Experiential Learning #1

“Critique of a Religious Leader”
First Mount Zion Baptist Church, Dumfries, Virginia

Before coming to this class and having an assignment to critique a public speech I would have never thought to critique the “Sunday Sermon”. Once I had the idea put in my mind I went with it. I always tend to take notes on Sundays during church, just because they aid me when it comes to Bible study, but this time I was actually going to critique what was being said, and to my surprise, I had a lot to talk about. In this blog I will be discussing two major themes that were present during the “Sunday Sermon”. These two themes include: public speaking as a communication and a barrier to effective listening.

On Sunday, May 28, 2006 I took my regular visit to First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries, Virginia. I usually go to the 11 o’clock service, which is one of the two services offered every Sunday, just because I try to get up for the 9 o’clock service and can’t seem to get out of bed. However, I chose to critique it because after much thought I realized that any type of speech could relate to public speaking, and if I was already going, I thought, why not. I enjoyed the sermon, as with most other sermons. It was preached by a guest pastor, Pastor John. I don’t think they mentioned which church or congregation he was representing, but nevertheless he was the one delivering “The Word” for the day. Throughout his sermon, which was titled “There is a higher power”, Pastor John expressed his values and concerns for his life and the lives of the audience, and people in general who were or weren’t followers of Jesus Christ. In fact, the message he wanted to project was the fact that he didn’t know what brought each individual to church that morning, but he had stopped by just to give a bit of encouragement. This was understood, especially to me as his wanting to provide the individuals in the congregation with a sense of understanding of the problems we all face on a daily basis; and he wanted to clarify them and be a witness to us and let us know that there is a higher power, and it would be meaningless to report our problems to one another, and expect there to be a change. His sermon stated exactly this, report your problem to the only one who can actually help and do something about it, God.

When critiquing this sermon I was able to relate two class concepts. They are: public speaking as communication and a barrier to effective listening. I found that while taking notes during the sermon, I was actually witnessing the step-by-step process of public speaking being a form of communication. The first step in the process was for there to be a speaker and for the audience to respond to him/her. Pastor John started off his sermon with an escalating “Good Morning” throughout the church. What I mean by this is, in order to gain the attention of the audience members he went through each section of the crowd asking for a louder and louder response of “good morning”. It certainly got my attention, not that my attention wasn’t already on him. Next, he asked a series of questions to involve the audience and prepare them for his sermon, one being “How many of us are here to receive the Lord?” Lastly, to start off he told a story that related to his message and to the actual “Word of the Lord”- 1st Chronicles 4:9-10. The second step was fulfilled almost simultaneously with the first, when he began to grab the attention of the audience, and continuously throughout the sermon when he would express his message with booming vocal cues and plenty of hand gestures to compliment them. The third step, the medium in which he transmitted his message was electronic being a microphone. This was needed as opposed to just air, because the church is so large, it would be next to impossible to be able to understand him or barely hear him without it. Next the listeners decoded the message and made it effective. An example of this is when you are listening to the sermon and the person sitting next to you jumps up and screams “hallelujah”. This person has effectively decoded the message sent and made it effective by sharing the fact that they both understand and agree with what was said. This step can also go hand-in-hand with the next step, response; because in result to making the message effective the audience member responding with an encouraging thought. The next step, interference, actually played a large role in this communication. Interference was a problem because as previously stated microphones are a necessity and because the microphone was not working properly there was a bit of interference with the message until it was fixed. The physical setting was already discussed, with it being a church sermon. It is my understanding that the final two steps of public communication also go hand-in-hand being purpose and consequence, because if the purpose is communicated effectively there should always be a consequence to match. For example, in my opinion the sermon was both informative and persuasive because his purpose was to inform the audience of the greatness of our God and the higher power that is available to us as followers, and also to persuade both followers and those who are unfamiliar of the things that are available to us as followers and believers of Jesus Christ. And as previously stated, with the purpose came the consequence which led those who weren’t followers to become such and give their hearts over to God for forgiveness and everlasting love.

The second theme that was related to the sermon was the barrier to effective listening that was present. Out of physical noise, message problems and presentation problems that could become barriers, presentation problems were the most evident. For example, Pastor John tended to talk too fast at times during his sermon. This was especially problematic because it made him even more difficult to follow because of his heavy African accent. Even though his language was common and easy to understand, these two problems really posed a barrier to effective listening.

In conclusion, it was very interesting to see that I could actually relate some aspects of my everyday life to public speaking. I’m sure now that I realized this connection I will be able to recognize them more in an everyday setting.

Source:

Osborn, Suzanne. and Osborn, Michael. Public Speaking. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006.