HOW TO PREPARE AND DELIVER A SACRAMENT MEETING TALK
[Talk given by John E. Enslen to Wetumpka Ward on March 28, 1999.]
Today I would like to address the subject “How to Prepare and Deliver A Sacrament Meeting Talk.”
I have divided my remarks into four categories:
- Before You Begin To Prepare Your Talk
- Selecting Your Content
- The Delivery
- Some Special “Do’s and Don’ts”
Here’s my disclaimer - This talk is not directed toward any particular person in this congregation or any particular talk that has been given at this pulpit. It just comes from multiple experiences over 26 years of hearing church talks of various quality. I realize that public speaking is easier for some than others. My purpose is not to discourage because everyone here is capable of giving a wonderful sacrament meeting talk.
Before You Begin To Prepare Your Talk
Pray for guidance; Fasting is advisable for a really great talk.
- Mosiah 17:3 They had given themselves to much prayer and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.
- 2 Ne. 32:9 But behold, I say unto you that ye must pray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform anything unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall pray unto the Father in the name of Christ, that he will consecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the welfare of thy soul. (The speaker and teacher always get the most out of speaking and teaching.)
Understand your topic. There was a reason for it to be assigned to you. Study available information on the topic. A well-prepared sacrament meeting talk involves hours and hours of research. It is no small thing to occupy the precious worship time of other mortals. “If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear.” (D&C _____ ???)
Write out your talk. It is OK to deliver a talk from a written script. Use 3 x 5 card notes if you are more comfortable with that method.
Understand how long you have been assigned to speak. Practice your talk many times, and time it by a stop watch or clock with a minute indicator.
Selecting Your Content
Select your content by keeping in mind the purpose of a sacrament meeting. Sacrament meeting is held, according to the General Handbook, to partake of the sacrament, worship reverently, and receive gospel instruction. Speakers are to teach the doctrines of the Church, emphasize the first principles of the gospel, relate faith-promoting experiences, bear witness of divinely revealed truths (that doesn’t mean new doctrinal truths that have been divinely revealed to you only), and use the scriptures. Speakers should teach in a spirit of love and brotherhood after adequate prayerful consideration. They should not speak on subjects that are speculative, controversial, or out of harmony with Church doctrine.
Using this information as a guide, here are ten things a good sacrament meeting talk might have:
- Appropriate scriptures
- Relevant definitions from the Bible dictionary
- Personal faith-promoting experiences, but not that which should be too personally sacred to you to be revealed in a public meeting
- Story from church history
- Uplifting poem
- The words of a hymn
- Quotes from general authorities
- Factual material to support your gospel instruction
- Your feelings about the Savior and his gospel
- Your testimony born by the spirit
The Delivery
- Dress appropriately in your Sunday best without drawing unnecessary attention to yourself by outlandish or extreme clothing styles or colors.
- Smile and be pleasant—you are always your own best visual aid. In fact, in a sacrament meeting talk, your person should be your only visual aid.
- If necessary, adjust the microphone once, at the beginning, so that you can be clearly heard and understood. It is very distractive to play with the mike during the course of your talk.
- Keep eye contact with your audience. Glance from your written talk to the audience from time to time. That way you’ll know to quit speaking if everyone has left. Seriously, take a deep breath and relax. It has always helped me to try to remember that I am among my family and best friends who support me and want me to do well.
- Never apologize for being insufficiently prepared. The congregation will figure it out rather quickly anyway. The first clue to a lack of preparation and insecurity is when you bring a tall stack of books and lay them on the pulpit.
- Never ever spend time saying where you were, what you were doing, and all the feelings that came over you when you were assigned to give a talk. First of all, the congregation really doesn’t care. Secondly, it is a total waste of your precious time. Often it is an excuse for your lack of preparation because you want to imply that you had insufficient time to prepare.
Here is an example of what not to say, although all of it is true:
“Last night I had just walked into the house from milking our cow Betsy. By the way she gave us two full gallons on that particular milking. Well, Dianne said to me, John, you had a telephone call from a member of the bishopic. I said to myself. Uh Oh. I wonder if they had a sacrament meeting speaker to fall through. So I called the number and it rang six times. I just sat there in a stew wondering exactly what he would say. I had worked on the pavilion almost all day, and I was so tired and all. Before I worked on the pavilion, I had milked the cow early in the morning. By the way she gave two full gallons in the morning milking, too.” And so forth and so on ad infinitum until I concluded my introductory remarks six minutes later with: Well, anyway, here I am, leaving me four minutes to finish my ten-minute talk.
Some Special Do’s and Don’ts
- Don’t plagiarize. Everyone knows when you do because what you are saying doesn’t sound at all like it came out of your mind. You’ve never said anything like that before. You’ll look a lot smarter if you just give credit to the person whose works you are reading.
- A talk should have a strong beginning and a strong ending. Those are the two parts that the congregation will remember most, although they will remember those two parts for a relatively short time. 85% of you cannot remember who spoke or their topic even last week, unless it was you who spoke.
- It’s OK to show emotion. It is not a sign of weakness, but a sign of spiritual strength and humility.
- Humor is fine so long as it is relevant and does not cause your talk to become more entertaining than it is instructional. Never begin your talk with a secular joke that is unrelated to your gospel subject. It is extremely rare that you would ever begin a sacrament meeting talk with any joke, although conventional worldly wisdom recommends it to relax the audience. Mormons in sacrament meeting should already be relaxed and ready to listen.
- In an article by Eric Snider—not the same Eric Snider who is a member of our Ward—entitled “Instructions For Becoming A More Better [Sacrament] Speacher” he sets forth one of the don’ts in heavy sarcasm:
“If you are from Hawaii, you are entitled to force the congregation to scream ‘Aloha’ at you. This is an official church policy. You preface it by saying, ‘I am from Hawaii, and over there, we greet each other by saying [this is the part where you yell really loud] ‘ALOHA!’’ And then everyone will yell it back at you, partly because they think it’s kind of cool that they get to yell in church. If you are from someplace other than Hawaii, you are NOT allowed to make the congregation yell whatever it is you would yell to each other back home. For example, you may NOT say: ‘I’m from south-central L.A., and back there we greet each other by saying ‘Yo, yo, homey, whassup?’’”
- Never go into detail about your past transgressions or speak about the evil lifestyle you lived before you became a member of the Church.
- Now my final suggestion. Date and save your talks. At least save them in a box for now, you can organize them by topic later. It saves you lots of time and effort in preparing future talks on short notice.
If the bishopic ever allows me to speak again, I want to talk about the do’s and don’ts of a fast and testimony meeting.
Conclusion
An assignment to give a sacrament meeting talk is a sacred responsibility. The quality of our talks have a tremendous impact upon family life, missionary work, retention of new converts, temple work, home teaching, and most especially the personal growth and development of the person giving the talk. We can each make a significant contribution to the growth of the kingdom and can demonstrate our true love for the savior by carefully planning, preparing, and delivering our sacrament meeting talks. May we so do, I pray
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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