Video Transcript: Session 20 Introductions Continued

Welcome back, as we continue to learn how to make and preach sermons, it's  both making and preaching. As far as later on, we're going to get to the idea  about how you present your message. But we're in that section that we're called  introductions, thinking about the introduction, is that important hook. Now, just a  review of where we've been. The first section of this class was on preparing for  a sermon. In other words, how do you prepare yourself? Well, you become a  person of prayer, and you get other people to pray with you and for you, you  study a passage, and we looked at those important kinds of definitions like  exegesis, and homiletics, and hermeneutics and et cetera, these words that are  bandied about when it comes to sermon making. And we then went through a  period called Developing the sermon. And we're in that section called  introductions, which is, story we saw as a powerful introduction, and an  intriguing question. Now, repetition by various people is a mother of learning. So educators say, and so I want to introduce you to a woman named Anne Ricketts, and is the director of Lighthouse Communications. It's based in San Francisco.  And it's a consulting group that helps businesses this is not necessarily  preaching but businesses figure out how to communicate their message more  effectively, while Anne is somebody who works with speakers to help them  become more effective and speaking. And she does this brief four minute video  on how to do killer introductions. And I just want you to hear her now. This is  somebody from the business perspective, but also, I think, says things that  relates to us as we think about making sermons, and you'll find them very  relevant, I think so spend the next four minutes looking at in and what she has to say. Have you ever seen law and order or CSI? Listen, have you know how the  show's start? They always start with a crime, someone's running in Central Park, they come across the body to call the police, the police are there and then your  hooked, you're engaged, and you have to know what happened, then only then  do they play the theme song that you see the credits. You might be wondering,  what does this have to do with presentation skills? Well, just like you want to  start off the show and hook the audience, you want to do the same in a  presentation. And we know this in theory, but I'll tell you about nine out of 10  speakers I see start with their version of the theme song goes something like  this. Hi, my name is Anna. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you so much for  coming in a minute, I'm going to tell you a story, and on and on and on and the  speaker and could be one or two minutes in and they haven't said anything  interesting. Guess what? Now your audience is on their phone. We can do  better. My name is Anne Ricketts. I'm the founder of Lighthouse  Communications. And for living I help people deliver more effective  presentations. I strongly believe the introduction is the most crucial piece to your presentation. And in this video, I'm going to share with you a four step formula  for killer introduction. And if you follow this, not only will your audience be  leaning in wanting to hear more, but you will be bursting at the seams with 

confidence from giving such an amazing introduction. You ready for the formula? Step one is your hook. A story an analogy a metaphor a shocking statistic, a  question or a combination of those things, something interesting and vivid right  away to pull them in. Step two is the transition to your topic bridge the gap  between that hook and what you're going to talk about today. You can say  something like, you might be wondering what CSI has to do with presentations. I tell that story because this story illustrates step three is your self introduction  and a preview of your of your talk. If you don't know the audience that you can  briefly introduce yourself, just given them the most interesting things from your  background that directly relate to your topic. And remember, you can establish  credibility throughout your talk. So you don't have to give them a full bio. And  then go ahead and preview what are the goals of your talk? What will you be  covering? Step four is the benefit for your audience. Tell the audience what they  will gain from listening to your talk. Don't assume that they already know you  should be specific. Now that you know the four steps for giving a killer  introduction, let's break it down. And let's look at the introduction to this video.  Have you ever seen law and order or CSI? Well, if you have you know how the  show's start, they always start with a crime. Someone's running and so that was  my hook. I asked the audience a question and then painted a picture of a  common experience of watching these these crime shows. You might be  wondering, what does this have to do with presentation skills? Well, just like you  want to start off the show and hook the audience you want to do this Same in a  presentation. That was my transition to the topic I bridge the gap between my  hook and what I'm going to cover in the video. My name is Anne Ricketts. I'm  the founder of Lighthouse Communications. And for living I helped that was my  self introduction and preview, I briefly introduce myself and establish some  credibility on the topic. And then I told the audience what they were going to  cover in the video. And if you follow this, not only will your audience be leaning  in wanting to hear more, but you will be burst. Finally, that was the benefit I told  the audience specifically what they will gain from watching the video. Now you  know, the four steps for giving a killer introduction, try it out and let us know how  it goes. Write a comment on Facebook or on our YouTube channel. And be sure  to subscribe to the Lighthouse Communications YouTube channel. So I hope  you enjoyed that. And I hope you found it effective as a way to pattern your  introductions. She says you got to have the hook. That's what we've been  talking about what story and shocking truth that these kinds of things can be and get people to say, well, I want to know more. I want to hear more. I want to do  more. So we've been talking about introductions for some time now that we've  talked about how do you hook people in, then our transition to the purpose for  your message. It's a transition into the message. And then she talks about self  introduction. Many of us don't have to worry about that, because we're the  regular preachers in our church or wherever we are in ministry. But some people

