Andy Stanley is a master communicator. I'm not aware of anyone else with such a gift to make virtually any subject both compelling and seem vitally important. Here are 10 quotes from him on communication & preaching.
QUOTE #1 - "Approach is what makes content interesting"
Approach is what makes content interesting . We're all preaching the same Bible. We have different approaches
QUOTE #2 | "You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people"
You cannot communicate complicated information to large groups of people. As you increase the number of people, you have to decrease the complexity of the information.
QUOTE #3 | "Communicators need to figure out how well they engage people"
Communicators need to figure out how well do they engage people, and they should not talk one word longer than people are engaged.
QUOTE #4 | The wrong question | "Am I going to fill the time?"
Preachers prepare with this fear: 'Am I going to be able to fill the time?' The audience never worries about that.
QUOTE #5 | "Make people feel like they need an answer to a question"
Preaching on Sunday mornings is such a simple thing, and by complicating it, I think we all do ourselves and the audience a disservice. It is very simple. Here is the model: Make people feel like they need an answer to a question.
QUOTE #6 | "Every sermon or worthwhile talk needs..."
Every sermon or worthwhile talk needs, Information, Motivation, Application,Inspiration and Reiteration.
QUOTE #7 | "Our approach to communicating should be shaped by our goal in communication"
Our approach to communicating should be shaped by our goal in communicating. Most of us inherited our approach to communicating. We grew up listening to preachers who all took basically the same approach. Then we went to schools where we were all taught to develop messages along the lines of the style we grew up listening to. Chances are, nobody challenged you to think about your goal as a communicator. They just taught you an approach. But if your approach to communicating does not support your goal as a communicator there is a disconnect.
QUOTE #8 | "It is the job of the Holy Spirit to take the spoken word & convict"
I agree, it is the job of the Holy Spirit to take the spoken word and convict, convince, and change the hearer. And we have no control over what part of what we say the Spirit might choose to use. Further, I think you would agree that the Holy Spirit often takes different ideas, illustrations, and insights from the same message and applies them to different people in various ways.
QUOTE #9 | "Show up every Sunday morning with a burden"
Show up every Sunday morning with a burden that is so heavy that you feel like you will die if you don’t deliver it. And pray for that. Because if you don’t have that, then you just have information. The people will put up with all kinds of a lack of excellence if there is an intensity and a burden that has to be delivered. And many times I have looked at my notes and thought, “Yeah, this might be helpful, but God, what’s the thing I can’t wait until Sunday morning to deliver? And I honestly can’t wait for Sunday morning. The other thing I always tell pastors, “If you preach from your weaknesses, you will never run out of sermon material.
QUOTE #10 | "The issue is: are people engaged, not how long the sermon is"
There is this myth that people say, “Sermons need to be short because people today have short attention spans.” That is totally irrelevant. People’s attention spans are as long as their engagement. If I’m engaged, I will sit and stay engaged until I have to go to the bathroom. The issue is: are people engaged, not how long the sermon is.
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