As a seventh grader in youth group, I was always the first to volunteer to participate in object lessons. It was my time to shine, my chance to take center stage—my opportunity to impress the cute girl at my church.

Yes, I was that kid.

I went to a small church with a small youth ministry, and our middle school and high school groups met together for Bible study on Thursday nights. But those upper classmen didn’t scare me.

One night our leader asked for a volunteer. True to form, my hand shot up. She called on me, and I took my place in front of the group where I was adorned in plastic vines. We were talking about how Jesus was the vine, and we were the branches. My body was an illustration of the stability of Christ, and my artificial foliage was an appropriate depiction of Christ’s followers.

Our leader asked me if I liked my branches. Desperate to impress those juniors and seniors (and the super-fine eighth-grade girl in the front row), I searched my vocabulary for the biggest word I knew. My heart filled with courage, and my mouth moved faster than it should have. I intended to say, “I love my tentacles.”

Instead I made another bold proclamation, like a mighty warrior: “I love my testicles!”

The room erupted in laughter. My face turned crimson, but even I couldn’t help but awkwardly laugh. It was one of those moments. It was just funny. Their jeering didn’t cause long-term damage to my psyche, and my faux pas was eventually forgotten by most (I hope). It was simply humorous.

Humor holds powerful sway over our minds, but also it can have a great deal of influence over our hearts. Though a slip of the tongue can provide limitless fodder for teasing, well-used humor in preaching can be a powerful tool as well. I would suggest that if you can get people to laugh, you can get them to listen—and change. Humor can amuse, for sure. But it can also engage, enlighten, and inspire students.

Capturing Attention

Humor has been a great attention-getting device since Adam told Eve the first knock-knock joke. Marketing gurus, movie and television writers, and yes, preachers, have been aware of the power of laughter for centuries. The sermon outline cliché of a joke, three points, and a poem is indicative of this timeless philosophy. If I had a nickel for every sermon you’ve heard that started with, “Did you hear the one about...” I could buy a tank of gas—even at today’s prices.

But just because many preachers overuse this cliché doesn’t make the strategy poor. There’s something to the practice of capturing an audience’s imagination with a humorous introduction.

These funny introductions certainly don’t have to be jokes. In fact, telling jokes can come off as corny, poorly motivated, and—most dangerous of all—not funny. Students especially aren’t huge joke tellers. If you ask, “Did you hear the one about…” chances are they haven’t. They do love a funny story, though.

When I was in college, I traveled for my school to various church camps in our region. When we first arrived at a camp for a week I would tell all my funniest stories—the time when I wet my pants playing left field, the time I burped in a girl’s mouth when trying to give her a kiss, the time when I was in first grade and accidentally wore my pajama pants to school under my jeans.

I wasn’t telling these stories so the kids would like me; I was telling them so they’d listen to me.

Humor has the power to engage people.

It demonstrates that the preacher is at ease. It helps break down barriers. It levels the playing field when speakers demonstrate that they don’t take themselves too seriously. When people are listening in those very first moments, we have the opportunity to speak truth into their lives.

It should be noted that humor must never be the end, but instead a means to that end. Being funny has never been one of the goals of effective preaching; rather, it is life transformation through the power of the Holy Spirit.

For that kind of change to take place, however, you need an engaged audience. And you only get one chance to make a good first impression.

When I first met the woman who would become my wife (and realized I wanted to marry her), I tried to make her laugh every chance I got. I wanted her to like me, certainly, but my motives were simpler than that—I wanted her to pay attention to me. (I suppose it worked).

In preaching, there’s nothing wrong with wanting people to pay attention to what you have to say. You’re preaching the good news of Jesus, after all.

Keeping Attention

Back in the day preachers would take the pulpit and orate for hours concerning the truth of the Scripture. In a time when many people were starving for the Word of God, this was an effective methodology. Revealing God’s words was enough to keep most of them on the edges of their seats (though I’m sure there were plenty of head-bobbers back then, too).

Some wish that no-frills style still worked today, but it doesn’t. I can count on one hand—maybe even one finger—the number of preachers who venture beyond an hour in the pulpit. It’s not common practice, for sure.

But the issue isn’t students’ attention spans.

I’ve heard some say that a person’s attention span is equal in minutes to the number of years he’s been alive (which is why some speculate that a middle school student cannot effectively take in a sermon that lasts more than 20 minutes). Television, music videos, and the Internet have diminished our students’ abilities to pay attention, they claim.

