The Edge Blog

Encouraging note taking by your congregation will significantly improve their retention of the preaching. Often pastors concentrate on how dynamic the presentation of the teaching will be without as much regard to how they will help the congregation retain the information. But note taking is absolutely key to the sermon penetrating beyond the pews and being taken out beyond the walls of the church by the listeners.

According to author and study advisor Walter Pauk, people lose their retention of information they see and hear at the following rates:

        20 minutes     47% forgotten

        1 day              62% forgotten

        2 days            69% forgotten

        75 days          75% forgotten

        78 days          78% forgotten

Two starting observations come from this information. First, note that half of the listeners of your sermon will forget it within 20 minutes of hearing it. Second, note that nearly 80% will have forgotten it after two and a half months. Unless we help the listener retain the information, the reality is that only 20% of those who hear our words are going to commit them to long-term memory.

This is why note taking is so crucial. Notes provide cues to the listener that stimulate recall. A Berkeley survey of college professors nationwide ask them, “What one piece of advice would you give students to improve their academic performance in college?” By a wide margin, the top piece of advice was, “Learn how to take good notes.” Note taking is a skill that must be encouraged and made convenient for your congregation.

Many pastors provide sermon outlines in a fill-in-the-blank format each Sunday. Dr. Merritt’s church uses this format and prints the outline in the Sunday bulletin. The fill-in-the-blank outline is a great place to begin because it makes it easy on the listener. They are listening with intent for key words and phrases. The pastor has pre-selected those thoughts that he believes are most important to remember and has provided them to the listener. And the outline helps the listener keep the pace of the sermon.

Another method of encouraging note taking is simply to provide a blank note page for the congregation. Allow each person to take as many or as few notes as he or she desires, reflecting their own personal learning style. I found no definitive research comparing the two methods of note taking, so it is impossible to say if a blank notes style is more or less effective than a fill-in-the-blank outline.

Finally, the pastor must encourage his congregation to write things down. Go beyond just providing an outline or notes page, and pepper your message with key thoughts that you want people to remember. Actually say verbatim, “Everyone write this down…” You may from time to time encourage people to write in the margins of their Bible or to circle key words and phrases as you read and study.

How much will note taking improve retention of the sermon material? Way back in  1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus did a memory experiment to test this. He found that note taking increased retention by 20% of the test group. That is, instead of 47% of people forgetting your message in 20 minutes, if all took notes, only 27% would. That’s a significant improvement. At the two month mark, it means you are doubling the number of people who recall your teaching.

We can use—and should use—all of the teaching tools at our disposal. Music, drama, video, the creative and performance arts, all add to our words from the pulpit. But don’t forget to encourage and empower people to write down what they are learning. There are many aspects to memory and learning, just as there are to the styles and methods of preaching. But remember that note taking is a tide that lifts all boats, improving every teacher’s and every listener’s effectiveness.

How do you outline your message? Every pastor has his own style and cadence. Perhaps you love the classic three-pointer. Or maybe the points don’t matter as long as they rhyme sublimely all the time. Or perhaps you’re more of a storyteller and there are no distinct points, but rather the larger point of the whole. Are any of these methodologies better or worse, and does the organization of your message make any difference?

The short answer is yes, it does. In the moment, perhaps it’s not so clear—any of these styles can help the congregation receive what you are teaching. But in the context of helping the congregation actually remember what you taught—not just after the service but next week or next year—the outline of your message is terribly important. To understand why we must focus on what the audience is hearing.

Now we often use videos and dramas and other visual illustrations in our messages—which can be useful tools—because we believe it will help people remember better. Because after all, most people are visual learners, right? Well, no, they’re not. All people, regardless of race, background or culture are first and foremost auditory learners. We learn by hearing. The whole visual learning thing was made up I’m convinced by either television or movie producers for their own devices. It’s just not true.

The brain’s auditory center is connected to the centers for thought processing and memory in the most direct way. What we hear is vastly more important than what we see when it comes to learning. In fact, did you know when you read that you are actually learning auditorally as you sound out the words in your mind? Further your auditory center picks up and remembers even on a semi-conscious level. It’s why at times even though you are not really paying attention, if someone says, “Hey, what was I just saying?” you can repeat that last sentence back to them verbatim. Your ears were listening even if your mind was slightly disengaged. We were built to hear.

Even God confirms this in His Word. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” And how did God create the world? He spoke. What did God give us to guide and instruct us? His Word, passed down as an oral history for thousands of years before we arrived at the printed version. Hebrew children memorized the Torah by listening and repeating. For 5,000+ years learning has focused on and centered on the mouth speaking and the ear hearing. We were built to hear.

What does this have to do with a preaching outline? Well, if our primary learning method is auditory, that begs the question, “What will make use hear and remember more effectively?” Our tone and cadence, words that repeat and rhyme, and a sermon divided into a simple 3-4 outlined phrases that compress the whole into memorable snippets. Preaching that paints word pictures engages the mind and imagination, which is what makes storytelling such a powerful tool. However, it’s important to note that the storytelling style does not lead to long-term retention as readily as the outline style. People will engage with a story, but they will more likely remember a few key words and phrases delivered distinctly and repeatedly.

There are a number of books that explore this process in detail. One of the better ones is Thought Particles: Building Blocks of Perceptual Reality by Roy H. Williams. Another resource for understanding the power of the spoken word is to Google and study “Broca’s Area” and “Wernicke’s Area” of the brain, which detail the regions for producing and interpreting spoken language.

Dr. Merritt’s messages follow the outline style. In many cases he includes a key truth or overall point for the message. This organization is intentional and designed to help the listener hear, process and, most importantly, retain what they are learning. A preacher is most effective when he goes beyond the goal of the listener committing what they are hearing to conscious thought. Rather, he wants them to remember. It is when we begin pressing teaching into long-term memory that the most effective results of teaching are generated.

The most memorable of presentations share not only a clear and concise vision, but are able to put those into short and memorable phrases. “Ask not what your country can do for you…” “I have a dream…” “Let them eat cake.” If you want to make your point in a sermon and powerfully as possible, divide the content into a simple and memorable outline, repeat key words and phrases and pay first and most attention to what the congregation will hear from you in the pulpit.