Today’s guest post comes to us from Yancey Arrington for PreachingToday.com.

You know that feeling of being locked in as preacher? When you depart from the pulpit confident that the message you intended to give was the one given. You witnessed congregants lean forward and engage every movement of your message. All the words pouring from your mouth feel less like a sermon delivered from your head and more like a message flowing from your heart. These are the sacred moments that make us grateful to God for the opportunity to preach in a local church.

Then there are times that are quite the opposite. Somewhat ironically, it often happens the next Sunday. The sermon feels like walking through quicksand—no traction for your hearers whatsoever. The dynamic of the room is at a low ebb, if not completely dead. You wonder what went wrong.

What eats at you is that you didn’t prepare any differently. One question dominates your thinking: Why?

If preaching is calling people to respond to the information we’ve explained, then arranging our sermon material with their engagement in mind should be the priority. To organize the components of our message for maximum engagement, think story. Why do people spend time and money watching television shows, viewing movies, and reading books? It’s because the stories that stick with us inherently leverage the power of tension.

Good stories (and storytellers) don’t give away all the answers at the start. They allow the audience to engage with struggle before the tension is finally relieved. Imagine walking into the theater to see The Avengers: Infinity War and, after the opening credits roll, the audience is immediately transported to the defeat of evil Thanos by our beloved superheroes. Do you believe that would affect how you watched the rest of the movie? You wouldn’t even think about buying tickets for Infinity War 2. The reason: all the tension has been relieved.

Think of it this way: Tension = Attention. Keeping one keeps the other. Good stories are arranged to maintain tension as long as possible, and sermons should seek to do the same.

Click here to read the full article.

Your partner in ministry,

Nelson

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About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.