Working with visiting speakers – 9 tips

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Over the past twelve months I’ve been on both sides of the visiting speaker divide. I’ve been touring my book, and running events that needed outside help.

Some churches have policies and budgets for speakers, but in youth work land, we easily neglect these in the wake of enthusiasm and last minute planning! I’ve had some truly wonderful, and some frankly weird encounters as a visiting speaker, so I thought I would share some top tips and little stories to help you get the most out of your visiting speaker.

1. Do your homework

Don’t just go for the biggest names as it’ll cost your whole budget, and they might not actually be the best voice for your groups. You could even end up compromising  ideal dates and venues to fit their busy schedules. You should look instead for what a speaker values; ask for feedback and listen to some of their recordings. Match the speaker to the people they are speaking to, not the topic.

I was asked at one event last year to talk about inner city ministry to disadvantaged urban teenagers from ethnic minorities. I winged it but there are so many people more qualified than me to talk on this topic.

2. Show your working

When sending an invitation to a speaker, specifically point to why you have asked for them. Share what traits they have displayed, or topics they have spoken on which you think will find synergy with your group. This is not about flattery (although it couldn’t hurt, right?), it’s about starting a conversation on the right track.

I’ve had people ask me to speak purely because they know I’ve written a book – but had no idea what the book was about. This proved awkward when the theory of youth work I proposed was dramatically different to events I was asked to speak at. Whoops!

3. Clearly communicate

Most visiting speakers are in some kind of full-time ministry, thus will have an ongoing calendar to juggle. For me that means I really appreciate a few months (not weeks or days) notice, and will want a reasonable picture of I’m speaking to, and for how long. Don’t just drop a speaker into a context they wouldn’t normally work with without very clearly defined and properly communicated expectations.

At another stop last year I was given forty minutes to talk, however, twenty-five minutes in it was clear that the room was confused and restless. Apparently fifteen minutes was the usual length but the person who mediated my visit wasn’t a regular at this service and hadn’t checked!

4. Give value

Use a speaker for what they are good at and are passionate about. They shouldn’t feel like a spare part or just another volunteer. Make sure it’s worth their time.

A vocational speaker puts a lot of heart, effort, and personal energy into a talk, and it’s harder for them because they don’t know the people they’re speaking to. Make sure they know that they have been used specifically, and picked with careful intention.

5. Decide on remuneration

This should at least cover expenses for travel and board, but it’s also important to consider a financial gift for their time. If I’m speaking for 30 minutes then I’ll probably put 5-8 hours total work into it. With this in mind when I’m running an event, I try to delegate 15-35% of the budget for speakers.

Some speakers have more established expectations than others. it’s better to ask in a frank and clear way early on – but with the attitude of wanting to bless, not wanting to save.

Note: If you plan on recording their talk and selling material with it in afterwards, then you need to get their permission to do so and factor that into your gift. I’m always frustrated when I discover a talk I gave is being sold when I didn’t even know I had been recorded!

6. Be realistic with your expectations

If your event starts at 6pm, don’t ask your speaker to be there with the setup team at 3pm to ‘meet people.’ If you want them to meet people then put on a dinner beforehand. There’s nothing more awkward for a speaker than wandering around a hall, trying to find ways to be useful (or just stay out of the way) for 90 minutes while it all gets set up. This is time your speaker would rather have been with their family.

With this comes realism and honesty. I attended several events last year where I was assured a large number of people, but only a handful would actually make it. 10 and 100 people are very different things. I would still have spoken at these events, but I would have changed my approach or format if I knew beforehand.

7. Ask for their requirements

Sound, projection, computers, adapters, tables, pens, seating arrangements, or helpers to hand things out are all helpful to discuss before a speaker arrives. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve arrived somewhere that didn’t have even a music stand for my notes. A speaker shouldn’t dictate the shape of your event, but you should talk clearly about what is available and how they usually work.

8. Say thank you

It’s important to value your speaker. You can give some helpful feedback, but mostly show your gratitude for their work. Visiting speakers are professionals so they can work with feedback and understand that people have different needs.

