A number of years ago, I was asked to be the keynote speaker for a national Christian publishing event. They asked me to address the theme of the conference, gave me 50 minutes to speak, and I had to strictly stick to my time. If I didn’t, it would throw the entire day off schedule and ruin all the other sessions.
But before I spoke, they asked a local pastor to share a short, 10-minute devotion with the group. He got up to speak — and almost an hour later, he finally sat down. I knew we had to stay on track, so in my head, I quickly edited down my 50-minute talk into 10 minutes, and it saved the schedule.
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However, the conference planners were frustrated and enraged at that local pastor, and told me they would never consider asking him back. They had paid me a fee, flew me in, and put me up in a resort for the night, but because the local pastor wouldn’t stop talking, I was only able to speak for 10 minutes.
How to make your devotion memorable
The point of the devotion time is to slow everyone down, focus people’s thoughts in the right place, and start the event with our priorities in place. However, so many people completely miss the point of a devotion that I wanted to share some reminders of how to make it memorable.
1. Start with Scripture. This isn’t your chance to impress anyone with your preaching or teaching; it’s your chance to focus their mind on God.
2. And speaking of preaching, don’t. Make your talk conversational — especially in the morning. You’re starting the day, and everyone is a little groggy, slow and waiting for the coffee to kick in.
3. Open with a short personal story to illustrate your point. Personal stories are always more compelling and help make a stronger connection to your audience.
4. This isn’t your chance to pitch your great projects or brilliant ideas. In a gathering of Christian filmmakers in Hollywood a few years ago, a woman spent the devotion telling us about her great new project and why we should all get involved. She forgot that the devotion time wasn’t about her.
5. Finally, respect the schedule. If the host says 10 minutes, then hit the mark. It doesn’t matter how great your message is or how much you’d like to show that particular audience how gifted, talented, or called you are. If you want to get asked back as a speaker at any level, respect the purpose of the devotion time and honor it.
Being asked to lead a devotion before a gathering is an honor. Prepare for it, and be ready to say something directly from Scripture that will inspire them to start the event with a shot in the arm.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written and originally published by philcooke.com.
