More Important Than Being Interesting, You Need To Be…

Many readers of this blog are serving in ministry in some way. Most ministry leaders have to speak or lead people during the course of their week. We’re required to have some interesting stuff to say – to keep people engaged.

As you prepare meetings, messages or printed material, it’s always good to be interesting to your audience.

But you know what is more important than being interesting? Do you know what makes a bigger impact?

I recently heard this quote: “More important than being interesting is being interested.” When people ask me questions, I love to answer and talk. When someone asks a followup question, it’s amazing! A interested person uses questions mixed with an authentic desire to learn more about someone to really make a connection and ultimately, an impact.

Somewhere along the way, I remember a story about Churchill being interviewed by a couple different people. After the first interview, he noted that the interviewer was smart, amazing and charming. After the second person had interviewed him with questions and interest, he came away thinking that he himself had been the most amazing person in the room.

The difference is in being interested in other people.

I love the passage in Philippians 2 in which we are encouraged to be confidently humbly, as Christ was.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Phil. 2:3-4

Being interested in others is a form of ministry, of compassion and definitely friendship.

Marketers are always interested in people, what they are thinking and how they are behaving. There may be an alternative purpose there, but it’s still crucial to business and to polls.

The church should lead the way in taking interest in the individuals in the community and region around them. This begins with the leadership.

How can you be interested in people today?

It’s important to be interesting, but it may be even more important to be interested.