I have heard it said that people these days have shorter attention spans than they did 40 or 50 years ago. Mostly this is attributed to our increasingly entertainment oriented American culture. 

Andy Stanley, senior pastor of North Point church in the Atlanta area says this,

‘There is this myth that people say, “Sermons need to be short because people today have short attention spans.” That is totally irrelevant. People’s attention spans are as long as their engagement. If I’m engaged, I will sit and stay engaged until I have to go to the bathroom. The issue is: are people engaged, not how long is the sermon?’

When you communicate in a small group setting or on a Sunday morning, are you more concerned about filling a time quota or “getting through some material” or are you attuned to how you can engage people? 

Information and message content are important – ABSOLUTELY! But the greatest and even the most relevant information will not be well received unless you help stir up desire for the information you are going to give and show your audience how it is applicable to them within their situation. This is what it means to engage people as a communicator.

It’s easy to see when people aren’t engaged and when they are not. People leaving early, staring off into space, yawning or falling asleep – these are all tell tale signs of people who are disengaged. 

If you’re a leader, and the people in your environment of leadership are not engaged, chances are it is because you aren’t effectively engaging people. 

We are messengers of the most engaging story in all of history – the Gospel. Let’s not make an exciting message boring by the way we communicate.

(Andy Stanley quotes via Ed Stetzer)