Theocratic Aid To Kingdom Publishers

DELIVERY

Lesson 6

THE MOST EFFECTIVE MANNER OF SPEAKING

The spoken word, effectively used, is more powerful than the printed appeal. No print can stir the emotions and move to action for good or evil like the human voice, when used expressively. This power of speech is described in Proverbs in these words: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." "The tongue of the wise is health," and "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life." —Prov. 18: 21; 12: 18; 15: 4.

The most effective manner of speaking is not so much the result of mastered rules of public speaking as of the spirit of speaking. Christ Jesus loved the people of good-will who came to hear his gracious words. Mark tells us: "Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things." (Mark 6: 34) No wonder their hearts burned within them as he talked to them.

If the speaker's heart is warm toward his hearers, they will respond. They will welcome him. If he is interested in them, they will listen with interest in his message. If he is

cold toward them, they will be cold toward his message. His attitude is contagious. The audience is a mirror, reflecting the speaker's own attitude and behavior: if he goes through his speech in a cold, indifferent and perfunctory manner, as if he had a disagreeable task to perform, they will, with him, be thankful when he is through. So it is seen that it is the spirit or mental attitude of one's speaking that determines whether his manner of delivery is good, or not so good, or downright bad.

How often is a speaker heard who by his indifferent manner of delivery makes the impression that he has nothing worth-while to deliver and that he doesn't care at all to deliver it! He ignores his hearers, doesn't look at them, stares sometimes over their heads with a faraway look in his eyes, and to this he adds a faraway ring to his voice. That kind of performance isn't delivering a talk at all. Indifferently he simply dumps the material into the air. His talk is a monologue. There is no manifest desire of communication, which is one of the primary essentials of good speaking, the desire to give with full hands the riches of knowledge and understanding of Jehovah's marvelous purposes.

A modern audience wants the speaker to talk to them just as directly as he would in a chat with one of them personally, and in the same general manner that he would employ in speaking to one of them in conversation, but not with the same amount of force. Otherwise, he would hardly be heard by all. The ideal and most effective manner of delivery is the conversational tone and inflection, uttered with sufficient power to be easily and clearly audible in the farthest corner without straining the ears. In other words, use an enlarged or intensified conversational tone.

In doing this avoid becoming declamatory, using a grave lecturing tone, and bombastic oratory. Humanize your inflection; use colorful conversational tones, but enlarge them, not merely by greater volume (that alone will not be sufficient), but by intensified expression. One can read fine print

a foot from the eye, but it takes large and bold letters to be seen across a hall.

When delivering a speech this might help to acquire a conversational tone: Pick out some friendly person in the audience and converse with him for a while. Better, pick out several, in scattered positions, and converse with first one and then another. This serves the speaker's purpose, and yet it does not embarrass any one individual, as the centering of full attention on one might do. Also, the speaker's gaze turning to these scattered positions takes into its sweep the entire audience, and they do not feel ignored. But let the speaker imagine that the one he has singled out has asked a question and that he is answering it. This will make him speak more conversationally and more directly. He may even go so far as actually to quote such imaginary questions and then answer them. For example, in the midst of one's talk he might say, "Now you ask, 'What proof is there for the assertion that religion and Christianity are opposed to each other?' Well, here is the proof." And then go ahead and give it. Nobody asked that question, but such an imaginary rhetorical question enlivens the talk. It changes the speaker's inflection completely. He begins to be conversational. If he speaks without restraint, with genuine enthusiasm, avoiding the outmoded oratorical delivery, he will be natural and colorful and expressive.

He should put all his heart into his words. If he does this, his audience will hardly be conscious of his minor shortcomings. The same truth was well expressed by someone stating, "The essence of a good speech is that the speaker has something to say which he really wants to say." Right here is where many a speaker fails. His expression is motivated by no apparent conviction; no desire to convey his faith is burning in his talk; there is no powder behind his shot. In other words, his delivery lacks spirit. It has no punch or drive. He is an eight-cyclinder [sic] motor hitting on two or three. Not all cylinders are sparking. He doesn't talk as if the message of God's "Kingdom at hand" were

very vital to him; so, naturally, the audience doesn't pay much heed to his words. The sentiments of an audience are simply the echo of the talk. If one is reserved, they will be reserved. If one is only mildly interested in his message, they will be only mildly concerned. But if one is in earnest about what he has to say, and if he says it without repression or restraint, with conviction, feeling, force, and enthusiasm, they cannot keep from catching that spirit to a degree.

The word "enthusiasm" is borrowed from the Greek en, which means "in", and Theos, which means "God". It means literally "in-God" or "inspired by God". In other words, the most effective manner of delivery for a witness of the Theocracy is to speak enthusiastically without restraint, filled with Jehovah's spirit. We are admonished in his Word: "Quench not the spirit." (1 Thess. 5:19) That means, after having received his spirit, to make free and full use of God's grace given unto us.