Speech Coaching

Preachers do need this. Those of us who proclaim God's Word should be even more devoted to the craft of preaching/speaking than anyone else, because what we handle is more important than anything else.

I regularly "post-game" my sermons. It's a must.

 

And Moses said unto the LORD, O my LORD, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

And the LORD said unto him, Thou must takest thyself to an speech coach. For the LORD thy God shall improve your speech with the help of an speech coach.

 

I guess I need a 'sign language coach' then!

Seriously speaking, however- there is a deaf man here in my church who is an ASL professor at a college here in town. He had this terrible habit of correcting my signs while I was preaching- the equivalent of speaking up and correcting a hearing pastor if he should use bad grammar or use the wrong word. It was very distracting for me since he would sit in the back of our small meeting place and wave at me to try to get my attention and tell me what I was doing wrong. The problem was compounded by the fact that I am fluent in three different Sign Languages and once in a while I will get mixed up and use the wrong sign- plus he is convinced that HIS way is the ONLY correct way.

I finally convinced him that it was better for him to write down all of my errors and discuss them with me after the sermon. He never has done that but at least he has stopped correcting me during the sermon.

 

The points go to Salty on this one.

I also Monday morning quarterback my sermons since I am capable of brutal, honest self-analysis.

This Sunday evening, I'm preaching on The Good Samaritan. Prayers please. And I shall record it.

 

I meet regularly with a group of pastors, elders, and seminary professors where we hold one another accountable. Roughly every five weeks or so, it's my turn to sit in the hot seat, where everything I've said or taught or preached during that time is gone over with a fine toothed comb. Even though it's centered around doctrinal-type things, we do critique delivery.

The last critique I got in that regard was "Stop saying '...but that's another story. If it's another story, then save it for another sermon.'"

 

This is why I'm VERY forgiving when it comes to delivery. A guy may be very godly and very knowledgeable in the Word, but he is a horrible speaker. I can tolerate the bad speaking skills as long as I'm getting meat. I wonder how many good bible teachers have been kicked to the curb over this?

We have one preacher in our association that screams ALL THE TIME. Not just Sunday morning brimstone....but Sunday evening brimstone and even Wednesday night Bible Study there is brimstone and h3llfire. And people complain about him....but you know what? He is sharp as a whip and can teach God's Word and people have been saved under his ministry.

I wonder if he screams at a funeral service? I hope not.

 

Do it. Tell us what you think.

 

We had regular speech therapy in seminary in a class called Homiletics. We also lost a mark for every spelling error and a mark for grammatical errors on every paper we wrote. A passing grade was 80! We learned how to speak early on.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I have listened to many preachers, some yell, some never yell, some tell a joke or story, some can't tell a story much less a joke, some preach like teachers, some preach like exhibitors. Some preach entirely one way and some combine different ways even in the same sermon. Whether they preach expositional, anecdotal, topical, biographical or textual, the main thing is that their message be scriptural. I am not saying that good grammar is wrong, but some preachers would not be able to deliver the message without a wide berth grammatically. I listen to the message tho the delivery makes it more interesting.