I try and give the ‘triple whammy’ of thanks: First, say thank you in the event publicly, which gives the whole group an opportunity to be a part of it. Second, say thank you to them personally, as the event organiser, when walking them to their car or dropping them off at the train station. Third, say thank you a day or two later, over email, highlighting the specific ways you think it was useful to the audience.

9. Don’t let them be a diva

You should value your speaker, but if you have given clear expectations in a timely fashion, then you should expect them to work within those parameters. You can’t change the shape of your whole event to fit them, and you can’t throw out your theology play book to accommodate something they’re playing with at the moment.

I once worked with a visiting speaker who was given 20 minutes, but spoke for almost an hour (mostly crying), until we interrupted and moved him off stage.

A speaker should ideally be there for the whole session to settle in well, understand the vibe, and talk to people afterwards. They shouldn’t nip out the back when their bit is over. Be clear and upfront, and hold them to the expectations you have agreed on.

 

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash

Two dads are better than one – talk

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

A short Father’s Day talk from 2017 on God being our dad.

 

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Is preaching the most effective method to teach teenagers?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by

Most of what I remember of my youth pastor from being a teenager his him giving talks. He and his small team would take it in turns to deliver the message each Sunday night. Some of these we would look forward to more than others because they would be funny or moving or poignant. Others, however, would just be boring or self-serving – thirty minutes to just get through before music and games.

The concept, however, was clear: teaching and authority is delivered from the front of the room.

Today I’m in a similar position. I deliver talks to my young people. I also give assemblies in schools, and a lot of my projects have that upfront teaching aspect to them. I have however, dialled back on upfront speaking as my main teaching style, and I’ve embraced more conversation, mentoring, group discussion, active service, briefing and briefing, Q&A, and try-and-see methods.

I’m going to briefly discuss some of the reasons I have come to that decision.

The de facto approach

I recently read a poll on a youth ministry Facebook page comparing the most effective methods of teaching teenagers. Of the 100+ full-time youth pastors that responded, well over half said that up front preaching is still the most effective method of teaching young people today. I was pretty surprised.

In the comments I suggested that the reason we think it is the most effective is that it tends to be the teaching method that we’re best at delivering, and the one we have the most experience with. We might be, therefore, measuring it’s effectiveness by how good we are at it, rather than how much our young people retain and apply.

Like me, many youth pastors grew up watching their own youth pastors preach and speak from the front. They possibly even graduated into volunteer youth ministry by doing some talks. At Bible College they started to learn how to public speak better, and they began finding their favourite YouTube preachers. Upfront speaking is what we know.

This de facto approach is highly practical, in that we don’t have to respond to the unknown and the spontaneous. It’s constructive, in that we can plan it meticulously and feed it into the context of teaching throughout a term. It’s safe, in that it is tidy and keeps surprises to a minimum. It’s also ego-stroking, in that it gives us the opportunity to make teenagers like us.

Does it work?

This might be the $1 million question. We can probably all think back to talks that had a big impact on our Christian walks. We can remember talks when great swaths of young people stood up to follow Jesus at the end. This might be why talks are still the main – if not the only – teaching method used at youth events and conferences.

But here’s another question: How many talks can you actually remember?

By remember I mean can you piece together the main point of a talk with all the moving parts it took to get there? Can you remember the three points and the applications? Can you remember the unpacked exegesis and the contexts they sat in? How many talks can you remember like that from probably the hundreds, if not thousands, that you have heard? What’s your retention and application percentage? Does that ratio feel like good stewardship?

If you’re a note taker then retention and application might be easier, or – if like me – you tend to plagarise other speakers anecdotes, then you might remember more – but even then some work has to be done in other teaching/learning styles before you get there.

American educational theorist, Edgar Dale, famously published what’s called the Cone of Learning, where he placed retention percentages alongside different learning methods.

Dale said, for instance, that the best way to learn something is actually to teach it to others, and if we can’t do that then we should emphasise discussion and practice over simply reading and listening. What was most shocking, however, was he said that the ‘lecture style’ or upfront speaking was by far the least effective method of teaching. He said humans tend to only retain 5% of a talk 24 hours later.

Dale’s ideas are certainly not watertight, and educational theory has come a long way since. But even if it’s just half true, we need to consider how effective our upfront speaking-heavy teaching methods truly are.

Is it biblical?

