An Election Year Plea to Preachers

According to the polls, Donald Trump is the leading candidate among Evangelicals. To me, this is clear sign that the American Dream has replaced the Christian Gospel. The American Dream that compels me to make a way for myself, to “get mine,” could not be more contrary to the Gospel of the Christ who came to give not to get, to empower the marginalized not to extol the powerful.

Donald Trump has made more than a few comments denigrating women, minorities, and the poor. Listen to any speech he gives and you will quickly note the arrogance and egotism that drives him. Narcissism hangs all over him like a bad $4000 suit. Yet, Trump is the leading candidate among Evangelicals. How can this be? I don’t hate Trump or want to demonize him. I pity him. My expectations for Trump are rather low. However, my expectations for the Church of Jesus Christ, the one who came to serve in selfless love, are really high. Frankly, I am disappointed not in Trump or the Republican Party. I’m heart-broken by the Church for even considering a candidate like Trump to be not only viable but desirable.

Perhaps Trump, if elected, will get us closer to the American Dream than many of us under 50 have ever been. Taxes will be cut. Illegals will be booted and kept out so we have more. If taxes are cut and illegals are gone, we might end up with enough discretionary income to buy a second or, better yet, a third car. A larger home in a better neighborhood is a likely result. But will we better off?

The Gospel of Jesus Christ in more than a few ways flies in the face of the American Dream. In fact, one cannot simultaneously chase the “stake my claim” dream of the West and the values of the Christ. That split allegiance leads inevitably to a double life that tares the soul in two. Professing Christianity while practicing Trumpianity will lead to disastrous disintegration.   

How do we fix this thing? Enter the Christian preacher. While preaching, in part, may have gotten us into this mess, I’m convinced preaching may be the way out. Maybe it’s time for preachers to change the title of our sermon series from How to Manage Your Money to Overcoming American Greed with Christian Generosity, from The Road to a Better You to Making the World a Better Place, from Your Best Life Now to The Christ-Life Now. To the point, preaching in America, perhaps now more than ever, must articulate the distinction between Americanology and Christology, calling the Church to forsake the former to embrace the latter.

I’m not suggesting that preachers ought to stand up this Sunday and rail against Trump with hair-fire, I mean hell-fire and brimstone. As tempting as this might be for some of you, it will merely apply a temporary band-aid to a surgical need. The better way is, as is often the case, the longer way. If we preach “Christ and him crucified,” as Paul did, over and over again, Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, in creatively insightful ways, the tide will turn. If we preach the will and the way of Christ in a winsome and faithful manner now, when another Trump-like figure arises in a decade promising to fulfill our self-centered dreams, we won’t budge from the anchor of the cross.         

Am I oversimplifying complex issues with a simplistically myopic response? Well, you make the call. Just don’t say I’m ugly or assume that I’m a criminal because of my ancestry or build a wall to keep me out of your sight. That wouldn’t be very Christian.

Rap Up Your Preaching: What a Preacher Can Learn from Rap Music

Lately my 12 year old son, Zach, has been listening to rap. He carries his Ipod around the house blasting the funky music for all of us to hear. If his Ipod is not available, usually because I confiscated it, he will rap for us. If I believed in rap karma, I would conclude that I’m being punished for the torture I subjected my family to when I was Zach’s age. Rap was my thing, or “thang,” back then. I went to sleep listening to NWA, The Beastie Boys, and Public Enemy. I’m thankful that Zach prefers a much more wholesome brand of rap, like the Christ-exalting lyrics of Lacrae and Andy Minneo. Regardless, I’ve grown tired of rap, I suppose from imbibing too much of it as a kid. I suppose it could be worse. At least there’s no country music playing in our home.

Since my pastoral eyes and ears are trained to locate redemptive value in just about anything, I’ve discovered several ways that rap music can inform Christian preaching.    

