Halfway To Preaching

I needed to find the poem The Night Before Christmas for preparing a talk, and I stumbled across an MP3 of it. A professional recording by Mike Barlow, voice actor. Speaking isn't that difficult. So why are professional voice actors often so rubbish at it? Listen to a snippet of this. It is frightening.

On a similar note please listen to a bit of Genesis 1 read by Max McClean. Again, it is horrific. He sounds like a robot Patrick Stewart. "The speeeerit ofGord was ho-vering over the warrrrrters... And there was eeevning. And there wazz. Morning. Thafirst. Day."

There is a way of reading the Bible aloud that is halfway to preaching. Pausing and emphasising things so that a complicated sentance becomes clear. Giving emotion and passion and understanding in the right places. I pray that I'd read, not just to get it out of the way, but to convey something of the meaning and wonder.

I don't think we should do it like this every week, but watch Ryan Ferguson here reciting Hebrews 9-10. Halfway to preaching.