How to Bring Your Audience Into Your Message

By Muchangke

Today I watched a video about public speaking and how to make a presentation more impactful. It introduced four interesting principles: don't rush to open with a joke; begin by giving your audience a promise. The simpler your PowerPoint slides are, the more attentively people can listen. If you want an idea to be remembered, you need to design it intentionally. And don't casually waste the final sentence of your talk on the habitual phrase, "Thank you, everyone."

After watching it, however, I wasn't thinking about how to become a better "public speaker." I was thinking about my own preaching.

Over the years, as I have stood in the pulpit week after week---preparing sermons, explaining Scripture, shepherding brothers and sisters, and sometimes sharing in small groups and fellowship gatherings---I have become increasingly aware of one problem:

Having a message does not mean the audience has heard the message. Hearing it does not mean they have truly understood it. And understanding it does not mean the truth has entered their lives.

That is probably a challenge every preacher and communicator must face.

Preaching, of course, is different from a business presentation. Preaching is not about using techniques to manipulate people's emotions, nor is it about winning applause through personal charisma. Ultimately, the pulpit depends on the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (1 Corinthians 2:4, KJV).

Yet this does not mean that preachers have nothing to learn about communication.

Quite the opposite. If God has entrusted His Word to us, then we should think even more carefully about how to communicate it faithfully, clearly, and powerfully.

So I took the four principles I heard today and reconsidered them in light of my own preaching experience.

1. A Good Opening Is Not About Making People Laugh First, but Helping Them See: What Does This Have to Do With Me?

The first principle in the video was not to rush into a joke at the beginning of a presentation.

The reason is simple.

When a presentation has just begun, the audience has only just settled into their seats. They are still observing you, and they have not yet entered your world. If you suddenly deliver a carefully prepared joke before any connection has been established, it can easily fall flat.

A better approach is to let the audience know from the beginning:

Why is this worth listening to today?

This question becomes even more important in preaching.

We often begin like this:

"Peace, brothers and sisters. Today we will continue with chapter so-and-so of such-and-such book..."

There is nothing wrong with that.

But the person sitting in the congregation may be thinking about yesterday's business at the store, a child's education, next month's mortgage payment, an unresolved conflict in the marriage, a medical report that has just come back, or a question they have prayed about for a long time without receiving an answer.

The real question in that person's heart may be:

Pastor, what does the passage you are preaching today have to do with my life?

Therefore, a good sermon opening does more than tell people, "This is what I am going to talk about today." More importantly, it helps them discover:

God's Word today is speaking into my life.

For example, when preaching John 15, instead of simply saying, "Today we are going to look at the image of the vine and the branches," perhaps we could begin like this:

"Have you ever noticed that sometimes the busier we become serving God, the drier we become inside? We do more and more, yet somehow we have less and less joy. What is going wrong?"

At that point, people enter the message.

You are not first taking them into a theological concept. You are first bringing them to the actual place where they live, and then allowing Scripture to speak into that place.

This also reminds me:

A good sermon does not begin by answering the question the preacher wants to answer. It helps listeners discover that Scripture is addressing the real questions deep within their lives.

2. PowerPoint Is Not the Sermon, and the Preacher Cannot Hide Behind PowerPoint

The second principle really struck me.

One statement in the video was essentially this:

Slides should function as annotations to what you are saying, not as the main character of the entire presentation.

That is worth serious reflection for preachers today.

It is now incredibly easy to create PowerPoint presentations. Especially with AI, a sermon can quickly be turned into dozens of attractive slides. Titles, Bible verses, explanations, key points, applications, and even whole sections of the manuscript can all be placed on the screen.

But then a question arises:

If everything is already on the PowerPoint, what is left for the preacher?

Human verbal attention is limited. When a large block of text appears on the screen, listeners naturally begin to read. And when they concentrate on reading, their attention to the speaker's voice decreases.

A tool that was originally meant to support the sermon can begin competing with the preacher for the audience's attention.

That gives me a very practical reminder:

PowerPoint is a side dish; the sermon is the main course. More precisely, the Word of God is the main course.

If one keyword can communicate the idea, don't put up an entire paragraph.

If one image can awaken understanding, don't crowd the slide with ten sentences.

The most important Scripture passages can certainly be displayed, but PowerPoint should not become "the entire sermon projected onto the wall."

A good PowerPoint should make people lift their heads and listen, not keep their eyes fixed on text they are reading.

There is also a spiritual reminder here.

A preacher cannot hide behind technology.

No matter how beautiful the PowerPoint may be, it cannot replace a person who has been gripped by the Word of God standing before another human life and speaking to it.

3. How Can People Still Remember on Monday What Was Preached on Sunday?

The third principle is the one I most want to learn.

Many times, we spend more than ten hours preparing a sermon and then preach for thirty or forty minutes on Sunday. When we finish, we may feel that the sermon contained a great deal of material, had a complete structure, and offered substantial biblical exposition.