Familiar but Fresh: The best rap songs will often use a familiar tune with fresh lyrics for a new generation. Listeners hear the familiar tune but in a fresh way. The fresh lyrics give the familiar tune a new feel. And that gives the song a captive audience. I remember Nice and Smooth did this with Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car (80s) in their rap song Sometimes I Rhyme Slow (90s). We preachers are called by God to tell the old familiar story in new and fresh ways. How do you preach on Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost year after year after year and stay fresh in the retelling? Rap music shows us how. Reinterpret a familiar biblical text with a fresh twist of lyrical content for a new generation.

Memorable Mantra: The catchiest rap songs of all time utilize a cleverly and strategically repeated phrase. One of Lecrae’s most popular songs is All I Need is You, a proper name for a song that repeats the title in the song at least 15 times (then I stopped counting). The phrase is not redundant; it actually helps the message stick with power. The best sermons employ a strategically repeated memorable phrase. I used the phrase “God’s got it” as a repeated mantra in a sermon a few years back. Several years later someone who heard that message was trying to encourage me with the same phrase God used through me to encourage them. A short phrase that encapsulates the singular thrust of a sermon can have a powerful and lasting impact upon listeners.  

Concretize the Conceptual: Of all the musical genres out there, rap music is tops at making concepts concrete. Concepts like love and faith are concretized in rap. It’s not hard to picture what the rapper is saying because rappers typically use word pictures. Here’s an example from a 2003 rap song called Whatever you Say.  “I usually play the background, you know clean cut, Soft spoken well dressed dipped out straight chillin, When I’m in the club yo, sipping the Sprite with the, Ill lemon mixed in it sippin’ on it I was just chillin’, Til I saw you, that’s when my heart stopped knees gave, Head sweating jaws locked I was sweating you.” I’ll stop there, because expletives follow. But you get the point. These lyrics are earthy not ethereal. The rapper gives us the sights, sounds, and smells that enable us to enter the scene of the picture he paints. The most effective preachers do the same. You don’t just hear what they say, you see it.  

Voice for the Voiceless: Public Enemy’s Fight the Power still rings in my head. I listened to that song so many times during my teens that, even though I’ve not heard it in 25 years, I can still rap it, Chuck-D swag and all. Public Enemy was trying to voice through rap the experience of young African American men. My favorite Beastie Boys song back in the day was You Gotta Fight for your Right to Party. The Beastie Boys were trying to be a voice defending the right of suburban teens to get drunk. Obviously, the aims of the preacher are much higher. The preacher, through the sermon, must not only be a prophetic voice proclaiming the will and way of God; the preacher must also be a priestly voice articulating the hurts and hopes of those who have no voice or words to express their pain. When a preacher proclaims with words something deep in me that I have not found a way to articulate, I lean into whatever else the preacher has to say. In other words, when the preacher articulates with honesty and profundity the pain and the angst of the human condition that I know is real, I am most inclined to listen when that preacher proclaims the good news of Christ I hope is real.

Feel free to jump in and add you insights to the list. But remember, no country music lyricsJ

Lenny      

Take Your Congregation Deeper at Lent

I was a pastor in the local church for 15 years before I joined the faculty of Wesley Seminary in 2010 to invest in pastors. Every year during Advent, leading up to Christmas, and Lent, leading up to Easter, I went on a prayerful quest for creativity. How can I tell the old, familiar story in new and fresh ways? I typically preached evangelistically during Advent and for deeper discipleship during Lent. Since you probably already have your Advent sermon series and small group curriculum sketched out in detail, here's a Lenten resource.


I wrote the book True Depth: Moving Beyond Cultural Churchianity to help Christians swim out of the safe shallow waters and into the deep adventurous waters with Christ. Most churchgoers want a more faithful, fruitful and fulfilling relationship with Christ than the one they are currently experiencing. I wrote True Depth for them.


True Depth is practical, theological, and accessible. Even my 12 year old son, Zach, enjoyed the book. He said "Dad, this was cool. It wasn't bad." I think, hope really, this was his way of saying the book was awesome:-) I've had mature Christians read the book and they noted how God exposed for them a blind spot in their spiritual growth. True Depth is for new believers, seasoned saints, and everyone in between who wants deep-end discipleship.


