Video Transcript: Session 23 Concluding Effectively

Okay, we've looked at you know how to introduce a message then how do you  structure the body of the message you know, how do you how do you make  points that bring the congregation along with you that have to keep them tied in  and help them take the journey with you through your message we talked about  a variety of ways to do that. Now we're turning to conclusions How do you end  the message effectively there this clicker is not working Why didn't that work  there I see the blue light going well you just did it I mean, I just did it technical  difficulties maybe. Good to see churches always something that goes wrong  technology just a minute ago There goes there goes. Enter that's okay to do  that. Now it's working at least. Okay. This is one of the weird things. I think that I  have to click on here. And then it starts to work. It did that by accident, the first  time? Four, three. All right. Welcome back. We have looked at introductions and  how you introduce a message effectively. And we talked about the fact that  there's sometimes the introduction you come to first, or sometimes you do the  body of the message and come back, and then you're ready to create an  introduction, but but an introduction that hooks people that introduces the  theme, and that makes the transition into the message. So we've talked about  how you do that, effectively, we've talked about various ways you structure the  body of the message in a way that you take the congregation or your group of  people along with you, that they hang with you that they've got a sense of the  movement that you are going with and they're willing to take that journey with  you. Now we are talking about conclusions. How do you conclude a message  effectively? Now, this is an important subject, because conclusions are often  overlooked. So when I titled the ones on introductions, I said, introductions are  more important than you think. I could have titled this the same way conclusions are more important than you think. In fact, one of the blogs I was reading about  this, they had this picture of somebody putting the last piece in a puzzle, and  that ties the puzzle together. And I've got grandchildren who live near me, and  sometimes when they're over, we'll do a puzzle and a while back, we did a pretty complicated puzzle for them, and a jigsaw puzzle. And we got done and it was  missing a piece. And so no matter what we did, every time the kids walked by  that, they looked at it. And the sense was, and they would say it occasionally, it's not done, it's not done. So we had to do a search for that last piece, so that the  things would be finished. While in a sense, that's what a conclusion is to a  message. It's that sense of, okay, now we can finish this, it's finished, it's  wrapped up, it's completed. And I've seen the picture, I've created the picture.  And now it's complete. So we're gonna look at how you do that, a conclusion  that ties the message together and applies the message effectively, Bryan  Chappell talks about this in his book on Christ centered preaching, and he says,  you know, here's a graph of sermon intensity, when you introduce the message,  your at kind of a high point, because you've got their attention, initially, you've  got about two minutes to earn that attention throughout the message, and then 

the energy level of the intensity will drop. And then it will build as you go through the main points until the conclusion, he says should be the high point. And so  conclusions are important. That's the only point I'm making here. They're very,  very important. They tie the thing together, they apply the main theme, that  sentence that you form, that idea that you're trying to bring across into people's  hearts and minds. In this session, I want to look at some common mistakes with  conclusions. And then in the next session, we're going to look more closely at  how can you conclude a message effectively, there are several strategies to use for that. So here are some conclusion mistakes. And I've got to tell you, that as  we go through them, if you are preaching regularly, you've made some of these  I've made many, I've made every single one of these mistakes, but we're going  to look at them just to say, Okay, let's be aware, again, that we can blow this a  little bit, doesn't mean the Holy Spirit is out of the picture. And he won't apply it  in the way that he wants to. But it will make our message less effective for  people's hearts and lives. So here's one common mistake, don't plan your  conclusion. You've worked so hard during the week to create a message that  you feel like is compelling. You search to find the right introduction that will hook  people into your message. You've done all that, and you get to the conclusion,  and you just don't plan it. I've had this I had a group of people who met with me  every Sunday, I preached before the service to pray. And we would pray a  variety of things. And I would tell them what the message was about. And we'd  pray for God to apply it to their hearts. And I, I too many times, I would go to  them and say, You know what, I have no idea how this message is going to end.  Now, when I look back, I think was that an issue of time or sometime it was, you  know, it was a bit busy week, and I got to that writing of the message. And  putting that message together. And there just wasn't time enough to reflect on an effective conclusion. Or I just didn't want to take the time I was involved with  other things, and didn't come easy. And so I didn't do it. And the reality was,  those messages were less effective, in my opinion. Now, again, the Holy Spirit  can take a message that you haven't planned and can give you a conclusion. In  fact, I asked that as a prayer request to these people, I'd say, you know, pray  that the Holy Spirit take this and work in me at that moment so that the right  conclusion is there. And sometimes that happens. Sometimes it didn't. In fact, at one point when I was in three services in the morning, and I preached at 7:15, I  think it was at nine and 10:30, we would have during those times, I would find  the message conclusion getting better, because in the first service is kind of like  a trial run, I think, Oh, well, I could do that better. And then the second service, I  would do it a little better. And then the third service, all of a sudden, I have some ideas about how to conclude that message. And the conclusion was, I should  have been doing that during the week. And if I'd done that during the week,  those messages for those first two services would have been much more  effective. So kinda mistake is you just don't plan it. You just figure it's going to 

