Most books on preaching say a great deal about the development of the sermon but little about its delivery. That is reflected in the way we preach. While ministers spend hours every week on sermon construction, they seldom give even a few hours a year to thinking about their delivery. Yet sermons do not come into the world as outlines or manuscripts. They live only when they are preached. A sermon ineptly delivered arrives stillborn.

The effectiveness of our sermons depends on two factors: what we say and how we say it. Both are important. Apart from life-related, biblical content, we have nothing worth communicating; but without skillful delivery, we will not get that content across to a congregation. In order of significance, the ingredients making up the sermon are thought, arrangement, language, voice, and gesture. In priority of impressions, however, the order is reversed. Gestures and voice emerge as the most obvious and determinative part of preaching. Every empirical study of delivery and its effect on the outcome of a speech or sermon arrives at an identical conclusion: your delivery matters a great deal.

Not only do your voice and gestures strike the audience’s senses first, but your inflections and actions transmit your feelings and attitudes more accurately than your words.

First, our nonverbal language has strategic importance in public speaking. When we address a congregation, three different communication networks operate at the same time: our words, our intonation, and our gestures. All three communicate ideas. In fact, our actions may often be more expressive than our words. To place the finger on the lips says more than “Be quiet.” Opening our eyes and raising our eyebrows expresses surprise better than words, and a shrug of the shoulders communicates an idea beyond what we say. In general, nonverbal elements more frequently communicate emotions and attitudes.

Second, both research and experience agree that if nonverbal messages contradict the verbal, listeners will more likely believe the silent language. It seems more difficult to lie with the whole body than with the lips alone. If you shake your fist at your hearers while you say in scolding tones, “What this church needs is more love and deep concern for one another!” the people in the pew will wonder whether you know about the love you are talking about. Because a vast amount of our preaching involves attitudes that either reinforce or contradict what our words proclaim, we dare not ignore delivery.

A third observation about effective delivery is that it begins with desires. In public speaking, the amateur says words; the professional, on the other hand, possesses a deep desire to communicate. Amateurs settle for getting their ideas out of their heads, while professionals strive to get ideas into our heads. In the preacher, technical knowledge and training in the art of public address cannot take the place of conviction and responsibility.

When we concentrate on ideas, with the desire to make listeners understand and accept them, strong delivery comes naturally. It does not emerge from slavishly following a set of rules. “His heart was in his work.” No rules can take the place of that. Sincerity, enthusiasm, and deep earnestness tear down barriers that allow the real person to break free. In that sense, effective delivery approximates the everyday give-and-take of honest conversation.

In the pulpit, the movement of your body must be disciplined to be effective. At first, attempts to improve your delivery will feel unnatural. Novices may insist that they should abandon the effort because a minister is not an actor and working on delivery violates their personality. But acquiring any habit usually involves initial self-consciousness.

GROOMING AND DRESS#

A fundamental rule of grooming and dress is that they should fit the audience, the situation, and the speaker. Evolving fashions and hairstyles, beards, sideburns and mustaches, or dress length make absolute rules impossible. If you are aware of your community and its standards, you will not want your clothing or hairstyle to stand in the way of your ministry. In most cases, people will expect that our hair will be combed and our shoes will be shined. Clothing, whatever its style, should be neat.

Suits should be kept clean and pressed. For men, socks should cover the leg; pockets should not bulge with collections of pens, datebooks, eyeglasses, and a wallet; the shirt should be fresh; and if a tie is worn, it should be neatly tied. Handkerchiefs displayed should not be limp, or if carried in the pocket, should be clean. Women should dress professionally and in good taste. Darker clothes are usually a better choice than brightly colored clothes. Dangling jewelry should be kept at a minimum. Because a woman speaker stands on a platform above her audience, she should also be sure to wear a longer skirt. In the final analysis, dress should not call attention to us, but should help us call attention to the Word of God.

MOVEMENT AND GESTURES#

God designed the human body to move. If your congregation wants to look at a statue, they can go to a museum. Even there, however, the most impressive statues are those that appear alive. In most realms, professionals use their whole body. The conductor of a symphony, the concert pianist, the umpire, the actress, and the golfer all put their bodies into what they do. Accomplished speakers, likewise, let their bodies speak for them. Here is the basic principle for movement and gestures: content should motivate movement.

First, sometimes you need to move. You give up a great advantage if you stand almost motionless before your people and become little more than a talking head that refuses to let your body interact with the message. You need to set your body free to do what your mind and emotions demand. Don’t inhibit the physical expressions that accompany vigorous thought. You need to carry over into preaching the same freedom you give to your hands, arms, and head in personal conversation.

