After speaking for about a combined five hours in church and in workshops this weekend, a few thoughts…
- No matter how many times I’ve done this before, it seems I always need to pee at least times five before speaking.
- Preaching in a church context is an odd thing, because you’re given a mic, the spotlight, the attention of hundreds, and somehow asked to be humble at the same time.
- I think the humility part comes naturally when you realize you have no right being there in the first place.
- The thing with presenting anything in a formal context is that it’s assumed that you’ve put a lot of time thinking and reflecting on the topic and should be at least some form of an ‘expert’. The scary thing is knowing that you can present your very best, and people can walk away thinking, ’so that was all you had’? or even worst, leaving zero impact at on their lives.
- People often tell me I seem extreme laxed and comfortable on stage, and I really am on many levels, but there’s always a part of me that’s a nervous wreck throughout.
- Half of this is I’m probably more self-conscious than I care to admit, the other half is I know people are naturally more judgmental than they would admit to me.
- Someone once said that when you speak, you light yourself on fire, and people come to watch you burn. I think I resonate with that a bit.
- When I begin thinking that what I’m doing is more important than it really is, I can easily get crushed by the weight of not being able to ‘deliver’
- There are very few things that excite me and challenge me more than this; to be able to connect to an audience regarding things that really matter in life is such an extraordinary honor. I would do it regardless of any results, but If I can just connect with one life, and even make one single degree of shift in a person’s heart, I’m blown away every time.
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May 21, 2007 at 10:12 am
parke
Glad to hear it went well and you felt affirmed in the process, dude.
May 21, 2007 at 3:36 pm
Joeie
Haha. But then when you DO go to the bathroom, you realize you have nothing to pee out!!
I think one of my biggest challenges in writing or publicly speaking about something that’s important to me is that yeah, I ignite myself but there’s always that reminder of the chasm between the ideology I believe in vs the reality of the life I live.
“Writing about prayer is often very painful since it makes you so aware of how far away you are from the ideal you write about. People who read your ideas tend to think that your writings reflect your life. The only advantage of that is that your readers become your counselors and guides. They invite you and challenge you to live up to your own thoughts and insights.” - The Genesee Diary, Henri Nouwen
Yikes.
Anyways, glad to hear it went well! Hope you had a good long weekend!
May 22, 2007 at 8:38 am
Lon
Thanks Parke!
Joeie, Genesee Diary was an excellent book and that’s an excellent quote. It challenges me every time!
May 22, 2007 at 11:02 am
geoffreybaines
Thanks for this.
It made me think about how I guess I want my excitement in Christ to speak louder than my words.
May 22, 2007 at 11:15 am
Alex S. Leung
Thanks for serving @ CC this year, Lon. It was a pleasure to meet you, though I wish we could have had some time to really chat. Hopefully we could still keep up a friendship digitally:)
I resonate with your points here. After teaching Sunday School for a while now, I am still humbled by the opportunities God gives me to share His life-transforming truth with others. Seeing some of those evaluations reminds me that there are those who are more critical.
Still, just gotta keep focused on one person at a time
May 23, 2007 at 6:19 am
djchuang
I’d love to hear how your talk went, was it recorded and can you post it online?
For my occasional public speaking in a sermon-like context, I’ve recently had an aha-moment that my message and delivery is not going to be polished and eruditingly articulate. My delivery is much more impacting when I can just be myself and even feel free to show some of my quirkiness and glitchyness.
May 23, 2007 at 6:58 am
geoffreybaines
dj - thanks for this. i think this is an important move - it strikes me that it’s about being the best god-inspired communicator we can be where the message is one with us and we are one with the message.
May 23, 2007 at 9:59 am
parke
I agree IF a person has some good speaking skills as DJ seems to. God will use whatever we give, but I’ve seen quite a few lazy speakers communicate very poorly because they didn’t take the preparation time and practice they needed. That’s not being authentic. It’s more often a sign you don’t value your audience.
May 23, 2007 at 10:40 am
geoffreybaines
Your right, Parke.
There’s nothing wrong with good accountability around all of this either. With an appropriate group of people to help we can hone our skills.
I come from a tradition which has sought to train its speakers in a certain way, like painting by numbers. Just as there are brilliant artists of all kinds there are brilliant communicators. Bring on the speaking equivalents of Monet, Van Gogh, and Turner - okay, and Picasso.
May 23, 2007 at 1:11 pm
Lon
Hey DJ, I believe it was recorded, I can send it to you once I grab a hold of a copy.
and I agree… how do you believe someone when they’re not even being themselves? I agree how it can be tough though, because there are all these ideals and notions of how things should be done that we’re often up against.
Parke, that’s a great way of putting it. It’s so easy to just be all about us, and even work hard at communicating, but only focus on what’s said rather than what’s being heard by the audience.
Geoffrey, when we’re talking about the things of God, isn’t it incredibly hard to be one with the message because well, who of us is really worthy to communicate God’s truth? Maybe this is where speaking as people who too are in process and being ourselves helps our message get across better?
Part of me wishes that I had more training, but there’s nothing quite like learning on the job!
May 23, 2007 at 1:27 pm
geoffreybaines
lon, you’ve put well what i was trying to say. and it all has to be held in grace - it’s the only thing that makes it all possible.