Church Voices

From here:

DOES IT TAKE a village? Is America a shining city upon a hill? The answer might be yes, according to new research. Two psychologists had an actor make an audio recording of two versions of FDR’s famous 1933 inaugural address. The first version was essentially the original, but scrubbed of phrases and references likely to reveal the identity of the speech. The second version took the first version and replaced every word or phrase that evoked imagery with less evocative language. College students were then randomly assigned to hear either the high- or low-imagery version. The version with the original imagery was considered more charismatic, in part because it inspired positive emotions. The use of imagery helped the parts of the speech that discussed problems sound less depressing, and the parts that discussed solutions sound more inspiring.

Naidoo, L. and Lord, R., “Speech Imagery and Perceptions of Charisma: The Mediating Role of Positive Affect,” Leadership Quarterly (June 2008).

The application to sermon preparation is pretty obvious. Not to mention that there’s a reason Jesus used imagery in his teachings quite often. Its not about bullet points, its about word-pictures.