Second, that content should motivate movement also means that some speakers should move less. If you pace back and forth, you reveal your uneasiness, and your movement gets in the way of the listeners’ concentration. Your actions should be motivated by your content. If they are not, then you are merely discharging nervous energy.

Remember that most movement should reflect the audience’s perspective. They read from left to right. Therefore, your movement as you face them must be from right to left. If you want to establish your first major point, make a movement to your right. A second major point may be enforced by a movement toward the center, a third major point by a movement to your left. If you are describing a map, you will find it helpful to make a turn away from the audience and picture the map as though it were on a screen behind you.

A particular part of bodily movement is gestures. They relate to speaking as diagrams do to a book. Gestures are for expression and not exhibition, and they communicate in several ways. Your gestures help you to explain and to describe.

Gestures maintain interest and hold attention. A moving object captures the eye more than one at rest. Stand on the sidewalk and notice how quickly you watch a car moving by and hardly notice one parked in the street.

Gestures put you at ease. When your body works to reinforce your ideas, you feel more confident and alert. One way to overcome the tension that you feel when you begin your sermon is to gesture. A large definite gesture or two will direct your nervousness into positive action.

Gestures also help listeners experience what we feel as they identify with us.

Here are four characteristics of expressive gestures:

Spontaneous Gestures#

First, your gestures should be spontaneous. Gesture but don’t “make gestures.” Your gestures should develop from within you as the outgrowth of conviction and feeling. While you can practice gestures, do not plan them. If in preaching the sermon you use gestures that don’t come naturally, let them go.

Definite Gestures#

Second, your gestures should also be definite. When you make a gesture, make it. A halfhearted gesture communicates nothing positive. Put your body behind it. A simple gesture with the index finger or the open hand involves not only the finger, the hand and wrist, but the upper arm, shoulder, and back as well. You will even shift your weight slightly for added force. If your gesture appears awkward, it is usually because your entire body doesn’t support it.

Varied Gestures#

Your gestures should be varied. Repetition of a single gesture, even a spontaneous and forceful one, calls attention to itself and irritates the audience. For instance, a pump-handle gesture gains emphasis, but when it is used too often, it looks as though it needs a well. Stand in front of your mirror and note how many different ways you can use your body. Someone who has bothered to count them insists that we can produce seven hundred thousand distinct elementary signs with our arms, wrists, hands, and fingers. Try using either hand, both hands, an open hand, a closed hand, palm up, palm down. Experiment with your arms, head, eyes, and face. When you get into the pulpit, your practice will be reflected in better gestures.

Properly Timed Gestures#

Finally, your gestures should be properly timed. A good gesture either accompanies or precedes the word or phrase that carries most of your meaning. If the stroke of the gesture follows the word or phrase, it looks ridiculous. Poorly timed gestures usually reflect a lack of spontaneity and proper motivation. Planning your gestures before you speak often results in gestures that are poorly timed.

EYE CONTACT#

Eye contact probably ranks as the single most effective means of nonverbal communication at your disposal. Eyes communicate. They supply feedback to you, and at the same time, hold your audience’s attention. When you look directly at your hearers, you pick up cues that tell you whether they understand what you are saying, whether they are interested, and whether they enjoy the sermon enough to continue listening. As an alert speaker, you will adjust what you say—for example, adding explanation or illustrations—as you interpret those responses. Moreover, when you look listeners in the eye, they feel that you want to talk with them personally. Therefore, pastors who gaze over their audiences’ heads, read a manuscript, stare down at notes, look out of windows, or worse, shut their eyes while they speak, place themselves at a crippling disadvantage.

Even though you address a congregation as a group, you talk with them as individuals. As you stand to speak, pause and establish personal contact with your listeners. Move your eyes over the congregation, and let them rest for an instant on several different people. Throughout the sermon, continue making eye contact. Talk with one listener at a time for a second or two. Look that person in the eye, then look at someone else. Be sure not only to look at your listeners, but to talk with them. Concentrate on communicating with each one the message you want the entire group to understand.

Because facial expression is very important, your people need to see your face. Therefore illuminate the pulpit with a strong light, placed at an angle that keeps your eyes from being thrown into shadow. Take a light meter and test the focus of light in the front of your church. The brightest light should be on the pulpit.

VOCAL DELIVERY#

Speech consists of more than words and sentences. Your voice conveys ideas and feelings apart from words. Listeners make judgments about your physical and emotional state—whether you are frightened, angry, fatigued, sick, happy, confident—based on the tremor of your voice, its loudness, rate, and pitch. Because your voice is a major tool in your profession, you should understand how your vocal mechanism works, and how to use it skillfully.