if you're guest preacher, you might want to say a few words about yourself in  self introduction. So we have looked at a couple of things in introduction. So far,  we have seen that the story, the story line, can make a powerful hook can show  us a way to get into people's minds and hearts. That's a powerful, powerful way  of introducing ourselves and introducing the message. And the last time we  looked at intriguing questions about how an intriguing question can grab  people's attention to say yes, or no the answer to that question as well. Well,  today, we're going to look at what's called shocking truth. This can be a  powerful, powerful introduction that will get people into the message and help  you transition in a powerful way into your message. Now. Give you an example.  I had a part time, middle school director in the last church I served. And she was just really good at her ministry. She was in a stuffed and a little room because  we're out of room and the church building we were using. And she had built this  ministry from nothing until she had about 50 Kids stuck in a room that was  designed for about 12 to 15. And so she stacked them on the floor, and then  there were beanbag chairs, and then there were regular chairs, and then there  are the stools and so that they can be kind of in this array before her if she  would talk about our lesson and prepare the lesson while we asked her to bring  a message to the whole church, especially as we were talking about doing an  expansion of facility and and what that was going to involve. And so what she  did was she got all of the kids of middle age in the church to sit together one  Sunday morning. And she started with a shocking truth. And the shocking truth  was that in the United States, the statistics right now are that 70 to 75% of these kids are middle school kids will drop out of the faith. By the time they're out of  college 75% and she walked down into the audience, and she dismissed the  rows of kids until 75% of them are gone. And there was a gaping hole in the  auditorium that just had been filled with these kids. Just imagine all of them  dropping out of faith. And she just stood there silent for a few moments. And it  was sensitive. There were tears in the audience, because some of these were  parents or middle school kids, grandparents of middle school kids, people who  are brothers and sisters, and some are tears. Thinking about that shocking truth. That right now. How can we stop that was how she went on. And she began to  talk about becoming a church that built a legacy. And so this kind of shocking  truth can be a powerful way to draw people in as she'd been with him to talk  about legacy about passing on faith to children. What we needed what research  has shown Christian research on how to build faith in kids. And How every kid  needs at least five I have adult contacts who are not their parents who are  encouraging their faith. And she signed people up to become mentors of kids, to become people who are preparing them to profess their faith to launch them into the world. And there was a movement that they in the church that has blessed  that middle school ministry, and that was about four years ago. And now it's in a  revamped facility. And it's it's thriving, that ministry is thriving today. But it all 

