3 Ways to Turn Boring into Fascinating

I’m fascinated how someone can attend two similar church services (maybe even with the same Pastor) and have the 30-minute sermon seem long and boring in one while the other can feel interesting and not enough time. And it’s the same amount of time. And maybe similar content!

Or you can watch a YouTube video and be fully engaged with it for several minutes while another will drive you to close the window after a couple of minutes. Even if it’s the same subject.

Or there’s a website that can captivate you for a long time versus the website that loses your interest in about 30 seconds.

Communication is tough. Our audience has changed. Their attention-span has gotten shorter and shorter. In fact, according to a 2015 Microsoft study, humans lose interest in most things after only 8 seconds. This is astounding since a goldfish has a 9 second attention span. We’re doomed.

Our audience certainly isn’t changing, so we need to tackle things differently with our communication style.

Here are 3 things we (as communicators) must understand and change to turn boring into interesting:

  1. Make it matter to your audience. This is key. In the first few seconds, in the headline, or first sentence, speak to a pain that you know your audience faces or a challenging goal that they seek. Then deliver as quickly as possible the hope of a solution in your communication. Or a straight-line path to their goal. This requires you to know your audience extremely well. So do everything within your power to discover their pains and goals.
  2. Edit your content as short as possible and present it the way your audience wants it. Do the difficult work of eliminating everything that’s unnecessary or redundant. Get your communication to the basics and don’t overdo the details. Then, based on your communication channel, deliver it in a style you know they’ll enjoy. For in-person or on video, that’s an interjection-style that captures the wayward attention and holds it by bringing people back into the conversation. For printed or static web content, give in to their propensity of scanning. Create eye-interruptors (headlines, subheads, bullets, captions) that tell most of the story and lead to the deeper content so they can read more.
  3. Deliver it so you seek engagement. Remember you’re not just telling. All content today should engage. Drive them to other locations through links and suggestions. Allow them to process or do things so they interact with your content. Where possible, let them respond. This engagement says you care about them and want them to fully understand. This relationship of love and empathy will allow your audience to overlook flaws and truly be interested in what you have to offer.

Summary? Make it about THEM and less about YOU. Say it as quickly as possible. They’ll feel the love. That’s the role of all church communication today.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mark MacDonald

Mark MacDonald

Mark MacDonald is a Bible Teacher, speaker, best-selling author of Be Known For Something, and communication strategist for BeKnownForSomething.com and the Florida Baptist Convention. He empowers churches to become known for something relevant (a communication thread) throughout their ministries, websites, and social media. His book is available at BeKnownBook.com and amazon.com.

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— Abel Singbeh
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you Ed for sharing your insights into the Church Growth Movement. I have my reservations with Church Growth models because it has done more damage than good in the Body of Christ. Over the years, western churches are more focused on results, formulas and processes with little or no emphasis on membership and church discipline. Pastors and vocational leaders are burnt out because they're overworked. I do believe that the Church Growth model is a catalyst to two destructive groups: The New Apostolic Reformation and the Emerging Church. Both groups overlap and have a very loose definition. They're both focus on contemporary worship, expansion of church brand (franchising), and mobilizing volunteering members as 'leaders' to grow their ministry. Little focus on biblical study, apologetics and genuine missional work with no agenda besides preaching of the gospel.
 
— Dave
 
comment_post_ID); ?> Thank you for sharing such a good article. It is a great lesson I learned from this article. I am one of the leaders in Emmanuel united church of Ethiopia (A denomination with more-than 780 local churches through out the country). I am preparing a presentation on succession planning for local church leaders. It will help me for preparation If you send me more resources and recommend me books to read on the topic. I hope we may collaborate in advancing leadership capacity of our church. God Bless You and Your Ministry.
 
— Argaw Alemu
 

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