happen, or you trust the Holy Spirit, which is not a bad thing. But sometimes the  Holy Spirit would say do your work. And so that's common mistake number one,  a common mistake number two is you don't close the deal. Sometimes on some  themes, we're hesitant to close the deal. Now, if you're a salesman, or one of  

the things you learn when you're trained to be a salesman is to close the deal. In other words, you don't have a deal at a close in fact, I came across this cartoon,  you know where it says Maxi's a closer that's why management loves him. You  picture the guy you know pulling pulling him along, getting him in a neck lock  until you agree to do it. While salespeople some are very very good at this I I've  just was involved negotiating to buy a used car recently. And most of the  negotiation was on the phone because the car was in New York, and I'm in  Michigan. And but the salesperson was trained well, because every time I would come to a blocking point, she would say, let me go talk to management. Let me  go talk to management, she come back says, Well, what about this, and I'll we'll  meet you halfway, we'll split that cost at cetera, et cetera. Because her goal was  not to have me have a good feeling about her. Her goal was to close the deal.  And, sure enough, we both gave, we ended up at an agreement, I signed the  papers, bought a car, flew there and picked it up a month ago or so now. But  that's a salesman's purpose. In talking about the deal, it's not to have you talk  about the deal. It's not to have you be impressed with the car, or impressed with  the business or whatever. It's to close the deal. I have this challenge in my own  evangelistic efforts, I do not have the spiritual gift of evangelism. And yet, I have  been called many times to lead people to faith in Jesus Christ. And I've got to tell you that my style of evangelism has been one that has frustrated me at times  because I start hesitating when it gets to that point of closing the deal. And  instead, I will send people out and I'll say, You know what, I want you to think  and pray about this. And I'll talk to you in a couple of days or something, and  then hope that they've done that. But it's always a challenge for me to say, okay, now's the time pray. I worked for a while with a man who is old enough to be my  father. And I joined Team with him when I moved to California to the church  there. And I was amazed because this guy had a gift of evangelism. And one  night, I went calling with him on people who have visited the church, and three  different households that night, three different times, he had couples on their  knees in their living room praying to receive Jesus Christ, and I went home in  awe saying, oh, yeah, he knows how to close the deal. That's in an evangelistic  sense, well, the same thing could be true. In your preaching, that there might be  a subject that you shy away from somewhat, and so you're not ready to close  the deal. Or you're hesitant here, you're afraid you're going to be putting too  much stress on people, and they won't like you. And so you, in your conclusion,  you don't close the deal. Now, there are all sorts of situations where this can  come up, when you're asking people to make a significant step in their life. It  might be to give to a stewardship campaign to give to the running of the church, 

