I graduated from high school way back in 1954. That’s over 60 years ago! My senior year, I was the student body president. One of the perks of that position was the opportunity to introduce whatever guests came to our high school to speak.
My Civics teacher, Mr. Douty, kept me after class one day and said that someone was going to be speaking at an all-school assembly in two weeks and he wanted to make certain that this guest speaker received a proper introduction. Why? Because as a war hero, and also as a United States Senator, he was a person of great stature.
While not saying I had to do what he was telling me, he strongly suggested that I check out a book from the public library, read it, and then use that information to write a great two-paragraph introduction. Knowing how strongly my teacher felt about this, I got the bus to downtown, checked out the book about Senator Paul Douglas, read it, and later received high praise, not only from several teachers, but also from the high school principal. And, best of all, especially kind words from the Senator himself.
Because of this experience I have always felt that introductions were important. In my mind, that’s true, not only for schools, but also for churches.
Guest speakers should not have to tell congregations who they are. That’s the job of the host pastor. And if the pastor will be away, he or she still needs to make certain someone takes on that task and does a good job with it. Just because a given speaker has been in the church before doesn’t mean that a newcomer has ever heard of him or her.
Are you good at letting people know about who the person filling in for you is? If you are planning to be away, you need to assign someone that task and give them that “Mr.-Douty-pep-talk.” At the very least, make sure there is information about the speaker printed in the church bulletin.
———————————————
Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.
(314)
