Personal from Ministerial and Member Services

I trust you all had a very rewarding and inspiring Feast of Unleavened Bread! Now on to Pentecost! Hopefully, it will be safe to meet again in person by then.

Public Speaking—a Most Difficult Pursuit

Public speaking is considered by many to be the most difficult of all pursuits. I must say that for many years I certainly felt that way. I guess I still do!

It has gotten easier for me after many years of speaking as a sales representative, giving many public presentations for about 10 years, and as a minister and pastor, speaking regularly for the past 35 years.

I vividly remember, back in the mid-1970s, before every speech in speech class, thinking about how much I hated to give speeches while at Ambassador College. In addition, the evaluations and the scrutiny—that wasn't much fun, either! Thankfully, it has gotten a lot less stressful over the years.

A Proper Perspective

I believe it is very important that we all strive to keep what I am going to share with you in proper perspective from the recent congregational survey regarding the effectiveness of sermonettes and sermons.

First of all, it is certainly easier to be a critic than to be an effective public speaker. Public speaking is difficult for most people and it only comes easily and naturally for a minority of people. Speaking about spiritual matters is even more weighty and challenging for those who take their assignments seriously.

The "Foolishness of Preaching"

I believe I can speak for our ministry, as a whole, in saying that we in UCG—actually ministers and members alike who are given the opportunity to speak at services—have a sincere desire to serve well in giving nourishing spiritual food and drink to our brethren. We "put ourselves out there" when we agree to engage in the "foolishness of preaching." Paul used this terminology when writing to the Church at Corinth. The reference is found in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31. It is in the context of the reality that many in the world view the true gospel message of Christ as "foolishness." I believe an argument may also be made that Paul is acknowledging that God uses the weakness of men in preaching His message of truth and salvation. In these verses, it also speaks of how God has called the weak and the foolish of the world that He may one day confound the mighty, as they look back and realize who God used to preach His message of truth and salvation. Even Moses and Paul indicated that they may not have been the most inspiring, effective, and powerful speakers! And remember poor Eutychus who actually went into a deep sleep as Paul was "long preaching" and fell to his death (Acts 20:9)!

Congregational Survey—Sermonettes and Sermons

Concerning sermonettes and sermons, 84% of respondents to the survey answered either "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" to "I am satisfied with the messages that my pastor gives." 82% answered either "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" to "I am satisfied with the messages that are given by other speakers in my congregation."

91% of respondents answered either "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" to "The messages that my pastor gives are doctrinally sound." 88% of respondents answered either "Agree" or "Strongly Agree" to "The messages that other speakers give are doctrinally sound."

More on Perspective, Instruction, and Motivation for Speaking at Church Services

Before sharing any actual comments from respondents to the survey, allow me to share with you what it is like from a speaker's perspective. First of all, for novices, those who have recently begun to speak before church audiences, it is often "gut-wrenching" and exhausting to come before a group of your peers and try to give a message that is helpful, inspiring, and instructive. Even for very experienced speakers, at times, it can be equally stressful.

I would say that most of us sincerely believe this is something that God wants us to do and, therefore, we should be willing to do it. When we are asked to speak, we want to comply because we believe it is the right thing to do, even though it is difficult and challenging and nerve-wracking—and we aren't going to get paid any more for doing it! But we have a desire to serve, and to serve well, so we rise to the challenge, hopefully for the right reasons. That's essentially how all of our ministers got their start.

Many of us who do speak have gone through Ambassador Speech Clubs, local Spokesman's Clubs and Graduate Clubs, Speech and Leadership Clubs, Sermonette Classes, etc. Many of us have had extensive training and experience speaking, especially if we were active in the Worldwide Church of God. The United Church of God has also given much instruction regarding this topic. Even so, it seems that many do not consistently put into practice much of the sound instruction regarding public speaking.

Most people are not "natural born speakers" and they have to really work at being effective in their public speaking.

I think most of us who have been given the opportunity to speak at church in a formal way, giving sermonettes and sermons, have spent countless hours praying for help from God so we might be able to give a message that is helpful, inspiring, and encouraging to our members, our brothers and sisters in Christ. I do not take this privilege and responsibility lightly. Nor do I think most of our men take it lightly.

That being said, do we all have room for improvement in our speaking? Could we be more effective in our speaking? I believe all speakers should respond with a resounding "yes!" Moreover, we should have the desire and the humility to want to improve and to be willing to do the hard work to improve.

Ongoing Training Program for Speakers in Church

I do intend to put a greater emphasis on improving the quality of our messages, both sermonettes and sermons. I look forward to helping those of us who speak at services to improve in our service to our brethren in this way. Brethren come to services hoping to be fed encouraging, inspiring, nourishing spiritual meals, and they deserve to be fed well. We do have many excellent speakers and I hope to marshal resources from many of them in devising and implementing an ongoing training program to improve and aid our speakers in becoming more effective.

In this personal, I mostly wanted to "set the stage" for sharing comments from ministers and members who responded to the survey. I don't want to go any longer at this time, but I do look forward to sharing more with you in next week's personal from MMS.

Soliciting your Prayers

I would appreciate your prayers that God would guide me in using wisdom, discretion, love, and godly balance in all that I do in my role as Operation Manager for Ministerial and Member Services. It is my desire to serve our ministry and our membership in ways that would please God and Christ.

May you all have a wonderful Sabbath and weekend!