the area of money is one that we tend to be very, very hesitant about as  preachers. And so we're not ready to close the deal. And our, our conclusion will  be less effective. As a result, it might be that we're challenging people to be less  critical of each other or be quit fighting in the church. And, and, you know, we're  afraid that we would be misinterpreted, and so we don't close the deal. That's a  common mistake in preaching conclusions. And so don't do it. Another one is  what are called what is called searching for a runway. You know, oftentimes in  the literature, you read about preaching, and they talk about, you know, bringing, bringing up a sermon in for a landing. And so that's how I got this kind of  metaphor of the airplane landing. So you're on the airplane landing, but, or  you're on the airplane ready to land, and it's like the pilot can't find the airport.  And so you're circling around, circling around, circling around and circling  around. And I've been in planes at times where the landing is delayed and, and  that just frustrates frustrates audiences to no end, you'll find people who are  critical of their pastor, their preacher, this will be one of the reasons that he just  can't seem to bring it down. Can't seem to bring it to a conclusion. I worked. I  mentioned with one man about that just because people were frustrated and  and he knew it. So we talked about how in the world, you can bring this thing to  a landing. And so we went through his messages to talk exactly about that. So  that's another common mistake. Something you don't do. You've got to bring the  thing into landing. Conclusion should be short. Not these long wandering trips,  that the people aren't ready to go on you with. Another one using that same  metaphor. Another mistake, in conclusions is taking off again. Back This is a  picture where you'll see the plane lands and then it ends up taking off again  because the landing wasn't very good. When I was working on this this week,  the thing I thought of was a time when most frustrating trip in my life was a trip  where my wife and I and our child were living in Michigan. We traveled to San  Diego, California to visit some relatives there with our youngest son who was  about three years old, four years old. And then we're ready to go home. Climbed on a plane in San Diego flew to Los Angeles. And just as the plane was getting  ready to be fueled and back away, some people went on strike. So they the  people who put gas in the planes went on strike. And so they quit. They just quit. And so as a result, we were stuck right there. And we were stuck. And then  finally they got gas to the plane, we flew home to Grand Rapids, it was in  February. And so as a result, there was a chance of thunderstorms, or chance of storms, snowstorms, and we were landing in Grand Rapids, our destination, and my wife was pregnant. And so during this whole time, starting in Los Angeles,  she's throwing up, and so hallelujah, we're home, we're home. And we're just  about to land. And all of a sudden felt the paint plane power up. And they said  that while there's wind shear on the runway, and so we can't land there, we got a land in Detroit, which is about a three hour bus ride away. And so my wife is  sick, I've got this three year old, I'm trying to keep occupied, and cetera, et 

cetera, is the worst trip of our life. Now, if you're one of these who try to land and all of a sudden you take off again, people are going to be frustrated, it won't be  as bad as all that. What I just described is a trip, but they're going to be  frustrated. Because there's a sense when you land, you're landing a plane,  when you have given those messages in one way or another that if this  message is coming to an end, and then all of a sudden you take off, maybe you  forgot something, to say something, or maybe some new thought occurred to  you, or whatever you take off again, the people are going to be sitting here say,  wait a minute, we had our trays and our seats in the upright position, we're  ready to land. And now here we go, we're off again, it's going to be frustrating.  So be very careful about this one, that idea of taking off again. Another common  mistake is the discouraging finish. Now, this is especially true, if you're going  through a difficult time in your own life, that you will make this mistake in  conclusions. You, you can come to a point in your life where you could say  nothing's going to change. You can't do it. Good friend of mine was strategic  planning process with his church, they had hired a consultant. And, and he was  at a point in his life where he was very, very discouraged. Things were not  happening the way he thought they were going to happen in ministry. And as a  result, he brought a message which he says, you know, now is a was a mistake, was a mistake, because he got to the end after laying out what God wanted of  his church saying we're not there. We just are not there. And I don't know how  we're gonna get there. But we're not there. And close the prayer people were  kind of left with. And there was no hope, given no sense of direction given it was just a sense of the air kind out of the room that spiritually, people don't even  hardly know what to talk about afterwards, because they just landed on with this  huge conclusion, which says, okay, everything's bad in the world, and there's no  hope. The discouraging finish is a terrible conclusion. And so check yours,  especially when you're going through a time when your own faith is challenged,  or your own life is challenged, you watch very carefully for this kind. Second,  second, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 mistake, a lot of mistakes you can make with conclusions is the summarizing, summarize the whole. Now when I first was studying  preaching, one of the things we were told, as far as an outline is this is this is,  this is how you do it. And you tell them what you're going to tell them in the  introduction, then you tell them, and you tell them, and you tell them. And then in the conclusion, you tell them what you just told them again. I think that outline  may have worked back in the 1950s. In the culture in which I live. It doesn't work today. People get sick of that idea of okay, I'm being told, told, told, told, told told told now, yes, it should be a phrase, it should be repeating. There should be a  central idea that you're working with. But when you get to the end, and you go  back and you do everything you've done again, in our world today, my world  today, people start tuning out. We've heard it, we've heard it, we've heard it,  we've heard it, we've heard it. My wife and I visited the church just a month ago 

