Helpfile: Preparing a bible text for reading in church
İClifton Guthrie 2005
1. Read and Analyze the Text
Take your text and find a place by yourself to practice speaking it aloud.
Stand if you are able, don’t sit (you generally won’t be sitting when you perform the text).
Don’t just read it in your head, but read it aloud. Several times.
After doing this several times, you will start to get to know your text intimately. You can start to ask these questions:
Heart Questions:
What is the emotional tone of this piece?
What emotions are present? What was the author feeling?
What would it have felt like to read this text in the community and time for which it was written?
How does it make me feel?
What is the emotional landscape of the text?
Where is it building momentum?
Where is the peak or climax (if there is one)?
Are there different voices in the text? Different characters? What are the motivations of these characters?
Head Questions:
Which words are important here?
What ideas are being presented?
What issues are at stake? What are the different sides to those issues? Are they being represented fairly or in caricature.
Gut Questions:
Are there characters in the story who are asked to do something? Did they do it?
What is this text asking its original hearers/community to do?
Is there any evidence that they did or did not do what was demanded of them?
What is it asking me to do?
What do I actually want to do now that I have heard it? (you may not want to do what Paul says, for example, when he tells women to be silent in church!)
2. Orchestrate it.
Learn the text as best you can. Memorize it if at all possible.
Then "Orchestrate it": Mark the text up for reading, as oral performance.
Work on phrasing (what sections of the text belong together?)
Underline words you want to emphasize (the ones that carry the meaning forward).
Make hash marks for pauses.
Look for places where you want to speed up or slow down the pacing.
Think about gestures.
Think the text "forward" in the mouth. Practice projecting the vowels and tasting the consonants clearly with your tongue and lips. Pay special attention to word endings and beginnings.
Hint: Try using
musical notation to help you mark a scripture text or sermon for public speaking:
Dynamics: The volume of your voice
This is not just a matter of loudness, but how much air you move through your throat. Support all of these dynamics with good breath control. You may have to move farther away from the microphone if you add volume, and get closer if you whisper.
pp = pianissimo: very soft; a faint whisper
p = piano: soft; a low voice, a whisper
mf = mezzo forte: the normal full volume of speaking voice.
f = forte: the full loud volume of your public speaking voice.
ff = fortissimo: your fullest volume.
Changing Dynamics
sf = sforzando: a sudden sharp accent.
< or cresc.
= crescendo: gradually increasing the volume of your voice
> or dim.
= diminuendo; decrescendo: gradually lowering the volume of your voice.
Pitch: whether your voice is high or low.
Keep most of your text or sermon in your normal speaking range, but don’t be afraid to use the full dimension of your voice. Especially useful when changing characters or adding excitement. Be careful about going flat, lowering your voice at the end of sentences!
# = sharp (make your voice rise in pitch)
b = flat (make your voice lower in pitch)
Pace or tempo: the speed of your voice:
You will want most of your sermon to be in the Andante/Allegreto range, using the other tempi to emphasize or to reach the climax of your sermon.
Adagio: Very slow.
Lento: Deliberate
Andante: Leisurely, like a stroll
Allegreto: A bit faster, a brisk walk
Allegro: Moving faster still, a jog
Presto: Quickly running
Prestissimo: Frenetically fast
Changing Pacing
Rit. = Ritard (slow your voice down)
Acc. = Accelerando (move more quickly)
