Yesterday I wrote about why I prefer people not to take notes when I’m preaching. So, how do we encourage people to retain, remember and apply what we preach. Here are some alternatives to note taking.
Active engagement: One of my concerns with note taking is that it places the focus on intellectual processing and it sets us up as passive listeners. It is true that some people struggle to focus and concentrate in such a passive context. That’s why there is something to be said for more active engagement and interaction. This might include positively encouraging the kind of environment where people feel free to respond spontaneously with words of praise and encouragement (glory hallelujah, amen etc), in some cultures there would be a natural bursting into song, saying Scriptures along with the speaker, interrupting with questions etc. It might mean that the preacher includes opportunity for people to interact, to discuss, answer questions etc.
Immediate Response: Traditionally churches finished the service with a hymn. A lot have moved away from this fearing that it will take away from the talk. However, an appropriately chosen song to finish can enable people to respond with heads and hearts to what has been said. You may alternatively want to give time for people to reflect and pray. Perhaps there is something in the old altar call after all too?
Listen Back: If the sermon has been recorded, why not download it and listen in again whilst you are driving home from work or on the exercise treadmill?
Repeat for others: One way to help you recall the salient points is to tell them to someone else. Could you summarise what you heard? Perhaps plan to tell a work colleague what you heard on Sunday and how this is making a difference to your week. Alternatively, share what you learnt at the dinner table. This means you can hear back from the kids what they learnt in their groups if you have younger children or get the perspective of other family members or friends you’ve invited back for lunch. This can lead to you
Discussing: This will help a few people to process, test, discern and apply to their lives what they heard. Some churches also use mid-week community groups to discuss the sermon.
Journalling: There may be a point where it is time for some to write things down. I suggest you wait until after the sermon has finished and even until the end of the day. If you keep a journal, this will give you the opportunity to write down a summary of the main point, your heart (emotions and will) response to it and what you are resolving to do in response.
Feedback: Why not plan to encourage the preacher by emailing or whats-apping them in the week. Let them know the key thing you took away from the sermon and how it has helped your walk with Christ.
Follow up: Why not plan to dig deeper into the Bible passage and into the matters it raised. One of the things I try to do with Faithroots is provide additional supporting resources related to our church’s teaching for the week. I would encourage other church leaders/pastors to use blogs or newsletters for similar purposes. If your church doesn’t have a blog or suchlike, why not invest in some of the teaching commentaries that your pastor and preachers are using in their preparation. In fact, simply just taking the Bible passage read and working through it in the week for your personal daily meditation will help with this and the text itself should act as the prompt to recall the application.
What I’m encouraging you to do here is to take home what was said in the sermon, to meditate on what God is saying, to think deeply about how it applies to you, to share it and to act on it. We want to be doers of the word not just hearers and note takers.
Faithroots 