Valley of the Shadow of Public Speaking

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of public speaking, I will fear no evil...

Can I be honest for a minute? As a fundraising missionary, one of the things I have probably dreaded the most was the necessity of speaking in front of a large group in order to share about our missions work. Now, I'm not afraid of being in front of a lot of people. I started singing in church at the age of 4 and have led worship in front of thousands of people. Give me a mic and a band and I'm good to go. Just don't ask me to talk a whole lot or I start to get nervous.

When my friend and former boss, Jamie, called me a few weeks ago and asked me to speak at a luncheon, my gut reaction was to say, "No, thanks, but Stephen can speak." (How's that for throwing your husband under the bus?) However, because this was a luncheon for meeting planners, which I used to be, it was really more appropriate for me to share. I had known deep down this day was coming anyway, so it was just a good opportunity to dive in head first and pray that I didn't drown.

I began to seek the Lord about what He would have me speak on. Over the course of a couple of weeks, He began to piece things together. While talking about our missions call to Italy was a given, I didn't want it to just be about Stephen and me. I wanted to inspire the meeting planners at the luncheon to make a difference in the world around them. The only problem was how to fit all of that into a 15-20 minute talk. No pressure!

Then the Lord showed me this verse.

“Through him we received both the generous gift of his life AND the urgent task of passing it on to others who receive it by entering into obedient trust in Jesus. You are who you are through the gift AND call of Jesus Christ!” Romans 1:5-6, MSG (emphasis mine)

I was reminded that the gift of salvation and the task of passing it on to others go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Our very identity in Christ is wrapped up in BOTH salvation and sharing it with others (see vs. 6).

Even though Stephen and I are called to be missionaries, we weren't always so passionate about reaching non-believers. God has been teaching us over the last 8 years that it's not just up to full-time Christian workers to win the lost. EVERY believer in Christ has a responsibility to share the Gospel! 

Eureka! In my talk, I could share the journey the Lord had taken us on from committed church-goers who wouldn't have known how to share the Gospel if our lives depended on it, to missionary appointees preparing to move to another continent to take the message of Jesus to Italians! Then, I could challenge the group to ask themselves some hard questions about how they were doing when it came to winning the lost.

Once I had a definite topic, I began to get kind of excited about speaking at the luncheon. I started working on my talk and God began to refine it into what He wanted me to say. The more I worked on it, the more pumped up I became!

The day of the luncheon, Stephen and I arrived early so that we could eat before it was time for me to speak. I was nervous, but trying not to think about it. And finally, it was time.

Surprisingly, once I got up to the podium, I wasn't really all that nervous anymore. The more I shared, the better it felt! At the end of my talk, we had a group discussion and people began to share about the things that they were already doing to to reach lost people and other things that they wanted to try. It felt great to encourage people to think about sharing the Gospel as more than just an unpleasant task to be endured. In fact, several people emailed me afterwards to share how the meeting impacted them:

"Brandy, my whole weekend was better and vision more clear, because of your testimony on Friday." - Jill M.

"...I was inspired and also encouraged to keep at it in sharing the gospel with others." - Gen H.

"Thank you for your transparency and modeling obedience. Each time you come to my heart I will lift you up in prayer!" - Beth B.

I am truly humbled that God would use me to inspire anyone. Most of this journey has been walked out with fear and trembling. Stephen and I certainly don't have it all figured out, but every day we try to become more like Jesus. Some days we succeed and some days we don't, but we keep pressing forward.

One thing we are learning is that the Lord is more than sufficient and He never calls us to do anything for which He doesn't equip us. I'm also learning that sometimes we're actually pretty good at things we have been afraid to try. Now that I've had one chance to speak about our missions call, I'm really looking forward to an opportunity to do it again!

With that in mind, if you know of a church, small group, Sunday School class, or event that would be interested in having us share about our missions call, please send me an email at brandy@theverners.org.

If you'd like to read my entire talk, click here.