Young Christian Speakers: 5 Keys to Giving Inspiring, Life-Changing Speeches
Young Christian speakers inspire young people to live for God. Every young Christian should testify. Witnessing is not an option for the true Christian. It is a crucial and indispensable part of one’s walk with Jesus. In fact, Jesus himself gave the Great Commission: all Christians are to preach the Good News to all peoples, tongues, and peoples. Still, there are many ways to testify. In these hardened, cynical, and often jaded times, people would prefer sermons they see to ones they can just listen to. There is no more powerful way to witness than to share a transformed life. Observers can only wonder and say ‘But for Jesus’. The addictions that destroyed lives would continue unabated…but for Jesus. The anger issues that tore families apart in the past would continue to cause heartache…if it weren’t for Jesus. That’s how powerful personal transformation is. It gives credibility to the Christian who seeks to witness even before he begins to speak. This is critical. Before you attempt to give ‘inspirational and life-changing speeches’, make sure his life has been fundamentally changed by the unquenchable love of Christ. With that said, here are the 5 keys to giving inspiring, life-changing speeches.
Key #1: Draw Them
When you are talking about Jesus Christ, you must take the talk on the realm of mere ‘Bible talk.’ The truth is, your audience has probably heard sermon after sermon that speaks of the living truths of the Bible as academic or distant subjects. If you want to touch people’s lives with your speech, you need to bring their lives into your speech. Start with a series of stories calculated to appeal to a wide range of people who are dealing with issues included in those stories. Draw them.
Key #2: Talk to your pain
Failure is a better teacher than success. Success is great to have around, but people rarely learn from success. There are so many factors that can produce success that it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of success. Failure, on the other hand, is visceral. It gets on your face. itches. This is why people respond better when you talk to their soft bellies, when you talk to their pain. After engaging them, make it clear that you understand their pain, insecurities, and vulnerabilities. The heart opens when you talk about your pain. Why? He is always looking for help. Pride fades when, on a deep level, you engage with what the audience feels is missing.
Key #3: Show that you know Jesus instead of just knowing about Him
Many people preach about Jesus. However, few preach about his relationship with Jesus. Why? Many Christians know about Jesus. They know about what his grace is and what he has done. But few, if any, of Jesus’ actions resonate in their daily lives. As a result, Jesus remains a theory. As a result, children receive an ‘inherited’ religion from their parents instead of a true relationship with Christ. You have to show that you know Jesus. The most common way to do this is to share how Jesus sustained him when he went through his own personal desert of challenges, doubts, and personal pain. Share how these experiences transformed you. True Christianity is about transformation. A conversion is not real unless there is a corresponding change in the believer’s heart. Prove it with his own personal story. This is a crucial part of any inspirational and life-changing speech because it establishes his personal credibility with his audience.
Key #4: Make Jesus the center
Once you’ve drawn people, connected with their pain, and witnessed your own personal transformation and walked with Jesus, don’t leave it there. If you leave it at that stage, the conversation is all about you. True Christianity puts the spotlight where it belongs: on the Savior. Make Jesus the center of attention. Highlight the fact that Jesus is the solution. If he is the Way, the Truth and the Life, he is also the Solution. People are suffering. People are in doubt. People feel that things are temporary. When you put Jesus in the center, you make him the answer to all the questions that the crowd has.
Key #5: Ask for a decision
Great salespeople are able to close sales not because they can recite every feature a product has or because they have a big smile and a firm handshake. Those elements are important, but what makes a great salesperson is their ability to call the prospect to action. If he has gone through the four keys described above and does not ask the listener for a decision, he has not succeeded in changing their lives. Only when people accept Christ as their Lord and Savior and surrender to Him can they claim the amazing transformation He brings. You need to ask people to decide for Christ. You need to close them.
Use the five keys outlined above to help you give speeches that really change people’s lives. His effectiveness as a Christian youth speaker has to do with his ability to draw attention to his message, create an emotional connection with his audience, break down ‘barriers of the heart’ and deliver his burden: the transformative power of our Lord.