MYM Blog

Complication Made Simple: How to make something memorable.

Written by Christopher Wesley | Dec 9, 2010 12:30:00 PM

Right now we are doing one of our shorter series…it’s 3 weeks long.  It’s a reprise of a series we did last year based off of the Advent Conspiracy movement.  We’re cleverly calling it Advent Conspiracy II.  A challenge we faced last year was communicating a life changing concept that wasn’t exactly easy to digest, but we were pretty successful.  This year our hopes are that the impact that we’ll have by Worshiping Fully, Spending Less, Giving More and Loving All will be far more significant.  So how do we plan on that happening?
By Repeating, Clarifying and Applying.  If this post seems familiar it’s because I wrote about this last year...hence the first point:

  • Repeat The Concept: Repetition is important, repetition is important, repetition is important because it becomes familiar.  We’re finding that as soon as we introduced AC2 people were on board right away.  But it’s important to be creative with your repetition, find new ways of saying the same thing or figure out different ways of saying something similar, that way it’ll catch people’s attention in different ways.
  • Clarify Your Point: Be simple, be precise and be clear.  To do that (1) Don’t overcomplicate a concept with too many words or we’re too general. (2) Try to say it in a sentence or two. (3) Present it in a way that’s memorable. 
  • Apply It To Your Life: Right now people want stories, more specifically your testimony.  If you are trying to teach someone something they want to know how you are succeeding, failing, and attempting to apply it to your life.  Why?  It helps them relate, it helps them remember it, it gives them hope and even understanding.

Not only in message series do we need to repeat, clarify and apply.  When you give a job description to a minister you want to make sure it memorable so repeat, clarify and apply.  When you create a system to make it run smooth you need to repeat, clarify and apply.  When you paint vision you want to repeat, clarify and apply.  Get the point?  Good.

What needs repetition, clarification and/or application in your ministry?  Please comment.