Sermon Moves According To Listener Reaction
Preaching
The Preacher's Edge
Sermon Structure From Congregational Reaction
Down through the years, those who have given effective speeches have done so because they followed an old and simple formula based on audience reaction. It can give us our edge in preaching today. Already in 1935 Richard C. Borden was explaining the listener's laws for speech organization with a formula of how the audience felt and the steps the speaker should take to cope with those feelings. He claimed, "It is so simple that you can write it on your thumbnail:
1. Ho hum!
2. Why bring that up?
3. For instance!
4. So what?"
In order to meet these four stages of audience reaction Borden recommended the following four-step organization of a speech:
1. Start a fire - kindling a quick flame of spontaneous interest right away.
2. Build a bridge - between listener's island of own interest to the heart of the message.
3. Get down to cases - giving purposive assertion about the subject.
4. Ask for action - answering the listener's question: So what?
In the above speech theory for persuasive speaking, often referred to as "the magic formula for persuasive speaking," we can look first at the congregant's reaction to the preaching time and then move to recommending a formula for organizing a sermon.
We can modify and expand the formula thus: Listener's Reaction to the Sermon.
1. Ho Hum - settle in, yawn, shift mind into neutral.
2. Why bring that up? - Interesting, but what does that have to do with me?
3. What's the point? - Give me the heart of it.
4. For instance - I see, now an example to be sure I understand.
5. What about you? - I wonder what the preacher believes?
6. So what? - I'm convinced. What should I do now?
7. Finish up - Let's get out of here and get started.
If you believe that pretty well describes how the listeners respond during the preaching time, then the following can serve as the major moves in a sermon that takes seriously the listener's listening habits:
1. Get the attention of the listeners right away.
2. Build a bridge with one foundation on the hearers present and one on the truth to be communicated.
3. Give the point of the message.
4. Give an example of the truth communicated.
5. Tell your own witness to the Gospel.
6. Give the first action steps to be taken because of this truth.
7. Frame it. Close by bringing the listener back to the fire where you started.
Let's now take each of these sermon moves and see their implications in our sermon construction.
THE FIRST THREE MOVES OF AN AUDIENCE REACTION SERMON
1. Start a fire - kindling a quick flame of spontaneous interest right away. This is in reaction to the "ho hum" and settling in that takes place after the first part of the worship service and when the preaching time has arrived. We need to work long and hard on that first sentence! It ought not be mish-mash or holy words or pronouncements even on the text. We should read the scripture outside the pulpit and then move into the pulpit. The first thing out of our mouth ought to be this fire which gets attention. Save the prayer for the end or at the altar.
Alan H. Monroe lists nine factors of attention which are believed to be capable of capturing the spontaneous attention of an audience:
1. Activity or movement
2. Reality
3. Proximity
4. Familiarity
5. Novelty
6. Suspense
7. Conflict
8. Humor
9. The Vital
People are most interested in what concerns them personally. We are concerned most with something that affects us personally. That always gets our attention.2
Construct a bold sentence which is attention-getting and almost shocking. Eugene Lowry in his book The Homiletical Plot calls this "upsetting the equilibrium." Sometimes a story that is attractive will work to build this fire. Often the best way to use a story in this situation is to start in the middle of the story much like many of the television programs do. Lowry writes: "The first step in the presented sermon, then, is to upset the equilibrium of the listeners, and is analogous to the opening scene of a play or movie in which some kind of conflict or tension is introduced."3
Sometimes a news event will work here. The first line in a newspaper story is almost always written to build a fire. When you go into the pulpit do not picture your listeners as all ears and ready to hear every word you have to say. Build a fire for attention.
Some don'ts: "The lesson for today tells us ..." "When I sat down to write this sermon...."
A couple do's: "According to the Associated Press, ninety-some passengers on a ferry boat off the coast of Finland drowned in the sea last Tuesday. Where was God?"
Another example: "As teenagers we would find 'dummy Parker' in the public restroom and taunt him until he ran and hid from us."
2. Now that the fire is built and we have our listeners' attention, it's time to build a bridge.
The success of the sermon hangs on how well we bridge from what we used to get attention to the main focus of the sermon. Our people live on an island of their little world so we must bridge them over to the Gospel or, using Luther's analogy of the two kingdoms, we build a bridge from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God.
The bridge ought to answer the listener's question, "Why bring that up?" It will assure those whose attention you now have that they have an important reason(s) for listening further.