True Depth is affordable and it comes with free sermon notes and small group leader's guide. You can access these resources and purchase the book at https://wphstore.com/product/BKC295.


I wrote the book to inspire disciples to go deeper in our journey with Christ than we've ever gone before. I pray God will use True Depth toward this purpose.    

Learning 7 Skills from 7 Preachers

Every preacher has at least one primary strength from which all preachers can glean. I have been preaching for more than 20 years and teaching preaching for more than 10 of those years. I love listening to preachers who hit the proverbial ball out of the park in key areas, especially in areas where I strike out or get singles. Here are 7 skills we can learn from 7 different preachers. All of the following preachers have sermons that can be easily accessed on the internet.

Andy Stanley and Conversational Delivery: Stanley breaks many of the old rhetorical rules. At times, he talks too fast, uses too many hand gestures, and doesn’t enunciate well. Yet, tens of thousands of people listen to him live and online each week. Why? Because he replicates in the preaching event what happens naturally in conversation. He seems natural, conversational and, as a result, authentic. In conversation we don’t always enunciate, we talk too fast when excited, and we get overly animated with our hands. So does Stanley and that’s one reason why people listen to him. Preach like you converse and listeners will feel like they are in dialogue with a real person not a plastic pulpiteer.

Christine Caine and Passionate Testimony: Caine has grown in popularity as a preacher over the past decade, even in surprising circles where female preachers are not endorsed. Even naysayers sense the passionate conviction with which she preaches. She does not simply tell us about God, she tells us about her experiences with God. She sprinkles her powerful testimony into her sermons. But, she is careful to share her testimony in ways that help the listener know God, not her, better. Caine shares her story in a manner that helps listeners access their stories in light of the story of God as revealed in Scripture. Caine’s credibility and authority are anchored in her experience with God. The listener senses, “she walks with God.” Caine shows preachers how to be testimonial without being self-centered.

Fred Craddock and Inductive Progression: Craddock was a pastor and teacher of preaching for more than half a century. He recently passed away but not before passing on a legacy for those who dare to preach. One of the main hallmarks of his preaching was his ability to replicate for listeners the journey of joyful discovery he experienced while preparing the sermon in his study. Craddock contended that too often preachers reverse what happened in the study by starting the sermon deductively. They begin with the bottom line discovery it took them a week to discern in the study. This makes the sermon dull and boring. The listeners are handed the main thrust of the sermon at the outset and they have no reason to listen beyond the sermon introduction. Craddock, as well as Jesus in his parables, taught us the art of the inductive sermon by taking listeners on a journey of joyful discovery. Sometimes Craddock would hold back the sermon focus and resolution until the last minute of the sermon. Craddock’s sermons moved toward the focus inductively instead of starting with the focus deductively and proving it.

T.D. Jakes and Contextual Colloquialisms:  Jakes puts biblical concepts and narratives in the language of his people with power. He playfully connects the characters in the biblical text with contemporary images and situations. He is careful, when he does this, not to neglect the historical and literary context of the text. Instead, he contextualizes the exegetical realities of the text so that the world of the bible and the world of the listener are merged. So, Jakes might describe Moses as shedding his high-top Air Jordan sneakers because he is on holy ground. He might paint a picture of Pilate as a divorced politician coasting toward retirement. Jakes finds ways to contextualize biblical realities by using the colloquialisms of his people. He does this in ways that are faithful to the intent of the text and to the realities of his context.

Steve Deneff and Itch-Eliciting: Steve is my pastor so I have the privilege of hearing him on a weekly basis. His sermon introductions are lengthy. He will use the first 10-15 minutes trying to expose and elicit an itch in listeners that we didn’t even know we had. He exposes our assumptions and debunks them. Steve recognizes that the sermon introduction must elicit an itch the listener will want to have scratched. If not, the listener might not listen. Steve knows his context. Most of the congregation consists of long time churchgoers, people who might assume we already know what we need to know and live how we need to live. Steve has to work extra hard in this context to help us feel an itch we didn’t even know needed to be scratched. He does this masterfully.

