Connecting with the people

THIS is a big challenge to public speakers, especially to

preachers who are charged to transmit nothing less than the living

word of God. Given the way people are now—with all their differences

and complexities—the task of effectively communicating with them

without compromising the integrity of the message is indeed a

tremendous job.

          Offhand, what I can say is that first of all we have to

appeal to God, asking for his grace, because no matter how good we are

rated as public speakers and preachers, we can never tell whether we

have truly communicated with our audience with the message integrally

received, appreciated and sparking the audience’s desire to live it

out.

          It’s only God’s grace that does wonders and can accomplish

what we cannot, given our limitations and the complications around. We

should always feel the need for grace in our task of preaching and

communicating.

          Of course, asking for God’s grace does not and should not

exempt us from doing what is humanly possible to connect with the

people effectively. Grace does not supplant our human effort. In fact,

grace requires the utmost cooperation of our effort.

          Yes, we have to study the message well to see to it that we

know what we are communicating and why. As much as possible the

message should be so assimilated with us that the people who see and

listen to us can readily get the message without much effort.

          We should not forget that for preachers, for example, the

challenge to transmit the living word of God is an overwhelming task,

what with all the mysteries and other supernatural things that it

contains. Yes, only God’s grace can connect the preacher and the

preached effectively.

          But as public speakers and preachers, we have to learn to

dress the message according to how the people are. Thus, they have to

be ready to use all the means for effective communication.

          They have to prepare things, making outlines and talking

points, etc. They have to use the appropriate rhetorical tools—logic

should be clear and easy to follow, language should be pleasant and

uplifting.

          They should have a good command of the appropriate

vocabulary and figures of speech. They should have the judicious use

of anecdotes, stories, examples, even jokes and memes or the so-called

‘hugot lines.’

          But for all of these to be effective and for us to know what

to use and how, we need to know the audience very well. Thus, doing

previous research about the expected audience would always be helpful.

          In fact, the ideal is to have a previous contact with them

so the speakers and preachers would have a first-hand knowledge of

their audience and can, in a manner of speaking, customize and even

personalize their message to them.

          We have to be wary of the tendency to talk above the heads

of the audience, which is now a common occurrence, sad to say. But

neither should we go down to frivolity and inane talk to grab the

instant attention of the audience. Yes, there may be initial jokes to

catch attention, but effort should be made that the main message is

not lost.

          Indeed, to connect with the people is no easy thing. There

is a lot of trial-and-error involved here, and let’s hope that we can

derive precious lessons from the errors. The important thing to

remember also is that the delivery of the message should be uplifting

and edifying even if serious and negative comments have to be made.

          Public speakers and preachers should aim to do their job in

such a way that the audience should not only feel good, but also

should learn something important. They should constantly monitor the

facial reactions of their audience to see if they are still connecting

with them or are already in some disconnect mode.