How to Be Heard
Fred Smith
July 1, 1997
When this article appeared in Leadership, exactly a decade ago, readers gave it high marks. Many books and articles on preaching, it seems, are too simple or too complex. Readers told us they appreciated this article by Fred Smith because it applies expert wisdom to the basics. It's uncommonly wise on the common elements of public speaking.
Every summer you can find advertisements for basketball or football camps where big-name stars, for a fee, will instruct young people dreaming of athletic greatness.
I wonder how much actual learning takes place when an all-star quarterback, who spends most of his time reading and outmaneuvering sophisticated defenses, tries to coach a junior-higher who's still trying to figure out how to grip the ball with hands that aren't quite big enough.
Sometimes people learn more, not from the superstars who have long since learned to perform the basics without conscious thought, but from others only slightly further down the road, those who've recently shared the same struggle.
Often, I suspect, a similar effect happens to those who want to achieve superstar poise and eloquence in the pulpit. The key is focusing not on the dazzling techniques but on the fundamentals. Improvement comes from concentrating on the basics until we can perform them without conscious thought. We need to focus on the basics and to find pleasure in the step-by-step advance.
Here are some fundamental areas that I find speakers may overlook as they try to improve.
Establishing a friendly atmosphere
To a large degree, the atmosphere we establish will determine how effective our sermon is going to be. Atmosphere is created by both our verbal and nonverbal messages.
I hear a lot of preachers, for instance, who are pretty sloppy ...
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