How to improve your delivery

Delivery matters.  And yet some do not want to think about improving their delivery.

Perhaps they feel comfortable with the rhythm of preaching that their tradition and experience has set in place and do not want to tinker with something that seems to work.

Perhaps they consider it more spiritual to avoid any hint of performance in their preaching. Maybe they believe that the content of the message, or even the vitality of their personal walk with God, should and will speak for itself.

There may be some preachers who are highly confident in their own rhetorical prowess and cannot imagine that everyone else is not continually wowed by their combination of presentational ease and flair.

More likely, there could be many preachers who know they have delivery weaknesses but are hesitant to face them in case it is overwhelming. Then, there will be preachers who do not know how much their delivery impacts their communication and have never stopped to give the matter any thought.

Delivery matters. It either helps or hinders your attempts to communicate God’s Word with your listeners.

Improving your delivery is both an act of love for your listeners and a matter of good stewardship of your ministry before God. 

It is about making sure your good study and preparation is given a chance to get through, and it is about making it as easy as possible for the listeners to hear God’s word.

What if the best message is presented at too low a volume, with a persistent cough, distracting vocal mannerisms, and you can’t quite see the preacher – is it possible for you to listen to that sermon?

While it’s possible to hear and still be impacted by the sermon, it will take extra effort on your part to fully absorb what’s being said. As a preacher, it’s an act of love to minimize the effort required for your listeners to truly engage with your message.

In this episode of the podcast, I present a simple three-step process to improve your delivery.  It is not complicated.  But the question is, will you follow this process and improve?

Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. He blogs at Biblical Preaching.