I didn’t grow up with a propensity to communicate clearly. In fact, I grew up scared to death to be in front of people. When God called me to ministry, I knew a part of that would probably include teaching. Thanks to a couple people pouring into me, I was able to get my feet wet and learn the up’s and down’s of teaching teenagers.
Before I move on, if you don’t already know, I’m a youth pastor. That’s the world I live in. This concept isn’t constrained to teenagers, though. It’s transferrable to teaching kids, adults, or even leading board meetings or giving a presentation to a bunch of executives. The principles are the same. They govern our ability to communicate clearly what we so desperately want to impart.
I recently invited one of our freshman students to teach in our community service on a Wednesday night and he blew it out of the water! I was so impressed by his teaching, that it influenced me to write this post. As a 14 year-old guy, he communicated very clearly to his peers what God had called him to show them. As I watched him teach, I realized there are a couple simple hints that I could take away to help those who need some guidance in the role of a teacher.
1. Invite God in. This will always be the greatest foundation for communicating anything to anyone, especially if it is spiritual truth. Why would you want to try to communicate something so important without God’s blessing? This is the obvious one to remember, but let me ask you this: How many times have you taught God’s Word without so much as saying a simple prayer to ask for God to use you? That’s what I thought. Me too. The truth is that God would love to speak through you, if you’ll just give Him the opportunity. Hint: It’s better that way, anyways!
2. Be passionate. A lot of people can have a really lame message, but capture their audience because they were excited. So, what does that do for the person who is communicating the most important message in the universe? Passion communicates more than truth – it communicates belief and buy-in. One of the best ways to ensure that you’re passionate is to start with what you believe in with all your heart, and create your message from there. If you don’t believe it, everyone in the room will know it. People these days have awesome crap-detectors.
3. Know your audience. Again, simple right? Not so. It’s so easy to get in front of a group of people and communicate in your own language. This is especially true for guys like me, because we get older, and our audience stays the same age. I constantly find myself wanting to use words that make sense to me. Sometimes, I even find myself trying to explain a concept on stage, like I’m explaining it to myself in the mirror, using words that illustrate a certain image in my head. Congratulations, idiot. You just ignored the fact that your audience doesn’t use words with more than two syllables. Change your focus.
4. Make it an A+. This could be wildly misinterpreted, so let me clarify. You don’t have to give a life-changing message each week. If you try to do that, your head will explode, and your audience won’t know when to recognize a special message. A pastor I have a lot of respect for, JR Vassar, said the other day, “There is a cumulative effect to your preaching. Not every sermon has to be a home run. Just preach Christ and relax.” He’s right. However, that doesn’t mean to start slacking on your teachings. You can teach a B lesson or an A+ lesson. Which would you rather be a part of?
5. Find your confidence. One of the easiest ways to do this is to visualize the win. What is it you want to accomplish? Being a man, I tend to daydream. I picture moments in my head, where a man steals a woman’s purse, and I track him down, tackle him, get the purse back, and accept the rousing applause, as those around me stop to appreciate my heroic adventure. I’m really good at visualizing wins. It’s innate. It’s intuitive. So, before I get up to speak, I focus in on finding my confidence. Because if there’s anything that is an influence-killer, it’s sitting under the teaching of someone who’s sweating bullets and stumbling over their words, nervously. Don’t misread me, I love to give new speakers a chance to communicate, so they can get their feet about them, but there’s a time for us to man up and change the world with our words.