5. You haven’t crafted your words well enough to make them memorable
I spoke to a couple a few weeks ago about a series I preached four years ago.
They’re in their 20s, so that’s almost one fifth of their life in the past.
They quoted the bottom line of that series to me and asked me to use it again at their wedding.
The bottom line was simply this: Like is an emotion. Love is a decision.
It’s hard to believe someone remembers something you said four years earlier, but it happens.
They then told me they want their life together to be built on a decision to love each other, not an emotion they’re feeling. What’s so powerful to me as a pastor is that single line contained the direction for an entire six-part series whose ideas they were able to recall. (If you’re wondering, that isn’t available online right now. It might be again soon.)
The power of carefully crafted phrases is that they’re memorable, and memorable phrases keep going to work years after you’ve finished speaking them.
How do you craft memorable phrases? I outline the process here.
6. You don’t personally own the message
There was a season when cool church was enough.
But people are tired of slick. They’re suspicious of polish.
In many ways, authentic is the new cool.
One of the keys to authenticity is personally owning everything you say. People want to know you believe what you’re saying.
In a world of spin where so much is sold, people are looking for real.
Be real.
When you own the message—when it comes from the core of who you are—it resonates.
So own your message.
That means you’ve processed it deeply enough that it has become part of who you are, not just something you say.
7. You’re relying too heavily on your notes
In public speaking, people won’t believe you own the message if you’re reading it.
It comes across as a press release. Or a statement someone else prepared. Or something you think they should believe, but you don’t believe yourself.
I know that’s tough for people who are tied to manuscripts.
Please hear me: Reading from your notes doesn’t mean you’re insincere, it just means people often think you are.
So is there help? You bet.
If you want to learn how to free yourself from speaking with notes, I shared a five-step method on how to do that here. It’s exactly how I got freed up from my notes.
Want the heart of it?
It’s this: Don’t memorize your talk. Understand it.
You don’t memorize your conversations before you have them because you understand them.
So understand your next talk.
You can always talk about things you understand.
Want More?
Personally, my go-to resource for learning how to improve my preaching has become Preaching Rocket (affiliate link). I have learned so much from Jeff Henderson and the team there over the years.
If you want to sample Preaching Rocket for free, you can check out their seven day free trial offer here.
In the meantime, let’s share some learning. What are some other things you’ve seen that lose an audience?
