Speed up! (Or slow down) Adapt!
I’ve been working on a study for a few months now, where you have to listen to sermons for (literally) days on end. Very interesting topics, I must say!
And when you are literally listening for days, you notice something…. Many of the speakers taaaaaaaaaaaallllllk soooooooo sloooooowwww. I understand that from history, because many echo well is jealous of the acoustics of an large old church, so you have to taaaaaaaaaaaallllllk slooooooowwwwly otherwise the listener will not understand a thing.
But somehow that seems to have become trained behavior by many preachers, which they can not switch off? So even when they speak in a “dry” room, they keep taaaaaaaaaaaallllllkingggg slooooooowwwwly.
I could fall asleep continuously, although the subject is fascinating. My mind continuously wanders between each sentence because you can also park a complete bus between each sentence. 🙂 Even in a 1:1 video, they can’t talk normally, but keep pulling the handbrake.
Let me call it “special”… or just “a pity” or “opportunity missed”? Adapt to the situation I’ve always been taught, but some speakers seem to forgot about that in speech? Talk slowly, because then they understand you and it also sounds more important or something??? No idea how a training as a preacher goes, but this is a pity because it should really be about the content, and in this way the content is violated by the slooooooooooow form.
We have to take this into account every time in our daily practice. How good is someone’s knowledge of the language you speak in, and what subject are you talking about? If the knowledge of the language is not optimal, you also have to adjust your own words. No “heavy biblical language” but common people’s language. Perhaps also make adjustments to the speed of speaking so that they have time to understand you, word for word. On the other hand, if they speak the language even better than you, pick up the pace, or they’ll quickly drop out (literally and figuratively).
Jesus did the same. When he spoke to the scribes, you see a different language than when he speaks to fishermen. Then suddenly you see that He uses examples (parables) from their normal life. You see him talking to the scribes about texts in the Torah, something they studied every day. So, adapt to the situation and don’t get stuck in learned behavior that may not suit your target group at that moment. Every conversation, again and again. And yes, that costs energy (we notice that every day), but it makes the chance of dropouts a lot less.
But luckily, the interwebs has something you don’t have in church! A “run it at higher speed” option! Yes! The funny thing is that now suddenly many speakers speak normally. 🙂 At speed 1.25x, it suddenly sounds normal, like they are actually talking to you instead of giving a speeeeech. Problem solved! That sleep-inducing feeling is gone. BAM!
So much for the observation for today, 31 lessons to go for the final exam.
For the aficionados, it is about the “Billy Graham School of Evangelism”. Recommended for anyone who does anything with evangelism, even if you have been doing it for years: do it! Takes you about half a year or a little longer, but well worth it if you do it with a coach. (get that coach who also helps you go through all your assignments!)
And yes… studying while you don’t have a normal memory (M his memory is about one week “long”), is a HUGE challenge, but we’ll talk about that later in another blog…
