Engage Your Audience So Everyone Wins
By Tony Jeary

When you engage your audience, you create an atmosphere that allows them to enjoy the experience and benefit from it. When people feel good about what they are experiencing, when they are complimented for their contributions, when they are touched by whatever you are sharing—they win! Look for ways to engage your audience so that people win, and connection will happen!

Engaging your audience is one of the best ways to keep their attention. I have found that most audiences today prefer to be talked “with,” not “at.” Consider leading your audience about half of the time and facilitating the other half by asking others to participate. Designing much of your presentation as a conversation with your audience is a great practice that keeps them involved and connected. The more you engage your audience, the more “takeaways” they will have.

The tone, or atmosphere, of your presentation affects the way your audience perceives your message. By engaging your audience and creating an atmosphere that is enjoyable, inviting, and user-friendly, your audience is more likely to feel welcome, interested, and involved. When you engage your audience, they are much more receptive to buying in to your presentation objective—whether it is to inspire, guide, persuade, or share knowledge.

To grab their attention and keep it, engage your audience in the presentation immediately. Call audience members by name (using nametags or name cards if you need to), ask them questions, and give them opportunities to respond. Another great way to engage your audience is to make them your partners in the presentation by asking them to share their expectations. Or suggest that they write something down, like points of your presentation that are useful to them, or questions they would like to ask at the end.

One of the most effective ways to engage your audience and create a winning atmosphere is to use what I call Strategic Engagement. The degree to which people enjoy an experience usually has a direct bearing on how well they absorb it and take appropriate action. Simply put, Strategic Engagement is an activity that breaks up the monotony of hearing one speaking voice and makes a point with something other than words. It revitalizes your audience and adds the “fun factor.” One of my favorite Strategic Engagement methods is to pass out dollar bills in reward for audience participation. Games, skits, activities, and events are creative ways to engage your audience through Strategic Engagement, because they get your audience members up and moving.

Verbal Surveying and Target Polling are also great ways to engage your audience. Verbal Surveying is simply asking the audience how things are going. About a third of the way into your presentation, you may ask your audience questions like “How are we doing?” or “Is everything making sense, or should we go back to something?” Then make necessary adjustments according to their responses. It’s a great tool to help you engage your audience and deliver your best presentation.

In Target Polling, you engage your audience by polling individuals before your presentation or during a break and asking them to share their expectations for your time together or provide background information about the group, audience, or region. Be sure to make adjustments according to the feedback you receive in order to improve the remainder of your presentation.

I cannot emphasize enough the power of engaging your audience to create and maintain a winning environment. When people win, they want to come back, they want to be involved, and they want to take that action or make that change you are suggesting.

Sunday school teachers are co-laborers with Christ, who decreed in Mathew 28:19-20 that His followers are to make disciples, baptize them, and then teach them His Word. An effective Sunday school teacher equips and empowers Christians, deepens their understanding of God’s Word, and helps them to live by its teachings.
I have identified Seven Steps to Effective Presentation that will help Sunday school teachers bring added value to their students and impact their lives in a greater way.
Step 1: Clarify Objectives
A Sunday school teacher’s objectives will be determined in part by the age of the students—whether young children, teens, or adults. Sunday school teachers of both young children and teens may want to build a strong, supportive relationship with each child and his or her parents and actively involve parents in their child’s spiritual development. Teen Sunday school teachers obviously want to find ways to make their class time so enjoyable and meaningful that the teens will want to come back week after week with their friends. Adult Sunday school teachers may want to think about the actions they want to happen as a result of their teaching and how those actions tie into the bigger message that is being preached and taught throughout their church.
Step 2: Define Your Audience
Defining the class by age, class size, developmental and cognitive abilities, maturity level, social pressures and influences, background and frame of reference, interests, and motivations and expectations will help Sunday school teachers know how to better plan, prepare, and deliver their lessons.
Step 3: Gather Content
If the church does not provide the curriculum, Sunday school teachers can find great curriculum at Christian bookstores or on the Internet, keeping in mind the factors discovered when they defined their audiences. We have included a great free resource section on PurposeFilledPresentations.com. Including interactive and age-appropriate activities and experiences will help Sunday school teachers effectively reach those audiences. Ministry to any age group must be grounded in sound Bible doctrine, or it loses its relevancy to the mission of the church.
Step 4: Maximize Preparation
The level of preparation demonstrates the level of respect Sunday school teachers have for their students, so it’s important to start planning lessons early in the week. If teens and adults, especially, can tell their teachers have made an investment in the preparation process, they will be more motivated to participate. Waiting until Saturday night to prepare puts undue pressure on the Sunday school teacher, stifles creativity, and does not allow adequate time to think and pray about what God wants to say.
I have designed the 3-D Outline™, which can be very effective in helping Sunday school teachers organize their thoughts and actions as they relate to their audiences, objectives, key points, and timing. It also conserves their valuable time and allows them to focus on the big picture. We have included a free template for the 3-D Outline™ in the resource section on PurposeFilledPresentations.com.
Step 5: Open Well
Meeting and greeting people as they come through the door is a great way to start for any age level. Sunday school teachers may want to open with a “teaser” that will get the students excited about what they will be doing, using a sentence, a question, or an icebreaker that foreshadows the lesson.
Step 6: Engage Your Audience
This step is critical with all ages. Toys and props make great tools for helping younger children connect with the Bible story. It’s important that Sunday school teachers look for creative ways to get teens to participate in the delivery as well as the learning, perhaps through presenting part of the lesson, reporting back on an assignment from the previous week, or journaling their devotion time for one week and then sharing with the class. Asking thought-provoking questions is a great way for Sunday school teachers to connect with both teens and adults, as well as forming discussion or discovery subgroups that report their findings back to the entire group.
Step 7: Close with Action
Sunday school teachers of young children may want to send something home with the children that will both cascade the message of the lesson to family members and remind the children of the point of the lesson each time they see it. A great closing activity for teen and adult Sunday school teachers may be to ask students what their main takeaway was from the lesson or ask them what they are going to do differently as a result of the lesson.

Tony Jeary (known as Mr. Presentation™) is recognized as the leading authority on both strategy and presentation effectiveness. He has published 38 books, of which 15 are on the subject of presentations that support his methodology, “Presentation Mastery™”. Tony impacts organizations from all over the globe via his private Strategic Acceleration Studio. He is the personal coach of many top CEOs from companies including Wal-Mart, Ford, Shell, Sam’s Club and other Fortune 500 companies. He is a devoted husband and the father of two daughters.

Tony is available to speak to your group

For availability and fees, call 1-877-2INSPIRE or email info@tonyjeary.com.

More About Tony

• For more information on Tony, visit www.tonyjeary.com or www.mrpresentation.com.
• Read an interview with Tony Jeary in Christian Standard, May 2009. (PDF, 61KB)
• Learn more about Tony’s presentation techniques in this Christian Standard article from June 2009. (PDF, 143KB)

Listen to Tony Jeary’s Presentation at Book Expo America below.