PreachingToday.com
April 1, 2000
Don't Fear Repetition, Repetition
Clarity in preaching demands more than clear writing.
I was listening to a student preach. In a few minutes I would be leading some class interaction on the message. But I had a problem. I had no idea what he was talking about!
I had a copy of his outline, so I glanced at it. To my amazement, the student's outline was beautiful—a logical progression, with proper subordinations and overall unity. So why couldn't I follow his oral delivery?
That's when it hit me with force that a message that would be clear to a reader requires special skills and adjustments to make it clear for a hearer.
Consider the many built-in aids to clarity that occur in a manuscript that we lose when speaking.
1. The paragraph. When our eye sees a paragraph indention at the beginning of a line, our brain unconsciously tells us, "You are beginning a new thought." Our eyes catch some white space further down the page, and our brain says, "This new thought will last until you reach that spot."
There is nothing in oral communication that corresponds to paragraph indentation. (A lengthy pause is not the same—the listener will simply think you forgot!)
2. Readers can go at their own speed. They can re-read a section if they didn't get it the first time.
3. They can benefit from visual cues such as italics, bold print, subheadings, and punctuation.
4. They can look up unfamiliar words.
Since oral communication has none of these things, a speaker must adjust if the message is to remain clear.
The best adjustment? Whenever you come to a key sentence in your message, restate it. Immediately say the same thing in different words. Before you go any further, find another way to communicate the same idea. (Note the restatements ...
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