Tips For When Reading To Your Church

I, by no means, am a veteran of the lectern but I have picked up a few tricks over the years; and I humbly pass them on to you, the reader, in the hope that you might find them helpful.

There is nothing universal which applies in every church when it comes to reciting the lessons – apart from the obvious: like not flambéing the church’s prize-possession Bible when you finish reading – as conventions vary between denominations. Nevertheless, you can take the points which sound useful and ignore the ones which are specific to (high church) Anglicanism.

If you’re a minister, you could encourage people to read from the front who have never done so. Try to delegate the reading of lessons to people beyond your leadership team and you might help someone discover a new talent! Seeing a different face behind the lectern every week is nice; in some churches, elders gladly take on this task and nobody new gets a look-in.

But how and ever, let’s move on to the tips…

Walk to the front with confidence; you’re God’s messenger, so have some conviction! If you’re Anglican, Episcopalian, Lutheran, Roman Catholic or Western Orthodox, reverence the altar if you cross in front it. When you step up to the lectern, take a breath. Look up from time to time as you read, the more often the better. Your audience isn’t on the page; it’s in the pews!

Insert a few longer pauses, during which listeners can absorb what you’ve read to them so far. Choose carefully where you do this for maximum impact. Examples of where you might include a ‘pitstop’: when a character exits a scene; when Christ has just performed a miracle; when the writer has concluded a point; when the message of a parable is revealed; et cetera.

Don’t pause conspicuously before passages of direct speech. Consider Acts 3.12, ‘And when Peter saw it he addressed the people, “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this…”’. I think the best way to read this aloud is, ‘And when Peter saw it he addressed the people, “Men of Israel [pause], why do you wonder at this…”’, rather than, ‘And when Peter saw it he addressed the people [pause], “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this…”’. The first method of reading helps the sentence flow more smoothly from the narrative material to the speech quotation.

Singing, whether in a choir or otherwise, is the best form of training for public speaking. Among the many things you learn are the great importance of: (1) clear enunciation; (2) conservation of breath; and (3) variation of tone, pace and/or volume to heighten or lessen the drama. This last point is crucial; to read in the same tone, or at the same pace and volume throughout, will be tedious for listeners. Don’t overexaggerate, however, or be melodramatic!

There is a reason why Charles Dance was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role as Tywin Lannister: his acting is more ham-free than a Passover meal. There’s nothing you can say with your hands that you can’t say better with a tilt of your head or a shift in posture.

Think about which words you’d like to stress. I remember a service at which I read Acts 2, where Peter quotes from the Book of Joel. I delivered v. 17, ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy…’ with a stress on the words in bold. I believe in equal ordination for men and women; and so, the rationale behind the stresses was to point up the text’s egalitarian theme.

It goes without saying that you should learn to pronounce any difficult names in the passage beforehand. Learn from the gentleman at one service I can recall, who got up to read 2nd Samuel 4 and brought forth a sound rather more akin to “my fib of shit” than ‘Mephibosheth’.

Beware that some words diverge from their everyday pronunciation when you read the Bible aloud. An example of such a word, in my experience, is ‘wrath’. In everyday speech, I would pronounce this with an ‘AH’ sound (as in ‘bath’); when I read in church, I would pronounce this with an ‘AW’ sound (as in ‘broth’). To be fair, the roof won’t cave in if you pronounce it the first way; more pernickety listeners like me notice these things but few normal people do!

When you’re done – if you’re a nervous or novice reader, in particular – you might well be dying to resume your seat! Even so, don’t rush back to the pews: take a longish pause and give the congregation a chance to reflect on the lesson; offer them a “This is the Word of the Lord” for a “Thanks be to God”; then slowly take your leave. Congratulations: mission accomplished!

If you’re still somewhat uneasy, take these words from Joshua to heart: ‘Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go’ (1.9). Your listeners are your Christian brothers and sisters, who have only goodwill towards you. They’ve got your back! Anybody can read in church and improve their public speaking in the process; nobody has ever wiggled out from the womb with perfect elocution.

Good luck with your next reading!