-
Your True Identity - Romans 12:3
“As God’s messenger, I give each of you this warning: Be honest in your estimate of yourselves, measuring your value by how much faith God has given you.” — Romans 12:3
Today I’m teaching a message on ’seeing yourself as God sees you.’ I’m continuing our God on Film series with “Hancock: Discovering My True Identity.” I’ll be teaching live in Manhattan and via video in Jersey City and Brooklyn. We have canceled our evening Manhattan service today as a gift to our staff and volunteers on this holiday weekend. It’s rare for us to cancel a service but its nice to do from time to time, especially on weekends where attendance is already going to be low.
The Journey-San Francisco, our latest church plant, is also doing God on Film. God is really blessing them and using Pastor Chris Brady in big ways! Check them out here.
I hope you are as excited about Sunday as I am!
Nelson
P.S. We are currently praying about starting another Journey video venue in metro NYC - anyone interested in leading it?
-
Two Saturday Communication Quotes
“By all means, show don’t tell . . . reveal your personality . . . be the message rather than narrating it, but above all, be authentic.” - Dr. Frank Luntz, author, Words that Work
“A great line isn’t spoken, it is delivered.” - Jack Klugman, actor
Is it possible to replace the word ‘line’ with the word ’sermon’ in the quote from Klugman above? Just wondering… Have a great Saturday!
Nelson
-
Words that Work - Part 4 of 4
Happy Independence day to everyone here in the US! Today, I wrap up my four part communication series based on the excellent book Words that Work by Frank Luntz with this selection where Luntz quotes the famous novelist George Orwell.
George Orwell language rules:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.Not a bad list for those of us who work on ’sermons’ each week!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this series of posts. Again, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Dr. Luntz’ book. You can order it here through Amazon.com.
Nelson
-
Words that Work - Part 3 of 4
On Tuesday, I started a series of lessons from the book Words that Work by Frank Luntz by giving you his first four rules of communication. Here are rules five through nine:
Rule Five…Novelty: Offer Something New
Words that work often involve a new definition of an old idea. (In preaching the goal is not to have a ‘new idea’ but to share the ‘old ideas’ in new ways.) There’s a simple test to determine whether or not your message has met this rule. If it generates an “I didn’t know that” response, you have succeeded.
Rule Six…Sound and Texture Matter
Says (Aaron) Sorkin: “The greatest speech of all time is ‘I Have a Dream.’ You read the speech and it’s perfect. Listen to the speech, it gets more perfect. The way as the speech moved on, the phrase ‘I have a dream’ stopped being the beginning of each stanza and began being the end, ‘That one day, we will be judged not by the color of our skin, by the content of our character, I have a dream.’ That’s what jazz musicians do. They take a phrase and they move it. It was phenomenal delivery.”
Rule Eight…Visualize
The word: imagine. Whether it’s the car of your dreams or the candidate of your choice, the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds.
Rule Nine…Ask a Question
“Is it live, or is it Memorex?” “Where do you want to go today?” (Microsoft) “Can you hear me now?” (Verizon Wireless) “Got Milk?” In his work, (Tony) Schwartz found that people reacted best to language and messages that were participatory—allowing the receiver to interact with the message and the messenger.Rule Ten…Provide Context and Explain Relevance
You have to give people the “why” of a message before you tell them the “therefore” and the “so that.”
Some people call this framing.This is no doubt the best book on communication that I’ve read in the last year. How about you? What’s the best communication book have you read lately? Feel free to share your comments below.
Nelson
-
Words that Work - Part 2 of 4
Here are some more insights on communication from the book Words that Work by Frank Luntz… Take a look at a few of my favorite quotes from the book:
“It’s not what you say, it’s what people hear.”
“The key to successful communication is to take the imaginative leap of stuffing yourself right into your listener’s shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling in the deepest recesses of their mind and heart.”
“Words that work, whether fiction or reality, not only explain but also motivate. They cause you to think as well as act.”
And I’ll conclude today’s post with this quote from the book by former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan:
“Your style should never be taller than you are.”
Nelson
-
Words that Work - Part 1 of 4
Today I’m starting a four part communication series on lessons I have learned from the book WORDS THAT WORK by
Frank Luntz. Although this book is about two years old (a revised updated paperback version is scheduled for release next month), it’s one of the best I’ve read on the topic of communication. While it focuses on political and corporate communication, the lessons for pastors and church leaders are easy to extract. I recommend that you read and study this book. Here are four of the rules he offers for good communication:Rule One…Simplicity: Use Small Words
Avoid words that might force someone to reach for the dictionary…because most Americans won’t.Rule Two…Brevity: Use Short Sentences
Rule Three…Credibility Is As Important As Philosophy
Rule Four…Consistency Matters
Message consistency builds customer loyalty. Ronald Reagan was the only politician I ever saw who seemed to enjoy saying the same words over and over again as though it was the first time he had ever spoken them.Are you violating any of these rules in your speaking, preaching or church communication? More tomorrow.
