As a young communicator I struggled with trying to connect to an audience.  I received some great advice from some more experienced friends.  One of the obstacles in teaching is being able to connect with everyone in your audience.  Most groups have all kinds of age ranges and interests.  However there is a way to direct your teaching to meeting people where they are.  Adrian Rodgers said something very wise concerning the Bible.  He said that it is always relevant because it addresses the human condition.  It answers the questions of Sin, Sorrow and Death.  Those are issues that connect to all people.  The Bible answers the questions that everyone asks, “How do I deal with pain and suffering and why life doesn’t work out?”  

The way to present the problem that you are going to solve with your audience is to aim your message at what people deal with emotionally.  That way you deal with something that everyone deals with and not just something that is confined to a specific demographic.  For example talk about fear of failure, or frustration or loneliness instead of specific frustrations.  You can then personalize it after you identify the major emotional issue you are working on to give your audience a platform to personalize it by listing some specific ways your issue presents itself.  If for example you are talking about loneliness you can paint the picture of how they may experience it by talking about how when you are young you are lonely for your future mate, when you are middle aged you may feel lonely for your lack of relationship and the comraderie with friends like you had when you were younger, and when you are in the twilight of you life you may feel the pain of moving on with life when your friends have crossed beyond death’s line.  

Connecting with an audience is an art, not a science.  These are just some ways to make your message ring true with your audience.  It takes a lifetime of teaching to become great at connecting with your people.  Let me know if you have any other ideas on how to connect when you are speaking.

Ok so here is the deal.  I am a big Penn State fan.  Its not popular here in Nashville which is big time SEC country but I am so excited to see us going into Columbus Ohio as the number 3 team in the country.  We haven’t beaten them in Columbus for 7 years but hopefully we will prevail today.  Dean Fulks and I have been harassing each other already.  So… I am either going to be excited or really bummed out tonight.  Funny how a simple game in which I know no one personally can make a big difference in my emotional state.  Anyway, Go LIONS!

Prayer is vital to ministry.  I don’t know anyone who disputes that fact.  Interacting with God through prayer with the people you are ministering to is an essential goal in ministry.  The problem is that even though we know that prayer moves the hand of God and it changes our own perspective we struggle in daily life how to bring prayer out of the philosophical sphere into practical reality.  Most of us wish we knew how to pray for more people without coming off as being creepy.  

So how can we pray more with our people?  I am going to go old school with this Ministry Tip.  My dad has been a pastor for the last 38 years and he gave me an easy tool for prayer.  Sometimes the most obvious prayer techniques are the best.  So here it is:  pray personally with as many people as you can.  I know that this is an obvious goal but here are 2 ways to actually pull that off.  First, When someone tells you something they are struggling with, pray with them right then and there.  Just pull them to the side and ask to pray with them.  My father actually told me that this is the best way to initiate a spiritual tone in a friendship with people far from God.  I have found that this is also the best way to make people feel that God is close even when they are in the midst of pain.  Secondly, set prayer reminders on your cell phone or watch to remind you to pray.  When the alarm goes off invite whomever is around you to pray with you.  I have 2 timers set.  One is at 10:02 AM where I pray for the Harvest worldwide and here in Nashville.  I choose that time because it reminds me of Mark 10:2b which says to pray for workers of the Harvest.  I heard that Neal Cole does this as well.  I also have my alarm set for 2:07 PM when I pray for my brother who is struggling in life right now.  

These are great ways to pray without ceasing.  Let me know if you have other ways that you creatively use to pray in ministry.  I am always looking for ways to get better at prayer.