The Vital Need for Effective Communication

Just how important is communication? Can I stress it enough? The Harvard Business Review put it this way: the number one criteria for advancement and promotion for professionals is an ability to communicate effectively. And I am so thankful now, 45 years later, to my parents, Stan and Louise, who helped this preschool boy who needed some help to be able to communicate clearly.

Because everyone has a message. You don’t have to be standing on this stage to be a communicator. All of you communicate. If you sit on a committee, you communicate. If you give a monthly summary to your work, to your boss or your direct report, then you are communicating. If you give instructions to your colleagues to make sure a job gets done right, you’re communicating. You need to collaborate in university on that project to make sure it goes well and gets a good mark. There’s over 50 of you that lead a life group; you need to be able to communicate if you teach in a classroom or if you attempt to be heard in your own home. You need to be able to communicate. You can’t be unclear. So you know this. You know that it’s essential for communication, and because you’ve experienced it, you want it for other people.

In fact, there’s a big concern out there for our generation and about those younger who may not be developing their spoken communication to its full extent because these things—our cell phones—are getting in the way. You’ve talked to your friends about this. And you wonder, how can everybody be looking down all the time? Nobody looks you in the eye anymore. And you know that a text message is so much easier to try to communicate than to have to look someone in the eye and to actually use real words at the right time, and for that person to use real words back. It’s a powerful thing, but it is so much easier to do the text. So we know the importance of it, and because we know the importance of it, we want the people around us that we love to experience good communication as well.

Yet at the same time, I fully acknowledge that communication is not easy. Have you experienced this? Trying to have communication one-on-one is sometimes not easy. And to have those hard conversations with people you love is not easy. And then on the other side of it, speaking to three or more people is a great fear to a lot of people. Jerry Seinfeld, the great comedian, put it in a way only he could put it. He said, “I saw a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Death number two? This means to the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.” Communication is tough. And today I want to be just as helpful as possible, and the help is going to come from the greatest communicator of all time.

Introducing the Master Communicator

I want to introduce him to you. I want to introduce to you today someone who is so good at communication, one of his many names is “The Word.” Ladies and gentlemen, his accomplishments no binder can hold. He has done the impossible time after time. He comes from the manger in Bethlehem by way of heaven. His Father is the author of the top-selling book since the beginning of the printing press. He fed 5,000 people with only two fish and five loaves. He can walk on water. He can turn water into wine. There are no camera tricks, no special effects. Even before the first earthly king, he was already King of Kings. You may know him as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the bright and morning star, the Prince of Peace—and multitudes flocked to hear his teaching wherever he went. I want to introduce you to Jesus.

And as we move forward on this topic of communication, I want to remind you of four Bible verses that you are likely quite familiar with. Let’s go to those. In the beginning, John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” They’re talking about Jesus here. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,” which was Jesus. Jesus is speaking here in John, and he says, “I and the Father are one.” He’s speaking again, Jesus: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”

Have you ever tried to grasp that Jesus was on this earth? I know we celebrate it at Christmas every year, but if you just pause in May and think: Jesus was on this earth—the God-man, a hundred percent God and a hundred percent man at the same time. It just blows my mind. There were people who lived at the same time as Jesus, and they had the privilege of listening to him teach and preach. Just imagine that. Did they even know what they were listening to? Did they realize? Could there have been people who chose not to attend the hillside sermon by the traveling rabbi because they had something else to do?

You may have seen on your phone the videos of the concert violinist down in the New York subway that just starts playing, and people just keep walking by, completely oblivious that it would cost hundreds of dollars for a ticket to the posh Metropolitan Opera House later that evening to see the same violinist. Did people miss it? See, unfortunately there are no videos of Jesus’ sermons while he was in the boat using it as his pulpit to the multitudes. There are no audio recordings of his temple teachings in Jerusalem. But we do have a book. We have a book that has preserved some of what Jesus taught, and it should be so enticing to you that you shouldn’t have to set an alarm on when to pick up this book and read it, because it’s full of his teachings.

If you’re new to the Bible, you can find Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament in the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And one of those disciples, one of his dear friends named John, as he was finishing writing the book, he wrote this as the last words in the book of John. Take a look at this, John 21, starting at verse 24: “This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”

Together, as I was preparing for our time together, I asked myself this question: If communication is ultra-important in everyday life, which we agree that it is, then what can we learn from Jesus, the master communicator, that we can put into practice tomorrow? Not just for communicators, but for everyone, no matter what you do. And there are three things I want to present to you today. And then on June 14th, after we have the One Church service on June 7th, on June 14th you’re all going to come back and we’re going to continue with this series.

