Communicating for a Change

Andy Stanley and Lane Jones have written a book with the above name, that compares preaching to truck driving, literally. The book is also written in a conversational format. Those two things alone may cause you to doubt its usefulness to you thinking through communication theory. Perhaps they went too basic. The redeeming quality though, because it is a great teaching book, is a series of gold nuggets throughout the long dialogues between an alleged pastor and the truck driving individual. If you can press ahead, you will find useful speaking tips and principles for the Christian communicator. The book really can only be appreciated by a veteran preacher in whatever area they happen to be of church life or speaking engagements. The backing for points about the one idea sermon depend upon this. In addition, one may get glazed eyes reading it if there was not a strong felt need of the speaking reader to communicate better than an informational session about a Bible passage. If you speak a lot, you'll be hooked though. There is a Me (who you are and what you're about), GOD where His truth is brought into a conversational style preaching, You (what are you going to do about a truth), We (a shared vision of the future of a person's life or the churches and the present feeling/thinking common ground). This is summarized by the authors as talking about application first, then what God thinks info wise, and then personal application for each person so that we can celebrate together. The whole thing hinges on one idea per message. The character's style is back and forth, but reinforces the points made in the work page by page. Based on what I've discovered so far, this book is recommended for anyone lay or on staff at a church or parachurch ministry seeking to communicate a message well.

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