Ever been listening to a speaker, felt like they had good content, and then walked away not being able to really say clearly what they were talking about? It happens every Sunday and Wednesday all over the country in churches and ministries all over the country. Good content, good intentions, tons of passion, with a lack of clarity. The best thing that ever happened to me as a communicator was reading the book Communicating for a Change and discovering the power of a well crafted bottom line. A bottom line is nothing more than the one statement you want people to walk away with after your talk. Sometimes it is a call to action. Sometimes it is a statement of truth. Bottom lines are that one statement that your build your entire talk around. Having a bottom line ready every time you speak means you will have a better shot of…
- Limiting content: bottom lines help you weed out what you don’t need to say. You only have so much time your audience it actually going to listen so you better say what is most important when you speak. Saying less for more impact means your audience has a better shot of walking away with your central idea. Having a bottom line just helps you choose what is most important.
- Having an anchor for your creativity: bottom lines provide boundaries for creativity and fun. Great ideas are great unless they do not support your bottom line and end up distracting people from your message. Creativity needs boundaries in order to be most effective.
- Setting up small groups to thrive: small groups in every environment of our church process our messages in small group. Bottom lines help set small group leaders to go further with the central idea…even go deeper! Clarity helps group leaders see clearly what is next!
Next time you speak, not matter what the setting, take time to craft a bottom line statement that you can build everything else around. I promise, it will make you a better communicator.