An example: "We all have questioned whether a far-off God even cares when disaster like the sinking of that ferry boat takes place. We almost say out loud - why did God allow that horrible event to happen if God is a God who loves us?"
Or a second example: "How we treat those who don't conform to our notion of what's normal is something we all need to think through. Perhaps you aren't especially proud of the way you have treated society's disenfranchised and deviant from all the rest of us."
We only internalize what we are convinced we need to learn. The bridge shows our listeners what they need to know.
Regardless of our subject, we must first get the listeners' attention and then convince them that it is crucial for them to consider what's coming next from the Gospel.
3. It's now time to announce our focus. It ought to answer briefly and clearly the point of the sermon. Some would advocate putting the scripture text here. I would prefer not. This is a place to state a crisp, positive sentence that could stand alone and be remembered. It ought to be short enough that it can be repeated throughout the remainder of the sermon.
An example: "The point is, there is a big difference between what God wants to happen to us and what God allows to happen to us. Because there is a disaster doesn't mean God is absent."
Or another example: "Jesus modeled a life of love for the unlovely. He wants us to love them also."
4. Relate an example. Our listeners are listening, are sure this applies to them, have the point of the message, and now they are asking to be given a "for instance." And so we relate an example or examples.
The example is where and when we can cite the scripture that throws light on the focus of the message. It is the text for the day which led us to construct the first part of the sermon the way we did. Notice that we begin with the scripture as we prepare the sermon but save it to this point in order for it to have the most impact on the message.
If it is an extended metaphor sermon, it would be the main body of the narrative with which we built the fire in the first place. In other sermons it would be one or several scriptural references from which we have obtained the main point.
Place here several examples, alternating them from the scriptural example and contemporary society's examples. Throughout the giving of these examples repeat over and over the words of the point.
An example: "Consider the story Jesus told of the man beaten in the ditch along the road to Jericho."
5. The listeners are now wondering about what the preacher believes. Here is the place to give our own witness.
Since most preachers have been schooled in seminaries which told them never to mention themselves in the sermon, and since many of us are very shy about personal witness, this can feel awkward at first, but can be the most compelling portion of the sermon.
In his book, The "I" of the Sermon, Richard Thulin makes the case well for giving one's own witness.
I have claimed that the preacher's personal story lies at the heart of the pulpit presence of the "I." Whether that presence appears in the form of declaration, or in the assumption of responsibility, or in the surrender of oneself to the content and dynamics of the sermon, it must locate its identity in personal story. Preachers, I have suggested, will not even know what they are talking about unless what they say is consciously anchored in their own stories.4
In preaching, as in other forms of pastoral ministry, the preacher cannot hide. People demand a clear and honest word from the one who speaks. That demand will not be met by a barrage of Bible verses or by a host of brilliant quotations from recognized theologians. That demand will be met only when the preacher speaks the truth out of his or her own life.5
Simply state what you believe about the point of the sermon and/or how this idea impacts your life.
An example: "When my father died I had a terrible time believing God was there for me or that God even cared that my father died and I lost him. Then my pastor explained the difference between what God permits to happen and what God causes to happen. He said God didn't want me to lose my father but simply had to allow natural law to operate. I was relieved and grateful."
Or another example: "Like teasing dummy Parker as a teenager, I still am repulsed by those who are too deviant from the normal. I continually have to be reminded that they also are God's people - and if for no other reason I must love them on God's behalf."
6. First steps to take. After so much motivation and inspiration has been spoken in the sermon, it's natural that the listener is asking "so what?" Here is where so much of our preaching is weak. We fail to instruct the congregation on what they should do individually and together because of the message they have just heard proclaimed from the pulpit. Notice in that second chapter of Acts how Peter preached his Great Sermon on Pentecost and the people responded by asking him what they should do about it. Peter told them to repent and be baptized. And they did! So we must provide the possible steps to take in the listeners' lives and ministry as they leave the worship service and return to the real world of work, life and play.
An example: "During the altar prayer today let's pray for the victims of that horrible disaster off the coast of Finland. Let's pray for the survivors, too, that they can understand the difference between what God permits to happen and what God causes to happen. Try seeking out people in our community who have suffered great loss and find a way to minister to them, explaining the difference between what God permits and what God causes to happen."
Or another instance: "As a congregation, let's get a shelter for battered women established in our town. Our church council ought to be challenged to provide the space here in our building. Perhaps this week you could seek out a person our community has not treated well - maybe even people you don't think deserve it - and do some nice thing for them."
