Haddon Robinson’s teaching and example always lurk in the back of my mind when it comes to conclusions. His teaching? “You can recover from a bad intro, but not from a bad conclusion.” His example? A consistent nailing of that last poignant and powerful line. Conclusions are easy – get to where you are going, review the journey briefly, encourage application of the idea and stop. But conclusions are hard – they are hard to give enough time for in preparation, they are hard to not modify and over-extend while preaching, they are hard to do well. The key is planning. First, plan to have enough time after preparing everything else in the message so that you can prepare the conclusion fully. Second, use that time and keep up the motivation in order to plan an effective conclusion. Third, generally stick to the conclusion you had planned when preaching, many extra thoughts become unnecessary extensions to a journey. Too many extensions will make the flight of the message uncomfortable and people will be reaching for the folded paper back in the pew in front of them!

Previously on this site – To put it simple, when you get to the end, stop. This is important, but you’ve got to know where you are going! Like flying a plane, your passengers value very highly your skill in landing the bird). The last line, as Haddon Robinson usually exemplifies is critical, so don’t miss that opportunity (although there are some opportunities to be missed). The main thing is to not short change the conclusion.