Sentence Sermons - part 2

In his book "701 Sentence Sermons", L. James Harvey gives several excellent tips for excellent text for church signs and wherever else the church uses that sentence sermon -- see Sentence Sermons - part 1.

Below are are a few tips based on Volume 1 of Harvey's book.

• Condense the English.
  You don't need to include every word of every saying or quote. You can even rearrange the messages to better fit the sign. Most signs have only 3 to 5 lines for brief text.
• Consider line breaks.
• Decide what wording makes the separate lines read better. Revise the wording as needed, but keep the meaning clear.
• Use a line break for natural speach pauses.
• Use a line break for most commas.
• Consider the speed of passing cars.
Even passengers in a moving car have only a few short seconbds to read and understand the entire message.
• Consider your church's theogical views.
  Don't use sentence sermons that run contrary to your church's views.

Sentence Sermons - part 1

When I cruised through a local Cokesbury store, I noticed a paperback titled, "701 Sentence Sermons" by L. James Harvey. The cover showed a church sign. After a quick skim, I added the book to a small pile for the checkout.

Harvey stresses that the book is about a lot more than just church signage. He coined the phrase "sentence sermons" because he says that church signage should be short sermons. Also, he didn't title the book about church signs because he strongly encourages churches to use the sign "sentence sermons" in several ways, not just on signs.

In our modern multimedia world, some churches give less importance to the non-computer, non-video variety of media that is available. But excellence in communications means that churches need to employ a wide variety of media.

Types of "sentence sermons"

• Advertising of upcoming events (keep to a bare minimum, Harvey says).
• Bible-oriented messages.
• Wisdom messages [a famous quote, for example]. These may reach a currently unchurched person better than quoting scripture.

Places to use "sentence sermons"

• On the church roadside sign (duh!).
• In church staff email sigs.
• In Sunday bulletins.
• In church newsletters.
• In a tweet.
• In a blog entry.
• In sermons!
• As a teaser in an ad.
• [your idea here].

If you have a church sign that allows for messages, you may also want to pull ideas from Volumes 2, 3 and 4 of this Sentence Sermons series by L. James Harvey.

Another book that looks interesting is "Signs for These Times" by Ronald Glusenkamp. That one includes chapters oriented on themes and seasons. The book also includes a topic an scripture index. That could come in very handy for finding a sentence sermon that relates to an upcoming Sunday sermon.

Sermon planning
Sermon planning should include planning sentence sermons. Plant them on the church sign, in email sigs, and in the bulletin. Then watch them bear fruit.

Ask congregation members to suggest a brief "sentence sermon" about the Sunday sermon. Post an accepted idea on the church sign for the next week. Then announce (in church or in the Sunday Bulletin or newsletter or news blog) whose idea it was.

Podcasting trend goes down

The trend in podcasting is downward, when compared to video and blogs, says the "Will Podcasting Survive?" article at the Alex Iskold Technology Blog. Podcasting was an evolution of radio that never made it into our daily lives.

Sure, some "Pod people" downloaded podcasts so they could listen to music (or sermons) while they worked or played, and the idea of being able to subscribe to the audio files just like a blog was neat, but use of Podcasts never reached critical mass.

So you could download a thousand songs into a music player and listen to them anytime. But how often did anyone listen to all those songs? Did they become more like a partially ignored collection? Where was the interaction that a blog provides (assuming you want to comment on a posting)?

And yes, anyone with a computer microphone could create a podcast, but how many did so? Perhaps the average person didn't look at creating podcasts as all that easy. By comparison, commenting on a blog posting is very easy, though many people still just read and do not add comments. some reasons podcasting is on the decline:

• Multimedia videos are cooler than podcasts.
• You can scan a blog for what interests you, but not a podcast.
• You can interact with a blog posting.
• It's easier to jump to what you are looking for in a blog or video. Not so with a podcast.
• Reading a blog is more likely than listening all the way through a podcast.
• The content of a podcast is nearly always music or news. Blogs or video can be anything.
• Competition from commercial media. National Public Radio has podcasts. So does National Geographic, Comedy Central, ESPN, and many others. If you want to listen to streaming audio, you'd be more likely to stay with well-known content providers. On the other hand, many people enjoy reading the journaling and commentary by bloggers and video creators.

Podcasting has been "going out of fashion", Alex says. Today's "in" fad is "out" tomorrow. What impact does that have on church web sites?

• If you have limited resources, don't be too eager to adopt the latest "hot" new web gizmo. Instead, give it a hard look. Ask whether it looks like a fad or a long-term hit. Avoid the fads when you have limited resources.
• Carefully check what resources a new web feature would need -- people, equipment, time, expertise, and money. If you can't afford all the resources, don't adopt the new feature.
• If you really want to give a new feature a try, even with limited resources, look for ways to lessen the resource impact. Perhaps there is a way to "start small" that you can try out before deciding whether to jump in feet first.

Sermon post format

Using the content suggestions at OurChurch, below is a sample template for a sermon posting in a Pastor's blog:

---

Bible passage(s): [link(s) to an online bible]

Key Bible verse: [link to an online bible]

Sermon Title:

• Main point 1
• Sub-point 1
• Sub-point 2
• Main point 2
• Sub-point 1
• Sub-point 2
• Sub-point 3
• Main point 3
• Sub-point 1
• Sub-point 2

Action step: [The specific action you want people to take in the coming days as a result of this message.]

Dig deeper: [linked references for added information related to the sermon topic.]

• Reference 1
• Reference 2
• Reference 3

Ask the pastor: Click on the "comments" link at the bottom of this posting or contact me at the church's email address. [The "contact me" link could go to the church's "Contact" web page or the actual church email address for the pastor.]