Here is a repost of a blog post by Carey Nieuwhof, who is the lead pastor of Connexus Community Church. It is a topic that I find very important today for communicators, preachers, pastors of the Gospel. so much preaching could be disiminated by giving people USB drives of the text of the sermon and let them read it. It is my passionate quest to preach without notes and this article is very helpful. So read on an enjoy
When I was just starting to speak publicly, I was always amazed by communicators who could speak without using notes.
I wanted to be able to do that, but I had no idea how. I realized communicators who spoke without notes were almost always more effective (here are seven reasons why it’s better for communicators to speak without notes), but I was at a loss to figure out how to become one.
While this is a longer post than normal, let me start the single best piece of advice I’ve received on how to speak without notes. If you master it, you will be speaking without notes soon (I unpack it in detail below). It absolutely worked for me. It’s not as difficult as you might think, and I believe it’s learnable.
So what’s the secret sauce? For me, it was this:
I got that advice when I was a seminary student from Thomas G. Long, then head of homiletics at Princeton. I had the chance drive him to the airport one day when he was lecturing in Toronto. I asked him how I could free myself from notes, and that’s what he told me: Just understand what you’re going to say.
While it didn’t allow me to drop my notes right away, it transformed how I thought about communication. Within a few months, I was almost free of notes. Within a few years I stopped relying on them entirely (except when I’m reading a direct quote).
For those of you who are ready to drill down further, let me walk you through step by step how that works for best for me:
When I do these five things, I can give a 20, 40 or even full hour talk without using notes (except for direct quotes that tie into what the graphics operator is putting on screen…then I want to be exact and will quote what’s on the screen verbatim):
Every talk has big pieces or sections. And here’s the magic about a clear structure:
And by the way, the clearer your structure is, the easier it will be for your audience to follow.
So how do you get a clear structure? There are many ways, but it’s simple. It just needs to be clear and logical. I sometimes use Andy Stanley’s suggested structure of Me, We, God, You, We. Other times I structure the talk this way: Problem, Make the Problem Worse, Teaching, Resolution.
Regardless of your method, every talk follows this basic structure: Introduction, Teaching (Body), Application, Conclusion. So let’s use that for the purposes of this post.
I also always use four of the questions Andy Stanley outlines at the end of the book on communication he and Lane Jones wrote called Communicating for a Change. (The questions are: What do they need to know? Why do they need to know it? What do they need to do? Why do they need to do it?) These questions guide me through the key sections of my talk. Each piece of the talk’s structure answers one of those four questions:
a. Introduction: This is where you need to decide how to introduce your topic. I’ll often paint a problem, introduce a tension, tell a story or find common ground to draw everyone into the message. It lasts five – ten minutes max, and it’s easy to remember the problem, tension, story or common ground point you’re trying to establish because the introduction tries to answer this critical question:
Why do they need to know this?
That’s all I try to do in the introduction. If I can answer that, it becomes easy to do the introduction without notes, because you’re simply communicating some common ground (drawing everyone into the talk) what’s at stake, why this matters and why anyone should care.
b. Teaching: This is where I dig into the heart of the issue, the problem, the tension and its relationship to the biblical text or the main subject of the talk. I usually jump between the biblical text and people’s lives today, trying to identify key life issues that arise from the text, point out surprises, highlight tension and drill down on the main point of the talk.
The teaching section answers the question:
c. Application. Application doesn’t start here. If you’ve done the introduction well, you’ve already shown people why this matters and how it can make their life better/different. But this is where I drill down. It’s where you get specific, granular and might tell more stories. Focus on remembering the key application points and your story(ies).
Now, that sounds complicated. But it’s not. If you can remember:
You’ve learned your talk. Bingo.
If you have a total meltdown seconds before the big moment, just answer four questions on your way up the stairs onto the platform:
And then start talking. I promise you it will be a great talk. Those four questions are powerful.
Now, three more quick points and we’re done.
4. Review it. I usually read my message through a few times on Saturday night right before going to bed. I’ll get up early on a Sunday and read over it again several times.
5. Deliver it. Just get up there and speak from your heart. If, while delivering your talk, you forget a point, move on. No one knew you were going to make it anyway, so just move on. They’ll thank you for being two minutes shorter.
That’s how I deliver a talk without using notes.
By the way, there is a ton of great information on writing and delivering talks at Preaching Rocket. Seriously great coaching! And you might also follow Nancy Duarte and Michael Hyatt on communication. I love what each of them are doing to help communicators get better.
Which of the above points do you find helpful? What would you add?
And finally…tell me, what’s your secret sauce?