Sermon branding tip: Literal is boring.

The mind wants to be surprised, it attaches itself to things that create interest.

For example, if you’re working on a sermon about Abraham and Isaac’s journey up the mountain…don’t use imagery of a mountain. That’s expected. And expected = boring.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 10:46 am and is filed under Sermon branding tip . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • Keith

    exactly! Great point. At our church, we’re getting in all kinds of discussions on this lately. “why do you have to call the series 24/7, why not just call it the Book of James?” because ……..

  • Keith

    exactly! Great point. At our church, we’re getting in all kinds of discussions on this lately. “why do you have to call the series 24/7, why not just call it the Book of James?” because ……..

  • JimmyD

    and when our sermon branding is literal aren’t we really saying everyone is stupid. the scriptures say that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our _____ and our strenght. i love fill in the blanks.

    ok session over.

    so how do you get pastors to understand that literal is boring?

  • JimmyD

    and when our sermon branding is literal aren’t we really saying everyone is stupid. the scriptures say that we would love the Lord our God with all our heart, our soul, our _____ and our strenght. i love fill in the blanks.

    ok session over.

    so how do you get pastors to understand that literal is boring?

  • http://www.holycowcreative.org holycow

    I think one of the difficult parts is that it seems so obvious to us. For creatives it wouldn’t even be considered to call it Book of James. That has a lot to do with the way God equipped us to carry out the task he designed us for.

    A big part of a designers job isn’t simply creating great communications, but also educating the pastors and ministry leaders we work with. This isn’t just an idea I pulled out of the area…God created our minds to crave surprise:

    Broca’s area of the brain is that part of us that anticipates, and hates, the predictable. If you want to bore a person, just do what they expect you to do and say what they expect you to say. Works every time.

    And don’t just take my word for it, here’s a post at MMI with a repost of the Monday Morning Memo.  You can also learn more about how the brain processes information from the “Wizard of Ads“…he’s certainly biased to radio so he thinks audio is everything, but his work is loaded with nuggets of great insight.

  • http://www.holycowcreative.org holycow

    I think one of the difficult parts is that it seems so obvious to us. For creatives it wouldn’t even be considered to call it Book of James. That has a lot to do with the way God equipped us to carry out the task he designed us for.

    A big part of a designers job isn’t simply creating great communications, but also educating the pastors and ministry leaders we work with. This isn’t just an idea I pulled out of the area…God created our minds to crave surprise:

    Broca’s area of the brain is that part of us that anticipates, and hates, the predictable. If you want to bore a person, just do what they expect you to do and say what they expect you to say. Works every time.

    And don’t just take my word for it, here’s a post at MMI with a repost of the Monday Morning Memo.  You can also learn more about how the brain processes information from the “Wizard of Ads“…he’s certainly biased to radio so he thinks audio is everything, but his work is loaded with nuggets of great insight.