Tell me Something I Don't Know
I've listened to dozens of speakers this week. And I have a few reflections and self-reflections on communication. Here is my predominant thought: tell me something I don't know.
The church ought to be the place where original thought is most prevalent. We have the Holy Spirit to illuminate us and lead us into all truth. But all too often I hear what I've heard a thousand times. So I tend to tune out. Challenge my assumptions. Violate my expectations. Shift my paradigms. The best speakers have a way of saying old things in new ways.
You can tell the difference between something that is manufactured and something that is anointed. It is the difference between predictable and prophetic. It is the difference between theoretical and practical.
One last thought. I love a speaker who makes me think and makes me feel. They have great thoughts, but they speak from the heart.
Make me think.
Make me laugh.
Make me dream.
Make me cry.
Make me repent.
Make me change.
Make me remember.
Make me imagine.
The church ought to be the place where original thought is most prevalent. We have the Holy Spirit to illuminate us and lead us into all truth. But all too often I hear what I've heard a thousand times. So I tend to tune out. Challenge my assumptions. Violate my expectations. Shift my paradigms. The best speakers have a way of saying old things in new ways.
You can tell the difference between something that is manufactured and something that is anointed. It is the difference between predictable and prophetic. It is the difference between theoretical and practical.
One last thought. I love a speaker who makes me think and makes me feel. They have great thoughts, but they speak from the heart.
Make me think.
Make me laugh.
Make me dream.
Make me cry.
Make me repent.
Make me change.
Make me remember.
Make me imagine.
13 Comments:
Great thoughts! You gave words to the way that I feel when I am preparing messages.
Thanks!
BAM! There it is! I would love to be original and comment with "something you don't know", but...I can't. I was a senior pastor for 10 years and it was always hard to stay away from what everyone had already said or was saying.
Since I left that role in 1999, I have felt the many painful moments that my church members must have felt under my ministry. I have experienced many good communicators, but I have also sat under many who forgot to study; copied an Ed Young's message; was inspired that morning watching the same Pastor I watched before church or just couldn't get excited about something they wanted me to get excited about.
Thank you for your thoughts and really cool insight and boldness as to what we should be when we stand in front of those who have set aside that time in their week so we could...."Tell Them Something They Don't Know"!
Bryan
www.imforgiven.com
So true! Seems like when pastors do finally step up, challenge, and push the envelope they take a lot of heat. That's got to get old...keep pushing forward. There ARE some of us out there who want to be pushed!! We all need it!
AAAAAAHHHH!!!Just HAD to comment about this post. This is it right here. You nailed it. Growing up in church my whole life, this right here has been something that I so desperately crave to see, but is also so missing. It is one of my greatest passions. Regarding Jesus' ministry they said, "nothing like this has ever been seen before in all Israel." AAAAHHHHH!! (crying in the wilderness- words fail me.)
I'm right there with you, but if I'm being completely honest I think "back to the basics" is one of the most certain ways to tell me something I already know.
Also, how does one "tell me something I don't know," and yet remain relevant?
Often times we put too much emphasis on the responsibility of the speaker to communicate something new, yet we ourselves are not actively seeking it. I wonder, are we actively "turning our ears to wisdom and applying our hearts to understanding?" -Proverbs 2:1-6
Stephen,
I think Jesus set the example with the parables--he said old things in new ways. Master reframer. Took old testament truths and redeemed cultural metaphors to frame them. He was always teaching for unlearning--"you have heard that it was said...but I tell you."
I honestly think the best communicators I've heard are ones who are so simple--back to the basics--but do it in a way that illuminates and motivates.
For what it's worth, in a church context...I think sometimes we need good old-fasioned PBJ. I'm not sure any pastor is capable of saying something people have never heard every week :) But it better be a fresh word not stale manna :)
My reflections on communication certainly apply across the table, but they are more reflective of "conference communication" and leadership. I go to conferences to be stretched. And as Oliver Wendel Holmes said, "A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original shape."