I simply disagree. It’s not about how long you preach; it’s about how well.

And humor can increase exponentially the effectiveness of our preaching, because the only thing harder than capturing a student’s attention is keeping it.

It builds in breaks for the listener. It illustrates the message, and our audience is reminded of where we’re going. After all, if our students don’t come with us, what’s the point of continuing to talk? I’m not suggesting that we replace the truth of the gospel with jokes and entertainment—I’m simply pointing out that humor can reel the listener back in.

I’ve heard the example of a great roller coaster. The twists and loops and surprising descents are the substance of the roller coaster, but even the most extreme ride has points where you slow down slightly, flatten out for a second, and get a chance to digest what you’ve just experienced. In our preaching it’s rarely the humorous moments that will carry the most meaning, but that doesn’t make them worthless. Instead we can learn to use them effectively as short pauses, regroupings, and setting the stage for the next tough truths.

I’ve found this is best accomplished by telling funny stories. Storytelling is an ancient craft. From the orally inclined Old Testament to the parables of Jesus, stories are magnificent attention-keepers. Humorous stories go a step further in recapturing listeners’ minds.

Of the contemporary long-winded preachers that come to mind, they integrate humor in every case. Once I heard a preacher drop an hour on a bunch of middles schoolers at a camp, and they were with him just as much in minute 60 as they were in minute one. But of the 60 minutes, they didn’t go more than five at any point without laughing. And there were numerous decisions afterward.

Not bad for a bunch of middles schoolers with 15-minute attention spans.

Challenging Students

While humor can be used to capture and keep attention, its power to actually inspire change shouldn’t be discounted. As asserted earlier, if you can make people laugh, you can also get them to consider what you’re saying. If the point of preaching is to challenge listeners, humor shouldn’t be overlooked as an instrument in your preaching toolbox.

Jesus is a prime example of this methodology. When he employed humor, it not only was illustrative, it also packed a punch. Humorous notions such as a camel passing through the eye of a needle (the author recognizes there are multiple views of what he meant by this) weren’t merely funny word images—they were statements about salvation. No laughing matter.

It’s been said that the best joke makes you laugh and think. When we employ humor for a purpose, it can have rewarding benefits.

I was once preaching a sermon on rejection, a serious subject. Even more somber was my text—the woman with the issue of blood. Instead of trudging through what can be construed as a dismal narrative (although everything I said centered on the text), I told a parable about a credit card. I invited students to pretend they were credit cards, and we pondered what it would be like to be stuffed in wallets near guys’ bums or in the bottoms of jam-packed purses. I talked about how much we would enjoy the “tickle machines” through which we were routinely swiped. It may sound corny to you, but it brought laughter to the listeners as they considered the silly notion.

My point was to challenge them to remember when they felt rejected. In our pretend existence as credit cards, we imagined what it must feel like to hear those words, “I’m sorry, but your card has been rejected.” Comparing that to our human emotions proved powerful despite the frivolous parable that preceded it.

Remember in John 5 when Jesus asked the lame man if he wanted to get well? That strikes me as a question with equal parts humor and prodding. We would assume that, of course, the man wanted to be healed—but Jesus wasn’t kidding around. He wanted to know if the man had the faith to believe in his healing touch.

We’re really doing nothing different when we preach using humor. Our motivation is two-fold—we want to be funny enough to gain and hold listeners’ attention, and serious enough that they consider the challenge of the gospel.

To the Critics…

Some would read these words and reject them outright. Some say there’s no place for sarcasm, irony, or joking during the sermon experience. Critics would claim that humor is always motivated by self-centeredness, the desire to be liked, and the need for the spotlight—and ultimately a pretty ineffective communication tool.

I couldn’t disagree more.

Yes, preachers can get caught up in the act of preaching and forget to actually speak substantive words. Laughter from hundreds of people can pad the ego and lead to greater problems. But these are the communicator’s issues, not an indictment on the technique itself. As for the claim that humor is ineffective in aiding the communication process, experience has taught us all otherwise. Just as lines from our favorite sitcom are unforgettably quotable, a funny sermon can make a huge impression.

Potential dangers should not disqualify us from employing humor. The old adage says, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Many don’t realize that those are the words of inspired Scripture, from Proverbs 17:22. While those words certainly aren’t talking about preaching in particular, it’s hard to ignore their overarching truth. Humor can most definitely engage, enlighten, and inspire students. So start laughing, keep laughing, and laugh for a change.

And when you say testicles instead of tentacles, don’t forget to laugh at yourself.