Communicating for a Change

Communicating I always felt was a skill of mine, I have been involved with public speaking for a few years now. Public speaking however does not mean I will be good at preaching. At times I doubt I am doing God's Word justice in my delivery. So reading this book has helped me realize my words are not just what I say, but how I say it as well. First off I need to comment on the delivery of the book itself. I get bored easily if a book does not entertain me, just like "Willy Graham" told "Ray" personal stories sink in more with an audience. The beginning of the book is solely story until the adventure ends. This brought my attention to an immediate focus and engaged me in the book. I relate easily to stories and did not feel the stories were that far fetched. It was a great way to communicate to me the ideas that I needed to communicate to others. One-point sermons were honestly something I had never thought of. I came from a world of fill in the blank notes. Where if I don't write things down I will easily forget it, and an hour after service I may not even remember what the main message of the sermon was. For me, that was normal. Nothing more then a simple Sunday where I had been "filled" just could not remember what I was "filled" with. This was a simple process and was in a sense ritualistic. However even I can grasp a one point sermon. Much like Will in the story I also have travelled a good distance by car, so I understand the map metaphor very well. A map is key to travel, and I can see how it is key to your message. It involves ME-WE-GOD-YOU-WE (which took me a bit to read and even longer to say), our map is a relational map. My hardest part would have to be the first "WE" because I have a hard time figuring out how to relate to an audience if I do not already know them. I cannot simply look out into the audience and say something to relate to a group of people I know. However I do not feel as though this rule expects you to. Even Will stated he would continue until he found as much common ground "as he could", clearly we can't relate to everyone. If we could preaching would be a whole lot easier. The relationship method is also a good way to keep track of where in you are, if you forget simply think "MEWEGODYOUME" and you will be back on track in no time. Memorization, my biggest ministry weakness it seems. Everything I have studied recently has been shining a light on it, including this book. However it is again shown to me how great it can make my messages. Notes in all honesty trip me up, I get confused and lost, especially if my notes are any longer than a simple outline. It can make me a bit flustered and lose my audience because I no longer look prepared if I begin repeating myself. A great line that sticks with me is, "I'm saying that until you can deliver it with no notes, from memory, then it's not your message." Such harsh terms but ones I think are true. I want to start to get better at this, be it moving to a small outline to speak until I can speak without notes. I am a talk at you kind of person, not intentionally mind you, but I know I am. Simply put I deliver an onslaught of information and expect that my audience is following along with me. That however is not how I talk to people usually. I have a more friendly casual way of speech, so I need to bring that to the floor whenever I am speaking. Instead of sounding like the computer that I try to be I need to let myself shine through and engage people. Find Some Traction, simply put but I felt a metaphor that was used a bit loosely in a way. For me at least it was quite confusing, once it was explained however it was a synch to apply. Prayer is something that I take seriously and would obviously seek time for if I was doubting my message. The big "ah-ha" was the checklist of questions. I feel this will help me put things into perspective and resist the never ending draw of tangents. Some day I will find myself in a preaching situation. By now I am almost certain of it. Though I don't plan on preaching to kids I feel like one day I will preach to adults. Now I can see some things that will help prepare me. Now I'm not worried about what my message will look like.