Jim Richardson, humorist, talk: "minister use humor for high visibility, interactive preaching, reaching"

Photo of Jim against a background of
desolate abandoned urban buildings contrasted by a blissfully
cloudy blue sky, symbolic of the hope and fulfillment those with
the true calling can give to so many

Jim's keys to creating COMMUNITY!
Try good humor.
To bring up entire menu,
please click on Jim's face.

Jim Richardson's All Day Program: "Jump-Starting Creativity for: Ministers"

Keynote Speech, 20-90 minutes:
"How Humor WINS us back into the fold"

Half-Day Program, 1-6 hours:
"Interactive Skills:
guiding people into creative co-operation"

Half-Day Program, 1-6 hours:
"Concluding your sermon
with lines that will be remembered for a lifetime"

Jim complements your formal religious studies

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):
EXAMPLE: "What do all audiences have in common that I need to know in order to improve my services?"

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Keynote (20-90 minutes):
"How Humor WINS strays back into the fold"

In our fragmented society, the minister's challenge is to turn his flock into a like-minded community.
Want a sure way?
Get around folks dodging your message by offering up some ice cream for the soul!

Cartoon drawing of ice cream Sunday topped with chopped nuts, whipped cream and a red cherry

Over the past 20 years, Jim has had several ministers drop into his comedy classes. Many of the business keynote speaker he coaches are also lay ministers who preach at their churches. All face a common problem in this age of cynicism: how to reach resistant people, and get them to do the right things both for themselves and their families.
How?
By rooting out those deadly speaking techniques that make your listeners involuntarily turn a deaf ear to your message.

Instead of blatantly talking down to their audience, find new ways to interact with them that enhance the dignity of your office.
Learn to think like your audience, reach them where they really live, deep down in their souls
When people laugh at your humor, they are involuntarily agreeing with your message
How many funny ministers do you know?
- Are you like Jim, and remember when humor used to be common to the pulpit?
- Are you ready to do your part, and bring back the truly "good old days"?
We can spend just one day cementing in your self- discovery so you will be able to spontaneously act from your new perspective

Back to Jim's "Ministers" menu

Half-Day Program (1-6 hours):
"Interactive Skills:
guiding people into
creative co-operation"

Most ministers fail to maximize their interactive skills.

Whether or not you are comfortable with parishioners in the controlled atmosphere of your office, you change as soon as you are behind the pulpit
The audience throws you off, and you become too "school-teacher-y":
- Death with audiences.
- But an easy and fun fix!

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Half-Day Program (1-6 hours):
"Concluding your sermon
with lines that will be
remembered for a lifetime"

If you don't want to think of a memorable but very short line of gospel poetry as being "a joke, an advertising slogan, a jingle or a sound bite," ok.
In your head, you can be using academic, lofty language to filter Jim's nuts and bolts description.
Why not? It's there.
Call them "pithy statements."
Tell everyone you are quoting another pithy statement from the Bible.
Why not?
The Bible has more pithy statements in it than almost any book written. That's why people can't help themselves: they've been quoting these great lines for years.
Jim will meet you half-way.
Something rashly rebellious in Jim makes him want to call them sound bites.
Mostly because it exposes the news commentators who hypocritically pretend they would never use sound bites. In fact, such denial is one of their favorite sound bites.
But enough of irony.
What, specifically, is a sound bite?

sound bite/'saond bait/noun;
A short, pithy extract used for maximum punchiness;
also, a one-liner.
First appeared in print in the early eighties
. . . public will not follow more than a few seconds of speech.
"Anything more than that and you're losing them."
Washington Post 22 June 1980.
--The Oxford Dictionary of New Words

How can sound bites help close the sale of your homily to an audience who has heard the same points over-and-over again every Sunday for years?
Sound bites are crucial:

Tired of all those endless sermons you had to listen to when your were studying for the ministry. Be honest: how many times did you just want to get them over fast, fast, fast?
- Try sound bite messages that burn
- Get your message across in under 12 seconds
  - Full comprehension forces listeners into immediate action: deciding on the right way to live the rest of their life
  - Control:
    - how parishioners will prioritize their lives
    - how your character is perceived
    - what actions your parishioners must take next

On the world wide web's superhighway, the future is NOW, and information is POWER

Open up your new place of worship on Main Street in the global village
The fastest way that your web site can grab the world's limited attention span?
- Sound bites
- Score major points for your faith on the universal fast track of the "Information Age"
- The most memorable sound bites use HUMOR

Jim will show you how to add the warmth that wins over listeners: the long-lost art of "making love" to your audience

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Jim complements your formal religious studies

Years of training actors, stand-up comics and business speakers in motivational analysis has sharpened Jim's intuitive edge.
While your church staff are trying to figure out the Biblical metaphor to employ this Sunday in answer to your parish's latest crisis of conscience, Jim will focus his attention on the parishioner's sensibilities.