Barbara Brown Taylor and Poetic Word-Smithing: There is no one alive who is better at stringing words together than Taylor. She weaves biblical exegesis into the sermon seamlessly without saying “look at my word study” or “check out the historical background of the text.” She is more subtle, more artful in her weaving of the “then and there” of the text with the “here and now” of her context. Taylor poetically words her sermons in a way that blurs the lines between the biblical world and our world, so that our story is caught up in the story of God. She is a manuscript preacher, so her delivery may not be charismatic enough for some. Her content, not her delivery, is her lead card. One gets the sense from listening to Taylor that she labors over every word to find just the right one to fit with all of the others. Listen carefully to the way she uses words to concretize concepts, to paint profound pictures.

Eugene Lowry and Tension to Twist: Lowry is a genius at developing narrative tension in the sermon. And just as listeners are feeling the tension of the biblical text, Lowry will pull a fast one and offer a new twist on a familiar passage. Here’s an example. I heard him preach on the familiar Mary and Martha passage in Luke 10. What is typically preached from this text is the tension between serving and Sabbath, between doing and being, between busyness and stillness. Lowry starts there but then digs deeper to create a new tension and twist. He pulls a fast one by revealing that Mary is not to be commended merely because she sat still at the feet of Jesus but because she was counter-cultural. Mary took on the posture of a disciple, a role reserved for men alone in her culture. Martha stayed in the kitchen doing what women did in that day. Jesus commended Mary not Martha. Lowry used tension and twist to help us see this familiar biblical narrative in a new light.  

What skills from the preachers above do you most need to adopt in your preaching today? These skills are not the ones we traditionally learn from a basic preaching course. They are advanced skills that come with experience and intentionality. Go online and check out the preachers who possess the skills you need to enhance your preaching.

Serving Christ with you,

Lenny Luchetti  

Endorsements for True Depth: Moving Beyond Cultural Churchianity

This book offers a wonderfully practical look at how people move from a relationship in which God is unknown, to one in which He is fully known. Through life experiences, ministry testimonies, and biblical engagement, Dr. Luchetti encourages you to go deep spiritually along with those around you. Dr. Luchetti provides a framework for discipleship that is memorable and transferrable—a helpful guide for pastors and ministry leaders.

—Colleen Derr, associate professor, Congregational Spiritual Formation and Christian Ministries, Wesley Seminary

 

True Depth is a vital book for this day. This book has depth but is understandable, and moves beyond western “churchanity” to biblical Christianity. I believe the use of this book will be a catalyst in any congregation to new depths and transformation of churches and communities though out the nation.

—Jo Anne Lyon, General Superintendent, The Wesleyan Church

 

This book will both encourage your heart and challenge your thinking. It inspires and instructs toward three huge ideas: God is the primary maker of deep disciples; the church, though flawed, is the beautiful environment God designed to support disciple-making; and Christians can live a more vibrant and deeper life in Christ! True Depth is theological and practical, filled with honest stories that will grab your heart. If you’d like to see discipleship become more spiritually organic and less culturally organized, this book is for you.

—Dan Reiland, executive pastor, 12Stone Church

 

This book powerfully unfolds how God develops deep disciples in Christian community.

—Wayne Schmidt, vice president, Wesley Seminary

 

With clear, even homey language, Lenny Luchetti unpacks what’s involved in growing into maturity in the faith. As with most things of substance, there’s more going on than initially meets the eye. True Depth helps us see what we’d otherwise miss.

—Marshall Shelley, editor, Leadership Journal

 

Revelation. Restoration. Transformation. Sanctification. Mission. With these five words, Lenny Luchetti gives us, not only a biblical vision, but a theological mission with a practical outline. True Depth is a tour de force into the Wesleyan way of “Practical Divinity.”