You can improve the quality of your voice, even without extended drills, if you understand how vocal sounds are made. For instance, to breathe efficiently, you should expand the belt line instead of the chest. You should be able to recite the entire alphabet on a single breath. Some speakers allow the pitch of their voices to rise when they increase their volume. That can put a strain on your vocal mechanism. Practice going down in your pitch when you go up in force.

Writers have many different ways to emphasize what they write. They can use exclamation points, commas, question marks, underlining, italics, indentations, and boldface type. Speakers, on the other hand, emphasize what they say in only four ways—by a variety in pitch, punch, progress, and pause. The use of these or a combination of them becomes the punctuation of speech. It is a variety of these elements that makes delivery interesting.

Pitch#

Pitch involves the movement of the voice up and down the scale, in different registers, with various inflections. Sometimes changes in pitch are called melody. While the words themselves don’t express disgust, the pitch does.

Monopitch drones us to sleep or wears upon us like a child pounding on the same note on the piano. Failure to control pitch effectively is sometimes the reason that humor falls flat. Listeners cannot tell from our pitch that we are joking.

Punch#

Variations in punch or loudness can achieve both interest and emphasis. A change in volume communicates the relative importance of ideas. In the declaration, “The Lord is my shepherd,” there are only five words; yet if you repeat that sentence five times and each time you punch a different word, the meaning changes. Not only words, but parts of the sermon can be underlined in people’s thinking if you utter them with great volume.

Unfortunately, some preachers know no other way to emphasize their points, and as a result, their sermons sound like shouting matches. They confuse volume with spiritual power, thinking that God speaks only in the whirlwind. Like monopitch, the monotony of unvarying volume wears on a listener.

Progress#

You can achieve emphasis through changing the progress or rate of your delivery. The variety in rate communicates different meanings and emotions.

When you use rate, as in the other means of showing emphasis, the secret lies in variety. As you recite a story, give out facts, or summarize a passage, you usually do so at a lively pace. Then when you come to a key statement or a major point, you slow down so that the congregation will appreciate its importance. The sentences spoken more slowly stand out because they are in strong contrast to the content surrounding them.

Pause#

Skilled speakers recognize that pauses serve as commas, semicolons, periods, and exclamation points. Pauses are the major punctuation marks of speech. Pauses are “thoughtful silences.” They go beyond a mere stoppage in speech and give the audience a brief opportunity to think, feel, and respond. The first word or phrase uttered after a pause will stand out from what has preceded it. For even stronger emphasis on a word or phrase, you can pause after the word as well as before it. A pause before the climax of a story increases suspense, and a dramatic pause introduced when a speaker feels deep emotion can communicate feelings more effectively than words. Pauses not motivated by thought or feeling, however, confuse listeners just as random punctuation bewilders a reader.

A pause will not seem as long to the listener as it does to you. If you concentrate fiercely on your thought and feel the emotion of what you are saying, your pause will underline important points. While you pause, continue to look at your listeners intently. Audiences sense when speakers are thinking hard, and they will wait with them. There is nothing quite as engaging as watching someone think on their feet.

REHEARSAL#

Rehearse your sermon before you deliver it. Put aside your notes and go through it from memory. Rehearsal tests the structure of your message. The progress of thought that seemed clear on paper may feel awkward when you actually speak it. As you speak your sermon, you may change the progression of your ideas in your manuscript into a pattern that flows more naturally.

Rehearsing also improves your style. As you practice, you may find a phrase that presents an idea in a particularly effective way. Don’t rehearse in order to memorize the sermon. By all means, feel free to alter words or phrases when you are in the pulpit. You are rehearsing to get a clear progression of thought and to express your thought in language that communicates what you want to say.

Rehearsing also improves delivery. Professional actors and actresses would not think of going before an audience without first going over their material orally—usually many times—to be sure that it comes to them easily.

The good habits acquired in your preparation will come more easily in the pulpit. Beginners profit from rehearsing with a full voice while standing before a mirror or using a tape recorder. More experienced speakers may settle for a sotto voce as they mumble through their sermons. For a few, sitting and thinking through their sermons, animated in their imagination by a picture of themselves before their congregations, will be enough. For all of us, having traveled a path before, makes it simpler to follow that path again.

FEEDBACK#

Effective speakers look for feedback. They will listen to audio-tapes of their sermons, or better still, watch videotapes. It is best to do this several days after you preach when the experience has grown cold. Other pastors invite a selected group of listeners to meet with someone in the church to take thirty minutes to give their reactions to the sermon.

Usually you will be positively affirmed. People who know you’re interested in their reaction will be kind and gentle. At the same time, you can get insight as to what you might do to improve your effectiveness. All of us need all of the help we can get—from God and from the folks who assemble to hear us.