It’s what people remember. Think of a perfect routine on the uneven bars, a beautiful dive from the high platform, a great 5k run, a flawless 8 innings. In the end, what people will remember is the end.
It’s why, when a perfect routine ends in a stumble or stutter-step, it’s no longer a perfect routine. Why, when a runner leads for the entire race, but is passed in the last 100 yards, he gets second instead of first. Why, that little splash at the end of the dive matters more than all the flips in the air.
This little bit of wisdom can get you through a lot of life, and it’s why we spend an inordinate amount of time focusing on and preparing for the last two minutes of every session, and the last five minutes of every retreat at SpringHill.
The truth is, a powerful hour with a weak ending is really just a weak hour. A powerful weekend with a weak ending is really just a weak weakend.
Here are three things we do to ensure we end well on every program:
Start your practices at the end.
My 11-year-old son Nathan, after finishing the 6th grade Christmas program at school, walked up to me after the program and said, “You know why the end was bad? Because we always started practicing from the beginning and never got to practice the ending.” He was right, and as we walked out of the auditorium that night, all anyone could think about was how the second half dragged on. Be sure you spend at least as much time practicing the last lines as you do the first.
Think about how it will end.
We start every session with a three-minute countdown video, custom made and matched to a single song. That video and song repeats every session during a weekend, and is a visual and auditory cue that we’re about to get started. In our context, it’s like the church bells that traditionally rang to call the community to worship. It works.
But the same thought required to launch a session or retreat has to be put into how to end it. The end should be consistent, powerful and allow your audience to leave with confidence that it’s ok for them to leave. They should leave satisfied that they stayed to the end, got their money’s worth, and know what to do next.
For example, our sessions always end with a dismissal, but never with an announcement. The dismissal typically includes a thank you (“Thanks for being here…”), an instruction (“…share your decision tonight in your small group…”), and a cue that it’s time to move (typically the band returns to an instrumental of the chorus of a song they played in the final set and the house lights come on).
End in an epic way.
Have you ever gotten out of your car after a long drive, having listened to hundreds of songs on the radio, and the one song that is stuck in your head is the last song you heard? That’s how it works. And that’s why we ask our bands to choose a final song for the weekend that will act as an anthem for students as they go back to real life.
The song they choose must be familiar to the majority of our guests, whether because they already knew the song, or because they learned it well during the weekend. It must summarize the experience for students, by capturing our goals for our guests in lyrics and in tone. It should
leave them wanting more, not dragging on and on and on and on. And it must be epic, with powerful music and tons of energy, and leave our guests with a sense that something happened in that room and during their entire experience.
After all, the ending is the difference between a perfect 10, and a fall on your face. And it’s true for blogs too.