—J. D. Walt, Seedbed’s sower-in-chief

 

This book is filled with the same forward-thinking spirit that defines its author. Lenny Luchetti’s challenge is classically timeless, but everything about the way he writes and thinks feels fresh. For those who are jaded by the church, or have become cynical about the lack of true disciples in our time, True Depth presents a hopeful way forward.

—Darren Whitehead, pastor and author of Rumors of God

 

This is not another trendy book on discipleship but a genuine, clear approach with practical exercises that will help church attendees dive deeply into Christ-like living. First it will change you and then it will change your church.

—Bob Whitesel, award-winning author of twelve books, including The Healthy Church and Cure for the Common Church

Click on this link to order the book: https://wphstore.com/product/BKC295

Video Venue Preaching: Projection or Presence

Video venues are flying off the ecclesial griddle like hot cakes. Everyone seems to be doing it- High Church, Low Church, and Middle Church, only Tolkien knows where that is. Some are seeing splendid success, if success is primarily determined by attendance at the venue church. Growing churches are getting behind this trend so they can grow more. Churches that have plateaued or declined in growth are trying it out too. Who knows if the trend is here to stay or merely a flash in the pan?

Regardless of the staying power of the trend, no one should jump on too quickly. Pastors and churches must pause to explore not only the possible short-term but potential long-term consequences of the video venue.

Let’s admit, before reflecting on specific pros and cons, that video venue preaching is not fundamentally good simply because of the apparent fruit it produces. Nor is this preaching practice inherently evil. Churches that start video venue campuses do it to reach the unchurched. They are motivated by outreach to people far from God who have yet to identify with a church family.

I was privileged to pastor a congregation that tripled in size in seven years, primarily due to conversion growth. I’m painfully aware that creative risk-taking and “outside the box” thinking is necessary to reach the unchurched. This current reality has been the perpetual reality for the Church since the days of St. Paul. Pastors are constantly scratching their heads, trying to figure out better ways to bring Christ’s love to people disconnected from that love. And we should. Needless to say, churches that launch video venues should not be demonized. They are simply trying to reach people through their “cream of the crop” communicators.

Caution, however, is vital. Before jumping onto the video venue bandwagon, it’s crucial to think prayerfully and critically about the theological and practical implications of a launching a venue where the preacher is projected but not present. What might be fruitful in the short term can shoot the church in the foot long term.

Here are some of the major pros and cons of video venue preaching. The question that must be asked, and answered, is do the pros of projecting a preacher on a screen outweigh the cons?

Pros of Projection

-The most effective preacher gets projected. Let’s face it, there are relatively few preachers who hit the sermonic ball out of the park on a regular basis. And, there are many who are mediocre at best. They hit mostly singles and, on occasion, even strike out. Why shouldn’t the church put her best foot forward in order to impact more lives through preaching? So much is at stake. Seekers who visit churches do not typically return a second time to hear irrelevant sermons from sub-par communicators who seem disconnected from real life. A projected, but absent, preacher who is effective seems better than an ineffective, though fully present, preacher.  

-Video venue preaching is efficient. It doesn’t take too much time or money to launch a video venue. The main expense is renting a facility with seating capacity and projection capability. While most video venues have a campus pastor or host who is present, you don’t need to find and employ another high quality and expensive communicator. You already have that person. He or she can simply be projected. No extra blood, sweat, and tears, no wasted time, money and energy.  If you can rent a facility with projection and recruit a campus host, you can launch a video venue almost overnight. Vuala! If you’re looking for efficiency, to “get the most bang for your buck,” the video venue is for you.

-Current culture is enamored with the screen. Many North Americans spend countless hours each week looking at a computer screen, TV screen, phone screen, and the big screen. People are used to viewing images on a screen. A case could be made that people are sick and tired of looking at screens, but we are still culturally conditioned to do so. Apparently, many nominally churched and unchurched people feel as though a projected preacher is safer than a present preacher. They’re probably right.     