began there, as the church made a decision that we're going to be a church,  that's going to turn that statistic around. So shocking truth. Now, there are some  warnings that come with shocking truth. Here's one of them. Overuse can lead  people to tune you out. In our society, in the United States, and probably where  you are, people who make television programs have learned that people get  immune to shocking truth, we get tired of it. In fact, years ago, they talked about  the compassion fatigue that people would see experience, when they saw  starving people on television, it no longer had the impact on them, because  they'd seen it so much, and felt so powerless to do anything about it that  eventually just didn't make any impact whatsoever. So as you think about your  introduction, and using shocking truth, beware. You can overuse it. And if you  overuse it, people will start to tune you out, you can't come every week with a  shocking truth. Often you can, there's enough of a bit out there right now that  you can do that. But make sure make sure that it is it's used effectively, when it's not used all the time. Another warning, it's got to be appropriate to your subject.  In other words, you can't just go taking a trip over here or over there. And and  then expecting people to tune back in. In fact, people if you use a shocking truth  to begin something, they will say what if it doesn't apply to the message, I  remember listening to a message that way where the pastor began with a  shocking truth about the number of people leaving faith, not just young people,  but adults. And then it was just like he was angry about this, but wasn't part of  the message. It didn't relate to the main point of the message. And so it was kind of like afterward, just scratching your head saying, What? What was that all  about anyway, and so make sure it's appropriate to your subject, and it is a  genuine lead in to your subject, and then make sure your shocking truth is  accurate. Now, what I mean by that, is that there are fact checkers available  today, information's available online, all over the place. And if you continue to if  you give shocking truth to someone, they might go back and check that out.  Where did he or she get that information? And they can go online, and find out  how accurate you are. And if they find out that you're inaccurate, they're going to start writing you off. I was just reading, because politics is big. Right now we are  in the United States in this election cycle again. And there was a story that came out that the whole Russian investigation of President Trump was a hoax, that  has really started with this a young man who was killed and that they the  conspiracy theory was that, you know, he he was the guy who started it. And  then it got blown into this whole idea of Russians trying to interfere with  elections here. And turns out this story, it was a shocking story. I mean, what  we've been listening to all this stuff about the Russian interference, and then all  of a sudden, it's not even true. Turns out it wasn't true. Fox News Network hadn't done their homework. And as a result, they put something out there, that wasn't  true. And all of a sudden, the listenership for that particular program went diving  down, because it wasn't accurate. You've got to make sure that what you say in 

shocking truth is accurate. Now, where do you find Shocking Truths? variety of  places, local history, local news, or news in general. You can find it in  newspapers, if you still do newspapers where you are, you can find it on  television, you can find it on the internet, certainly. And these are usually things  that don't immediately come to mind. And it's hard to find a shocking truth to say, You know what, I want to introduce this sermon. So I want to find a shocking  truth about climate change. It doesn't often work that way. Sometimes it does.  But more often, it's something that you just come across. And then in the  process of making your sermon you say, oh, you know what? That shocking  truth would be a good way to lead into this. For climate change and being  stewards of creation. That's one of the things we Christians believe that God has given us the charge to Take care of the world. And so how do we do that, you  know, time of climate change. And I'm boy, all kinds of shocking truth about how  species are disappearing about how glaciers are melting about how waters are  rising in the United States as a result of climate change, shocking truth and  shocking truth. But those are ones that you would come to mostly because you  said, oh, you know what, that would be good. Now I want to find out more about  it. And so be aware of things that you could say, that will work that will work as a  shocking truth. So that's shocking truth. Another good introduction is humor.  making people laugh is a good way to draw them in, they'll build rapport with  you. And they will give you all sorts of license to go ahead and tell them truth  from the Word of God. If they laugh at the introduction, there are all kinds of  humor. Here's a list that somebody came up with self effacing, humor, personal  anecdotes, you know, those are good, especially if you're not the hero, but  you're kind of the joke's on you. similes, metaphors, quotations, lists,  predictions, one liners, puns, props, stereotypes, etc. All of these kinds of things  are jokes that you might have run across, that would be fitting. And those are the kinds of things that can introduce people in a way that will say, Oh, yeah, I want  to listen to more of this guy. He's, he's seems to be or this woman, he or she  seems to be a really down to earth, normal kind of person. And so as you think  about your message, you can think about humor or a story that you've heard.  Now, there are some warnings that come with this type of introduction. One is, it  must relate to the message if it's going to be a good introduction. There are  people in fact, very well known people who don't practice this. Here is a man  named Joel Osteen. He pastors a church of 10s of 1000s, in Houston, Texas.  And he is well known. He writes books on motivation, self motivation, and  people listen to him. They tune him in on television, he's on the radio, he's  everywhere. But I'll tell you, frankly, as as somebody who's trying to teach you  how to preach, introductions are sometimes terrible, because he likes to start  with a joke. But the joke has nothing to do with the message that comes. So I  just want to give you a brief clip. At the beginning of one of his messages, here  is Joel Osteen telling a joke as he says at the beginning, I just want to start with 

