Remembering Names

In one of my previous jobs, I was required by my employer to attend a Dale Carnegie public speaking course.

(See www.dalecarnegie.com for more information). 

The class had about 40 to 50 attendees, and the instructor began the course by teaching us how to remember each other’s name. 

After each person got up, they would tell us his or her name, where they worked, and what things they like to do.

As each person spoke, we were supposed to remember each person, by associating their names by what they told us. 

 The first assignment of the class was to get up and say each person’s name from memory. 

We had to remember from memory EVERYONE’S NAME!

 As each attendee was called upon to stand up and say everyone’s name, it served as a review for everyone else in the class. 

Amazingly, every attendee was about to quote everyone else’s name from memory including me. 

To this day when I see someone from the class in the newspaper, I can at least remember their first name. 

The first key to public speaking that Dale Carnegie taught was to connect with people by remembering their name and special things about them.

That class taught the attendees how to effectively public speak. 

Each of us was given several assignments to get up and talk about to the members of the class. 

Overall, it was a great experience. 

 What if Church’s leadership valued effective communication as much as my boss at my secular job? 

They could train their teachers how to teach and effectively lead their Small Groups.

What if your Church were to design a course to improve your teacher’s speaking abilities, while offering them opportunities to teach during the course? 

Each member of the class could critique each speaker and tell them how to get better. 

This course would be designed to certify teachers to train in your Small Group ministry. 

After each teacher was certified by the instructor and class members, then their permanent Small Group assignment could be made. 

It makes you think. If it were me, I wouldn’t make my current teachers go through it or be certified; however, I would make it available to help them if they wanted. 

What if a class of prospective teachers would rotate teaching each other Small Group lessons to get them ready for their permanent assignment? 

Wouldn’t that be neat? 

In fact, I’d be so bold to open it up to anyone who would like to attend. To me, that sounds fun!

If you wanted someone to kick off a trainer of the teacher’s class, you could send the Trainer of the Teachers to a Dale Carnegie course (or a similar course) like my boss required me to do.  

You could use that person to be a catalyst to make it happen in your Church. 

If you’re a teacher and want to improve your skills, you could sign up for it yourself and take it. If not, you can train yourself by reading books. This is what I do. I like to read public speaking books. 

 Last year I read John Maxwell’s book “Everyone Communicates. Few Connect.” Dale Carnegie also has a book called “The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking”. 

 In addition, I like to listen to great communicators whether they are on the news, in the pulpits, or even comedians.

 I watch what they are doing to communicate, and I imitate what they do.

 As I teach, I can see the people getting into what I’m saying. I committed to getting God’s message across. Communicating is fun!