speaking | More Than Dodgeball

Chris WesleyMore Posts Tips For Better Speaking

Even though I speak on a weekly basis I still get nervous getting up in front of an audience. It’s interesting considering that I’m an extrovert. I love being around large groups of people; however, the idea of them watching me gets me sweating in a not so pleasant way.

To get more comfortable speaking in front of teenagers (And even adults) I need to gain more confidence in my speaking.

Your comfort level is one of the many factors that contributes to effective speaking. If you want to engage students and empower them you need to consistently hone your craft. To do this takes practice; however, it also means:

Watching The Experts – While you have your own unique style, studying other professionals will help you pick up on good habits. How are they starting their message? How do they move in and out of laughter? Don’t just watch other pastors, check out comedians or conference speakers who have a great speaking reputation.

Owning The Content – Maybe you outsource your material and maybe it’s 100% original. No matter what you are using you need to own it. That means making sure challenges and bottom lines (What you want them to know) are extremely clear and in your voice. Don’t be afraid to pass it around to others to review it for you.

Timing Yourself – When you time the length of your message it challenges you to think, “Can I get to my point quicker?” This means eliminating unnecessary examples and catching on delays like, “Um“. The more efficiently you use your time the better you engage your audience.

Breaking Down The Sections - While rehearsing your message back to front is important, it’s also key to break it down. This means understanding the transitions that take place from component (i.e. scripture) to component. Take the time to just rehearse certain parts and discover the flow of your message improve.

Grabbing An Audience – Even if it’s one person ask if you can read them your message. This way you can practice in front of a face (To overcome stage fright) and gain feedback on body language, tone and pace.

Recording What You Do - Just as an athlete studies game tape to improve a swing or a shot, you need to review yourself speaking. This is humbling become it means noticing bad (And good) habits and seeing what others are witnessing. Just set up a camera and journal what you are seeing. Next time you practice you’ll keep your notes in mind.

Speaking is a gift; however, it’s a skill that needs to be crafted and practiced. With everything on your plate it’s easy to just write the message and give it; however, communication is one of your most important responsibilities. If you can communicate effectively and deliver an engaging message you’ll bring your ministry to an entirely new level.

What speaking tips would you add to the list?

Chris Wesley (@chrisrwesley)

Add Comment April 2, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: 5 Secrets to Finding Great Illustrations

I remember the summer of 1990. I was listening to a youth speaker at a Christian youth conference share the message of God’s Word with over 700 other young people. God transformed my life that week in some unforgettable ways. Funny thing is, that was over 22 years ago and I still remember the stories that the youth speaker shared that week.

If you communicate/preach/speak/teach the Word of God to students, it is vital that you use memorable illustrations. Hopefully, you have a system in place for saving and filing the illustrations that you come across. Personally, I use Evernote. Find what works best for you and USE IT. Most youth pastors hamper their effectiveness by under-utilizing an illustration filing system. What are the secrets to finding these illustrations in the first place? Here are five:

1. Examine your own life.
Personal life stories tend give the most bang for your buck in terms of impact. Take time out once per week to examine your life and think through humorous, sad, disappointing, fun, adventurous, or life-changing moments. As they come to mind, WRITE THEM DOWN.

2. Utilize Media.
Television shows or movie scenes can act as a great opener to your message. The internet itself is full of an endless supply of great quotes, news stories, and anecdotes. Be sure to save these as you come across them in your daily life. An extra ten seconds of work to save and file an illustration or thought can save you hours of research and preparation months later.

3. Remember the Bible.
It’s God’s Word. It’s 100% true and infallible. You can never go wrong illustrating biblical truth with stories from the Bible.

4. Borrow from others.
One of the best secrets to finding great illustrations is to borrow/steal/abscond the great ones you hear from other speakers. I’m not condoning using an entire message; however if you hear an illustration or story from another speaker that you think you could use in the future… Save it and file it. Word of caution… Do not reuse illustrations with your students that both you and your students heard at an event. You will lose all sorts of credibility.

5. Read books.
It may sound archaic, but reading books is still one of the best ways to find great stories and quotes. I do most if my reading on the Kindle application. Any passages that I highlight get saved in the cloud; then, I copy, paste, and tag it in Evernote for future use.

What are your secrets to finding, saving, and filing great illustrations?