Cons of Projection

-A projected preacher proclaiming a God who became present in the flesh feels like a contradiction. The incarnation of God through Christ is the central event of Christianity. God came onto our turf as one of us to save us because he loves us. He came to 1^st century Jews as a 1^st century Jew. He was physically neck deep in the culture he was trying to reach. Jesus’ preaching was profound precisely because he put himself in the sandals of the people to whom he preached. He walked where they walked. He breathed the same air they breathed. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14a). God didn’t show up as a virtual projection but as real presence. I suppose God could have sent a holographic image of himself, if he wanted. He did send the law and the prophets. But, in the fullness of time, God came on our turf. God evidenced the depth of his love by dwelling among us. How can a Christian preacher do anything less?  Incarnational ministry, at its core, necessitates the real presence of the preacher among the people to whom she/he will preach.

-A projected preacher cannot preach an authentically contextual sermon. Every congregational context is different. A one size sermon does not fit all. It is impossible to develop a single sermon that will profoundly penetrate the hearts of people in both the mother church and the multi-site venue, especially if those contexts are radically different. If those contexts are not distinguishable, why start a video-venue in the first place? Let’s assume the multiple campuses are distinct. The live “in the flesh” sermon I design and preach for a Caucasian congregation in an affluent suburb of Dallas will not likely connect via video with an African American church in an impoverished urban area. Even if the video quality is stellar and the campus pastor superb. Plus, the projected preacher on video cannot adjust “on the fly” to congregational cues that surface during the preaching event. The best communicators, the ones who tend to get projected, are the best because they develop content that contextually connects and their delivery allows them to adjust based on congregational cues. These very skills that make the best communicators so effective are relegated to the side-lines in video-venue preaching. Is insightful and contextual pastoral preaching really possible from a distance? I, for one, have my doubts.

-Projecting one preacher prevents others preachers from being developed. If we want to utilize our best preacher, then I suppose the video venue is the way to go. But if we are focused on developing the next generation of preachers, the video venue should be avoided like the plague. The way to develop more and better preachers is to give them loads of opportunities to preach. If the resident preaching pro is the one preaching almost all of the time across the multiple church sites, the growth of potential preachers on the team will be stifled. Instead of having one person on a screen in three different locations, the multi-site church can have three emerging preachers use and develop their gifts. In the short run, projecting the best communicator seems wise, but it may be disastrous in the long run. When the elite preachers we project are gone, who will replace them? Unfortunately, under-developed preachers will.

You Make the Call

This article does not and, likely cannot, come close to providing an exhaustive list of pros and cons regarding video-venue preaching. My intent is simply to touch on what seem to me the most salient issues at stake for the Church.

Back to my original question, do you think the pros outweigh the cons of video-venue preaching? Or do the cons outweigh the pros? Is this cultural trend driven by pragmatic conventions or by theological convictions? Is video-venue preaching a short-term success with a long-term failure attached to it? 

You can easily sense where I currently stand on the matter. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve, and evidently on my writing. But I am still very much open to loving debate. What is undebatable is the foolishness of simply jumping on the “everybody’s doing it” bandwagon without prayerfully considering the theological and practical dynamics involved. Thankfully, there are more than a few pastors and theologians on both sides of the issue who refuse to abandon critical reflection for quick results.   

I am genuinely interested in the various perspectives on this issue represented in the communion of saints. In fact, as I wrestle with the implications of projection and presence, I need you.  And, without a doubt, the Church needs you too.

Mind Mapping: Picture What You Preach

Imagine if you could actually see your sermon as a complete picture on a single page instead of as a 7-10 page document full of so many words you could never internalize them before or recall them during the preaching event. The way forward is called mind mapping.

Basic mind mapping has been around for centuries and has progressed into some advanced forms. But the primary premise is still the same. Transforming conceptual words into a concrete visual picture, or map, can aid in communication, learning, and recall. Mind mapping is not only a great way to take notes, cram for a test, and simplify complex concepts, it has the potential to significantly enhance our preaching.