or so. And it was one of those times where the pastor did this. It was just okay.  All right. All right, I get the point. I get the point. I get the point. It's one thing to  hammer a point home, but to do this over and over again, in the conclusion to  

hear the whole message over again, was not conducive to going out with a real  joyful experience of wanting to live that message. So that's one of those where  you say Oh, I got to watch out for that conclusive mistake. And when I get to the  end, it's got to be short. And it's got to be encompassing the theme, but not the  whole message again. Okay. The other one is the abrupt conclusion. Yeah, I'm  out of time. I'm done. In fact, Andy Stanley and his book about communicating  for change talks about this as the brakes. In conclusion, you know, we're all of a  sudden, you're going along, if you're in a car, you've got a passenger, and all of  a sudden you slam on the brakes. And it's such a surprise that the passenger  kind of goes, I can't whoa, this shock that. I didn't expect that I didn't expect that  at all. Well, in a sense, that is a mistake conclusion, because it leaves people  like, oh, wait a minute, I'm just blown away. I'm shocked here. And this is one  you'll make, especially if you are in a situation where there are some time  strictures on what you can say, and how you can say, in fact, a friend of mine  with whom I'm working right now preached as a guest in a church, and he met  with the music director beforehand. And the music director said, Well, you know  what, here's your message slot, there was an organized service, everything was carefully planned. And he said, You got 15 minutes. In that period, you you got  to get your message done in that 15 minutes. Well, yeah. 30 minutes, 30 minute  message planned. And so all of a sudden, he's trying to figure out how do I  compress on we do? And he said, I did this, it was kind of like, okay, oh, my  time's up. I'm done. And that's it. A horrible mistake and a conclusion because  people are left with that feeling of what, what, what's happened? I don't know  what just happened. Another mistake in conclusions. The left field conclusion. In  fact, you know, there's a colloquialism in English that says, boy that came out of  left field. In other words, it was something that was just totally unexpected. Fact,  here's, this is a group that teaches English as a second language, Kaplan  University. And they, they teach these idioms, these colloquialisms that we use  in English. And if something is out of left field, you'll notice it's something that  occurs unexpectedly. Well, this can be mistaken. And it goes in and can be a  good thing and a conclusion if done, right. But when all of a sudden, you start  getting new information in your conclusion, that should have been in the body of  the message. People are saying, Whoa, whoa, especially if somebody has given the clues like, you know, Hey, before we conclude or, you know, in conclusion, if  you say something like that, and then all of a sudden you go off with new  information, it's going to be a mistake, because people will start forgetting the  main point that you really wanted to emphasize. So that's another mistake. Be  careful for it. And then finally, the machine gun finish. And picture of a machine  gun, you know how machine gun works. It's not just firing a shot, it's firing 

multiple shots all over the place. And the idea is not that I'm aiming carefully to  hit that person that's kind of this mass, kind of, I'm going to catch everybody  within the range of this, this gun right now. And so it swings back and forth. And  the idea is not to kill one, but to kill many well, a machine gun conclusion can  confuse people. For instance, you take a message in and now you want to make all of these conclude all of these concluding remarks in application. So you  make an application that well, this is what this means for children. This is what it  means for your teens. This is what it means for you parents. This is what it  means for those of you who are just married, this is what it means for those of  you who have children and what your role was parents taking care of those  children. This is what it means if you're getting older, and your children are  adults, and this is what it means that that's what that's about that pretty soon. If  you've got machine gun kind of applications, people lose sight of the main point  of big picture. And so be very careful that your conclusions are to the point. And  they're more than idea or rifle that we talked about when we talked about finding the one main idea. Your conclusion should be a succinct and to the point. Now,  that's a bunch of mistakes that you can make a bunch of them and it's time to  just be careful when you make your conclusions to do it well, and to do it the  way we're going to talk about in the next session. So see you then