Monday, October 1, 2012

Speaking in Church

Source:  lds.org
Giving a talk in Sacrament meeting can be intimidating for the best of us.  For a Personal Progress Night lesson, we discussed how to give a successful talk in church.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the YW used the formula and suggestions we gave them as they took their turns to be youth speakers in Sacrament. 

We gave them each a small card that they could place in their scriptures to help them to remember the "Formula" :

Giving a talk in Church is E-A-S-Y

E - Experience (share one)

A - Apply (a Gospel Principle)

S - Scriptures (Use one or two)

Y - Your Testimony (bear it) 


We discussed a few common things we often hear over the pulpits, some dos and some don'ts:

PRAY - Ask for the guidance of the Spirit to say the things the things you are supposed to or to touch someone's heart.  Pray for help to do your best. 

The Introduction -
1.  Do not start with "My talk is on..." or "Bro. So-and-so asked me to talk on..."    - BORING!

2.  Introduce yourself, share your Experience (see above ) or a Quote.

3.  NEVER - make excuses for yourself by saying, "I forgot I was supposed to talk today," or "I didn't have a lot of time to work on my talk."  ACT like you know what you are doing, even if you don't!

The Body of the Talk - 
1.  Tell a story about yourself or someone you know...an experience you have had or a prompting you have felt.

2.  Relate an experience, scripture, or quote from a General Authority or someone you admire.  Use the "For the Strength of Youth" and the Standard Works.

The Conclusion -
1.  Give a short summary of what you have said.

2.  Bear your Testimony.

Hints:
- It can be helpful to practice at home before so you know how long your talk is.
- Mark your scriptures before so scripture references are easy to find when you speak.
- Smile - You are beautiful to look at!  :)

The Spirit will guide you if you ask because you are doing the Lord's work at that moment in time!  

This activity helps fulfill Individual Worth Value Experience #5 and Knowledge Value Experience #4.



 


3 comments:

  1. AMAZING! I absolutely love that you posted this. My husband and I are new to our ward and we are anticipating being asked to speak soon. This is so simple but it's going to be a huge help to me the next time I give a talk. Thank you so much! Keep up the good work.

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  2. What a nice way to plan out a talk! I wish that I had read this last week. I'm going to remember it for the future, though! Thank you.

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  3. This is great. I try to copy the format of General Conference talks when I speak; I've noticed they are often broken up into a few different sub-topics that all tie together at the end. It has worked pretty well for me so far, but these tips will definitely help me as well! Thanks for sharing.

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