You pick up the phone and unexpectedly you receive the dreaded call. You have been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting in a week or two. This can be a scary prospect for some, while others thrive with the extra attention. In either case it means extra work in the coming weeks as you strive to prepare the talk. Here are five tips to help make your talk a success.
1) The first tip is to relax. I am surprised at the number of people who seem completely self confident when interacting with others who completely freeze when speaking to a group. It is Sacrament meeting, no one is going to start booing you, or throw things at you. You have a captive audience.
2) Use the scriptures and General Conference talks in your talk. It is important that you share a scripture or quote to support the points that you are making. I try to have one for each of the points that I cover in the talk. The scriptures are a powerful teaching tool. General Conference talks offer great insights and stories to help you with your talk.
3) Try to use a personal story in your talk. It is important to use an appropriate story in your talk however. It is not a good idea to talk specifically about past transgressions or political views. If you are talking about repentance, you may want to talk about the process rather than why you needed to repent.
4) Stay within your time limit. Everyone appreciates it when you do. I have heard some wonderful talks, but because they spoke too long, I was ready to leave. (This actually has something to do with my two year old—I count the minutes until he can run around.)
5) Try not to go off on any weird tangents. There are lots of weird tangents that I have heard people talk about—the end of the world, political viewpoints, personal opinions are doctrines. While I look back and smile at the strangest, it is important that while you are preparing your talk that you stick with church doctrine.
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