7. Frame it. Just as soon as we begin to give specific steps, the normal thing for the listener's mind is to think about doing those things and desiring the sermon to end. So we conclude by framing it.
Framing a sermon means to end it by returning to the first few sentences with which we began the sermon. This communicates that we have prepared carefully and that we have completed that which we set out to do.
An example: "When we think about those (980) passengers dying in the dark of night off the coast of Finland it's a terrible thought. We can be certain, however, that God was there with them and God's heart aches for their survivors as well."
A second illustration: "My prayer is that God will forgive me for those times when I joined other teenagers in my town to taunt dummy Parker there in the public restroom. Now I'm confident that he also was one of God's people and Christ has taught me to love the 'dummy Parkers' of the world on God's behalf."
Reuel Hoew is critical of sermons because:
1. Sermons often contain too many ideas.
2. Sermons have too much analysis and too little answer.
3. Sermons are too formal and impersonal.
4. Preachers assume that lay people have a greater knowledge and understanding of biblical and theological lore and language than they actually do.
5. Sermons are too propositional; they contain too few illustrations; and the illustrations are often too literary and not helpful.6
You can see that we have in the old magic formula for persuasive speaking a technique for overcoming these criticisms and proclaiming the good Gospel to our people but ordering it in such a fashion that it answers the listeners' questions as they come out throughout the preaching. This formula can move us from preaching correct sermons with which no one can debate to preaching sermons which are interesting, inviting, and which move congregation and individuals to specific action.
It is the assurance of John McClure also when he writes: "A rhetorical schema for preaching is meant to help the preacher organize the diverse verbal components of preaching so that they can be strategically or purposely effective for a particular congregation."7
1. Borden, Public Speaking - As Listeners Like It! (New York and London: Harper Brothers, 1935), p. 3
2. Batsell Barrett Baxter, Speaking For The Master (New York: Macmillan Company, 1954), p. 111.
3. Eugene Lowry, The Homiletical Plot (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980), pp. 30-31.
4. Richard L. Thulin, The "I" of the Sermon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 24.
5. Ibid., p. 13.
6. Reuel L. Howe, Partners in Preaching (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), pp. 26-31.
7. John S. McClure, The Four Codes of Preaching (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991), p. 3.
Down through the years, those who have given effective speeches have done so because they followed an old and simple formula based on audience reaction. It can give us our edge in preaching today. Already in 1935 Richard C. Borden was explaining the listener's laws for speech organization with a formula of how the audience felt and the steps the speaker should take to cope with those feelings. He claimed, "It is so simple that you can write it on your thumbnail:
1. Ho hum!
2. Why bring that up?
3. For instance!
4. So what?"
In order to meet these four stages of audience reaction Borden recommended the following four-step organization of a speech:
1. Start a fire - kindling a quick flame of spontaneous interest right away.
2. Build a bridge - between listener's island of own interest to the heart of the message.
3. Get down to cases - giving purposive assertion about the subject.
4. Ask for action - answering the listener's question: So what?
In the above speech theory for persuasive speaking, often referred to as "the magic formula for persuasive speaking," we can look first at the congregant's reaction to the preaching time and then move to recommending a formula for organizing a sermon.
We can modify and expand the formula thus: Listener's Reaction to the Sermon.
1. Ho Hum - settle in, yawn, shift mind into neutral.
2. Why bring that up? - Interesting, but what does that have to do with me?
3. What's the point? - Give me the heart of it.
4. For instance - I see, now an example to be sure I understand.
5. What about you? - I wonder what the preacher believes?
6. So what? - I'm convinced. What should I do now?
7. Finish up - Let's get out of here and get started.
If you believe that pretty well describes how the listeners respond during the preaching time, then the following can serve as the major moves in a sermon that takes seriously the listener's listening habits:
1. Get the attention of the listeners right away.
2. Build a bridge with one foundation on the hearers present and one on the truth to be communicated.
3. Give the point of the message.
4. Give an example of the truth communicated.
5. Tell your own witness to the Gospel.
6. Give the first action steps to be taken because of this truth.
7. Frame it. Close by bringing the listener back to the fire where you started.
Let's now take each of these sermon moves and see their implications in our sermon construction.