Now this is interesting because at first glance public speaking seems to be the main teaching method in the Bible. However, a deeper examination will reveal that this is just not correct.

The Patriarchs, Judges and Kings sometimes spoke to large groups, but more often we see them speaking to individuals or other leaders. Prophets spoke to crowds sometimes, but more often spoke to rulers, councils or individuals. There are other times when Kings and Prophets spoke to the whole nation of Israel, however, this tended to be to lead them in worship or prayer rather than teaching.

Some version of upfront speaking happened in smaller circumstances, like the head of a household telling an ancient story to his family, but that happened over a worship feast that they all joined in as part of the ritual.

In the New Testament Jesus is frequently mis-described as a crowd teacher and preacher. But this is actually a very rare occurrence. He does speak in the synagogues, but when He does this from the front it is almost exclusively limited to the reading of the Torah (with a cheeky sentence of personal commentary thrown in), and when in the outer courts, He tends to be answering questions and discussing with small groups of people in turn (like most Rabbis would).

Even classics like the Sermon on the Mount, or the Sermon on a Plain were focused times of teaching the disciples with a crowd ‘listening in’ rather than taught directly. In fact, almost all of Jesus’ recorded teaching happens in small groups and with individuals. The biblical Jesus is just not a crowd teacher or public speaker.

The book of Acts is probably the most interesting because proclamation was almost exclusively reserved for groups of unbelievers, whereas teaching through conversation and discussion were most commonly practiced with groups of already confessing believers. This is clearer in the Greek, but still we do this backwards don’t we?

Proclamation and preaching are certainly biblical practices, but they are by no means the exclusive, de facto, most effective, or even most usual method of teaching employed throughout the Scriptures. Upfront speaking was mostly reserved for the pubic reading of scripture or the corporate leading of worship.

Preaching as we know it today is largely a remnant of Christendom, rescued somewhat by the Reformation, helped along by the Edwardian era, but stunted by the Victorian Church, and then intellectualised by the Enlightenment. We need to look deeper and further to teach better.

So what else is there?

Allowing the Bible to speak with room for the Holy Spirit to interpret and apply should be the most important aspect of our teaching. The Bible historically been a conversant book, one read in community not just alone in isolation.

I favour facilitated Bible discussion, where a leader knows the passage well and has maturity to teach, but the content is discussed and then applied by the wider group. Truth is facilitated, and the discovery of the ‘true path’ is led by figures with the experience of mountain guides. They don’t do the hiking for them!

Having an experienced, mature, and trained pastor figure in the room safeguards against discussions dissolving into relativistic chaos, and they draws threads together helpfully without superimposing an unnecessary or tightly constricting agenda upon God’s Word in the gathering. This also keeps teacher-accountability on the table with the Bible.

This approach also opens up the importance of student participation in teaching, of mentoring, actual practice, abstract thinking, conversation, Q&A, try-and-see, briefing and debriefing, and open-ended discussion.

Proclamation is great! Public speaking is one of the key parts of my vocation and one of the things I’m best at. This does not mean, however, that it is the only, or even the best way that God can use me, or that speaking is the most effective way of teaching the people that God has put under my care.

We need to widen the net, broaden our skills, and embrace a bigger field of teaching methods, and we can do this without losing our biblical compass. The plans, character, heart, and purposes of God in our communities is big enough to warrant stepping out of our teaching-style comfort zones. Let’s get on it!

 

Photo by Nycholas Benaia on Unsplash

13 Rules of thumb for giving better talks

/0 Comments/in /by

Here are a few golden rules of thumb for public speaking. These have nothing to do with content or spirituality, but they should help all of us speak more clearly and accessibly. Better speaking means clearer delivery, and clearly delivery means that more people will get it!

1. Don’t commentate on your talk as you give it.

‘Oh, sorry, that was rubbish wasn’t it…’

‘Ah, it looks like no-one gets what I’m saying…’

‘As you’re all switching off, I’ll end with this..,’

‘Right, so, just like me, I’m going to be really controversial now…’

Commentating on your own talk swings between under-confidence and over-arrogance. It’s rarely helpful, and often distracting. Say what you planned to say, and lets do the commentating later.

