Issue 11 Preaching and PrayerBlog | Stand and deliver – Volume control
Stand and deliver – Volume control
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 19.06.17
On Sunday 19 February, the BBC aired a new drama, ‘SS-GB’, in which the Nazis occupy Britain. Within 24 hours they had received 100 complaints, the number growing steadily over the following days. Were these complaints about violence, nudity or profanity? No: the issue was the volume. In a statement, the BBC said, ‘We take audibility seriously and we will look at the sound levels on the programme in time for the next episode.
Preachers need to take audibility seriously too. Whether you are used to preaching to a select gathering of ten in a tiny chapel or addressing the masses over a state-of-the-art speaker system, to be an effective communicator of God’s word, you need to master your volume control.
SOUND CHECK
It may be an obvious place to start but sometimes the simplest things are the ones we forget. It is always worth asking whether everyone in the room can hear you before you launch in to your sermon. This is particularly important if you don’t have amplification, if the space is large, or if there are senior citizens present. If you are fortunate, you’ll get heckled if you’re not loud enough. As someone who is naturally on the quiet side, I have had my fair share of complaints from the back row. But more often than not, people will just zone out if they can’t hear you. The person snoozing behind the pillar might simply have given up hope of catching a word you say and decided their time would be better spent catching up on sleep.
