“Hello, my name is Sister Jones*, and last week the bishop
texted me (called me, cornered me, etc…) to ask me to speak on faith. I really
didn’t want to at first, but…” And so the intro goes. It’s an interesting
phenomenon, the seemingly requisite sacrament meeting introduction. Yet I’ve
never seen precedent for this unusual manner of speaking in any other forum, be
it a professional presentation, a general conference sermon, or a university
lecture. Despite this, it seems that a Sunday cannot pass without this
perfunctory prologue.
Last month, as I sat in a church meeting, the opening
speaker began her talk in this manner. That alone isn’t enough to stop me from
trying to understand the message she was trying to convey, but once she threw
in a smattering of “likes” and “ums” I started to check out. Try as I might, I
couldn’t help but wonder if her husband would struggle with the same
mannerisms.
Once she had finished speaking, her husband confidently
stood up. He smiled and began straight into a story. It was one I had heard
previously in general conference. And yet, he told the story in his own words, not reading from the page with
his head down, as some are wont to do. There was not a hesitant or apologetic
nature to his sermon, and he spoke with conviction and inflection. Perhaps it
was the contrast between husband and wife, but that day I saw the importance of
confidence and directness in effective speaking.
*names have been changed
