reading through some stuff on sophianetwork, i came across this post on preaching tips.
the one that jumped out at me was this one:
'2. Develop your own style – don’t try to be like anyone else – you’ll be rumbled. Don’t be taken in by the popular blokey, shouty, stand-up comic style of preaching. Is that really the most effective way of communicating?'
in fact i had just been thinking about preaching styles and how my own experience of preaching has formed how i preach myself - and i'd been wondering how much i like that fact, or whether it inhibits me a bit.
recently a couple of people have said things like i preach with 'humility' and that i am 'softly spoken'. i had almost equal and opposite reaction to these comments. so often people are complimentary about those who speak with 'authority' (although i'm never really sure what that means), or who are passionate about what they are saying. i'm not sure how humility or mellifluence fits in with this idea of 'authority'.
i guess i am growing in my own style, growing up into being happy to be whoever i am when i preach, but it's sometimes quite difficult when there's such a lack of role models - not that i'd want to preach like anyone else, whether they're male or female - but this point about the 'popular blokey, shouty, stand-up comic style of preaching' really pinpointed something for me, because it really isn't my style and i had wondered if that was because i simply don't like being shouted at from the front of church myself, because of the experience of that being manipulative and coercive. however it seems that this is something that a few women have picked up on enough to say that women (and men?) should be released from this role model.
so is this a female thing? a style thing? a culture thing? a 'me' thing?
the one that jumped out at me was this one:
'2. Develop your own style – don’t try to be like anyone else – you’ll be rumbled. Don’t be taken in by the popular blokey, shouty, stand-up comic style of preaching. Is that really the most effective way of communicating?'
in fact i had just been thinking about preaching styles and how my own experience of preaching has formed how i preach myself - and i'd been wondering how much i like that fact, or whether it inhibits me a bit.
recently a couple of people have said things like i preach with 'humility' and that i am 'softly spoken'. i had almost equal and opposite reaction to these comments. so often people are complimentary about those who speak with 'authority' (although i'm never really sure what that means), or who are passionate about what they are saying. i'm not sure how humility or mellifluence fits in with this idea of 'authority'.
i guess i am growing in my own style, growing up into being happy to be whoever i am when i preach, but it's sometimes quite difficult when there's such a lack of role models - not that i'd want to preach like anyone else, whether they're male or female - but this point about the 'popular blokey, shouty, stand-up comic style of preaching' really pinpointed something for me, because it really isn't my style and i had wondered if that was because i simply don't like being shouted at from the front of church myself, because of the experience of that being manipulative and coercive. however it seems that this is something that a few women have picked up on enough to say that women (and men?) should be released from this role model.
so is this a female thing? a style thing? a culture thing? a 'me' thing?
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