Matt Maiberger is the High School Pastor at Southeast Christian Church in Parker, CO, Matt gets to live out his passion by helping students know Jesus Christ and grow into the leaders that God has called them to be. www.youthspeakerscoach.com

Add Comment March 23, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts Prepare Like You’re Speaking to 1,000 People

I remember when I first started in youth ministry, I worked super hard on preparing my youth talk for the following week. I would study, prep, illustrate and flavor a 30-minute talk every day, all week long. Over time, I got more comfortable with the audience size (25 students) and took less time preparing. At some point, I would even let myself slide with a “Saturday Night” special before teaching youth group the next night. And if I’m honest, I may have winged it entirely at some point!

There is a direct correlation between the amount of message preparation and the size of your expected audience. This isn’t a bad thing – makes sense even when you step back from it a little bit. If you are speaking to 30 students, you’ll prepare an hour or two probably. If you’re speaking to a 100 people, I’d guess you would prepare for several hours. Speaking to a 1,000 and it would take you all week. Speaking to a stadium filled with people and you’ll work harder than ever and invest a ton of time to make sure you deliver in front of them.

So … what if you prepped this week like you were speaking to 1,000 people? What would your messages be like if you were preparing to like you were about to speak to hundreds instead of a handful? Your students are worth it. God’s Word would be more presented more clearly than ever. Your talk would be tighter, funnier, clearer and richer.

No more Saturday night specials!

JG

1 View Comments March 2, 2013

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Is It More Important to Be Impressive or Effective?

We’ve all given that one message that got great reviews. Students were complimentary. They even laughed at your jokes – and those laughs weren’t even courtesy laughs. They said they liked it, so that means you did something right, doesn’t it?

Maybe not.

Your goal is a lot bigger than merely giving a message that people like. Your goal is to usher people toward Jesus.

I’ve heard a lot of incredible speakers and can remember a lot of their funny stories, but sometimes, the greater point they made about Jesus was lost in their ability to be entertaining. That means there’s a massive difference between being effective and merely being impressive. How can you make sure you’re doing the one and not the other?

Analyze your motives. If your goal is accolades, you’ll write messages that are designed to bring accolades. If that’s you, it might be time to ask God to break you down a little bit (that’s one prayer where I’ve found God is almost always faithful).

Provide students with a talking point. If you don’t prompt students with an idea, they’ll have nothing to say to you except, “Good message today!” Instead, leave them with a question to wrestle with. Then when you see them later, ask them how that wrestling is going. Make the conversation about their response and God’s call instead of your message

Identify the memorable moments of your program. A few years ago, our media team put together an absolutely incredible announcement video. It was hilarious and it was all anyone was talking about after the service. What got lost in that? Anything that had to do with Jesus.

Make Jesus the star. If the most memorable parts of your program don’t point directly to Jesus, rebuild your program. If your hilarious story doesn’t remind students of Jesus, frame the story differently or let it go altogether.

What do you think? Is it more important to be impressive or effective?

Aaron Helman is on a mission to help end the epidemic of youth worker burnout. He writes Smarter Youth Ministry to help youth workers with their biggest frustrations – things like effective communication. He is also the youth minister at Firehouse Youth Ministries in South Bend, Indiana.

Add Comment December 1, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Why You Plan the Teaching Calendar in Advance

In December HSM is gong to do a series call Instalife about jealousy, pretending and bragging – talking through what the Bible says on these very important subjects. I happened to stumble on an article (poorly titled, but oh well) on the very subject on Gizmodo that is absolutely perfect research for my message. You can certainly read the whole article, but my favorite part of it being the list of questions the author put at the end:

Am I sharing this picture only because I want people to wish they were where I am?
Am I someplace expensive? Is it obvious?
Am I someplace nobody else was invited? Do they wish they were invited?
Am I posting this only because I want people to like it? Or like me?
Am I posting this only because it makes me look good?
Am I posting myself and explicitly stating how good I look?
Am I a nice person?
Have I called my parents lately?
Did my parents get divorced because of me?
Did my parents stay together because of me?
Do I know for sure that my ex follows me on Instagram and I want to make sure she sees this so she’ll regret it—oh, how she’ll regret it all!
If I saw what I’m about to share, would I roll my eyes?
Can I imagine anyone commenting, on this picture, “Ahhh I’m so jealous! I hate u!”
Is this an Instaboast?

