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.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
Mike I think what your post highlights is the need to be able to relate to the culture in which we find ourselves. I guess the trick is to enage the culture in a way that does not compromises our testimony or our reflection of Jesus but rather in a way that allows us to connect with people outside the church in a sincere and real way. I don’t know that I always strike that balance well, but it is something to strive for. Thanks for the tip.
Tony
October 27th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
One of the keys to explaining anything is to know the material well and watch the audience. If we know our material extremely well and we watch our audience we can be ‘fast on our feet’ and change tactics if we’re not getting feedback indicating comprehension. Where trouble begins is lack of preparation; if the jump from understanding to application is made too early it will be impossible to see other possibilities that would be found with deeper understanding.
As I see it, expounding or explaining Scripture is a three-step process.
First, understanding and explaining what it meant when it was written, who was the intended audience? What was the situation being addressed? What were the cultural conditions at the time?
Second step is to strip out, as well as we can, the cultural context and find the root of the message. The best example I can think of is 1 Corinthians 11:14-15
14 Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair?
15 And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering.
1 Corinthians 11:14-15 (NLT)
Does this mean God is ultimately concerned with the length of one’s hair; or rather that one should look respectable/acceptable considering the social conditions they live in? My real life example from when I lived in NY, it was not acceptable for a man to have long hair and having long hair made it difficult if not impossible to get a job, however when I moved to Nashville hair length was not an issue but other attributes were looked at more closely.
It is difficult if not impossible to strip out all cultural concerns because we are so heavily influenced by the culture we live in but with practice we can learn to isolate our thinking from the world and have a more neutral perspective.
The third step is application of the root message to the society we live in. This is where knowing the audience is important because a twenty-something walking into church for the first time in his life, lives in a different world than the choir or deacons. So it’s important not to blow-away a newcomer with fancy words unless we take time to explain the words in plain English.
I always find the best teachers are those that are still learning and with God’s help may we all continue to learn.