Principle 1: Jesus Was Credible

Number one, if you want to take your outline and follow along—there are only three blanks today, and there are pens in your seat pocket in front of you—number one: Jesus was credible. There is not a week that goes by—my oldest daughter is here to back this up—there’s not a week that goes by that I don’t send a video to one of my girls and I say, “Is this real? Did they really attach a mini video camera to the back of a cockroach? Is that real?” I don’t know if you struggle with it, but is it difficult to tell what’s real and what’s not anymore? And ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you today, Jesus is real, and he is credible.

You might be new to church and you might say, “Well, how do you know that? How can you say that?” Here’s why: because Jesus lived his message. His words and his actions aligned. He taught with his words, and some of the most famous words that we all know is “love one another.” Then he went out and had meals with the marginalized of the community. He went and he touched the untouchable and he forgave his enemies. His words and his actions aligned.

I want you to think about this: What if Judas, one of the disciples, had preached the Sermon on the Mount? You see, if Judas had preached the Sermon on the Mount and had the script for it, let’s imagine, it may have been helpful to the listeners in the moment. But I can guarantee you that 2,000 years later we would not be talking about the Sermon on the Mount. Why not? Because the sermon would not be remembered because of the choices Judas made for himself. You see, the reason we still talk about what Jesus said is because of how he lived. He was credible. Who says it matters.

And so, as a Christ follower, it is important for us to ask ourselves: Am I credible? To ask yourself: Are my words and my actions congruent? To get super practical and to get right inside your home—when you complain about your teenager having too much screen time, which everybody does, or your grandchildren, and you’re complaining about it, when they look to you, do you have a consistent screen time plan for yourself? When you talk to them about welcoming new people and you say, “Today I want to make sure that nobody sits alone at the cafeteria, so I want you to be a kid that goes over and makes friends and is friendly to those that are alone,” then do they see your kindness resonating when you’re at the restaurant for the waiter and the waitress? Do they see your kindness when you drive through the drive-thru restaurant?

See, if you have a child still at home, no matter what the age, I dare you to ask this question to them this week. Get your pens ready. I want you to ask them, “Do I follow my own advice?” And then pause and listen. You can say it this way: “You know all the things that I ask you to do each day? Do I do those things in my own life?” I dare you to ask the question. And you’re going to find out if you’re credible in your home. What can we learn from the Master Communicator? We can learn that Jesus was credible, and it is important as a Christ follower to ask, Am I credible too? In 26 years, I’ve never spoken on this topic. It was so exciting to dig into all of Jesus’ messages and to try to discern how we can crack the code and figure out how we can do this in our own lives.

Principle 2: Jesus Was a Learner

Number two is: Jesus was a learner. Have you ever wondered how Jesus knew the Old Testament scriptures so well? Have you ever paused to think about that? One angle of that is that because God was in a body, the scriptures were just infused in him or downloaded so that he had it. If you dig into that, theologians—people much smarter than I—would suggest that that was not the case. Rather, Jesus as a young boy immersed himself in his culture like any boy would. He took time to learn how to read and was taught the scriptures by his parents and by the local teachers over time. He was likely a good student. The traditional Jewish education system was quite rigorous with synagogue attendance, and then I’m sure he did personal meditation and memorization. And when I say memorization, they have us beat. Oh boy, could they memorize and study those scriptures.

So, because of that continual approach of learning, then comes Jesus as a 30-year-old about to begin his public ministry. And when he begins his preaching and his teaching, all of his learning just flows out of him. In fact, we have recorded in the scriptures that he quoted the Old Testament 78 times, and in other references, as he tells his stories and parables and whatnot, he references the Old Testament 300 times because he knew the scripture. He was a learner.

And how does this apply to us? Well, we’re at such an advantage in 2026. If you think about it, there are so many books available to us. There are books that will read them to you—you don’t even have to open up the book. You can go for a walk and you’re reading a book. You can listen to books at two times speed. It’s beautiful. There are so many sermons, there are so many podcasts. You simply will be better when you read, when you learn. And then in life groups, which many of you are involved in, when you begin to collaborate with other people and share ideas and talk about what they’re learning and what you’re learning, it makes you better, it makes you sharper.

And I want you to remember that learning is not just for you. It’s not just for you; it’s for other people that you are going to meet along the way—other people in your house that you can share your knowledge with. Just this month, I got a phone call that I wasn’t expecting. It was an individual that comes to the church, and he was going through a significant life change—a job change. His current job involves overseeing millions of dollars in the organization, and he called and he was stressed out. I had a chance to pray for him over the phone. And after that prayer—I hadn’t prepared, I didn’t know he was calling me, he got me when I picked up the phone—during the prayer, I was reminded of something I had learned that might be helpful to him. And so after the prayer, I shared with him a resource that would be incredibly helpful at this specific time in his life. And he went and he listened to that resource and it was so helpful to him. But I was able to help him because I had taken time to learn something myself and didn’t know when I was going to be able to help the other person.

