The Preacher’s Voice Series: Click | View Series

The last article discussed strain, stress and tension as factors inhibiting the effectiveness of preacher’s voice. This segment is going to discuss digestion and immunity.

Poor Digestion Is A Bummer

Bad digestion leads to bad breath, excessive mucus and post nasal drip, acid reflux, gas and bloating, and continual burning irritation. Food and environmental allergies, consumption of bad foods, excess alcohol, tobacco, and just plain old digestion inefficiency can contribute to bad digestion and cause bad breath.

For some people, continual exposure to gluten, dairy, or other food groups will cause bad reactions until they are identified as a problem and eliminated. Testing for these reactions and for digestion efficiency is prudent, as this can eliminate these undesirable reactions.

Get Tested

Some very approachable blood and digestive efficiency tests can assist in identifying these unpleasantries. I had a friend who suffered from extreme discomfort because he had reactions to nuts, wheat, and dairy, but as soon as he eliminated these things, he got better.

I have also treated many patients with enzyme deficiency, which causes indigestion, malabsorption, and a decrease in good bacteria. When appropriately treated the symptoms get better. Anti-acid medications just temporarily resolve the issues and do not lead to permanent changes. Finding the cause is most essential in taking care of the problem!

Can’t Live On Fumes

Much can be said for good immune health. Preachers and doctors get sick. They may have a higher resistance to certain bugs because of being around crowds of people, but dependence upon the old phrase “I never get sick” is asking for trouble.

Preacher, you will get sick. You are not indispensible and immune to everything. You will be blindsided if you continue to live on the fumes of your strong body constitution. There is no way that the battery can continue without being maintained and recharged.

The negative results I mentioned above will contribute to stressing the immune system if unchecked. You must take precautions to strengthen your immune system. Just depending on Tylenol, cough and cold medicine, and occasional vitamin C is not enough.

Get Some Help!

You need a plan that will keep you strong, and there are many tools available online such as Health Fact Sheets and the Reference Room of the Health & Wellness Institute for such strengthening.

In my practice, I have been using these tools with success. The common response from patients that have followed immune strengthening programs is that they don’t get sick as often and have a higher amount of energy for daily needs.

Preacher, if you are strong, that is a blessing. Don’t abuse this. However, if you have chronic colds and immune stress, do not ignore these serious signs. A preacher needs a physician who can act as health coach and mentor, so get some help!

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The Preacher's Voice: Click | View Series

Stress Affects Your Message

Preachers encounter stress and this can profoundly affect the delivery of a clear message. Unrelenting stress is called hyper-stress, which is considered a type of stress that the human body cannot adjust to very easily. An example of hyper-stress in the Bible is when Scripture tells of Jesus Christ sweating drops of blood. His spirit, mind, and body were beyond the point of fatigue and in a traumatized hyper-stress state.

Extreme tension and hyper-stress can eventually saturate every aspect of the preacher’s message and work. The preacher can become ineffective and exhausted. Astute listeners will recognize burnout stress by the tone of the preacher’s voice, body language, and overall appearance. Jesus Christ went to the Father for help. What should you do?

Tips For Handling Stress And Tension

• Recognize warning signs and listen to the counsel of trusted people if they tell you to slow down.
• Pray seeking direction and action for renewal and relief of extreme stress.
• Commit to properly caring for yourself and family (family life, diet, exercise, and relaxation).
• Set the tone for ministry; don’t let ministry set the tone (evolving at a steady pace is healthy).
• Set and keep priorities. Make sure that God and family are always the priority.
• Get quiet with God, putting away all electronic devices and tuning out all distractions.
• Be accountable to your staff and make known your need for time off.
• Trust your assistants to handle matters when you are at rest, even if they may not do it as perfectly as you.
• Know when to say no!
• Leave your worries behind and cast your anxieties on Jesus Christ.

Christ Will Restore You

I love the passage 1 Peter 5:1-11, as it outlines the most succinct guidelines to sustain a healthy preaching ministry:

“So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

God’s Spirit will comfort, direct, and defend you during times of extreme stress. Cast all your tension and stress on him, and you will experience the rest you need. Surely the preacher’s voice will resound through the noise, clutter, confusion, and suffering because Christ himself restores, confirms, strengthens and establishes you through it all.

To be continued.

Religion Saves

Check out Pastor Mark Driscoll's newest book: Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions. Find out more.

The Preacher’s Voice series: Click | View Series

There are primarily four areas of concern when it comes to the use and care of the preacher’s voice:

• Strain
• Tension
• Digestion
• Immune Health

Strain

Preaching is not the only thing preachers do. They teach, counsel, speak at different events, and have casual conversations. You might see your preacher at a sports event yelling with excitement on Saturday, but then he’ll be preaching on Sunday. Or you may see your bi-vocational rock star preacher jamming on Saturday, but then preaching Sunday morning, which contradicts all principles of healthy voice care. Whether jamming or preaching your voice needs to rest and recover.

