“Sermons That Fly” (Part 3)

Here at RFYM, we are once again excited to share with you the thoughts of a new contributor to these articles. Highly respected pastor, church leader, author, and Bible teacher Knute Larson has shared with us this week’s series of articles—and on the very significant theme of preaching. We again welcome Knute, and encourage you to give careful thought and consideration to Knute’s good words in this final installment of “Sermons That Fly.” (BC)

***

On Monday we spoke of our takeoff, hoping we could capture attention quickly.  And hold it!  Wednesday was part of the advice for in-flight attention. Now let’s stretch the analogy and bring this plane down safely and effectively.

How to Land Your Plane
We build to the end, and want it to be convincing.  Compelling. We hope they, the listeners, will want to buy or believe or do what we have spoken about.
But so many cannot get the plane down.  They keep “circling the field” and lose the interest of the people watching.
Be done.  Conclude.  Bring it down!

See if this helps:

• Write out your conclusion, at least the first 125 times you speak.
• Time this conclusion.  How long will it take?
• Know exactly what time you need to be starting this conclusion.  Start it for sure then.
• Decide way ahead of time that you would rather have people walking out wishing you would have talked longer, rather than the opposite.
• Make sure your conclusion summarizes your target point (your sentence outline) before you give your strongest passion about why the listeners should do or believe or feel what you just said.
• Greet people afterward.  This is not unrelated.  People forget faster when you hit and run.
• Pray some more afterwards.
• Thank God for the privilege!