David and Tule Cox

This post was provoked from my reading this post on “TEDS talk takeaway: 8 ways to Hook your Audience” by Gavin Mahon.

Great hooks, like McGonigal’s provocative opening statement, get audiences on the edge of their seats and give them a sense of what’s coming. They allow you to win a crowd’s attention right away and give you a legitimate chance to have a lasting impact.

Note that these “hooks” are excellent elements around which to build your presentation.

1. Tell a story.

Well, I messed that one up from the start. It should be “with great enthusiasm, tell AN INTERESTING STORY!”

2. Use Video or Graphics.

Some things are best told, and others are best shown. With the possibility of pictures and videos, use them if the subject matter lends itself to that.

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As a missionary, what are we doing in making a missionary presentation? Perhaps to answer the question, we need to look at this from the opposite angle, why should people listen to missionary presentations? I came across an interesting post here Why hear a Missionary Presentation? which got me thinking.

I think one of the most biblical reasons I have come across is from

Acts 14:27 And when they were come, and had gathered the church together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles.  

The presenting of what a missionary does on the mission field is very important. But beyond just important to the missionary because he needs more prayer and money, or important to the church  because they don’t know where their money is going and want information, it is important because God says it is important. Without a clear deep rooted belief that this is necessary AND BIBLICALLY COMMANDED, a missionary will not fulfill God’s purposes and objectives in giving their missionary report.

1. Engage in world missions.

Jesus told His disciples to “Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields” (John 4:35b), and hearing a missionary presentation is one good way to obey that command. (Barbara’s observation)

I think that this is very true. This passage reveals the biblical command for us to “disengage” with our local ministry for a spell, and engage with world missions. This is what the Great Commission is all about, “Go out and teach ALL NATIONS” Mat. 28:19. We cannot get away from this command, and somehow, through the proxy system know as missions, we are to fulfill this part of God’s command as equally as we do locally in our home church where we live.

Prayer

This “engaging” is much more than sending a check or praying a prayer. It is getting involved with the work of missions outside of the United States (or wherever your home country is). This means first of all praying for the work there. Without information on what is being done, how it is going (frustrations, set-backs, and victories) as well as plans, you cannot pray intelligently. The most important part of praying is being accurately and timely informed of prayer needs and answers.

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I guess I am old as the hills now. Back in the day (around 1977, in Bob Jones University missions classes) we talked about storyboarding for getting our slide presentation together. A few months ago I actually threw away my slide story boarder. Most people don’t even understand what I am talking about. In those days we used to gather 2 inch by 2 inch slides of what we wanted to present, and from that we made a story on a story board. This is a piece of white plastic in a wedge shape stand that has a light bulb under it, and you turned it on, and placed your slides in the rows, and began to arrange them in a story for your presentation. Wow are you old David! I would like a post (“Yea!”) from anybody who remembers or did that in their past!

Today presentations don’t start with existing slides or pictures, but they start with ideas. The flow of ideas is what is essential in a presentation. As you develop your presentation, you add images and concepts and music to the presentation.

So here I go trying to give some tips on storyboarding and using them to design a presentation.

Let me be clear here, a storyboard is an intermediate design step for a presentation. It is a rough, basic idea medium in which you work up ideas and impressions, trying to get specific images and sounds if possible, and from that, you make a presentation in some kind of software that is designed for presentations. The moodboard is not an end in itself, but just a brainstorming tool to help you push, pull, delete, add, create, or try out your ideas to generally see how they look. Keep it that!

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