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Audio clips from Jim's Talks

These two audio clips are from Jim's talk to the Menlo Park Rotary Club in Menlo Park, California. Jim adds some notes to supplement each audio clip to help the reader better follow Jim's argument:

Jim how to use humor to:
- Keep your job
- Survive bad dates
- Get children to automatically agree with your point-of-view
"Bosses, Dates and New Moms"
Are you starting to feel the pressure from difficult people, starting to get burned out?
Stress is often caused when we are pulled in too many directions at once. Like trying to hold back a team of wild horses who are all going off in different directions.
Jim's techniques help you regain control, get those horses pulling in the same direction.
Thinking metaphorically, you can use all the techniques Jim talks about on this audio clip; today, begin to:
- control how people receive your sermons and "off stage" messages
- be certain your words are remembered
- get people in your personal life to agree with you
Do it right, and they will have no choice.
Now, that's power!
Thinking humorously to convince everyone you are right!
(audio 422 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minutes, 46 seconds)
Audio clip begins in mid-discussion, Jim proving to the audience that the number one complaint about doctorsand other authority figures (bosses, teachers, government officials, parents, ministers, etc.): "Nobody listens!"
"How Better Listening Cures Patients Faster"
The first step in getting folks to come around to your way of thinking is getting them to trust you as much as they used to trust their family doctor. How patients see the doctor during their examination
is the same way parishioners initially see you (audio 488 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minutes, 52 seconds) Jim will be updating this section constantly from his current speeches, beginning Tuesday, 06-Jun-2023 06:36:52 PDT.
If you would like to listen to Jim's newest audio clips right here on this web page, just as soon as they are available, then please get on Jim's e-mail list at: jim@jimrichardson.com
Jim's brochure, audio and video demo tape are available upon request.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Q: "What do all audiences have in common that I need to know in order to improve my services?"
A: Lack of acknowledgment. People want to know when they've done something right, accidentally on purpose. The greatest teacher of all is emotional reinforcement.
Jim will show you how to capitalize on these golden moments. Golden because these are the moments that can lead your parishioners to earned high self esteem, and on to the livable life.

Q: "What is the number one problem facing all ministers who wish to become more effective speakers?"
A: Locally, your audience never changes. So, you are forced to create a new speech every Sunday. This inevitably leads to a subconscious "fake it until you make it" psychology. You seize every short cut you can find, and perform with either:
- your eyes constantly buried in your script or
- bravely maintain total eye contact while winging your sermons, often improvising long tangents that confuse and frustrate your listeners.
What is the solution?
You will only become a good speaker if you find a speaking situation in which you can deliver the same speech 50-100 times in front of 50-100 different audiences.
- Speaking at other parishes and at service clubs are two obvious possibilities.
- Seek others.
Then, memorize and stage one new minute of the same talk before each presentation.
By the end of your 50-100 talks, you will so over-learn your talk that you will
- know your speech backwards-and-forwards
- having cemented in memorization.
From this foundation, you will begin to evolve:
- physical technique
- a personal style of delivery
- characters backed with solid dialogue
everything that separates the amateur from professional speaker.
This you owe to your church and to God.
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Today's date and Pacific Standard Time is: Tuesday, 06-Jun-2023 06:36:52 PDT

Date this page was last modified, Pacific Standard Time: Thursday, 30-Dec-1999 20:47:54 PST

Keynote (20-90 minutes): "How Humor WINS strays back into the fold"

Half-Day Program (1-6 hours): "Interactive Skills: guiding people into creative co-operation"

Half-Day Program (1-6 hours): "Concluding your sermon with lines that will be remembered for a lifetime"

Jim complements your formal religious studies

Audio clips from Jim's Talks

"Bosses, Dates and New Moms"

"How Better Listening Cures Patients Faster"

Frequently Asked Questions

Keynote (20-90 minutes):
"How Humor WINS strays back into the fold"

Half-Day Program (1-6 hours):
"Interactive Skills:
guiding people into
creative co-operation"

Half-Day Program (1-6 hours):
"Concluding your sermon
with lines that will be
remembered for a lifetime"