Satan doesn’t waste time doing things he knows he can’t do. He doesn’t try to take your joy, he doesn’t try to rob you of victory, he doesn’t try to kill you.

Satan spends his time convincing you of things that aren’t true. When you believe something that isn’t true, you don’t trust anything.

God wants you to do the opposite. He wants you to trust Him and believe nothing.

Belief depends on knowledge. Knowledge is gained purely by man’s own doing. Trust depends on relationship. Relationship is gained by love…God is love.

An update to this post:

John 10:10 may have come to mind when you read this. According to John, Jesus said, “A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of” (The Message).

This is absolutely true. However, Jesus wasn’t referencing Satan. He was referencing people outside the Kingdom. Pharisees. Sadducees. Your haters.

I’ve touched on how Key Art for a Sermon Brand deals with how the audience needs to feel. Now I’d like to discuss what the audience needs to know.

The Message
A Sermon concentrates on exposing a specific truth (or even a set of truths) about God’s kingdom. Whatever the truth may be, it must have a consistent, realavant, and valuable meaning to captive audiences. Theology usually has little meaning for broad audiences. The diversities of seminary are great for appreciating the Being of God, but what do they mean for someone dying of cancer; someone suffering foreclosure; a family starving for relationship? Nothing.

The Story
Jesus set the example for teaching. He took theology and created stories. Adults that grew up in the Church know the stories of Noah and the Ark, Moses and the burning bush, Jonah and the big fish, Jesus walking on water, and so on. Even reading over these familiar titles trigger memories. Are the emotions you felt as a child vivid? Can you picture where you were when you first heard God say, “Let there be light!” What of the time when Jesus healed the blind man with mud? How did you feel when Jesus died? And when he was resurrected? As adults, these stories still have realavancy for us. Why?

A story is an emotional connection to ideas.

Why Use Stories
Sermon Branding needs stories to be effective. Stories make Sermon Brands memorable, and personal. That’s why Jesus used stories. They create the bridge between Kingdom ideas, and our necessities. I may not remember the teleological arguments for God’s arguable existence. However, I’ll always remember when an angel rolled the stone away from Jesus’ tomb.

Choice doesn’t need a reason.

Choice is.

God is.

God chooses to love us.

Love is choice.

God is love.

Choice is god.

What is Sermon Branding

Sermon Branding deals with three aims:

1. What the audience needs to know.
2. What the audience needs to feel.
3. What the audience needs to do.

Sermon Branding can include content, positioning, copy, and title. It is usually the Pastor or Teacher’s that develops the Sermon Brand. After all, they know their audience and have an idea of what they what the audience to know, feel, and do. Hopefully?

Pastors and Teachers can depend on help to develop a Sermon Brand. In such cases, teams are developed to sit down and brainstorm what a Sermon Brand should be. The Pastor brings the content, and everyone pours over it to develop everything else.

The most important aspect of Sermon Branding is Key Art, and this post is about how the Church can benefit.

What is Key Art

By definition, Key Art is the artwork used to promote a movie. You’ve seen Key Art before. For instance, The Dark Knight (July 18th!!). Their marketing is a beautifully crafted (and expensive) hybrid campaign. It includes the best of viral, traditional, and contemporary methods. Their Key Art is the artwork used for the posters, trailers, and online content. Each component is different in it’s own right, but is consistent to the key concept: the story and characters that surround the rise of a dark knight.

Why Key Art

Key Art focuses on one aim: what the audience needs to feel. Key Art is what draws the audience in and engages their attention. It’s the bridge between curiosity and action. Successful Key Art takes the concept of a message and paints it in the mind of the audience before they encounter the message itself. It’s a hook.

Key Art for Sermons

While the Sermon Brand is the total mojo of a sermon, without the Key Art it’s uninteresting at first encounter: on a shelf or in a catalog. It’s important to capture your audience immediately before they reach the introduction of your sermon. Key Art can help build the emotion of your message and prep that ground to sow seed into.

Children are the gateway to the Kingdom of God. That’s why I like serving them so much. They have the utmost trust in God. If any doubt be in them at all, it is doubting they will ever doubt. When you tell a child something, they believe it. When you offer a child your relationship, they trust you. We’re to have the faith of children, and are never to cause a child to be offended, or to stumble and sin.

I appreciate the children I’m able to connect with. I’m able to look into their eyes and see the eyes of my master, teacher, and friend Jesus.

Today, focus on serving a child. You may actually be entertaining an angel. Go for it. See what happens.

Photo by Erin Lee.