A Thought about Thinking

I am in the process of preparing to teach a class on preaching to a group of about a dozen men in our church. This Saturday, I am going to give the guys a lesson on the introduction of a message. When I was in Bible college, Dr. John Goestch taught us an outline for the introduction that he has used almost every time he has preached since he took homiletics at Maranatha.

Dr. Goetsch taught us that one of the key parts of the introduction comes in the form of a question. He calls this aspect of the introduction the propositional statement. Let's say you are preaching on the subject of the will of God, you might as a question like: "Do you know God's will for your life?" or "Are you seeking God's will for your life?" Dr. Goetsch taught us that questions make people think more than direct statements. I wholeheartedly agree.

As I was preparing for the preaching class, a succinct thought came to my mind. I don't know if I am the originator of this statement, but I know that I've never heard it put quite like this.

Think about this statement:

You can't make people change unless you can make them think.

It hit me as simply profound.