My Term Paper Proposal Made Me Into an Excellent Public Speaker
My Term Paper Proposal Made Me Into an Excellent Public Speaker
I had been studying to be a Evangelical Pastor for over five years. I had always wanted to be a pastor. I really believed it was a profession I would be good at. The biggest problem I faced was public speaking. I had always been afraid to speak in public. I hated being the center of attention. I don’t like people staring at me. I guess most people don’t. I am a really compassionate person. I feel things very deeply and I feel for people very deeply. I want to help people. But you can’t be a pastor without preaching from a pulpit. You can’t be afraid to speak in front of a huge group of people. You have to be a dynamic speaker. I was deathly afraid of this. Nothing is worse than a pastor with stage fright. My second year in my Masters of Divinity my professor decided to make us guess pastors at various different churches about the city. First he wanted to know what we were writing about. We essential had to write a term paper and deliver it in front of the congregation. But first we had to present a term paper proposal of what we would be preaching. That was the easy part I knew the public speaking portion would be the hardest.
I am a writer. I have always gotten great marks in all my classes for various research papers. I just had no idea how I would deliver this term paper proposal. I would definitely write everything I would be saying but I was painfully aware that just because something sounded great on a term paper didn’t mean I be able to deliver it in front of a crowd of people.
I worked for days on my term paper proposal. I had the topic on what I would be writing about. That was easy. Instead of doing some strong critical analysis research on what I would be presenting. I found myself studying great public speakers. It was actually very eye opening. Most preachers and politicians had similar ideas on how to deliver strong message to a crowd of wondering minds.
The first idea I picked up on was speaking with authority. When examining my term paper proposal I was very conscience of the fact that I needed to know what I was talking about. I needed to be very clear on the idea I was to present and honestly believe what I was saying. Furthermore I needed to find the best references and quotes to back it up.
The best and probably strongest idea was confidence. If I believed in myself and what I was talking about then I would portray the confidence needed for those listening to believe what I was saying. This was easier said than done. Confidence is not something you just pick up some day. It really comes over time.
A week later in my professor’s office I presented my term paper proposal. He paused in the middle of reading it and asked that I give him a small portion of what my sermon would be like. I was not prepared for this but I knew I had to show confidence in my abilities and speak with authority. I took a deep breath and voiced a small portion of my sermon. My professor thought it was great. I was extremely glad he enjoyed my term paper proposal and I was very happy with my delivery. But I knew speaking in front of him was one thing and talking to a whole congregation would be a complete other story.
