Tips to have a Good Speech

Tips to have a Good Speech

I was surprising that why some people have the talent of delivering heart touching speeches but others are not.  I had a lot of chances to experience the speeches which are full of thoughts, but the listeners are not listing.  Also, had chances to experience the simple thoughts, but with full attention by the audience.

With from my limited experience, I can say that if you want to have a heart touching speech – that should be controlled by Holy Spirit from the starting of preparation to the Conclusion of delivery of the Sermon.

I can share my method of preparations and delivery of messages.

1  First stage of Prayer

         You might be thinking that why we need a prayer at this stage even though we don’t have a subject to prepare. But it is very important. You should start to pray for your sermon at the point when you have information that you suppose to deliver a message. You should ask to God to give an appropriate subject for the Sermon. This may last for few minutes to days, till you get an appropriate Subject. How you will select a subject by prayer. You have to think about the audience age, education, gender, spiritual background, context of meeting etc… The subject should be interesting to audience & appropriate for the context. For example, if the audience is children, subject can be related to some parable/story, not a theological in-depth subject. Once you get a confidence on the subject, I have to accept it by prayer that it is given by God.

2  Analyzing & studying the subject

         In this stage, you will be reading & meditation about the subject. You will read a lot in Bible about the subject since it is the primary source of information. You will read articles, books, websites etc… You might have something from your own mind… Put it all in a paper. There is no need of an sort order. Those points are just for a reference for the next stage. Sometimes you might get good stories, incidents, witness comments etc… Note it down… It might be helpful.

How much time you spend at this stage will decide the quality of your Sermon (In the sense of contents).

3  Second stage of Prayer

         Now you have a lot of information about the subject. But without any order. Now you will meditate and prayer with a lot of knowledge. At this point, the points will be segregated. You might be short listing the points. It should be a subset. There is no need to include all the points. Those are major points. Usually I will take 2 – 3 points if I have 30 minutes for the sermon.

      Now, you have a Subject, Major points with a lot of knowledge. 

4  Preparing the outline of Sermon

     Take your pen & a rough paper. Put the major points there. There should be enough line space in between those points.

Example:

Introduction
Describing the subject
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Summary & Conclusion

5  Detailed study of each items in the Sermons

          Put the sub points under the major points, these sub points should indicate what you are going to tell about each point. These points will include indication of stories, incidents, songs, etc…

         Stories & songs are very much welcomed by audience; there is no opposition from any age group. If you want to tell some funny things you can include it. It will give more beauty to your sermon. But if you don’t have a talent to tell funny things, you have to take it carefully. 

         If you think you need more study & meditation you may please have it at this stage. You can go again and again to the articles, books etc…

        Once you have full content in your mind and points in your paper, prepare the introduction/description of subject and the summary/conclusion.

         Introduction decides your direction of speech. The audience will decide on you in the first 1-2 minutes that do they want to listen to you or not. So the introduction should be consciously build one. It should be abstract and interesting to the audience. Usually I will start might sermon by interesting stories or facts. It can be from current affairs, funny stories, a song, etc… If you could won the hearts of audience in this stage, you can control them till the end of sermon.

        Summary/Conclusion is another major section. You have to conclude your thoughts/opinions here. All the questions you asked/discussed should be answered here. There should be any open questions in the minds of audience. If anyone have an open question, you are not only failed to serve a good server but you put them in a well of questions & confusion. So all the points you discussed should be closed.

        Usually I will include some references to the story/fact which I pointed at the time of introduction in the summary/conclusion also. It was much received by audience.

         If you provided a good sermon, the audiences are in a state which is something like they got a good dinner. Now they have to just digest it J

6  Third stage of Prayer

         Now you have the script of the sermon in your mind. Bend down your header in front of Jesus. You have to get go ahead from Jesus. In this prayer, you have to submit your weaknesses and ask for the strength to deliver the Sermon. 

7  Writing the script

          You have the points in a paper and the full script in your mind. If you are an experienced preacher, you can skip this stage. Otherwise I you have to write each and every sentence you suppose to tell. 

      By practicing this, you will have a better flow of sentences at the time of delivery, good sentence construction, no hesitation about the sentences,  also you can know how much time you suppose to take to complete the sermon. Also, you can understand sometimes that some contents are not necessary & some others can be included. Go and do it. It might be most beautiful.

8  Fourth stage of Prayer

Usually I will close by content preparation by a prayer with a thanks giving.

9  Reading the script

If the sermon delivery is on another day, I will wake up early morning and will read the script and mark the major sentences, Bible references, quotes, etc… with different color of pen. This will be helpful at the time of delivery.

1  Fifth stage of Prayer

It is the most important prayer. You are going to deliver what God has given to you. You should ask for fullness of Holy Spirit, for good health, for good voice, for good sentence construction, and for your audience.

1 On the Podium

This is the real stage… You are on the podium to deliver the Sermon… Smile… introduce... give thanks to God… thanks to the persons who invited you.. GO… GO… GO... It’s your turn… Speak out what Holy Spirit asked to tell J Well done..

1  Thanks giving prayer

The process will end only at this stage. In your personal prayer, you have fully commit and surrender yourself in front of Jesus; because he gave you the strength to deliver a heart toughing speech.


Let us prepare for the next Sermon…. Thank you for reading…