John Maxwell is an individual we’ve talked about before from this stage. He was just in Sussex last month, and the communication team got to go down and be with him along with some other people at Kingswood. There’s this great story about John Maxwell that he often tells about his father, Melvin. John, as a boy, got quite irritated and asked his dad, “How come I don’t get an allowance like all my friends for doing chores around the house, for doing the dishes and putting out the trash and taking care of the dog?” And Melvin said to his son, “I’m not going to pay you to do household chores. You’re a contributing member of our family; you need to actually contribute.” That’s a controversial topic! But Melvin said, “Here’s what I will do: I’ll pay you to read books.” And so Melvin carefully selected books at the appropriate age for little John, and then John would read those books, and then he had to complete a one-pager that kind of summarized the book, what he learned, and how he would apply it to his life—and then he would get paid.

I wonder how that turned out? John Maxwell, if you don’t know, is in his 70s. He has written over 100 books. He was named the most influential leadership expert, and at his core, he’s a pastor. I’ve been able to witness at conferences last year on my sabbatical, people coming to Christ through the platform that he’s been given in the business world. And he credits this practice of learning to have given him a massive advantage over kids his own age as he was exposed to life-changing ideas. Learning.

So I thought, wow, maybe I should try this with my kids. And so for my third little girl, Clara, she’s 12, we’ve started doing this where I’ll send her a video of a sermon that I think is really important for her, or a TED talk for a different skill in life, and she needs to complete some questions in order to get paid. And I just went to the mall last week and she got paid! This is an unbelievable side note, Holly—I hadn’t even thought of it—I was walking to the mall and it hit me: I haven’t been in the mall in all of 2026. And then I thought, I don’t think I’ve been in the mall in 2025! And then I said to Clara, I said, “You’re gonna have to show me where to go. I don’t think I’ve been here since probably Christmas 2025.” So that’s just a little side note; I don’t go to the mall very much. So you want to ask yourself: Am I continually learning? Am I a learner? What can we learn from Jesus, the master communicator, that we can put into life practice tomorrow? Am I credible? Am I a learner?

Principle 3: Jesus Was Memorable

Let’s go to number three. We’ve got one more blank: Jesus was memorable. See, when Jesus spoke, oh, people paid attention. And his greatest attention-grabbing strategy was stories. It was all about stories. And you know the power of a story is whether or not people remember it afterwards. And so Jesus used plenty of stories, also known as parables, and we still remember them today.

Here’s a little fun challenge for you at lunchtime. No matter who it is that you’re eating lunch with, I want you to get out a blank sheet of paper. It’s not a competition, it’s a collaboration, and I want you to simply ask the question: How many Jesus stories can we brainstorm? And just start going through them and see how many you can remember. Now, I’ll give you just a little clue. One person’s going to say something like, “Well, I remember the one about the lost son, the prodigal son.” Okay, write that down. “Oh, I remember the one about the sower, the farmer who scattered the seed.” Okay, write that one down. And then use AI afterwards to check, and there are about 40. There are about 40 parables. See if you can get to 20. I’d love to know. How many can you remember?

Also, Jesus made his communication memorable through short, memorable catchphrases. They were so powerful and so memorable that we still use many of them today, 2,000 years later. Let’s try a few just to see if it’s true or not.

• Treat others as you want to be… [crowd answers: treated].
• Do not judge, or you too will be… [crowd answers: judged].
• Love your… [crowd answers: neighbor] as yourself.
• Let your yes be yes and your no… [crowd answers: no].

You know Jesus’ catchphrases!

• With God all things are… [crowd answers: possible].
• The truth will set you… [crowd answers: free].
• For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be.

You see, it’s important to not miss the fact that it wasn’t just the stories, it wasn’t just the catchphrases. But Jesus had conviction when he spoke. Jesus was absolutely convinced that the message that he had to share would positively change lives and save lives for eternity.

And so I ask you the question: Are you memorable? And as we learn from Jesus—I’m not telling you to be Jesus, I’m telling you—are you memorable to the people around you? Because I would hope that a person who has the Holy Spirit inside of them would be able to light up the darkness around them. And that makes you memorable.

Do you love to encourage other people, to say nice things about them, to build them up so that they want to be around you and they want to hear it again? You’re a “bucket filler,” is another way to say that. Do you tell good stories? Do you think about different stories that you might share if you’re going to an event where you can talk to people? And ask good questions, not boring ones. It’s so easy to just simply say, “I need five good questions to ask my kid after school.” And there are creative questions that you can ask. Instead of saying, “How was your day?” You hated when your parents asked you that, so why are you asking your kids that? Get creative and repeat positive biblical catchphrases over and over to your family. One that I’ve always used since the girls were really young is: “You are strong and you are brave.” From Joshua, be strong and courageous. You are strong and you are brave. And last month, when I was going through what I was going through, guess what my kids said to me, Dad? “You are strong and you are brave.”