PLANTING THE TREE

There are many ways to utilize mind mapping. Some communicators will draw an actual map that employs the journey metaphor. Their map will contain a starting point and a destination, with landmarks, streets, and turns in between. I prefer another metaphor for mapping the sermon. The mind mapped tree works well for me.

Here’s how it works. After you have finished developing your detailed sermon outline or manuscript, draw a tree trunk on a piece of paper. Write the sermon focus or, if you prefer, the big idea or main point in the center of the trunk. Now, draw several branches out from the top of the trunk, moving left to right. These branches represent the flow for a narrative plot-based sermon (setting, problem, climax, resolution, response) or for a linear point-based sermon with various “moves.” On each branch you will write a short phrase that best describes how that branch reveals and/or reinforces the focus of the tree trunk. The phrase should be as imagistic as possible. You will probably not want to have more than 5-7 branches sprouting off of the trunk.

Next, draw no more than 3-4 small twigs off of each branch. On each of these twigs write a word that helps you recall what you will say about that branch. Try to come up with picturesque words for your twigs. Avoid esoteric language. The words of your twigs and branches should be more concrete than conceptual, which is why “image” is written on each twig.

When you develop a mind map, your 10 page 4000 word sermon becomes a 1 page picture consisting of approximately 20-30 words. Writing a sermon manuscript is a good practice, but the mind map allows you to boil down your multi-page document to a one page picture. A mind map not only helps the preacher with recall during delivery but can also foster sermons that are more clear and creative in development. The preacher can quickly see whether or not a branch or twig really fits with the focus of the sermonic tree and prune as necessary. Additionally, with the visual aid of a mind map the preacher can more easily discern if and where another branch or twig is needed to firmly root the sermonic tree in the lives of listeners.

PLACING THE BRANCHES AND TWIGS

Once you have all the branches and twigs drawn up, prayerfully consider the best ordering of the branches for the sermon. Since we are clock-conscious, left to right readers, it makes sense to order the branches from left to right on the tree. When placing the twigs on each branch, you will likely want to order them the same way. Take your time placing the branches and twigs on the tree. They should be placed to facilitate sermon clarity for listeners and sermon recall for the preacher.

PICTURING THE PARTS

If you want to make the mind map even more memorable, there is a way. Look at the words you have mapped on the branches and twigs. Try replacing the imagistic words with actual images you draw. If your artistic ability is limited, cut and paste pictures from the internet or magazines. If your entire sermon is conceived as images that create one primary picture on a single page, you cannot help but remember and preach the sermon with power and precision. 

PRUNING AND PRODUCING

A mind map enables the sermon to become memorable, manageable, and malleable. What I mean by malleable is “adaptable.” If the service is going long because the guy doing announcements or the worship leader got a little too long-winded, you can simply cut one branch or several twigs in your mind or on the one piece of paper you bring to the platform with you. Perhaps you are the guest speaker at a conference and the organizer tells you the worship leader got sick, which means you now have 40 instead of 20 minutes to preach your sermon. Find a prayer closet and simply invite God to reveal a few more branches and twigs that may reinforce the focus of the tree. 

PRACTICING

Mind mapping requires practice before proficiency is achieved. Stick with it for a few months before you decide it may not be for you. In the beginning, you will likely want to mind map from a manuscript. But be prepared to not use everything in the manuscript, since some ideas may seem superfluous to the mind mapped tree. Have fun. Be creative. Enjoy the freedom that can result from mapping your manuscript into a picture. Maybe a picture is worth, not a thousand words, but four thousand! 

EXERCISES

            1. Try mind mapping from the sermon manuscript or outline for your next preaching opportunity. Use the tree metaphor and include no more than a three-word phrase for each branch and one word for every twig.

2. Now, try to further develop the mind map by replacing the words on the tree with images you draw or find on the internet or in magazines.

3. Spend some time prayerfully viewing and internalizing your tree. If the focus of your sermonic tree trunk is clear and compelling, if the branches reinforce the trunk, and if the twigs reinforce the branches, your sermon will powerfully connect with listeners. Prune as needed.