slow down preaching…
AKMA records in his "Random Thoughts. that he preaches at about 100 words a minute, which means if he’s preaching for five minutes he has to write 500 words. I write nearly twice that much. Maybe I need to talk more slowly?
My sermon in Bury St Edmunds yesterday seemed to go down well. It was the beginning of the week of Prayer for Christian Unity, and I met some wonderful people there. I preached on Luke 18 – "Two men went up to the Temple to pray…".
7 Responses to “slow down preaching…”
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Actually Maggi, I always find your preaching to be at just the right speed – very clear and considered.
you’re too kind, Brian. see you soon!
Good luck with your Jan 15th deadline!
I tend to speak, and preach, quite fast but I’ve been trying to slow my preaching down a lot for a couple of reasons. One was from listening to sermons by Martin Luther King, it is amazing how slowly he speaks.
The other reason was a BBC radio programme from a while ago where they had a presenter (Melvyn Bragg) read a Churchill speech. They then swapped the timings, playing Churchill at the fast speed of the Melvyn and Melvyn at the slow speed of Churchill. The speed made a huge difference in the way it came across.
The program is on the BBC web site (search on the site for “Churchill’s Roar”) and if you listen at around 24minutes 30 seconds you hear the speed comparison part. It really does make a suprising amount of difference.
I make mine about 120 words per minute. So there are at least two sad gits who time themselves!
Don’t time myself, but on a quick calculation I am definately more than 500/per 5 mins…obviously have far too much to say for myself!! I was told by someone from Radio Scotland that 300 words was the average for Thought for the Day (is that 2 minutes worth…)
I guess I have done so many preaching “gigs” that require an accurate timing (e.g. on the Radio, TV., or at big venues like Kings COllege where they care about these things) that I go tin thehabit
at home, I don’t write it down beforehand, I plan it loosely and I preach without any notes at all mostly. No idea how long I talk for, but it must be around four or five minutes I guess, because we always come out of CHapel around the same time for breakfast…