I recently finished Timothy Keller’s biography, written by Collin Hansen. In the bonus material was a lesson taught by missionary Elizabeth Elliot. She said “The speaker has three speeches: 1) The one he prepares, 2) the one he actually delivers and 3) the one his audience thinks it heard. And there’s not necessarily any relationship between them.”
I got a real kick out of hearing her say this. It’s not just funny, it’s true! It’s unfortunate, but what we say is not always what people hear!
There’s a great example of this from 1 Corinthians 5:9-11. In this passage, Paul told the Christians at the church in Corinth not to associate with believers who were living in blatant, unrepentant sin. But what they heard was “don’t associate with unbelievers who are sinful.” So Paul had to write to them saying, “…I wasn’t talking about unbelievers…I meant that you are not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer yet indulges in sexual sin, or is greedy, or worships idols, or is abusive, or is a drunkard, or cheats people. Don’t even eat with such people.”
If it happened to Paul, we can rest assured it’s going to happen to us. And since we know it’s going to happen, we ought to do what we can to mitigate misunderstanding. I don’t believe we can eliminate it, but I’m certain we can minimize and manage misunderstandings by doing the following:
- Make sure you know what you’re trying to say. As someone once wisely stated, “If there’s a mist in the pulpit, there’ll be a fog in the pew.” If someone asks you “What’s your sermon about this week?” and you can’t reply with a one-sentence answer, you need to keep working on your sermon. You don’t yet have the clarity that works as an antidote to misunderstanding.
- Once you figure out what you’re trying to say (or more accurately what the biblical author is saying in your text) be sure you state it all throughout your sermon vs only once at the beginning. State your theme in the beginning, restate it throughout the sermon and then make sure it’s a part of your closing as well. They say “Repetition is key to learning” so state the message you’re trying to share over and over.
- Use lesson notes and make sure your main message is included in the notes. This way your message is both heard and read. For every medium you use to get your message across, you reduce the number of people who will misunderstand.
I think you can eliminate the vast majority of misunderstandings by doing these things, yet the question begs: What do you do when despite your best efforts, you are still misunderstood? Well, you can take a cue from the apostle Paul: 1) I wasn’t taking about…, 2) I meant… I think this is a great format for clearing up confusion when it inevitably happens.