32 Leadership Quotes From Michael Lukaszewski – Live Notes From The Orange Conference

April 24, 2013 0 Comments

For the next three days, I will be attending the Orange Conference in Atlanta, Ga.
This afternoon, Michael Lukaszewski of The Rocket Company (and oh by the way my boss) gave a great message on helping pastors and church leaders better connect with their audience.
After reading Michael’s quotes, please check out an amazing FREE offer from The Rocket Company on helping pastors connect with their audience and preach better sermons.

• If you can speak to a room full of teenagers, that takes some skill.  I tell pastors if they want to improve to speak to teenagers.  They won’t put up with stuff.
• I improved my communication by speaking to a room full of people who didn’t want to be there.
• Most presentations fall flat…People endure it.
• The missing ingredient is connectivity.  Connectivity is the art of connecting your message to your audience by capturing their attention in order to engage their hands and hearts.
• Connection, not information, makes a difference.
• When you connect with your congregation, that is when they pay attention.  That is when the Holy Spirit gets through.
• If you can’t answer the question of what is the single most persuasive idea (in your sermon), then know no one in your audience will know either.
• People remember stories.  People remember statements.
• Remembering statements don’t happen because we preach.  They happen because they were crafted.
• At the 10 minute mark, the brain starts wondering when this will be over.
• Steve Jobs comes out with something new and interesting every 10 minutes.
• A great communicator does not give the brain time to get bored.
• Formulas create freedom.
• Turn ideas into word pictures so everyone can understand it.
• We remember things even if they’re wrong because they’re wrong.
• Political writers use echo all the time.  An echo is a word or phrase and repeating it in the 2nd half of your sentence.
• Forgiven people forgive.
• Proverbs is almost all contrast.  The righteous do this.  The wicked do that.  Would you rather die from something or for something.
• A hook is repeating it over and over and over again.
• Information is life-changing but it is how it is packaged that causes the audience to lean in.
• Your sermon preparation should start with the scripture.  I don’t think your sermon should.  You start your sermon with where your congregation is.  Jesus did this.
• The people attending your church on Sunday already believe something about what you’re talking about.
• If you start with where people are, they will lean it and you can take them on a journey.
• Having a topic is not the same as having a point.
• People used to come in with an automatic “I’m going to listen to the pastor.”  They don’t do that anymore.
• If people like you, they will listen to you.
• One of the most important things you can do in the first five minutes of the message, is to do something to make people like you.
• People don’t always like to listen to the experts.  Sometimes they like to listen to a fellow struggler.
• “Likability is the single most important quality of a pastor.” – Vance Havner
• Assume the worst.  Assume that your congregation or audience could care less about what you have to say.  If you do that, you will do the hard work it takes to connect.
• You have to go through the process to get a product.
• What God has called you to is important.