Using AIDA for Your Sermonic Form

Using AIDA for Your Sermonic Form

In the last post we considered the AIDA form that advertisers use.  You can get that post through this link.  In this post we’ll consider what using AIDA for your sermonic form might look like.    Remember that AIDA stands for grab attention, deepen interest, create desire, and call for action.

First Things

I think before we begin to apply this advertising form that we would be wise to note a significant difference between advertising and preaching.  Preaching is essentially proclaiming good news.  We’re not trying to sell something to our congregation.  We’re revealing to them the great truth that God loves us and has sent Jesus to pay for our sins so that we can live with Him forever.  Nor is preaching what many people think it is.  The adjective “preachy” is often used to describe someone telling someone else what to do.  Though we do call to action, it should be invitation, not commanding someone’s response.

Using the A in AIDA for your sermonic form

The A, of course, stands for grabbing the attention of the audience.  I’m going to use a sermon that I preached recently where I used this sermonic form.

I began with a story of a grandfather reading to his granddaughter as she sat on his lap.  Every once in a while, she would reach up and stroke her grandfather’s cheek, and then stroke her own.  After doing this several times, she finally asked, “Grandpa, did God make you?”  Grandpa answered, “Yes.  It was a long time ago, but God made me.”

The same pattern repeated itself.  The girl rubbed grandpa’s cheek while he read, and then rubbed her own.  After this happened a couple more times, she asked another question.  “Grandpa, did God make me?”  Grandpa responded, “Yes, he made you beautifully.”  The little girl said, ‘He’s getting better at it, don’t you think?”

Needless to say, I had the attention of the audience.  I introduced the text for the day, the beginning verses of Matthew 18:

 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

² He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. ³ And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. ⁴ Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ⁵ And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

Deepening Interest In Your Sermonic Form

I transitioned by saying that kids are cute, but that couldn’t be what Jesus meant here.  What could he mean, “Truly I tell you, unless you change (a strong word) and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

I suggested two ways to look at the passage: looking at what adultish behavior we need to leave behind, and then childlike behavior we need to develop.

The first phrase of the passage, “At that time” refers back where the disciples were discussing which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom.  I shared that this happened 5 times in the gospels, but the disciples didn’t get the call to servanthood.  This humility is what God is calling us to, the humility of a child, who, in that culture, was powerless.

In the section of the message on assuming childlike characteristics, I pointed out that children are more trusting of adults.  Also, children don’t create lines between people the way we adults tend to do.  Also, children are more joyful than us adults.

This is using AIDA for your sermonic form for your message.

Creating Desire

All along in the message I sought to invite the congregation into this kind of relationship with God.   That, too, is part of using the AIDA sermonic form for your message.

Calling for Action in the AIDA sermonic form

Finally, I invited people to examine themselves.  Are they more like adults, or children?

Want to Know More?

Below is a link to this message for your further reflection on using AIDA for the sermonic form of your message.