The first 5 minutes is the most important part of your message. If you can’t grab people’s attention and tell them why it was imperative they got out of bed to hear you, it’s over.

A great close can’t fix a bad opening. A good middle can’t compensate for a boring beginning. Why? Because if you don’t grab them at the beginning, you’ve lost them. That’s why stories are so powerful.

I love telling stories to open my message because:
– they grab people (“That’s interesting. Where’s this going?”)
– they relate to people (“I’ve done that before too”)
– they put the speaker and the listener on equal footing (“This guy’s just like me”)
– they introduce your topic in human terms (“I guess the Bible is relatable to my life”)

Introductions matter. They decide whether people are going to track with us or sleep…