The most obvious sign of greater attentiveness was the marked increase in note taking. That alone had a significant impact.

Educational theorists have long pointed out that we forget most of what we hear unless we also interact with the material visually, verbally, or physically. That’s why getting people to take notes increases recall dramatically.

In every crowd there are always a good number of neurotic note takers (you know the type; they’re the folks who get a nervous twitch if a blank in the sermon outline is left unfilled or a point is skipped over). The challenge is to get everyone else to also write something down.

That’s not too hard to do when their small group questions are tied to the weekend message. Then even the most note-resistant listeners tend to write something down, because they know they’ll be discussing the key points later in the week. Note taking is their way of “laying down some crumbs” so they can find their way back home again when their group meets.

Larry Osborne, Sticky Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008).

If you would like help writing lessons for sermon-based groups, see https://www.joshhunt.com/2015/12/04/sermon-based-small-groups/

 

Post Views: 408