PM
Thanks for the feedback, PM. This is largely just my way of trying to make sense of several thoughts running through my head. Thanks for being my sounding board =)
I don't typically comment on my own post, but here are a few more reflections on communication.
I need to know that a speaker is human. It is amazing the way people comment on our "failed" church plant in Chicago when I share that story. We love success stories. But we need failure stories!
Tell me Your story. Reveal your deepest convictions. What drives you? Share your doubts and fears; your likes and dislikes; your pet peeves. I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Mark
Mark,
This was a great post - and your comments on it made it better.
We do need to challenge ourselves and our listeners with new thoughts, or old ones expressed in new ways. But, like you said, we need the PBJ too - but in a fresh way that flows straight from the heart.
And yes - we NEED failure stories! Lots of them, to remind us of how difficult it is to chase those lions! (Great book btw!)
Thanks for the encouragement to step out and let it fly!
Mark,
Great post! But I wonder if we could take a look at your thoughts from another angle.
The other day I heard Miroslav Volf speak about the incarnation. He said the most stunning thing about the incarnation is that Jesus Christ had no agenda of his own.
Now Jesus certainly had an agenda, one that drove him all the way to the cross, but it wasn’t his own. It was the Father’s agenda.
Jesus said, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from him who sent me” – John 7:16.
Jesus was mere witness to the TRUTH. He was the TRUTH because he was a witness of the TRUTH.
Today we place a high premium on originality. If you don’t add something of your own, you are not worth your salt. You are just repeating someone else.
Authenticity is prized. I have to figure out who I am and how I am unique; I need to be true to myself when I speak and if I am true to myself then I am OK… as long as my “self” is a bit original.
There couldn’t be a stronger contrast to what Jesus was after.
Jesus was not looking to make any creative contribution to what his Father said. Something original that he could take pride in. To Jesus it was always the Father’s teaching.
Jesus said, “I do only what I see the Father doing” (John 5:19). Not what I come up with, or what I like, or what is pleasing to my audience, but only what I hear the Father say.
The astounding thing about Jesus is that he did not seek his own glory, but the glory of the Father.
Volf says that when you strive for originality you are seeking glory in some sense. When we seek our own glory (as we all do) we diminish, in a paradoxical way, ourselves.
On the other hand, if you seek only the glory of the God you are serving, He will glorify you.
Jesus was obviously glorified (Phil 2:9-11). But that is because Jesus’ glory was his Father’s glory. Jesus made his Father’s glory his own.
What if we simply read the gospel in such a way that people are not impressed with how well we read it, but by what is being said?
So here is what I am wrestling with… if our goal as followers of Christ is to cultivate and create culture, how do we do that in a way that brings glory to the Father and not just for the sake of originality?
Paul Stewart
Paul,
Really thoughtful thoughts!
A few thoughts to add to the mix. I think God loves to speak through our personality--he even does so with the different books of the Bible. So when truth goes through our unique personality the end result is a degree of originality.
I think one key is to live in "the tension of opposites. We need to think in both/and terms. It's not truth or creativity. It is both/and.
I love Job 11:6--true wisdom has two sides. I think we need to live and communicate in the tension.
My two cents,
Mark
So true about God using our personalities with the truth. I would like to add experience to that too--each of us have unique experiences that can enable us to present the "same" message in a real, honest, and unique way.
Yes, too on needing stories of failure. Some of my greatest growths in faith have come from failures--and it's great to know I am not alone.
OK guys, I'm not religious in any sense of the word. That is I don't feel I need to invoke the term god to express my thoughts. Anyway here is my eternal question.
I believe that everything should be questioned, that is we should gather our own evidence since we cant necessarily trust our senses or our teachers, but how can each individual validate every belief. There is simply not enough time in our lives. However, if we blindly form our beliefs on faith then we are sure to be led astray. Since it would be just as sensible to believe in horses as it would be to believe in unicorns. Blind faith and good stories are not enough to lead us in the direction of the truth.
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