Advice for Sacrament Meeting Speakers…

 

         The pulpit in a typical LDS Primary room, is almost identical to the pulpit in a chapel.

QUALITY talks in Sacrament meetings begins the second your Bishop, or Bishop’s councilor, asks you to speak…

 Here are 6 suggestions---

11. Ask your bishop or councilor how long you need to speak. Also ask if you are the last speaker, because, if so, you will need to be able to shorten your talk – at the pulpit.

22. A full, written talk is preferable, because then you won’t leave anything out you think is important and you can mark items to delete, if you need to shorten your talk.

33. Time your talk. Know how long it takes. (If you don’t do this, you may be like a recent high councilor speaker in my ward – he went 8 minutes over time and sadly all I remember of his talk is that he went way over time (stealing time from primary and Sunday School teachers in the next hour).

44. Be sure to include a few personal stories in your talk. Just reading scriptures or conference talks won’t fully engage listeners. (If you are a returning missionary, tell even more stories about your actual missionary work).

55. Do not waste time flipping pages to read a scripture, or fiddling with your phone to do so – have it written out in your written talk, right in front of you.

66. Watch the clock to know how much time is left, while you speak.

(-And, if you speak to the Primary, be super brief and simple, going from the heart.)

A checklist, to review a Sacrament meeting, from an Improvement Era Magazine, from the 1960s.

  NOTE: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's conclusions and opinions only.