7 Reasons People Love Hearing Andy Stanley Sermons

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Brian Dodd on August 23, 2015 in Church Leadership

This past Friday evening, my family had dinner with some friends at a trendy outdoor mall located just north of Atlanta.  After enjoying our meal together, we began walking around and looking at the different stores.  Since we had not had dessert, a nearby yogurt stand caught our attention.  As we walked up to the line someone called out our names.  It was a family we had become very good friends with over the past year.  I couldn’t wait to catch up!
As a result of his very successful business career, this couple and their beautiful baby girl relocated to the Atlanta area in 2014 from another country.  The subject of church came up.  Because he grew up Catholic, he had never attended a church of any other kind until coming to Atlanta.  Now they were attending North Point Community Church pastored by Andy Stanley.
I said, “How do you like Andy?”  He said, “I love Andy’s messages”, and then proceeded to give me every point of his message from the previous weekend.  After some more small talk, I left to get my yogurt.
Because of the long line, I had some time to think about our conversation.  Two years ago I was told people forget 84% of a pastor’s message before they leave the parking lot.  So pastors must decide what 16% they want remembered.  But here was my friend, an attender of an American non-Catholic church for less than a year, and he could remember all of Andy’s points five days AFTER the message.  I had to know why.
After I got my dessert, I went back to him and said, “Can you help me with something?  Most people forget the majority of a pastor’s message before they ever leave the parking lot, and you can tell every point of Andy’s message five days later.  What is he doing that allows you to do that?”  His answer was fascinating.
He said, “First, Andy’s messages are about you personally.  Like he said, ‘Do you remember playing with friends as a pre-schooler?  Was it what you were playing or who you were playing with?  And when you did things as a teenager, was it what you were doing or who you were doing it with?’  Brian, Andy made me realize it’s not the WHAT but the WHO.”
Then he said something which stunned me.  He said, “Brian, my business partner and I have been working on a presentation to a client for a long time.   I called him Sunday afternoon and told him we needed to talk about WHO we are, not just WHAT we do.”
He continued, “Brian, Andy’s messages are very simple.  I can remember them.”  And he summed up our conversation by saying, “Go online.  You can watch the messages there.”
As I drove home, I gleaned 7 Reasons People Love Hearing Andy Stanley Sermons from our conversation:

1. Andy Stanley allows people to understand how Jesus Christ is relevant to every person’s life.
2. Even though there are over 30,000 individuals attending North Point’s weekend services, you feel like Andy Stanley is speaking to YOU individually.
3. Andy Stanley invites everyone into the biblical text by using real life examples each person can relate to.  In this case, who were your childhood friends.
4. Andy Stanley gives business leaders the tools and resources needed to have a competitive advantage in their industry.  My friend changed his sales presentation because of Andy’s sermon.
5. Andy Stanley speaks in memorable language.
6. Andy Stanley speaks in repeatable language.
7. An Andy Stanley message is delivered with such quality that people invite their friends to listen online or personally visit the church.

To Andy Stanley and all the North Point staff, thank you for delivering messages and putting on weekend services unchurched and now previously unchurched people love to attend.
May God bless everything you do.
To hear how Andy Stanley and his team put together great worship services, click HERE to register for a FREE online conference this Wednesday, August 26th at 1:00 PM EST entitled Awaken The Weekend.