2. Ditch the intro.

If you don’t hook me in the first 30seconds, then to be honest I’m already starting to drift. The introduction is your time to set up the intrigue, grab peoples attention, and bring them into the ride safely.

Talking for five minutes about who you are an why you’re here does none of that! If you really must make an intro, then get the service leader to do it. Ditch the intro and get straight into it!

3. Fit an orange in your mouth.

I’ve been a public speaking voice coach for a number of years and two of the most consistent problems I hear are ‘I speak too fast’ and ‘I’m too nervous.’ A great way to begin to remedy both of these is to open your mouth wider.

Opening your mouth allows more airflow and stretches your facial and neck muscles. This oxygenate your system, gets blood flowing, and realises endorphins. This makes you less nervous. Opening your mouth wider also increases recovery time between words and syllables, so you speak slower.

How wide? Just imagine you need to fit a whole orange in your mouth, then practice in front of a mirror. You won’t look as silly as you think I promise you!

4. Check the mic like a ninja.

‘Check, check… can you all here me?’ [tap] [tap] [tap]

This screams under-confidence and insecurity. A tip I got from an acting and comedian friend is just say ‘hello’ into the mic and wait to hear if you get a response.

Use some kind of phrase or breath to check the mic like a ninja, rather than making it obvious.

5. Leave your kids out of it.

So this is a little bit content related. The amount of times that I hear a speaker effectively bad mouth their own kids, or spouse, or parents from the front is terrifying. They are not fair game, and you will lose the respect of people in the room. Even just passive mentions should be checked with them first.

Personal stories and experiences are great, but be respectful in how you put them together or the people you’re speaking to will stop trusting what you have to say.

6. Pause. Breathe. Pause.

Using the right amount of empty space makes talks. Reflection moments, and time for a point to sink in are golden. However, in usual conversation we call these ‘awkward silences’ so we don’t tend to feel comfortable with them, and don’t know how long to do it publicly.

Obviously learn to fit the pause to the point, but for now start with pause-breath-pause. Say your point and pause for what feels right. Then breath in deeply, and do the pause again. Then continue (It’ll probably be 3-5 seconds).

7. Walk. Stop. Walk.

Some inexperienced speakers are constantly walking around the stage with little understanding of where they are, and why they’re heading there. As actors will tel you, power and authority comes from standing still and straight, while intrigue and informality comes from slowly walking around. The trick is to use both.

If you walk from your lectern/music-stand/pulpit to somewhere else on the stage, stop and deliver a line still before walking back. Walk with a line. Stop with a line. Walk with a line.

Again, these are best matched to the point, but its a good place to start and learn body control as your speaking.

8. Learn some technical stuff.

Public speaking is a vocation, an art, and a skill. It has technicality that is worth the time to learn. Technical stuff should never replace the need for solid content, but it is important to make that content heard.

I’ve already mentioned breathing, body awareness, but also think about matching your points to the right volume, pitch, pace, register, timbre, and register. Find what part of your vocal instrument matches the point to the audience and practice so you can control it.

You can learn some of this stuff online, but vocal coaches and singing teachers can help you best with this. I coach people all around them world through Skype – so there are options available. If speaking is a big part of your ministry, its worth some time and money to train as a speaker.

9. Smile properly. Laugh lots.

Unless it really doesnt match your content, a gentle yet active smile that reaches your eyes will keep people with you. Humans response to smiling features on a fact – we recognise them subliminally and emulate them. This also increases endorphins and blood flow – and it usually opens your eyes a little wider letting more light in. All of this makes you more comfortable and confident.

Laughing lots before a talk is a great way of relaxing nerves and getting more oxygen to the brain. Well worth travelling down to your talk with some funny people in the car!

10. Get there early.

One of the best tips I was ever given for talks I was worried about was to get there early. This gives you the chance to do two very important things:

First, it allows you to meet the people. Make connections, shake hands, tell stories, ask questions. If you’ve already made those connections then both delivering and hearing the talk will go smoother. I’ve been known to stand with the welcome team in places I’ve not spoken at before, just to say hi to as many people as possible.

Second, it gives you space to test the mic, adjust the stand, and look up and around at the room to see where the dead spots will be. It dulls the surprise of coming in fresh when you’re about to deliver.

