Creating the Hook
So, how do we create this hook in five minutes? Let’s take a tip from my good man Blaise Pascal. Pascal was a brilliant 17th-century mathematician who invented the vacuum cleaner, the first working computer and Oxiclean (as seen on TV). He later had a born-again experience and gave up his contributions to every other field to pursue Christian apologetics.
Here’s what Pascal says in his brilliant work Pensees about the five-minute rule: “Men despise religion. They hate it and are afraid it may be true. The cure for this is first (1) to show that religion is not contrary to reason but worthy of reverence and respect.”
Now by that Pascal doesn’t mean the first task is to show the reasoning for Christianity (that’s actually step 3). What he means is that the first task of an apologist is to show that Christianity is not against common reason. How? According to Pascal, this was done by showing that Christianity shares the concerns of the world. This is, in fact, how Pensees begins—and it’s what makes it such a brilliant apologetic for the faith.
So, taking our cue from Pascal, what must we accomplish in the first five minutes of our sermon?
We need to demonstrate that Christianity shares the concerns of the world. In fact, we need to articulate the concerns of the world in such a compelling way that everyone seated in the room says, “Yes. THAT’S my life. I need to listen to this. Preach on, preacher.”
And when that happens, the monkeys are on the ship. It’s time for launch.
The Space Monkey Dance
Now—how does one do this? Well the more I teach, the less prescriptive I’m inclined to be, but here are some thoughts on general do’s and don’ts:
1. Don’t begin your sermon with exegetical background or context. Now admittedly, some preachers with extraordinary storytelling gifts may be able to get away with this, if they tell the story in a way that is so real it resonates deeply with our own concerns. But most, frankly, don’t have this capacity.
2. Don’t begin a sermon by illustrating your main point. I’ve been guilty of this a few times, but it’s been a mistake every time. It’s the equivalent of giving your own spoiler 30 seconds into the film … and we haven’t even been given the chance to care whether it’s spoiled.
3. Don’t begin with something irrelevant. It would hardly seem this needs to be said, but it does: Your introduction is making a promise. Yes, a promise: You are bringing up a need, and in doing so, you are eliciting our trust to listen to you for the next 30-40 minutes. If you don’t deliver the solution to that problem, you’ve lost credibility. Your introduction needs to be painted all over your sermon, communicating, in essence: “See? I told you we would talk about this. We’re talking about it. That’s what this is about.” We’re chimps, OK?
This is of course not a comprehensive list of mistakes. But moving on. Things to do:
1. Tell a story. Think Nathan the prophet. A story is simply the most effective way to show every dimension of the problem your text is addressing: emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, relational, etc.
2. Use the words of others. Taking a cue from Tim Keller, the best way to show you empathize with the world’s situation is simply to repeat what it says about itself. Rather than saying: “You know how corrupt our world is (we don’t, see Romans 1),” you might say, “According to (insert author, artist, singer, professional your community respects), this is a major problem we are facing today.”
