48b) Preacher & His Present Relationship to His Paper, #2

The point: Place your paper in a position directly in line with the majority of the congregation.

Martin humorously notes that a preacher's forehead or glasses frame is not aesthetically or rhetorically moving, illustrating why burying one's face in notes breaks living interaction.

It's vital that your face, the eyes, the mouth, not be constantly and unnaturally wrenched away from your people and fixed on your paper. Frankly, there is very little that is either aesthetically or rhetorically moving about your forehead, especially if you've got a receding hairline.

3:27 - 3:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Place your paper in a position directly in line with the majority of the congregation.

Martin recounts his father, a Salvation Army bandmaster, insisting that instrument bells be kept out and heads up, illustrating the principle of projecting outward and maintaining engagement, which applies to a preacher's posture.

Your eye. Your mouth. So thankful for my father as formerly an officer and then a bandmaster in the Salvation Army, insisting when we played an instrument that we always keep the bell of the instrument out. Never allowed it.

4:10 - 4:25 Read in full sermon

The point: If notes are too low, prop them up with a book or ask for adjustments to maintain a direct line of communication.

Martin shares that his mother, being hard of hearing, could only understand him if she could read his lips and his voice was projected directly, emphasizing the importance of direct communication and eye contact in preaching.

If you were reared with a mother hard of hearing as I was, she could only hear with normal tones if she could read the lips and have the voice projected directly. Keep the mouth out this way. And the eyes, since they are so much a part of this whole mysterious element of the truth coming through the sanctified humanity of the preacher, place your paper in a position directly in line with the bulk of the congregation. And if that means that you've got.

4:55 - 5:25 Read in full sermon

The point: If notes are too low, prop them up with a book or ask for adjustments to maintain a direct line of communication.

Martin points to the adjustable retainer bar in their church's pulpit as an example of practical alterations made to accommodate different speakers and ensure notes are at an optimal height for maintaining eye contact.

To make some alterations and have a retainer bar pushed up higher. You'll notice in our pulpit upstairs that there's an adjustable retainer bar. That's not the pulpit didn't just come that way. There's a certain preacher that insisted it be designed and made that way.

5:25 - 5:42 Read in full sermon

The point: If notes are too low, prop them up with a book or ask for adjustments to maintain a direct line of communication.

Martin compares a preacher to a lawyer before a jury, arguing that a lawyer would never bury his face in notes but would maintain eye contact, illustrating the importance of continuous engagement with the audience.

Whoever saw a court scene where a lawyer before a jury, if he had any notes, buried his face in his notes rather than keep them here in a place where he could continually engage the eyes of the jury. And if he glanced at his notes, the eyes were very soon back in the jurors faces. His notes were there. But.

7:04 - 7:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Try to think in terms of not allowing the neck to drop forward; if you look down, let a little of the whole body move forward to maintain communication.

Martin uses the analogy of a whiplash collar that restricts neck movement to encourage preachers to think in terms of limited forward neck mobility, promoting a posture that keeps the head up and eyes on the congregation.

Try to think in terms of preaching with one of those collars they put on you after a whiplash. You ever have one of those collars on? You can't reach down and lick your whiskers. I mean, the collar keeps the head like this.

7:51 - 8:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Practice thinking aloud in private musings and praying with your voice to link thought with speech.

Martin quotes Spurgeon on the necessity of practicing extemporaneous speech, citing Charles Fox's dedication to speaking daily and the value of private practice and mutual criticism among students.

It was by slow degrees, as Burke says, that Charles Fox became the most brilliant and powerful debater that ever lived. He attributed his success to the resolution that he formed when very young of speaking well or ill at least once every night. During five whole sessions, he used to say, I spoke every night but one, and I regret only that I did not speak on that night too. At first he may do so with no other auditory than the chairs and books of his study, imitating the example of a gentleman who, applying for admission to this college, assured me that he had for two years practiced himself i...

11:39 - 12:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Seek to have your quotations copied before bringing them into the pulpit to avoid intimidating the congregation.

Martin describes the intimidating sight of a preacher entering the pulpit with an armful of books, illustrating why quotations should be copied to avoid giving the impression of showing off or a lengthy sermon.

So be sparse in the use of quoting. You could give many other reasons, but those should suffice. Secondly, seek to have your quotations copied before bringing them into the pulpit. It can be very intimidating for someone to see the preacher come up into the pulpit, not only with a folder that has his notes, but with an armful of books, and they say, oh boy, we're going to get a long one this morning.

19:27 - 19:52 Read in full sermon

The point: Master the contents of your quotations by frequent oral reading before using them in the pulpit.

Martin mentions his Canon PC-3 copier as a modern convenience that makes copying quotes easier, contrasting it with the past effort of writing them out by hand.

Some of us sought to follow that injunction, even though it meant pushing our pen long and hard at times. It's a little bit easier now with a nice little Canon PC-3, one sheet at a time, copier sitting at my desk, and I've blessed God again and again for that lovely modern convenience. But then thirdly, and brethren, I can't emphasize this enough, and I hope in some little measure, I've illustrated this, even in the lectures, today, seek to master the contents of your quotations by frequent oral reading before using them in the pulpit. Don't assume that by reading them over a couple of times a...

20:34 - 22:00 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're going to use a manuscript in public speaking, be thoroughly familiar with it.

Martin quotes McElvain on the indispensable need for thorough familiarity with a manuscript to suppress the mental operations of reading and allow the speaker to fully engage with the audience.

And you'll hear both echoes of Dabney here and also echoes of some of the previous perspectives that McElvain has given. In order to speak well from manuscript it is indispensable that the mental operations of taking in the sense through the eye should be suppressed altogether. Consequently, much greater familiarity with the manuscript is required in this method of speaking than with the printed page or manuscript in reading. In fact, it must be such as to enable the speaker to carry on all these operations strictly as sub-processes and for the most part unconsciously. If they become at all pr...

28:24 - 29:54 Read in full sermon

The point: If you're going to use a manuscript in public speaking, be thoroughly familiar with it.

Martin describes the discomfort of watching a preacher struggle with his notes, comparing it to feeling pity for a 'poor fellow that's struggling' or a 'lost without a compass,' illustrating how a lack of manuscript familiarity hinders the audience's reception of truth.

To give additional benefits that come from this familiarity with the manuscript. And let me just highlight the second. It enables the other sources of power being fully released from the embarrassment of these sub-processes. You know what you feel like when the man who is preaching is struggling to get what he wrote on his notes.

30:31 - 30:55 Read in full sermon