THE FIRST THREE MOVES OF AN AUDIENCE REACTION SERMON
1. Start a fire - kindling a quick flame of spontaneous interest right away. This is in reaction to the "ho hum" and settling in that takes place after the first part of the worship service and when the preaching time has arrived. We need to work long and hard on that first sentence! It ought not be mish-mash or holy words or pronouncements even on the text. We should read the scripture outside the pulpit and then move into the pulpit. The first thing out of our mouth ought to be this fire which gets attention. Save the prayer for the end or at the altar.
Alan H. Monroe lists nine factors of attention which are believed to be capable of capturing the spontaneous attention of an audience:
1. Activity or movement
2. Reality
3. Proximity
4. Familiarity
5. Novelty
6. Suspense
7. Conflict
8. Humor
9. The Vital
People are most interested in what concerns them personally. We are concerned most with something that affects us personally. That always gets our attention.2
Construct a bold sentence which is attention-getting and almost shocking. Eugene Lowry in his book The Homiletical Plot calls this "upsetting the equilibrium." Sometimes a story that is attractive will work to build this fire. Often the best way to use a story in this situation is to start in the middle of the story much like many of the television programs do. Lowry writes: "The first step in the presented sermon, then, is to upset the equilibrium of the listeners, and is analogous to the opening scene of a play or movie in which some kind of conflict or tension is introduced."3
Sometimes a news event will work here. The first line in a newspaper story is almost always written to build a fire. When you go into the pulpit do not picture your listeners as all ears and ready to hear every word you have to say. Build a fire for attention.
Some don'ts: "The lesson for today tells us ..." "When I sat down to write this sermon...."
A couple do's: "According to the Associated Press, ninety-some passengers on a ferry boat off the coast of Finland drowned in the sea last Tuesday. Where was God?"
Another example: "As teenagers we would find 'dummy Parker' in the public restroom and taunt him until he ran and hid from us."
2. Now that the fire is built and we have our listeners' attention, it's time to build a bridge.
The success of the sermon hangs on how well we bridge from what we used to get attention to the main focus of the sermon. Our people live on an island of their little world so we must bridge them over to the Gospel or, using Luther's analogy of the two kingdoms, we build a bridge from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of God.
The bridge ought to answer the listener's question, "Why bring that up?" It will assure those whose attention you now have that they have an important reason(s) for listening further.
An example: "We all have questioned whether a far-off God even cares when disaster like the sinking of that ferry boat takes place. We almost say out loud - why did God allow that horrible event to happen if God is a God who loves us?"
Or a second example: "How we treat those who don't conform to our notion of what's normal is something we all need to think through. Perhaps you aren't especially proud of the way you have treated society's disenfranchised and deviant from all the rest of us."
We only internalize what we are convinced we need to learn. The bridge shows our listeners what they need to know.
Regardless of our subject, we must first get the listeners' attention and then convince them that it is crucial for them to consider what's coming next from the Gospel.
3. It's now time to announce our focus. It ought to answer briefly and clearly the point of the sermon. Some would advocate putting the scripture text here. I would prefer not. This is a place to state a crisp, positive sentence that could stand alone and be remembered. It ought to be short enough that it can be repeated throughout the remainder of the sermon.
An example: "The point is, there is a big difference between what God wants to happen to us and what God allows to happen to us. Because there is a disaster doesn't mean God is absent."
Or another example: "Jesus modeled a life of love for the unlovely. He wants us to love them also."
4. Relate an example. Our listeners are listening, are sure this applies to them, have the point of the message, and now they are asking to be given a "for instance." And so we relate an example or examples.
The example is where and when we can cite the scripture that throws light on the focus of the message. It is the text for the day which led us to construct the first part of the sermon the way we did. Notice that we begin with the scripture as we prepare the sermon but save it to this point in order for it to have the most impact on the message.
If it is an extended metaphor sermon, it would be the main body of the narrative with which we built the fire in the first place. In other sermons it would be one or several scriptural references from which we have obtained the main point.
Place here several examples, alternating them from the scriptural example and contemporary society's examples. Throughout the giving of these examples repeat over and over the words of the point.
An example: "Consider the story Jesus told of the man beaten in the ditch along the road to Jericho."
5. The listeners are now wondering about what the preacher believes. Here is the place to give our own witness.
Since most preachers have been schooled in seminaries which told them never to mention themselves in the sermon, and since many of us are very shy about personal witness, this can feel awkward at first, but can be the most compelling portion of the sermon.
In his book, The "I" of the Sermon, Richard Thulin makes the case well for giving one's own witness.
