, that’s how I was trained. Whether it was in my broadcast journalism writing classes or my advertising classes, the instruction was always the same—pick one central idea to govern the entire script.

Then, I went to seminary, where I was introduced to the world of outlines, Roman numerals and multiple points, all foreign to a media guy like me. I had to unlearn all that I had learned during my years of study in that field. And I found the same communication model being practiced at church. I would walk out of church on Sundays with a notepad full of points. So I started to do the same thing. I figured that’s just the way it’s done in the Church world. They all communicated with a bunch of nicely alliterated points, so I decided to copy that style.

That was until I read Biblical Preaching by Haddon Robinson. In the chapter entitled “What’s the Big Idea?” Haddon dispelled the notion that the multiple-point model should be the standard in the Church world. He said:

A sermon should be a bullet, not buckshot. Ideally, each sermon is the explanation, interpretation or application of a single dominant idea supported by other ideas, all drawn from one passage.⁸⁸

Basically, Haddon’s book showed me how to incorporate the one big idea message, which I had learned in studying how to write for radio and television, when communicating biblical messages. I immediately dropped the multiple-point model and went back to the way I was originally taught, which I knew in my heart to be much more listener-friendly. I completely agree with Bryan Chapell, who says that “it’s easier to catch a baseball than a hand full of sand, even though the two weigh about the same.” I decided I no longer wanted to throw sand at people, but rather a baseball they could catch, hold on to and keep as a souvenir. Therefore, this chapter is all about how to search and find the one big idea of a passage, ensuring that the main point is memorable and ringing all of the other subpoints around it. In short, it’s all about the power of one–one message, taken from one text, with one main idea.

WHY ONE POINT?

Andy Stanley, who strongly supports the one-point message, has this to say about the multiple-point approach:

A problem with this [multiple point] approach is that by the time you get to your last point, nobody remembers the first three [assuming there were four points to the sermon]. Whatever impact they might have made is washed away by the information and illustrations that follow. On a good day, it is that last point that usually sticks. And that’s assuming it was stated in a way that made it memorable.

The other problem with preaching points is that it doesn’t reflect the world we live in. We don’t live our lives by points. We live by our emotions. We respond to what we see, taste and feel. So there’s no compelling reason to remember a list of points. They never come in handy. For anything. Even the preacher giving the points knows this. That’s why he or she has to refer to their notes. They haven’t even bothered to memorize their own points. How ironic. Our points flow from our notes to the listeners’ notebooks, assuming they bothered to bring them. In most cases, our allusive, alluring, alliterated points move from our notes to our lips into thin air and then back into our files. Seems a bit pointless.⁸⁹

Your one-point messages will have more impact on your audience than any multiple-point message you will ever share with them. Suppose you have two or even four things you want your audience to know. You now have a two- or four-part series. I’ll clarify how to deal with subpoints later in this chapter.

THE HOOK

The following is a list of ten of the most popular songs from the last fifty-plus years.

• “Born in the USA”—Bruce Springsteen
• “Celebrate”—Kool and The Gang
• “Hound Dog”—Elvis Presley
• “I Want to Hold Your Hand”—The Beatles
• “I Will Always Love You”—Whitney Houston
• “Satisfaction”—The Rolling Stones
• “Stayin’ Alive”—The Bee Gees
• “We Are The Champions”—Queen
• “We Are The World”—Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie
• “YMCA”—The Village People

What makes these songs so memorable? I think you would agree that it’s the hook of each song. In fact, the hooks have turned some of these songs into anthems of our culture. Record producers work to make the hook of a song as toe-tapping and catchy as they can. And that’s the way I want you to think of the one-point message. Think of your one main idea as if it were the hook of a song. Have you ever noticed what record producers do with a hook to make it stand out? They keep it:

• short;
• simple;
• memorable; and they
• repeat it often.