This is a guest post by my good friend Artie Davis. Artie is pastor, church planter, and a builder of leaders at Cornerstone Community Church. He’s also the leader of The Sticks Network. More than that, Artie is the type of friend who makes me a better person. He stretches me. He thinks outside the box. He’s a guy I can honestly say “I love ya man!” at the end of our conversations and mean it. I know he has my best interest at heart.
Artie shares 4 must haves for great story tellers:
The greatest communicators are the greatest story tellers. So if we want to become better communicators, we MUST learn to be better Story Tellers! (Among a lot of other things I know).
1 ~ Feel the PASSION
Why this story? Does this have any value or meaning to you personally? The most powerful stories are the most moving, and moving stories are birthed in passion.
Don’t just download a funny story you heard and re-hash it. Work in the passionate place!
2~ Open with a BANG
Like the old adage goes, we only have 30-seconds to capture our audiences attention. If not…Well it only gets harder. So…make sure your story has a captivating EMOTION tied to it. And you need to know what that is! You will need to mix that back in through out your sermon or talk.
3~ Close with a BUCKLE
Close it tight! Don’t let your pants fall down at the end! Your closing is absolutely key. So here’s my idea. Make sure you have the opening and closing down, even before the middle.
This is what people will remember, this is what you sending them home with.
Tighten it down, let them know they are not leaving the same as when they came.
4~ The story has to WEAVE
I have this diagram (shown below) that I share with those own our communications team. I use it illustrate the flow of a good sermon or talk.
- We open with a powerful story
- Transition the story to our Biblical Text
- We interject other points of the story
- We weave the story through out the sermon
- We transition back to the story’s ending
- We use the stories ending & Biblical Truth
- We end with a strong challenge based on Scripture
Is seeing this process any help to you? Do you value the power of “story” when you communicate?
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How about a mountain to climb? A great story has a sense of tension: will they get there?
Twitter: Traceepersiko
says:
Stories make or break the talk. Stories are drfinitely what bring the pop up effect to a talk or sermon. Most of my take always usually come through the story. I love the illustration of keeping it going throughout the whole talk or sermon! Great model!
Thanks Tracee!
Twitter: JaysonFeltner
says:
Really great article Ron. This format works well for blog posts and speaking engagements. I’m going to start incorporating this more.
Thanks Jayson. Artie is a great communicator
Ron, so honored by you for posting this. Your're a great friend and fellow soldier. Nuthin but luv 4-ya (last part written in "Orangeburg-eeze")
Love the lingo!