Now … this is a completely secular article but points out some great truths for me to now use in my message. If I didn’t know roughly what I was teaching on I wouldn’t know to collect stuff like this right now. If I’m preparing a “Saturday night special” talk for my audience on Sunday morning, they’ll never be as good as when I prepare in advance.

Let me spell it out rapid fire if it isn’t obvious:

Plan in broad strokes your teaching calendar for the season ahead
Be a collector of what you read/stumble on
Listen well to what you hear around you and in the culture
Look for stories on your theme in your community
Pray throughout the process
Deliver a great talk

Good luck as you prepare your talk this week … and the one 2 months from now!

JG

Add Comment October 30, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts Duffy Robbins on Speaking with Your Whole Body

Loved learning from Duffy Robbins last week at a Speaking to Teenagers seminar we hosted at our church last week. It was incredible, here’s a little clip from their seminar, be sure to check out their official website to bring them to your area, too!

1. When not gesturing, park your hands some place that isn’t distracting (your pockets, the sides of your chair, or the edges of the podium).

2. Keep your gestures high up on your body frame. You don’t want the audience to have to choose between looking at you (your eyes and your face) or looking at your gesture. I usually stage my gestures about six to eight inches in front of my chin. To look at my gestures, you have to look at my face.

3. Match the breadth of your gestures to the size of your audience. A larger audience might mean more exaggerated gestures; a smaller audience allows for conversational gestures.

4. Time the gesture so that it best serves your point. Pounding the pulpit 10 seconds after the preacher has made his point leaves the audience either confused about the preacher’s intent or concerned about his reflexes. Neither response enhances the message.

5. Give your gestures a firm end point. Imagine that a gesture leaves a mark in the air (e.g., a vapor trail). There should be an obvious beginning point and an obvious end point. That helps define the gesture, and it aids the audience in interpreting its meaning.

6. Don’t overlook the power of stance. Pulling your chair closer to the circle, moving closer to the group, stepping over to one side near that kid who is detonating his underwear, even the way the feet are positioned if you’re standing: all of these help to communicate focus, boldness, intensity, importance.

Be attentive to how your whole body communicates. Let them hear your body talk.

JG

1 View Comments October 10, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts GUEST POST: Make Your Bottom Line Stick

I was recently looking at some old messages and noticed that I suffered from a lack of focus. I would have a thousand points and twice as many examples. If you were to listen to one of these messages you would never be able to guess the bottom line.

According to the Orange Strategy you and I have about 40 hours a year with our teens. If you speak to teenagers you probably give anywhere from a 15 to 45-minute message. In that time allotted you probably want to say a lot of things; however, you really only need to say one. The reason is because your time is limited. You need to know what you can say in those few minutes that will affect the rest of their week. Basically you need to have a BOTTOM LINE to your messages THAT WILL STICK.

To get your bottom line you just need to answer the question, “What do I want them to know?” but to make it stick you need to answer the following questions:

What do I want them to do?
Every message needs to conclude in an action plan. If you are just filling their heads with knowledge it will get canceled out in the next conversation that they have. Give them a tangible action step to make your lesson more concrete.

How can I continue the conversation?
Give them something to chew on. If you just give them answers without giving them questions they either embrace what you have to say or totally reject it. While the former is better than the latter it won’t promote growth. You want your teens to grow.

How can it be packaged?
It’s not always what you say; but how you say it. Therefore use alliteration, or rhyme. Make it into a mantra that they can repeat when facing certain situations. Just be careful not to be shticky to the point where it’s goofy.

When you make your bottom line stick you utilize those 20 minutes to the max. The idea is to use the time you have to influence the moments you do not. Even if you aren’t giving a message, knowing how to communicate to your audiences is key. Always have a bottom line and be sure to make it stick.

How do you craft a memorable bottom line?

Chris Wesley is the Director of Student Ministry at Church of the Nativity in Timonium, MD. You can read more great youth ministry articles and thoughts on his exceptional blog Marathon Youth Ministry.

Add Comment September 22, 2012

Josh GriffinMore Posts POLL: How often do you teach youth group?

I’ve been enjoying the past few weeks more or less “off” – You Own the Weekend is our annual series where I don’t teach – students do! I’m a firm believer in giving away the platform (maybe to a fault) so students can hear from different voices and diffrent learning styles. Vote in today’s poll and consider checking out 5 Reasons You Should Let Someone Else Teach Next Week.

JG