Strain is the number one killer of the preacher’s voice, and the number one cause of strain is lack of a proper night’s sleep. When we sleep, the brain recovers from the previous day’s activity, as does the voice. Relaxation, gentle conversation, and proper rest and recovery of the voice are essential elements for planned healthy voice projection like preaching.

Tips to Preventing Voice Strain

• Rise early and drink warm liquid, such as water with fresh lemon juice.
• Do not have a large meal before speaking.
• Exercise early and lightly on the day of preaching.
• Do not nap before public speaking.
• Stay calm and avoid strain the night before preaching.
• Do some light public speaking before preaching.
• Pronounce words clearly and distinctly; mispronounced words cause strain.
• Keep room temperature water with you and sip throughout preaching.
• Do not force excitement; let it come naturally.
• Adequately test the PA system before preaching.
• Do not use excessive bass in the PA system.
• Change up your pace during the message.
• Rest your voice after preaching.

Preach Jesus clearly, firmly, and lovingly, with conviction, grace, and action. Mostly, preach in faith with a loud and healthy voice.

To be continued

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.

The Preacher's Voice: Click | View Series

The focus of this series is to understand the importance of preserving the health of a preacher's voice.

The Preacher Needs Energy

The preacher needs an incredible amount of energy to meet the preaching demand. I have heard through the years that preaching is not a difficult task, and that it doesn't require much energy. This is based upon the fact that most preachers are overweight, unfit, and indulge in poor eating habits. However, I believe that this results from the stress of the job itself.

Quick Energy Fixes

Sustained intake of carbohydrates with constant adrenalin output can be a vicious cycle. In cases like this, the preacher looks for quick energy fixes to keep on going, and often these choices are loaded with sugar and stimulant agents, like caffeine. If the tank is empty, an octane booster won't fill the tank. It will just give a bad message to the complex regulating systems of the body that metabolize and burn calories.

Burn Off Those Calories

Billy Graham once said that before a preaching event he would have a carbohydrate meal the night before and a steak dinner afterward. Fitness, however, was an essential item on his list. He ate this way with the understanding that consuming higher calories required exercise to burn those calories. He didn't just rely on the sweat produced from his preaching.

Preacher, if the greater omentum (Latin for the fat mesh of the tummy) is gaining momentum (gaining more weight), then you are consuming more than what you are sweating off! This increases the risk of poor health and takes away from your voice energy in more ways than one.

Unfit Preachers are like Unfit Doctors

Would you listen to an overweight and unfit doctor giving you health advice on diet, cholesterol, sugar management, and exercise? An unfit preacher demonstrates poor discipline with his health, and he similarly hampers the effectiveness of communicating the disciplined life of the Christian.

If the evangelical message is to be taken seriously, the preacher must strengthen his voice through the support of healthy disciplines.

To be continued.

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Subscribe to the Resurgence syndicated feed and have all our content delivered straight to your feed reader. Find out more.

The Preacher's Voice: Click | View Series

The focus of this series is to understand the importance of preserving the health of a preacher's voice. Practical points will be given to protect and enhance the preacher's vocal ability. We will also discuss the importance of health and energy, vocal preservation, elements that may compromise the voice, and actions required to enhance the vibrancy and longevity of it.

"The Voice"

In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea… For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.'" Now John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Matthew 3:1-4

John the Baptizer came in the verve and passion of the Old Testament prophet Elijah. He was the voice of one crying in the wilderness, heralding the message that Jesus Christ, the greatest preacher of all time, was coming with an evangelical thrust that would not be ignored.

He received a diversified response from his listeners: casual hearing, deep conviction, total rejection, and complete acceptance. He received both applause and thumbs down (or the traditional Roman thumbs up) from the common crowd, his own people, politicians, and religious leaders.

Bugs and Honey?

John needed to be in great health to have the energy in spirit, soul, and body to herald this world-changing event. The world was never the same after John proclaimed Jesus as the answer to all of the world's conflicts. He required nutritious and sustaining food for this athletically demanding message. Preacher, so do you!

No way would your pastor agree to eating bugs and honey as a main staple of his diet before preaching, unless there was some odd behavioral thing going on. Well, John didn't either. According to some New Testament experts, John's diet in the rough and arid terrain consisted of dates, date honey, and bread cakes that were made from the bean of the locust tree. This seems to make more sense. This diet would provide immediate energy to meet the exhausting task of preaching to the masses the message of the Messiah.

To be continued.

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.