9 Recommendations For Giving A Great Talk In Church

I know this sounds a little weird, but I actually like giving public addresses, particularly at Church. 

For those that don't know; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does something quite unique. It has no paid clergy. So the members of the church (i.e. ME) give addresses in church on a semi-regular basis.

I've noticed, however, that there are a lot of people that (a) don't like giving talks, (b) lack confidence while giving talks, (c) lack organization in their talks, (d) think they are giving great talks and are (awesome!),(e) think they are not giving great talks but actually are, or (f) think they are giving great talks and aren't (really sad).

Let's be honest. Sometimes giving a talk to your local congregation of 100-200 can feel a lot like this:

There are some things that you can do to make sure that you have an EXCELLENT talk where both you and your audience come away feeling enlightened and uplifted.


RECOMMENDATION 1: Come prepared

There's nothing more frightening than coming up to the microphone and not being prepared. I'm not saying that you need to go get some teleprompters up and running before you get up there. But I do recommend that you at least speak your talk at least once before you actually give it. Practice! It can be in the shower or in your suit and tie, it doesn't matter. Just talk (out loud) the whole thing through once.

It is likely that you won't give the same talk you practiced with. I usually do not write down my entire talk. If you're like me, a few notes, a good study session and some bullet points will do.

If you're an inexperienced speaker, write down your entire talk. It's fine. Just don't stand at the microphone with your head down reading it. Make sure your talk comes to life!

RECOMMENDATION 2: Keep it simple

I typically start with three main principles that I want to get across. I would say you should never try to teach more than 5. These main principles need to be summarized in a single sentence. For instance if I was giving a talk on Faith, these would be some principles I would teach:

• Faith in the Savior Jesus Christ is essential to our salvation.
• Faith in the Savior's can give us access to his Atonement.
• True Faith is a principle of action, and we cannot have faith and not act.

In one sentence, I could summarize my whole talk and say, "Faith in Jesus Christ is a principal of action, gives us access to the Atonement, and is essential to our salvation." 

The beautiful thing is, that you can take each one of those basic principles and expand on it to fill up your talk with more "meat".

RECOMMENDATION 3: Ask yourself a the following questions

1. What is it that I want my audience to know?
2. What is it that I want my audience to feel?
3. What is it that I want my audience to do?

Typically I don't start my talk with the answers to these questions (see recommendation 4). These are, however, very helpful for getting you started on the content of your address.

RECOMMENDATION 4: Starting your talk

There are a lot of ways NOT to start your talk. They can be very distracting.

• Don't start your talk by saying: "I've been asked to speak on ____." -I now know I can tune out for 20 min.
• Don't start by expressing your fear of speaking -I'm going to be in my seat cringing every time you fumble over a word.
• Don't start with a story of how you tried to dodge the responsibility of speaking. -I believe this is rude to the person who asked you to speak.
• Don't start with how bad your last talk was.- It could be worse.
• Don't say that "this talk is really only for me"- It's not.

However, there are some great ways to start.

• Telling a story or personal experience
• Introducing yourself and how you are uniquely qualified to speak on your topic.
• A short joke on yourself
• A scripture or quote 

RECOMMENDATION 5: Stick to your time

This is one thing that I would say is absolutely essential. There are a lot of reasons to give a time allotment. The most important I believe, is to keep you from boring people to death. Another, secondary reason is so that there is enough content that people are satisfied.

Sticking to your time is actually much more difficult than it sounds. You can talk about pretty much anything for 2 minutes. And if you study up, you can talk about that same something for 2 hours. There's a happy medium that is difficult to find. 

You need enough guts in your talk to get your point across and make it worthwhile for your listeners. The difficulty comes in getting RELEVANT content. You can share a 10 min story about your cat that has cancer, but it has nothing to do with the price of tea in China. Keep your stories long enough to help people understand the story, but short enough to not get mixed up in details.

RECOMMENDATION 6: Never encroach on someone else's time

This goes off of #5, but slightly different. Say for instance you're going to speak at a 2 hour conference. You are the 4th speaker and you're given 10 min. The final (and pinnacle) speaker is the President of the organization. He has prepared a 1 hour address. Unfortunately, the people before you have gone over their time, and you've got a 10 min talk and it's already 1:15 into the meeting. What do you do? Give your 10 min talk? 

ABSOLUTELY NOT! At that point it is your responsibility to make sure that final speaker has as much of the time as possible. Get to the microphone, speak the sentences that build up your 3 or so main points. Bear witness of the truth of them and sit down. I can think of no greater sign of respect.

This does not go just for people that are "higher up" in an organization than you. It goes for anyone that follows you.

RECOMMENDATION 7: Enthusiasm

Some of the greatest talks I have heard are by people who are very passionate with what they are speaking about. When you give a talk, make sure that it your words come to life. As you are excited about your talk, those who you are trying to teach will become excited as well.

Do not think that a talk cannot be spiritual if you are enthusiastic. That is simply not true. Don't go crazy. (Bad example is here.) Don't do that. Keep your dignity, but be excited!

RECOMMENDATION 8: Break it down

All of the recommendations up to this point can apply to any setting, not just Church. I think that the words "break it down" pretty much express what I want to get across here. Whatever your main point is, make it so that Average Joes like me can comprehend it.

And if you are giving a talk in church, you absolutely must relate every basic principle back to one of two things: 

1) Jesus Christ and his Atonement
2) The restoration of the gospel.

The better you "break it down" the better your talk will be.

RECOMMENDATION 9: "The Grid"

I've learned a really great tool from a teacher of mine. When you're preparing a talk, take out a piece of paper and draw a line through the center of the page both "hot dog" and "hamburger" style.

At the top of the page, write a title to your talk.

In the top left quadrant, write the 3 or so bullet points from recommendation 2. And number them 1,2,3...

In the top right quadrant, write down scripture references and stories that can be used to further explain your 1,2,3 and match them with your 1,2,3.

In the bottom left quadrant, write down commitments you would like to extend to your audience. This can be the answers to the questions in recommendation 3.

In the bottom right quadrant, write down WHY you know the things you have on that paper are true. This is your testimony.


Well, there it is. That is all of my advice on giving a great talk!