Teaching/Preaching, Part 7: Repeat

The Last Thing (for a while): Repeat

People have short attention spans and short memories. As much as you would like to think that they will remember everything you say and teach them, they won’t. In fact you’ll probably be lucky if they remember the main point from your message when they air down to eat lunch thirty minutes after hearing it.

So repeat your main point often throughout your message and find different ways in which to communicate it so that people who learn differently will be able to walk away from it. One such way is to use great props and our illustrations to get your message across. They’ll probably remember the illustration far longer than they’ll remember the main thing in your message.

Also, don’t be afraid of repeating material or phrases from week to week. The more you say something, the more people will retain it. Don’t donthis with just anything and beat a dead horse, but do it with the most important things.

Every week I quote our church’s mission statement within my sermon. And at the end of each sermon I walk people through- Biblically- how to be saved. I rarely change how I do it and people remember.

Pick some key Scriptures revolving around Christ and salvation (the Gospel) and weave those in and out of your sermons for years to come. People WILL recognize that you do it and because of that, retain the material better.

If you quote large numbers of Scripture relating to the same thing by memory or from your notes, you’re not impressing anyone. But if you pick the ones which are most clear and effective, then repeat regularly, people will retain them and understand the Gospel at a greater level because of what you do.

One such speaker I can recommend who does this often- and I’m not even sure if he’s aware- is Mark Driscoll. Listen to about ten of his sermons and you’ll hear the same message, ideas, and Scriptures popping up in a large number of them, and it’s effective, because you notice and you remember.