What is the ultimate goal of a sermon? The specific answers to this question could range broadly depending on the subject matter of the individual message, but the broad response should always be life-change in the direction of Jesus Christ.

As we continue to assist many churches with developing promotional materials that highlight upcoming messages, I have become increasingly fascinated with the process through which churches are luring their neighbors into their worship centers. An overwhelmingly common theme: churches are trying to bring the messages of the Gospels and testaments into a relevant space that offers real solutions to the obstacles of daily life.

The approaches to sending this message are not nearly as consistent. In the name of relevance, many churches use movie lingo and reailty television references in series themes to build bridges to popular culture. Others utilize catchy, one-word phrases and eroded visual textures to make the church seem ‘edgy’ and not quite so ‘religious.’ Many churches are swapping terminoligy like amen, halleluia, and almighty for yeah, you rock, and awesome respectively. Preaching is out, talking is in. Suits are hung in the closet as jeans and intentionally-ripped t-shirts are worn in their places.

If the point is humbly serving Jesus and helping people to connect with Him, than these methods can all be effective means. The difficulty facing the church going for relevance is that it is all too easy to be catchy and clever without having any real content. I have sat in on a meeting where I watched church leaders struggle to find five points of a sermon that start with the same letter, followed by a scrambled search for bible passages that relate to the points just crafted.

Some churches let their pendulum swing all the way towards clever marketing and lose sight of the substance. Perhaps you know someone in church leadership who schemes tirelessly about how to fill the seats. If this is the primary focus, I can offer a guarantee that the actual message and its applications and implications will be forgettable at best and heretical at worst. In a similar manner, if a pastor has a life-changing message ready to go but no one is prompted to hear it, all is just as lost.

As with so much of the Christian life, striking a balance is the solution. Church Graphics.org has outlined three broad, essential components of any church marketing campaign. As you work to balance the three elements, your messages will be substantive and there will be listening ears waiting to hear them.

I remember being taught to use a rod and reel by my mother, an avid recreational fisherwoman. To catch our would-be supper of flaky flounder from the bottom of the cove, we needed a hook, a line, and a sinker. I’d like to make the argument that in order to become fishers of men, we need to have the same three components present in our approach to church marketing.

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The Hook
Maybe a clever phrase, stunning image, catchy website, an element of curiosity, an irrisistable question, an invitation, an offer… It might be delivered in the form of a direct-mail piece or email blast, or maybe a true buzz approach – rippling through your community by word-of-mouth. A hook is the marketing campaign itself – something for the fish to nibble on. It is the very thing that will make someone look twice, garnish attention, engage the viewer. Without a hook, your message will go unnoticed. Hooks I’ve seen implemented by churches include coupons for free coffee and cookies, broad rhetorical questions with flourescent punctuation, clever visual imagery, even in some rare cases actual carnival rides for kids during the service.

A hook is not biblical, and it is not anti-biblical. There is nothing of substance in the actual hook, and often nothing of lasting value can be found in the hook itself. A hook is nothing more than a tool – an effective way to get someone’s attention. The reason for offering a hook is to engage. Without an engaging offer, opportunity, or question, there will be little result.

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The Line
A hook is nothing more a floating barb. It is only functional if it is attached to the solid ground by a line. For the sake of this marketing discussion, a line is the message itself – the life-changing truth that ultimatley will connect your neighbors to the love of Jesus. A guest of your church who grabbed onto the hook you cast will quickly swim away if there is no reason to stay. A church marketing campaign is only about getting people through the doorway, but once there it is important that the message given is a perfect balance of biblically true and applicaable to daily living.

Without a substantive and relevant message, a church is nothing, and it is a safe guess that most congregants attend these places out of a sense of guilt or obligation. A hook is an initial connection, but a life-changing, easily understood message will sustain as no hook ever could.

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The Sinker
A hook attached to a line washes around in the tide. Necessary is something of weight that allows the line to sink deeply and ground itself. We refer to the sinker as a point of application or implication. The sinker sends a message to the listener such as, “You’ve just heard the truth. What are you going to do about it?” Saying this is not enough. If you are talking about the importance of serving others, you need to create tangible opportunities on the calendar for people to serve others. If discussing the importance of accountability, there needs to be groups that listeners can readily join. If the message highlights the importance of married couples to spend time together, there needs to be occassional childcare options offered at the church so couples can spend a few hours together as recommended.

How many sermons have you heard in your lifetime? How many do you remember? Sinkers are the real-life provisions that make a message instantly and easily applicable. Make sure your message doesn’t get lost in a shuffle of old note sheets. Allow the message to sink in deeply by moving it outside of the walls of the worship service.

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Church Graphics.org consults with churches and non-profit organizations on the specific implementation of these ideas. If you have an upcoming series of messages, please contact us. We look forward to partnering with you and making sure this next series connects people to the message and inspires lasting life-change.

