One of my favorite TV shows as of late is Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, a fascinating look into what it takes to make the final season of the The Oprah Winfrey Show possible.
Having been a part of creative teams that were responsible for creating weekend experiences at churches there’s a lot in the show that I could relate to: scheduling conflicts, late nights, last-minute changes, production glitches, and more. Granted, we weren’t giving away cars or trips to Australia or interviewing celebrities, but that same sense of pulling something amazing off remains the same. And, in classic Oprah fashion, there’s always little pearls of wisdom shared in each episode.
In this week’s episode the production team was producing a full episode that included a celebrity guest, a few testimonials from guests, and a quiz for the audience to take. [Sounds like a church service schedule to me!] The end goal was for people to discover what makes the happy and how to increase happiness in their lives. Bear with me, there’s a point to all this. As the show begins one of the guests went way over their time sharing, the schedule got pushed back, the production team had to cut the testimonials, and in the end the show went on an extra 20 minutes and they didn’t achieve their set goal.
In their post-show meeting, Oprah met with her team and shared some valuable advice that I believe has significance to what we communicate and the weekend experiences we create in churches. Here’s a link to the clip [click the image to watch it]:
In church services, too often we get bogged down with so many messages, announcements, stories, and programmatic elements that we can miss the key message we [and ultimately God!] want to communicate to our congregation. Every element of your service should reinforce the big idea you’re sharing, not distract from it.
In other communications… [bulletins, websites, emails and tweets] focus on clear, concise points and clearly articulate the action steps you want people take. Leave white space. Make the main point the only point.
In all you do whether in services or in communication pieces, are we giving people so much information that it’s distracting them hearing the main point?
When you begin to plan a service or start with a blank document ask yourself what one thing you want people to hear or walk away with?
Oprah put it best, “If all you’re doing is talking and there’s nothing to take away, what’s the point?”
So what point are you trying to make? What do you want people to know? What do you want them to do? What do you want them to feel? What’s the point? Everything else you do should reinforce the big idea.