But on Monday, if we ask the brothers and sisters:

"What was yesterday's message about?"

There may be only a vague impression left.

That is not necessarily the audience's fault.

Sometimes we have given people too much information without helping them grasp the one thing that matters most.

The video introduced an interesting "five-element" method: symbols, slogans, surprises, standout ideas, and stories.

I realized that Scripture itself often speaks to us in exactly these ways.

The Bible is filled with symbols:

the cross, the Lamb, the vine, the shepherd, the seed, the lamp, salt, living water, the way...

Why do we still remember them after two thousand years?

Because truth entered not only human reason, but also human imagination and memory.

Jesus, moreover, was a master storyteller.

He did not merely say, "God is willing to receive repentant sinners."

He told a story about a father and two sons.

He did not merely say, "You should love your neighbor."

He told a story about a man who was attacked by robbers on the road to Jericho and a Samaritan who stopped to help him.

And two thousand years later, we still remember.

This gives me a very important reminder for preaching:

Can every sermon contain one sentence that people can carry with them when they walk out of the church?

Not ten main points, but one central truth.

For example:

"The throne is always higher than the storm."

Or:

"True blessing is not having more, but having Christ in every circumstance."

Or:

"A disciple is not merely someone who knows about Jesus, but someone who follows Jesus."

If a sermon lasts forty minutes, and at the end one biblically faithful truth has entered a person's heart---so that it suddenly comes back to mind when difficulty arrives on Tuesday, and can still be held onto in weakness on Thursday---then that sermon has already begun to exert an influence far beyond those forty minutes on Sunday.

So I increasingly believe:

A sermon is not an accumulation of information. It is a focusing of truth.

4. Don't Waste Your Final Sentence

The fourth principle is also interesting:

When ending a presentation, don't habitually make "Thank you, everyone" your final sentence.

Of course, this does not mean Christians should not express gratitude.

The point is this:

The final sentence of a talk is one of the sounds most likely to remain with the audience. It should not be casually wasted.

This made me rethink the ending of a sermon.

Sometimes, after we finish preaching, we say:

"That is all I want to share today. Thank you, everyone."

But if a sermon has spent so much time bringing people into the text, into the truth, and into the presence of God, why not take one more step at the end?

Where should the conclusion of a sermon lead people?

In the past, when I preached in the Pingyang area of Wenzhou, I would often end with the words: "May the Word of the Lord remain in your heart and mine forever. Amen!" That is a very good conclusion.

But I also think the ending should lead people toward a response.

Not a response to the preacher, but a response to God.

So instead of saying:

"Thank you, everyone,"

perhaps we should say:

"Today, are you willing to place this matter back into the Lord's hands?"

Or:

"This week, when you face that frightening problem again, remember: the throne is still there."

Sometimes, we do not need to say much more at all.

A verse of Scripture.

A prayer.

A moment of silence.

An invitation.

Any of these may be more powerful than "Thank you, everyone."

Because the ultimate purpose of preaching is not to make people say:

"The pastor preached very well today."

It is to make them ask:

"Lord, what did You say to me today? How should I respond to You?"

From "How Can I Speak Well?" to "How Can I Bring People Into the Presence of God?"

After thinking through these four principles, I realized that what I most need to learn is not a set of speaking techniques, but a deeper question:

How do I bring listeners into my sermon?

And going one step further:

Through preaching, how do I bring people into the Word of God and ultimately into the presence of God?

Techniques are always only tools.

We can certainly learn how to open a message, how to use PowerPoint, how to tell stories, how to craft a memorable sentence, and how to conclude.

But all of these techniques must serve a higher purpose:

Let Christ be seen, let Scripture be heard, and let lives be touched by God.

John the Baptist said:

"He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30, KJV)

Perhaps this should be a reminder to every preacher who is learning the art of communication.

Truly excellent preaching does not leave people increasingly impressed with the preacher. Rather, after the preacher steps down from the pulpit, what remains in people's hearts is Christ.

So I have also left myself four questions.

The next time I prepare a sermon, I want to ask myself:

First, in the opening thirty seconds, have I helped people understand why this passage matters to their lives?

Second, is my PowerPoint helping people hear the Word of God, or is it competing with me for their attention?

Third, if the congregation can remember only one sentence a week later, what sentence do I want them to remember?

Fourth, when the sermon ends, am I leading people toward applause, or toward responding to God?

Preaching is a lifelong lesson.

I increasingly believe that a preacher is not merely "someone who explains the Bible correctly," but someone who, with the help of the Holy Spirit, learns to bring eternal truth faithfully into particular human lives.

We need to study Scripture more deeply, and we also need to know the people sitting before us more carefully. We need theology, and we need communication. We need truth, and we need stories. We need faithfulness, and we need to keep learning.

Because what we proclaim is more than a speech.

What we hope for is this:

After our voices fall silent, the Word of God will continue speaking within people.

That is probably the most important thing I want to learn from the video I watched today.