Exploring the Fine Lines of Making Sermons Memorable

In the course of my higher education, I have only bumbled through two biblical survey classes, which were at best a broad overview. My understaning of scripture largely derives from late night wrestling sessions with brief passages.

Recently, I have been hungry for the words of Jesus Christ, aiming to allow His teachings to infiltrate my heart without letting my preconceived musings about Christianity pollute their ability to form my life. Though I could never claim to be a theologan or even a scholar, I have been gathering an undeniable truth from reading His sermons and parables night after night:

The words of Jesus Christ are memorable.

Well of course, you say (and rightfully so)… After all, the passages we have are the centuries-old, unchanged accounts that have spoken to the very roots of our family trees. I certainly am not trying to break ground by saying so, but we do have to acknowledge that the words of Christ are at once relevant and timeless, simple and profound, pervasive and direct.

As pastors, you toil relentlessly in the word, crafting several minutes worth of oration week upon week. Undoubtedly the goals of Christ’s communication become the paradigm of your constructions, and your backspace button gets as much exercise as any of the other keys as you commit yourself to a masterpiece of oration that will stand indelible and strong in the minds of your parishoners.

Why then do most, if not all, congregants forget what you said as soon as the yeast rolls pop out of the oven to make their appearance at the Sunday dinner table?

It is upon me to note that I am a classic example of the average sermon consumer. My deficit of attentiveness combines with the hyper-stimulation of movies, ipods, and digitized radio that pop culture so readily offers, and I regularly become the quintissential thorn in the side of my pastors – checking out the bulletin announcements, musing about nearby lunch options, and even occasionally nodding off. If I were a pastor, I wouldn’t be able to stand people like me!

Each week, I work to wrap aesthetic shemes around pastors’ sermon series ideas, creating visual touchstones that are wallpapered onto screen presentations, bulletin covers, posters, banners, and even temporary tattoos. (Okay, I have never actually produced a sermon logo that was henna dyed onto anyones forearm.) Sometimes these promo pieces become banners on the web, paid ads on search engines, and blocks in the local newsprint. The promotions serve their purpose, and the parking lot begins to fill in time for the 10:30 a.m. service.

So let’s say that you are facing a pew-ful of 500 or so. You are confident that you hold the reference to the bible passage the Lord wants you to communicate, and you can feel the passion of the Holy Spirit begin to pulse in your veins as you prepare to be the voice through which the Lord communicates.

Problem – Already, Irma Gladys is fiddling with her Tic-Tacs, Big Joe is eying the fresh supply of female visitors, and Susie-Q has commenced with her tradition of penciling gossip for her friends to read onto the stock of tithe envelopes. What do you do?

You might have tried raising your voice and other scare tactics. Maybe you like to form your points into clever acrostics that spell S.A.L.V.A.T.I.O.N., or E.S.C.H.A.T.O.L.O.G.Y. Perhaps you are into one-word sermon titles that evoke adrenalized images like ‘DRIVE’, or ‘IGNITE.’ Maybe all six of your bullets start with the letter ‘F’.

I have heard all such sermons, and I must confess that clever linguistic hooks, video clips, and yes, finely crafed graphics packages do occasionally help to gel the points into cohesion. Just as often though, these schemes can present themselves as stale substitutes for impactful, relevant truth that does indeed penetrate the heart.

Some look at a wheel of the finest bleu cheese and see a decadent, creamy experience offering sharp bite and brightly colored smoky, salty notes. Others see mold and stench. If you are a precher that favors weekly acrostics to get the point across, imagine that you cease this practice for whatever reason. Half of your congregants will hail you as innovative and daring, while the other half will bellyache about the loss of this memory aid. What is a pastor to do?

If bleu cheese is delight to one and disgust to another, I think it is safe to make the assumption that most creations of man will exist in this realm: embraced by some and disregarded by others. Maybe the key to crafting memorable sermons is to look to the one whose teachings can not in any way be labeled as human invention.

Jesus Christ is always concise, direct, illustrative, and is willing to say the hard things, even when the things needed to be said cause some to be offended. As you faithfully work to craft sermons that are true to the word of God and relevant to a complex contemporary culture, remember that Christ departed from conventions and expectations.

If your flock is settling in for a twenty minute discourse centered on words that rhyme with ‘HOLY’, you may want to consider telling a short story (parable), giving a few sentences of explanation, and sending the listeners into small discussion groups armed with application questions. Only one teacher who roamed the earth was fully God. As you add creative graphic solutions, language constructions, and poetic cleverness to your lesons, don’t rely on them. Be sure there is clearly room for Jesus Christ to dictate your style and approach, and your offering of truth will be far more memorable.