I was listening one of my favourite podcast recently (Kermode and Mayo’s film review). They were discussing a film called “Fighting with my family”. The true story involves a family from Britain whose daughter broke into WWE wrestling in the United States. You might not think there are many parallels between WWE and preaching, but I beg to differ.

Since the results of wrestling bouts are fixed ahead of time, the only thing a performer is in control of is whether they can win the crowd over.  In a similar way, we are best off in preaching and teaching when we’re not trying to win the argument against our opponents (listeners), but trying to persuade them of a biblical point of view and thus win them over.

It makes a huge difference to the open heartedness of an audience if they sense we are trying to win them over with healthy persuasion rather than push them into a corner proving them wrong.  How do you feel about this perspective? Do you think it significant that we attempt to win our audience over? If so, what are the best ways to do this?

Thank you for listening to this recording. You can find more teaching tips here and on the on the YouTube teaching tips playlist

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Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: malcolm@malcolmcox.org.

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Thanks again for listening. Have a terrific Tuesday, and a wonderful week.

God bless,

Malcolm