Once the research has been conducted a talk sheet should be created.  Your talk sheet is a map that guides you through the beginning to the end of your presentation.  If you are using curriculum or teaching from a book you should NEVER use these resources as your talk sheet. The resources are to be used as information to help you type or write out your talk sheet.  I cannot stress how important this process is.  I am a natural communicator and it would be a piece of cake for me to get up on stage and speak without talking points.  But I want to give Christ and my congregation the best presentation I possibly can so I type up a talk sheet every week.  My talk sheet is more than an outline.  I think through everything I want to say and develop bullets that trigger my mind so I don’t forget what I want to say.  Doing this ensures that everything I say has a logical flow and connects.  Yesterday I said that you cannot over prepare.  But what you can do is over present.  Your talk sheet protects you from over presentation.  You only transfer the best stuff on your notepad to your talk sheet.  I begin the process by grouping the notes I gathered in research (see yesterdays post).  I look at my notepad and I put the stuff I recorded into natural groupings.  Once I have the groupings I grapple it.  I look at the one statement in each group that stands out and seizes my attention and I make it my main point.  Grapple not only means to seize hold of something but it also means to wrestle with it.  So I wrestle with it until I come up with something creative that has pop.  Once I group and grapple it I graft it all into the talk sheet.  This is an important part of the process because I want it to flow and I want to make the most powerful point of the presentation at the right place.  Grafting is putting it all together in such a way that it triggers my mind in the appropriate manner.  I have trained my brain to recognize various formatting of the font.  For instance Main Points are always bold italics, scripture is always italics, illustrations are preceded by ILLUS., and general talking points always have a bullet underneath the main point.   This allows me to take advantage of my peripheral vision.  With a simple glance my mind is triggered because I know what I wrote on that talk sheet.  This process allows me to think through everything everything I want to say.   One thing that a speaker must understand is that you are speaking from, not reading, your talking points.  I always say more than what I write down.  Its interesting that I know exactly how long I will talk is based on how much I wrote on my talk sheet.  My talk sheet layout is 8.5″ X 11″ landscape with .3″ margins and two columns.  I will speak 30-35 minutes from those two columns.  If you are not very experienced at public speaking you should write down how much time you want to spend on each point and stick to it.

In summary here are the four G’s of developing a talk sheet:

• Gather It
• Group It
• Grapple It
• Graft It

Below I pasted a sample from my talk sheet I used last Sunday.  You will be shocked at how much you and the people you speak to will learn if you use this method.  Tomorrow I will deal with critique.

Producing in the Midst of Thorns

• We are living in a world that is loaded with thorns and the thorns often mean that we struggle and suffer
• When we suffer with the right attitude Gods comfort overflows
• The right attitude is essential because we are called to be productive

KEYS TO PRODUCING IN THE MIDST OF THORNS

^NIV 2 Corinthians 4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. ⁸ We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed

My life is not about me

• I am nothing God is everything
• In verse 7 – us or ourselves is the greek word ego means I
• When it comes to following Christ there is no room for ego
• One of the greatest lessons learned “Life is not about you”
• Realizing this truth is the beginning of a divine perspective
• That perspective enables us to recognize—8-9
• Trouble is always outweighed by the comfort
• When I figure out that life is not about me things clear up