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PREACHING SKILLSGrowing in your preachingThe call to preach demands our very bestBill Hybels
For those of you who wish to sharpen your teaching gift, whether it's a top-level gift or somewhere lower in your mix, you're desiring exactly what Paul encouraged Timothy to pursue. He said, "Be diligent in this matter and give yourself wholly to it. Let people see that you're progressing." Paul told Timothy to work at improving his preaching. You, in turn, may be asking, "How do I do that? How do I get better?" Here are some ideas that will prove useful.
Listen to great preaching and teaching
In almost every discipline, if you want to improve, you need to watch others. If you want to develop your golf game, you need to watch golf. Study tapes showing people swinging correctly and effectively. I'm a sailboat racer. So if I'm not racing a boat myself, I'll watch other people race so I can observe their skills. I study how they trim their sails, how their crew work, and I watch their tactics. The way we tend to get better at anything is by putting ourselves in a situation where we can get more information about what it is we're trying to improve at.
Most of us have two or three communicators who really inspire us. We say, "Boy, I wish I could communicate a little more like her" or "a little more like him." Do more than wish. Get on their tape lists. Read their stuff. Go hear them when you can. And instead of listening to them casually, listen to them with your work gloves on.
Ask some clear questions. Why did that introduction work so well? Why did that point come across with such power? What was there about the structure of that message that made it so memorable?
In my opinion, the late E.V. Hill was one of the best preachers around. I once watched a tape, marveling at his sense of timing. He came to a very tender part in his message, paused, and then slowly walked around the side of the lectern. He let everything become utterly quiet in the room. Then with a lowered voice he said something with great emotion and gentleness. It was such a moment from God.
That was helpful for me to watch because my temperament is like a machine gunner. I tend to say, "All right, here's the point. Now let's go!" And if I'm not carefully taking time to absorb great preaching and teaching, I'll unintentionally mow people down with my intensity. I have to learn how to pause, shift the level of passion, and vary the tone of what I do.
Some preachers are great storytellers; I just want to get to the point of what I'm teaching. So when I tell a story that's full of potential humor, capable of putting some energy in the room, I'm usually so anxious to get to the lesson payoff that I fail to take the necessary time to embellish it.
John Ortberg recently told a great story about himself and Dr. B. [Dr. Gilbert Bilezekian] winding up in the same airplane. Dr. B. had been upgraded. But John was in the back of the plane. He had fun with that story for several minutes, getting enormous humor out of it with remarks like "he was eating a chicken-like substance in the back while Dr. B. was dining on fine china." The point is this: John had a lot of fun with the story and still made a strong point. It gave opportunity for humor. So listen to great preaching and teaching not with the intent to mimic it but rather to learn lessons that can improve your own preaching and teaching.
This next statement is so obvious that I hesitate to even say it. Develop your own unique style. While you want to learn from great preachers you don't want to copy their style.
John Maxwell and I teach communications seminars around the country, and we have two very different styles. John will use a music stand, a stool, and have two or three things to drink all around him. He'll wander in and out of the crowd, hide behind plants, throw stuff, and ask people questions. His style is so different than mine that he has fun kidding me about it. One time he took a piece of chalk and drew a line out in front of the lectern. He said, "I'll give you a hundred bucks if you'll step over that line." I tried for two days and just couldn't do it. We laugh at that because our styles are so different. But you know what? I'm comfortable with mine, and he's comfortable with his. There are things we can each learn from the other, but we shouldn't try to copy each other.
A helpful practice we utilize at Willow is brainstorming with other great teachers. People would be shocked if they learned how much we bounce message ideas off one another around here. If I'm stuck on something, I'll drop in to Nancy's office or Lee's office or John's. I'll say, "I'm working on this message. I could go at it this way or that way. What comes to your mind?" Great communicators bubble ideas about communication recreationally. When you get the opportunity to do that, don't think you have to sit at your desk in total isolation. Ask people. Say, "I'm preaching on this issue or text. What would you want to hear about it?"
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