something funny. It's a joy to come into your homes. And if you're ever in our  area, please stop by, I promise you, we will make you feel right at home. I like to  start with something funny and I heard about this positive farmer and negative  farmer. When it would rain. The positive farmer would say, Lord, thank You for  watering our crops. The negative farmer would say yes, but if he keeps this up,  it's going to rot the roots. When the sun came out, the positive farmer Lord,  thank you for giving our plants valuable nutrients. The negative farmer Yeah, but if it keeps it up, it's going to scorch the crops. One day they went bird hunting  together in a boat. The positive farmer just got a new bird dog. He was so proud  of them. He shot a bird fell in the water, said to the negative farmer, watch this.  The dog jumped out of the boat ran on top of the water, picked up the bird ran  back on top of the water, put it in the boat. He said, What do you think? The  negative farmer said, I should have known it that dog can't even swim. Now it's  a cute story, right? But his story, his message was about waiting for God  sometimes were placed in God's waiting room. And during that time, he  develops us and he develops our perseverance. He develops our faith. And it  was a message about that. And that story had nothing to do with it. And that's  one of those one points sit there as somebody trying to help you learn how to  preach effectively say don't do that. It will get people's attention. But the  attention will have nothing to do with the main point of what you want to teach  and that is God's word. And so use humor effectively, and make sure that it  relates to your message. The second warning, it must be appropriate to the  situation. If you tell a joke that is inappropriate to your audience, you could  offend them or could be inappropriate to the situation. I blew it this way. Just a  couple of weeks ago, I was doing the funeral of a man who had committed  suicide and met with a family as devastating the man was 54 years old. They've  been through a very difficult period in his life and decided to kill himself. And he  did that. And I wanted to make a point at the beginning of the message that this  feels so wrong. I told a story and it was a story about a little kids in Sunday  school. And the teacher was telling him in a very dramatic way about Abraham  sacrificing his son on mount on Mount Moriah. And how very dramatically told  the story of three days travel and marching up the mountain, but Isaiah,  Abraham and Isaiah, Abraham and Isaac, excuse me, Abraham, Isaac, and  Isaac asking father, we've got the wood and we got the fire, where's the sacrifice and and Abraham says God will provide and to get up there and there,  Abraham's about to plunge the knife into his son. And when a little child in the  group says, Stop, This is too horrible, she'd never heard this story before. And  then another little child of the class said, O Mary and don't worry. This is a God  story, they always turn out, okay. Now, I didn't intended so much as a joke, but  some people were laughing. But what I wanted to do was move on, from the  introduction to the transition. And the transition was that according to Scripture,  all of our lives are a god story. Psalm 139. The psalmist says that every day 

written for us, was written in God's book, every day that we were going to live  was written in God's book before one of them came to be, and how, and how  sometimes God stories don't turn out, okay? And we makes us wonder why. And so we I talked in that message about why, you know, where was God? Those  sorts of things. But if I had to do that over again, I would redo that section there,  so it must be appropriate. And that's the story. I want you to think about how you can use humor, how you can use shocking truth how you can use intriguing  question how you can use story to introduce your message. Now, sometimes  the introduction you're thinking about before you write the body of the message,  sometimes it comes after you've been working on the body of the message. But  the introduction is more important than you think. That's how I introduced the  section on introductions and I say it again. Next time we're going to turn to how  you develop the body of the message.