Nelson
-
Monday Proflections - June 30, 2008
It’s the week of July 4th and a vacation time for many people. I’m even taking a few days later in the week so it’s a pretty relaxed week, but here’s what’s going on that may be of interest to you:
Monday - In our various staff meetings today, we are continuing our discussion of ‘how to wow’ - I hope to blog on some of the more interesting ideas soon.
Tuesday - We generally have 3 ‘church systems’ meetings on Tuesday - each one no more than an hour. First one up is Assimilation, where we discuss how the system is running and measure our effectiveness. Second is Evangelism, and the final one is Ministry/volunteers. Three meetings may sound like a lot but actually consolidating all discussions about these BIG areas into three one hour meetings each week saves a ton of time.
Wednesday - I’m off to visit my parents in NC today. When my dad turned 70 five years ago, I made a commitment to never miss his birthday (June 10). This year, his schedule didn’t allow for a visit on June 10 so I’m hanging with him over the fourth (I think he’s busier in retirement than he was when he worked full-time. I hope to follow that pattern too).
Thursday - While I’m in NC, I’ll also be visiting one of my best friends in the world. Check out his blog here.
Friday - Happy Independence Day! Watch your email for a BIG July 4th Special from Church Leader Insights - all downloads will be on sale for $10. Why? It’s our way of saying thank you being part of the CLI family.
Saturday - Heading back to the city and doing some final prep for Sunday. No evening services tomorrow in Manhattan so I’ll only be preaching three times. We will sometimes cancel the evening services over a holiday weekend (July 4th, Thanksgiving, etc.) as a way to reward our staff and volunteers.
Have a great week! I’ll see you back here tomorrow - I’m very excited about this week’s blog posts.
Nelson
-
The Power of Sunday
Here’s what I read every Sunday morning:
The Power of Sunday
Sunday is . . . game day . . . impact time . . . evangelism hour . . .resurrection day
. . .prime time . . . focal point . . . the super bowl, world cup and world series all rolled in one! Sunday matters! THIS Sunday Matters!I love SUNDAY! I’m teaching live in the first three services in Manhattan this morning and then tagging Kerrick in to teach tonight. Elliott is teaching live in Brooklyn and I’ll be on the big screen in Jersey City. I can’t wait!
Hope you have a great Sunday!
Nelson
P.S. The quote above is from my latest church system seminar called The Worship Planning Seminar.
-
How to Overcome Short Term Failures - A Saturday Quote
“You must have long-term goals to keep you from being frustrated by short-term failures.”
– Charles C. Noble -
Show Me The Money
Friday is a great day to step back and take stock of your life… to look back over what you’ve accomplished during the week and evaluate some things… to think a little more deeply and ask yourself questions like, “Am I in the right place? Doing the right thing? Am I serving with joy?” Or how about this question that I recently stumbled across on another blog (paraphrasing):
How much money would it take for you to walk away from your current ministry position?
Think about it. If a multi-millionaire appeared in front of you right now and said, “Here’s a blank check. How much money will it take for me to get you to leave your ministry,” what would you say? How high would that number be? Would it be high at all?
Your answer to this question is more revealing than you may realize. It can give you great insight into your fit for your current ministry, your passion for the work God is doing where you are and your fulfillment of your calling. If you know that you are exactly where God wants you, no amount of money should be able to tempt you away. If you are passionate about the work that God is doing through your ministry, that multi-millionaire couldn’t write a big enough check. (Unless, of course, he was writing it as an offering!)
Some of you may be surprised that you have a hard time answering this question. If that’s the case, let this exercise prompt you to do some soul-searching. Maybe you need to re-evaluate the way you have been spending your days. If you can admit that you would walk away from what you are doing for more money, spend some time thinking and praying about whether or not you are truly following God’s call on your life.
When you know that you are fulfilling God’s purpose, no amount of money can come close to equaling what God is doing through you and your church!
- Nelson
Church Leader Insights is a bi-weekly publication sent via email that focuses on effective leadership, church growth, church planting evangelism and much more.
My Books
Activate: A Totally New Approach to Small Groups
