It is probably quite rare that when you are talking to a crowd that they are thinking about you and your issues. Maybe their mum yelled at them, maybe they are hungry, maybe a opportunity is coming their way and they don’t know whether to take it.
Sometimes I’ve listened to a pastor preaching where it seemed like it is a therapy session for them. They are self analysing and self repairing, and they have an audience to observe it.
I can often be envious of a conference speaker, who normally has five or six incredible messages they can give to a large crowd, to much appreciation. The local church pastors role is so much more intense, and Sunday comes around every week.
As a communicator the best and most effective form of communication is when the listener is engaged, interested and finding the material of use. However people are very polite in their response, they don’t always tell you what they are thinking. Especially not in a local church setting.
This is why communication for the local church pastor can be difficult, you are never quite sure the message has connected. When someone says to you, nice message pastor, does that mean you have just given them 25 minutes in which to zone off?
The challenge in giving a message is to stop thinking about yourself and your agenda, and become aware of what God is thinking of, and just as importantly what your people are thinking about.
The solution is to know your people. To know what is really on their minds, what is occupying the real estate in their mind. What are their fears, their anxieties, their joys and their struggles. The reality is Gods word, both written and the promptings of the Spirit have something to say to those realities. The best local Pastor will find where that intersection is and communicate to that. They will communicate to the pastoral needs of their people because they will know what those needs are.