Church Relevance - Issue 7
May 2006
by Kent Shaffer

Nobody likes watered down Kool-Aid. Kids want to taste the sugar and flavoring. I know I did. In fact, I wanted to double the flavor and ration the water. But I also learned that the flavoring was extremely bitter without sugar. I needed to learn to mix the right flavor in order to put a smile beneath my Kool-Aid mustache.

Flavor can be tricky. Too little flavor leaves a bland experience while too much can be chaos. Some situations are easier to ensure great flavor than others. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich is easy to make, but it is challenging to season the perfect steak or crawfish etouffee. Yet there is a quality difference. Most would agree that steak tastes better than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but we also understand that it is considerably more difficult to make a great steak.

The same is true for your ministry. People want flavor. Jesus told us that we are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). The Gospel has flavor, but it is up to you whether it is delivered as a PB&J sandwich or a steak. We are to present the Gospel in a way that tastes good to the lost and causes them to want more. Let’s look at five flavors of delivery and learn how to have a steak-quality delivery of God’s Word.

Bland

A bland delivery really has no flavor at all. Unfortunately, this is a minister that has lost his focus on Jesus. He no longer contributes to the furthering of the Gospel but has lost his flavor. Jesus continued to say in Matthew 5:13 (NLT), “But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.” Fortunately, if you are reading this, it probably means you are still interested in furthering the Gospel.

Watered Down Kool-Aid

A watered down delivery is one that becomes diluted by unnecessary parts. These parts weaken the delivery of the core message. A preacher who rambles waters down the central truth of his sermon with every unnecessary word. Everything you do should strengthen your message. Graphic designs should be designed within the context of the message. Dramas should be performed with consideration to their message. The same is true for videos, music, and anything else you may do. Ask yourself, “Does this strengthen the message?” If the answer is “no,” you don’t need it, or you need to improve it until the answer is “yes.” Remember nobody likes watered-down Kool-Aid.

Peanut Butter & Jelly

If you are focused on Jesus, you have flavor. You are the salt of the earth. Sharing the gospel does not require eloquent speaking or creative sermons. It requires reaching starving people with God’s Word. Do what you can. Don’t expect to be a world class chef the first time you minister, but start with the basics - peanut butter and jelly. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich may not be fancy - it’s not even difficult to make - but it gets the job done. It makes hungry people happy and fulfills their need.

Bitter Kool-Aid

Most ministers don’t want to settle for peanut butter and jelly but want to learn how to make a steak. They want to learn how to give a better delivery that will reach and impact more people. There’s nothing wrong with that. We know that Paul invested effort into learning how to better reach people (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). However, this transition happens in steps not leaps. Don’t expect to be perfect. Along the way, you will occasionally make bitter Kool-Aid. You may have all the components needed for a great delivery, but you need to tweak the delivery. You need to add a little more sugar to the Kool-Aid to get the perfect flavor. Mistakes are fine as long as you learn from them. However, there is a problem if you continue to make the same mistake. You must be able to recognize problems and make the appropriate adjustments in order to one day make steak.

When I first began teaching in children’s ministry, I used a lot of props and object lessons. I was inspired by several well-known children’s ministers, and I wanted to be able to duplicate their lessons. What I learned was that it was not the props that made a great lesson but the delivery. I began to realize that quite often the props were a distraction or disrupted the flow of the lesson if I did not have the right delivery. So I made an adjustment. I scratched almost all of the props and focused on becoming a better storyteller. It made a difference. I was able to better engage the children and hold their attention because I was not overextending my abilities but taking small steps to challenge myself and improve my delivery. Now I can duplicate those object lessons and enhance the message instead of disrupting it.

Learning to recognize bitter Kool-Aid and make the appropriate adjustment is the key to one day making a steak. It is not always easy to spot adjustments that need to be made. You must have honest introspection. Keep it simple within your boundaries. When most graphic designers begin designing, they want to use every single trick they can think of. They don’t want to stay within their boundaries but want to imitate complex designs that take years of experience to learn. While their ambition is admirable, they are trying to leap from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a steak. What they don’t realize is their designs would be better if they kept it simple within their boundaries and learned by progressively challenging themselves with steps not leaps.

Making Steak

Making steak is the ideal place to be. It is being able to preach creative sermons like Ed Young and being able to lead praise and worship like Hillsong Church. But to get there it is helpful to have benchmarks. In children’s ministry, my benchmarks were the four ministers who inspired me. A graphic designer may use another church for inspiration or even the work of an award-winning design firm. Benchmarks exemplify the steak. They give you something to strive towards and learn from. If you surround yourself with excellence, it will wear off onto you.

I attended a worship service recently with a song that talked about how God’s grace is like rain falling down on us. It is a great song, but the church strengthened the meaning of the words we sang by playing a video of huge raindrops hitting the floor. It was not distracting. Instead, it brought my focus closer to God and what He has done for me. It strengthened the meaning of the lyrics. Normally, this would be distracting. Why did this work? It worked because it was relevant to the lyrics and strengthened the substance of the message.

There are three keys to making steak - substance, relevance, and strength. Substance means that the message itself must have meat. It must be trimmed of needless details and full of God’s Word. Relevance means that the message and its parts must be organized and consistent and leave an impact on those you want to reach. This requires understanding your audience and tailoring your delivery for them. Strength means that every part of the message must add to the message; it must be able to strengthen it. Remember great chefs are the result of years of practice. Keep practicing and striving to make a more flavorful delivery. The investment is well worth it.