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“Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are
able to pass them on to others.” - 2 Timothy 2:2

CLASS Blog

Blog Entries for: April, 2009

Can you see me?

April 15, 2009

By Linda Goldfarb

Transparency is the word that kept ringing in my ears every time I worked on my outline for an upcoming talk. I will tell you right now that word did not sit well with me at all. I knew in my heart of hearts, people would run from me quicker than I could talk them back into their seats if I became transparent.

Transparent: clearly recognizable as what he, she, or it really is. See why I didn't embrace transparency, if everyone clearly recognized what I really was... scared, hurt, weak, insecure, selfish, jealous, anxious, and unorganized, did I mention I also whine... there is no way they would listen to me or have respect for me. So I did what any intelligent person would. I moved transparency to the side and added humor.

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April 15, 2009 | View or add comments

Heart to Heart

April 13, 2009

By Linda Gilden

Have you ever spoken to a group and felt that they just weren't getting it? Maybe your enthusiastic message is met by an expressionless sea of faces wondering what in the world you are talking about. The connection has just not been established.

The Bible says "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Luke 6:45). When I speak from the overflow of what is in my heart, I always connect with my audiences. When I fail to prepare enough, pray enough, study enough, immerse myself in the Word enough, what I hear myself say is shallow and has little meaning to my audience.

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April 13, 2009 | View or add comments

Think Small! Putting Heart and Impact into Bible Teaching

April 9, 2009

By Julie Ferwerda

For a long time I had the hardest time trying to figure out how to reach hearts in my audience for lasting impact. I tended to stick to the safe route of strictly teaching because I felt unable to get vulnerable or to connect soul-deep with my audience. Why? Here were a few of the obstacles that kept me locked in two-dimensional speaking:

• Teaching comes easily and naturally for me. Sharing my heart or "telling my story" does not.
• I have a huge testimony (in every sense of the word), but I could never figure out how to tell it in such a way that would teach, inspire, flow correctly, and not sound whiny or too much about me. So I avoided it.
• My long, disjointed testimony has so many twists and turns, I was afraid of either boring my audience or driving them to Prozac if I dumped it on them all at once.
• I like to teach on a variety of topics. To only tell my testimony would get monotonous and confining for me.
• Frankly, I didn't know how to incorporate my story into my teaching.

So what did I do? Somewhere along the line while using PIER (the CLASS formula for effective and dynamic communication), an idea suddenly took form. Think Small! Rather than tell my testimony all at once (feel the relief), I could break it up into bite-sized chunks for the benefit of my audience. I could polish many parts separately, and use them in a variety of topics to teach different points. By telling my story in smaller pieces as it relates to the teaching topic at hand, it became easier to share about myself without feeling like it was all about me. Best of all, this technique was a perfect fit with PIER!

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April 9, 2009 | View or add comments

The Billboard of Your Heart

April 2, 2009

By Evelyn W. Davison

Life is a message written on billboards for all the world to see.  My billboard gets bigger every day as Jesus writes new things that fill my heart.

His instruction is always. "Love your neighbor," but He also includes the more difficult thing, "Love your enemies."  All of God's creation, the born and the unborn, are our neighbors -- and so are our national leaders.

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April 2, 2009 | View or add comments

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