11. Pick out your players.

When I’m nervous (which is still all the time when I’m speaking), I tend to always look at one spot and keep talking to it.

Instead, pick out four to six people in different parts of the room and go back and forth looking at these people. I think of this like football; I pick out some people on the wing, and people in the centre and keep passing to them.

Realistically, this keeps me speaking to the whole room, and not just a small cluster in it.

12. Ignore mistakes.

You may need to occasionally correct a sentence, but don’t linger on it. Correct and move on.

Drawing attention to your mistakes makes an audience loose interest, and it makes you feel less confident and competent. Move through it and move past it.

13. Ignore numbers 1-12.

These ‘golden rules of thumb’ are there to help you deliver a clearer message and be a support for your point. If they become the main thing – throw them out. Some of the best speakers regularly break these rules because their own character can make it work.

If these are helpful – great. If they breakup your flow, make you panic, or get in the way of personality – get rid of them!

Have fun.

How to read people’s faces during a talk

/0 Comments/in /by

Bottom line – don’t do it.

It’s very easy to be unnerved by a twitching lip, a quirky grin, a shaking head, or a deadpan stare. I’ve had people fall asleep during my talks and yesterday I gave a talk with a disabled gentleman blowing loud raspberries at me. Awesome! It’s easy to get distracted – or even change what you’re saying – because you pop-psychoanalysed the audience and decided they were going to assassinate you by your conclusion.

Again – don’t do it. It’s not worth it!

Looks of furry, boredom, confusion, sadness, or even ‘a look of particular theological disagreement’ mean nothing. Genuinely. Why?

First, we are not Freudian psychiatrists with internal crystal balls that tell us exactly what individual facial expressions mean.
Second, people make all kinds of ugly looks for no discernible reason at all.
Third, facial expressions may have nothing to do with you! Maybe their cat died that morning, or they’re worried how they’ll get out of their parking space. Maybe they just broke wind.
Forth, it just won’t help you.
Fifth, it really won’t help you. Even if you’re right about what you see!

It’s important to stay discerning, and to know the people you’re speaking too; and it’s even important to make on-the-fly changes in reaction to what you think the Holy Spirit might be saying. That’s the key though – you make changes because God tells you to, not because people’s faces freaked you out. No mid-talk change should be prompted by fear – which is what were left with by trying to read people’s quirk-expressions.

Don’t give in to the temptation. Trust the words God has given you, and trust His knowledge of each person in the room.

Read peoples faces? Just don’t.

Bitesize Messages: Nailing the one point.

/0 Comments/in /by

One of the pivotal rules to communicating any type of message clearly is the ability to reduce it down to a single motif.

I should come away from your sales pitch, event flyer, email, Sunday sermon, or training seminar able to distill it into a simple sentence and then recognisably say it back to you. If I can’t, then something was probably missing from your preparation and design.

The point of this isn’t to simplify your message to the spoon-feeding level, and it’s not supposed to remove complex ideas or deep explanations from your messages. The reason you want a clear one-liner is the same reason an academic essay needs a thesis, or a research paper a hypothesis. A message needs to translate back to the one-liner to make sure that there is a clear transitional flow between all the auxiliary message pieces so that it will translate into a working application to a varied audience. Basically, you need to be sure we got it to the best of your ability!

If you haven’t done this, your audience will tend to take away only one point anyway, and if you haven’t led them with a clearly defined message then it might not be the one you wanted!

Arguably, if you can’t tell me what your message is about in one line, then you just haven’t got your message yet. Once you have your one-liner – that’s the motif you want everyone in the room to come away with – then your message (however funny and confidently delivered) will be fractured, disjointed and ultimately ineffective.

In an essay, every paragraph should in some way serve the thesis. If it doesn’t then you’ve wasted words and lost the reader. My wife is an editor, and awesome at this! She talks about leading the reader by the hand and pointing things out along the way. She makes sure nothing is missed and that everything serves the whole.

The 3 Point Sermon Myth.

I started public speaking when I was about 14 years old, and man was I bad at it. Basically I would just plagiarise everything I’d ever heard from real speakers and thread it all together randomly. I fell quickly into the ‘three-point-sermon’ trap, making sure I always had an ‘abc’, ‘123’ or ‘3 Cs’ to each message.