I have claimed that the preacher's personal story lies at the heart of the pulpit presence of the "I." Whether that presence appears in the form of declaration, or in the assumption of responsibility, or in the surrender of oneself to the content and dynamics of the sermon, it must locate its identity in personal story. Preachers, I have suggested, will not even know what they are talking about unless what they say is consciously anchored in their own stories.4
In preaching, as in other forms of pastoral ministry, the preacher cannot hide. People demand a clear and honest word from the one who speaks. That demand will not be met by a barrage of Bible verses or by a host of brilliant quotations from recognized theologians. That demand will be met only when the preacher speaks the truth out of his or her own life.5
Simply state what you believe about the point of the sermon and/or how this idea impacts your life.
An example: "When my father died I had a terrible time believing God was there for me or that God even cared that my father died and I lost him. Then my pastor explained the difference between what God permits to happen and what God causes to happen. He said God didn't want me to lose my father but simply had to allow natural law to operate. I was relieved and grateful."
Or another example: "Like teasing dummy Parker as a teenager, I still am repulsed by those who are too deviant from the normal. I continually have to be reminded that they also are God's people - and if for no other reason I must love them on God's behalf."
6. First steps to take. After so much motivation and inspiration has been spoken in the sermon, it's natural that the listener is asking "so what?" Here is where so much of our preaching is weak. We fail to instruct the congregation on what they should do individually and together because of the message they have just heard proclaimed from the pulpit. Notice in that second chapter of Acts how Peter preached his Great Sermon on Pentecost and the people responded by asking him what they should do about it. Peter told them to repent and be baptized. And they did! So we must provide the possible steps to take in the listeners' lives and ministry as they leave the worship service and return to the real world of work, life and play.
An example: "During the altar prayer today let's pray for the victims of that horrible disaster off the coast of Finland. Let's pray for the survivors, too, that they can understand the difference between what God permits to happen and what God causes to happen. Try seeking out people in our community who have suffered great loss and find a way to minister to them, explaining the difference between what God permits and what God causes to happen."
Or another instance: "As a congregation, let's get a shelter for battered women established in our town. Our church council ought to be challenged to provide the space here in our building. Perhaps this week you could seek out a person our community has not treated well - maybe even people you don't think deserve it - and do some nice thing for them."
7. Frame it. Just as soon as we begin to give specific steps, the normal thing for the listener's mind is to think about doing those things and desiring the sermon to end. So we conclude by framing it.
Framing a sermon means to end it by returning to the first few sentences with which we began the sermon. This communicates that we have prepared carefully and that we have completed that which we set out to do.
An example: "When we think about those (980) passengers dying in the dark of night off the coast of Finland it's a terrible thought. We can be certain, however, that God was there with them and God's heart aches for their survivors as well."
A second illustration: "My prayer is that God will forgive me for those times when I joined other teenagers in my town to taunt dummy Parker there in the public restroom. Now I'm confident that he also was one of God's people and Christ has taught me to love the 'dummy Parkers' of the world on God's behalf."
Reuel Hoew is critical of sermons because:
1. Sermons often contain too many ideas.
2. Sermons have too much analysis and too little answer.
3. Sermons are too formal and impersonal.
4. Preachers assume that lay people have a greater knowledge and understanding of biblical and theological lore and language than they actually do.
5. Sermons are too propositional; they contain too few illustrations; and the illustrations are often too literary and not helpful.6
You can see that we have in the old magic formula for persuasive speaking a technique for overcoming these criticisms and proclaiming the good Gospel to our people but ordering it in such a fashion that it answers the listeners' questions as they come out throughout the preaching. This formula can move us from preaching correct sermons with which no one can debate to preaching sermons which are interesting, inviting, and which move congregation and individuals to specific action.
It is the assurance of John McClure also when he writes: "A rhetorical schema for preaching is meant to help the preacher organize the diverse verbal components of preaching so that they can be strategically or purposely effective for a particular congregation."7
1. Borden, Public Speaking - As Listeners Like It! (New York and London: Harper Brothers, 1935), p. 3
2. Batsell Barrett Baxter, Speaking For The Master (New York: Macmillan Company, 1954), p. 111.
3. Eugene Lowry, The Homiletical Plot (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1980), pp. 30-31.
4. Richard L. Thulin, The "I" of the Sermon (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), p. 24.
5. Ibid., p. 13.
6. Reuel L. Howe, Partners in Preaching (New York: Seabury Press, 1967), pp. 26-31.
7. John S. McClure, The Four Codes of Preaching (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 1991), p. 3.
