by Dr. Randy Ritz

Welcome to a series of articles on how to improve your communication skills as a pastor. As an acting coach, I am well aware of the specific voice and movement training that actors must take. Actors are hired, after all, by how they perform vocally and physically on the stage.

In comparison, pastors have a multi-faceted job description – counselling, administration, visitation, mediation, public relations, etc. – you are aware of the “different hats.” But I would argue that it is the time behind the pulpit that most parishioners relate to. The weekly message sets up the inevitable question: “What did you think of the sermon today?” Pastors, too, are often “called” – hired – in part by presenting the audition sermon.

So, here is my point. Actors are judged by their life on the stage, and I believe that clergy, rightly or wrongly, are also judged by their presentation on the platform. Yet clergy get little training in basic communication theory and practice, let alone help to become dynamic storytellers and communicators.

Actors spend three or four years working on understanding and interpreting scripts (like Shakespeare), building a gesture vocabulary, movement and, of course, developing a powerful and flexible voice. Clergy, on the other hand, will spend their considerable time in Bible school or seminary with languages, hermeneutics, Biblical studies and one or two courses on exegesis. If pastoral students are fortunate, they will get three or four opportunities to preach outside of a vicarage or practicum. The average would be about once a year. There is hardly any in-depth instruction or practice in skilful and dramatic communication.

We want to try and fix this imbalance. Over the next ten issues, The Signpost will try to give you access to the latest communication concepts, give you practical exercises for self-improvement, get you “up-to-speed” on the latest wireless microphones (at a good price) and, above all, provide strategies for becoming a master storyteller. Each issue should bring the reader down one new avenue that makes you into a better platform speaker. We will, of course, examine how Jesus used stories and why they were so radically effective.

Let me leave you with one nugget for change this month: Over the next four weeks or so, define one speaker that you admire. It could be the way he or she moves, the great gestures, the dynamic stories or the comic delivery. Picture this person in your mind as they speak and ask yourself: “How did they get to this high level of speaker expertise?” and “How can I achieve that level of platform presentation?”

When you admire a particularly scintillating speaker, you may fail to see the intense preparation regimen that led up to the successful presentation you are witnessing. These can include the use of self-help exercises and specific “push-your-boundaries” practices done before speaking. For those of you beginning the journey towards becoming a well-rounded platform presenter, it is essential that you begin to cultivate your own self-help exercises – and practice.

We hope that you will apply the practical strategies for improvement provided over the next months. For now, use that picture of the model pastor/speaker in your mind to motivate you. Or, better yet, try to locate a video, DVD or TV moment with this speaker and analyze why they are so effective.