The classic three-point sermon, however, doesn’t really exist; or at least, not like you’d think. There are actually 3 types of three-point sermon, and I believe that only one of them is effective:

  1. The 3-but-really-5 point sermon.

This is where the speaker throws in three points, but also an absurdly long introduction and conclusion which, rather than setting up the points, adds to the body with new points. We end up with a huge grab bag of facts, stories, applications and ideas in the hope that one or two might stick.

  1. The literally 3 point sermon.

Here, there really are three points; completely different points with little to connect or consolidate them. Time being a factor, each point is represented only one way, so are usually only grasped by a few people in the room that connected with that particular teaching style or story.

  1. The 1-point-3-ways sermon.

This is the one that I think works! Coming at one idea from three perspectives broadens your teaching scope meaning almost everyone will leave with the same key teaching. This respects the variety of the room, allows ideas to percolate and cement, and moves the whole congregation on together.

Find your message!

If we as youth workers can work on making all of our communication revolve around single clear ideas, and make sure everything else supports them, then we will be so much more effective and memorable!

This is true for talks, studies, posters, websites, letters to parents and evangelism too.

If we don’t do this, we shouldn’t be surprised is we are misunderstood or taken out of context.

For an interesting thought experiment, think about these questions:

  • What one-liner would the young people you know associate with your teaching?
  • What one-liner do you try to make the clearest when talking to non-Christians?
  • What one-liner would young people use to describe you?
  • What one-liner would young people use to describe the God you represent?
  • Looking back at your last three talks, what was the one-liner you wanted to get across? Did you have one?
  • Asking young people and leaders (who were present at those talks), ask them to write down what they thought your one-liner was.
  • Look back over your last bulk communications (letters/emails/blogs), and ask a few of the recipients to email you back a one-line summary of what they felt the most important thing you were trying to communicate was.
  • Show a bunch of people in your target audience your last few flyers; ask them to tell you in one-line what the key piece of information was.

Great article on giving talks to young people

/0 Comments/in , /by

Original here: http://www.younglifeleaders.org/2011/02/are-you-giving-yl-talk-anytime-soon.html

Quote:

7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Giving a Young Life Talk

I heard Francis Chan give a talk where he honestly confessed his interior struggles while speaking. To address the temptations he faces when speaking, he asks 7 questions to check his spirit and motives. Below are those 7 questions as they relate to us as YL leaders.

7 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Speaking

 

  1. Am I worried about what people kids and other leaders will think of my message or am I most concerned with what God thinks? (Teach with fear)

 

  1. Do I genuinely know and love these kids I’m speaking to? (Teach with love)

 

  1. Am I accurately presenting this scripture, have I studied God’s word faithfully and let it sink into my heart and head? (Teach with accuracy)

 

  1. Am I depending on the Holy Spirit’s power or my own cool factor and good ideas? (Teach with power)

 

  1. Have I applied this talk to my own life, do I believe what I say? Am I buying what I’m selling? (Teach with integrity)

 

  1. Will this talk draw attention to me or to God? (Teach with humility)

 

  1. Do my high school friends really need to hear this? (Teach with urgency)

 

Let’s not take the high privilege we have of sharing the Gospel lightly.

6 Announcement Slide Mistakes & How To Fix Them – by Lindsey Moss

/0 Comments/in , /by

Great post from Lindsey Moss of ChurchMediaTech.com. Re-posted with her permission. Check out the original here and have a browse through their other great articles here.

There are many studies published online confirming that visual cues help us retain information which is what I love so much about announcement slides! When you add visual cues to your announcement segment, it helps the congregation commit the information to memory. I’ve also found from experience that engagement is higher when there is viewable information involved.

That being said, it can be easy to go overboard! I want to give you a few tips on how you can get the most out of your announcement slides by examining some common mistakes.

Let me first preface this by saying these are all optional changes. This is just an article written by your friendly neighborhood Designer who understands the frustrations that come along with creating announcement slides that will impact your congregation. I want to make things easier for you. So let’s get started!

To help you see the difference it can make, I’m going to show you how I took the slide on the left and transformed it into the slide on the right by fixing these six announcement slide missteps.

