One of the greatest sources of inspiration that I’ve come across over the last year is TED Talks.  TED is igniting some of the most thought-provoking discussions relevant to our world today.

The annual TED Conference is held in Long Beach, CA and other TED conferences are hosted world wide.  TED draws together some of the most influential leaders in Technology, Entertainment, and Design in hopes of synergy for the future.

The TED Talks are talks given by influential leaders in these three arenas at the TED Conferences.  They are the main reason why TED has quickly become the influential summit that it is.  TED speakers have to be able to communicate one main idea in their message.  One idea.  Just one.  It has to be focused.  It has to be intentional.  It’s one shot to share one specific idea worth spreading.

For communicators, pastors, and teachers in ministry, it can be difficult to boil your messages down to just one point.  It’s something that I struggle with each time I go to speak.  The temptation is to let the rabbit trails pull us away from being laser-focused in our message.

One of the best resources that I’ve found to help with the concept of communicating one main idea is Andy Stanley’s book, Communicating for a Change.  Hardly any pastors can remember their own three-point outline, why should we expect our listeners to remember it as well?  In Communicating for a Change, Stanley gives a fantastic layout for helping to communicate one main idea in your messages.

We can learn from TED by boiling our messages down to one idea at a time.  If anybody should have ideas and a message worth spreading, it’s believers in Jesus Christ.