Teaching Out

This week I got to speak in front of a group of 250 ladies for the first-time, the only other man in the room was the sound engineer. This was not a matter of giving a few announcements (something I have done on numerous occasions before crowds of 3000) rather this was giving a researched presentation that many would regard as ‘the ultimate truth’ on the topic at hand. To make matters worse, I was unable to print out the notes that I had spent hours refining and had to make do with a handwritten list of points that I had scribbled out at the last minute. The topic was one that has the potential to be the most boring one to listen to-the use of flags and banners in praise and worship-or the most liberating.

It went incredibly well. Due to my intensive periods of preparation over the last few weeks, I knew my stuff almost by heart. This allowed me, even without notes, to free flow in my talk. We had tried to give practical examples through film excerpts (for the pedantic there are no copyright issues as no financial gain) to break the monotony. I left the stage knowing I had done my job well. There were no bored faces or fidgeting-which means that they were either listening to every word, or asleep with their eyes open. The true test will be over time-if people remember and apply what they learnt in the future and begin to reproduce it in the lives of others.