1. Wrong Image Size or Resolution

As you can see in the first image, there are black bars on either side of the image. These typically happens when the slide isn’t the same size as your screen. You should reference your screen and projector manual to see what the best image size and pixel ratio is for your setup to avoid stretching, black bars, and pixelation. For reference, for a typical HD slide I set the image size to 1920 x 1080 px, resolution to 72, the color palette to RGB and I export as a jpg. This will usually give you the best color profile and size for your projector without the file size being out of control.

So, let’s fix the image size…

2. Misuse of Photos

Okay, now that our black bars are gone we have another issue here; there’s a watermark on the photo. I understand that many church budgets for announcement slide elements is minimal or non existent so I’m going to replace it with a photo from pexels.com. This website provides a wide variety of photos you can use for anything! You want to avoid using photos from Google, Pinterest, or images that include watermarks.

Now, you don’t have to use a photo! You can easily use a graphic. Do whatever you like best. I personally find images easier to work with for those that don’t have much design experience but they still want their slides to look professional. Also, I want to change the photo to something that implies a sense of community and conversation. Let’s try something like this…

3. Mismatched Fonts

Awesome! We’re definitely getting somewhere. Now, let’s address the use of font here. The text has a slight drop shadow, which is always a great way to enhance the legibility, but the words don’t seem to flow with the image. You definitely want your slide to have character, but using too many fonts can be overwhelming. Here’s an awesome article on pairing fonts by Brady Shearer. For this slide, we’re going to only use two fonts.

I’m going to use Bebas Neue for the Title and Information because it’s bold and easy to read, and I’m going to use RachelHand Medium for the Subtitle to give it the feeling of a hand written note that fits the feel of connection like the photo.

Here it is…

4. Misuse of Logos

Now, we have to address what I think is the most serious offense in this slide; the misuse of the church logo. Even if your church doesn’t have branding guidelines, it’s never a good idea to change the color, shape, proportions, or elements of the logo.

Your logo is a visual representation of your church and the last thing you want to do is give the impression that you don’t take the identity of your church seriously. I know that seems a bit harsh, but it’s true. It’s important to be consistent with your branding so you can be easily identified.

Now, let’s say that my church logo is neon pink. Neon pink isn’t going to fit so well on a slide about a chill session over some lattes. So what do you do? The best option in this case is to simply use a watermark. By using a white version of your logo and lowering the opacity to somewhere around 60% you’ll still get the visual of your logo without the overpowering look of neon pink.

Let’s see the slide with the watermark version of the logo in the correct size, and proportions…

5. Too Many Colors

Now that we’ve got that cleared up, let’s take a look at the colors. First of all, I don’t necessarily have a problem with mixing colors. Sometimes it can take a bland slide and make it much more intriguing! However, when you’re working with a background image as bold as this photo, it’s important that we aren’t distracting viewers from the overall feel of the image by our color choices.

For this slide, I’m going to make all the font the same color. There is already some visual diversity with the mixing of fonts so it won’t seem bland, and the consistency of color will help the entire slide come together.

Check it out…

6. Too Much, or Too Little, Information

Okay ladies and gentlemen we’re almost home! Last, but certainly not least, is information! This is especially important if you’re planning to have a slideshow of your announcements playing pre-service. If there isn’t enough information on the slide, the viewer doesn’t have much to go on and will soon lose interest, if there’s too much information they may not have time to read all of it before it progresses to the next slide.

Let’s condense our information into a single line. Something that can be read quickly and retained easily.

You want to answer the following questions in as few words as possible:

What? When? Where? and SOMETIMES Why? (see what I did there?) You don’t always have to include the why because sometimes it’s obvious. Other times, like for a fundraiser, you may want to add why this event is important.

In the case of this slide the answers to these questions are: Connection Cafe, before and after the service, in the Welcome Area, to drink some coffee and create community.

We’re going to highlight this information by adding a dark brown rectangle behind it and lowering the opacity of that rectangle to 80%. If certain elements of a slide start to look too separate or overpowering, lowering the opacity is a great way to blend everything together.

Here it is folks! Our finished slide!

