| ation is one of the most important aspects of | | | | energy and will make you tired, but you need to |
| preaching. It is all too easy to have good material, | | | | do it for the sake of your listeners. Adapt to your |
| but ruin it with poor presentation. The worst failing | | | | audience, Your style and presentation needs to be |
| of large numbers of preachers and teachers is | | | | different with a larger group, than it is with a |
| being boring, and quickly losing the interest of the | | | | smaller group of people. As a general guideline, the |
| people listening. One estimate I heard once was | | | | larger the audience, the greater energy level you |
| that about eighty percent of students think their | | | | will need to use, because you will be further away |
| teachers are boring, and unfortunately this is | | | | from many of your listeners. Eye contact, look |
| frequently true in church. If you are boring, then | | | | around the group as you speak, from front to |
| your message will be lost. You have wasted your | | | | back, and from left to right, and include the |
| time in preparation, and wasted the time of the | | | | balcony if there is one. Another major cause of |
| people having to listen to you. | | | | boredom is lack of eye contact, when the |
| Do not try to be "natural", you will probably be | | | | speaker has his head in the notes all the time, or |
| boring. This is because preaching or teaching is | | | | continually looks above the heads of the audience. |
| mostly monologue, which is very different from | | | | A good preacher must be entertaining enough to |
| natural speech. A normal one-to-one conversation | | | | give the impression of competence in the pulpit, |
| has only very short lengths of monologue, before | | | | yet not so entertaining that people might actually |
| the other person speaks. Increase your energy | | | | remember the sermon upon leaving the church. |
| level, When you come in front of an audience, | | | | For this purpose, there are many joke books for |
| you need to make a deliberate increase in your | | | | clergy that can be bought, and many of these |
| energy level. It is necessary to become a bit | | | | have the additional benefit of reducing compelling |
| larger than life, and be more expressive and | | | | questions of faith to a sentimental story with a |
| animated than you normally are. This takes | | | | humorous punch line. |