The Thirty Second Rule

Between my junior year in high school and senior year in college, I spent many weekends speaking to high school students. I’ll never get the yawns, boredom and disinterested looks I got when I stood up to speak. I quickly realized I had about 30 seconds to capture their attention. If not, they would simply…

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Communicating to a Varied Audience

Every Sunday, you stand before a congregation from different places in life, wrestling with different problems and approaching the Bible with various degrees of believability.  You have one message, but how can it apply to multiple audiences? One audience isn’t one perspective…it’s many. So how can you make your message apply to the Christian and the…

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Ten Reasons for Public Speakers to Be Thankful

Forbes recently released a fantastic list for public speakers, and since you’re hopefully not preaching in private, there’s some great stuff for preachers.  Here are Ten Reasons Public Speakers to Be Thankful. 10.  Toastmasters. The volunteer organization that will give you the chance to learn the craft of public speaking in a relatively safe space, at little…

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How to Preach a Bad Sermon in 10 Easy Steps

15 minutes into your sermon say, “so today, we’re going to talk about…” Tell me 10 ways to do something.  if you have ten points, you have no point. Constantly look down at your notes. Don’t make me laugh. Constantly quote the same person. Don’t ask me to do anything.  Just keep it all theoretical.…

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