You can download this background image for free here: https://www.pexels.com/photo/restaurant-hands-people-coffee-5362/

You can download Bebas Neue for free here: http://www.dafont.com/bebas-neue.font

How To Work With A Visiting Speaker – 9 tips

/0 Comments/in /by

For a wee while now I’ve been helping churches run events and projects, which inevitably means getting outside help. This usually comes in the form of musicians and speakers – although can be in the form of giant chickens and chocolate eggs.

Visiting speakers are awesome! You can find someone who treats speaking as a spiritual gift and a vocation, and they bring an outside breath of newness to your group. I loving getting speakers in, and I sometimes get used as a visiting speaker.

Some churches have policies and budgets for speakers, but in youth work land, we sometimes neglect these in the wake of enthusiasm and last minute planning! So here’s a little checklist to help you get the most out of your speaker:

1. Do your homework

Don’t just go for the biggest names as it’ll cost you your whole budget, and they might not actually be the best voice for your groups. You may even end up compromising the ideal dates and venues to fit their busy schedules. You should look instead for what a speaker values; ask for feedback from people who have used them and – if you can – listen to some of their recordings. Match the speaker to the people they are speaking to, not the topic.

2. Show your working

When sending an invitation to a speaker, specifically point to why you have asked for them. Share what traits they have displayed, or topics they have spoken on which you think will find synergy with your group. This is not about flattery (although it couldn’t hurt, right?), it’s about starting a conversation on the right track.

3. Explain details

Many, if not most, visiting speakers are in some kind of full-time ministry, thus will have lots of sporadic events and dates to juggle. For me that means I really appreciate a few months notice (not weeks), and will want to know who I’m speaking to, and for how long.

4. Give value

If you’re getting in a speaker, use them for what they are good at and are passionate about. Don’t just pair them up with someone they don’t know, or randomly drop them into a space they wouldn’t normally work with. Servant-heartedness aside (that’s for them to work on), they shouldn’t feel like a spare part or just another volunteer. Make sure it’s worth their time.

5. Decide on remuneration

This should (at the very least) be expenses for travel and board, but you really should consider a financial gift for their time. If I’m speaking for 30 minutes, at a 2 hour event say, 15 miles away, then I’ll probably put 5-8 hours total work into it. This includes speaking and being at the event obviously, but also prayer and prep and maybe meetings. I broadly try to delegate 15-35% of an event budget for speakers. Some speakers actually do have suggested rates and payment details – it’s better to ask in a frank and clear way early on – but with the attitude of wanting to bless, not wanting to save.

Note: If you plan on recording their talk and selling material with it in afterwards, then you might want to figure that in somehow too. At very least, you need to get their permission to do so.

6. Be realistic with your expectations

If your event starts at 6pm, don’t ask your speaker to be there with the setup team at 4pm to ‘meet people.’ If you want them to meet people then put on a dinner beforehand. There’s nothing more awkward than wandering around a hall, trying to find ways to be useful (or just stay out of the way) for 90 minutes while it all gets set up. This is time your speaker would rather have been with their family! Also remember that your speaker doesn’t know your young people like you do, and isn’t their to do your job of relationship building, or the Holy Spirit’s job of saving!

7. Ask for their requirements

I don’t mean a rider – as that might be pushing it! What I mean is sound, projection, or helpers to hand things out. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve arrived somewhere that didn’t have a music stand for my notes. Also – ask them beforehand if you want to record it.

8. Say thank you

It’s important to value your speaker. You can give some helpful feedback, but mostly show your gratitude for their work. Visiting speakers are professionals so they can work with feedback and understand that people have different needs. I try and give the ‘triple whammy’ of thanks: 1st, say Thank You in the event publicly, which gives the whole group an opportunity to be a part of it. 2nd, say Thank You to them personally, as the event organiser, when walking them to their car or dropping them off at the train. 3rd, say Thank You a day or two later, over email, highlighting the specific ways you think it was useful to the audience.

9. Don’t let them be a diva

You should value your speaker, but if you have given clear expectations in a timely fashion, then you should expect them to work within those parameters. You can’t change the shape of your whole event to fit them, and you can’t throw out your theology play book to accommodate something their playing with at the moment. They also should expect to be with you for the whole session to gel in well and talk to people afterwards. They shouldn’t nip out the back when their bit is over. Be clear and upfront, and hold them to the expectations you have agreed on.