One of your most powerful tools as a preacher is your voice. I don’t mean your vocal cords, although you do need to take care of them. I’m referring to the certain something that makes you unique.

Your voice comprises the vocabulary, inflections, and presence you utilize as a preacher to gain and hold a congregation’s attention. It may include specific phrases you use or the way you raise and lower your volume. It can be an overall attitude you exude — casual, for instance, or perhaps a bit more scholarly. It can be the way you stand and move while talking.

Finding your voice as a preacher is vitally important. Of course, the content of your message will always take precedence. But how you speak can influence the way people receive and retain what you say.

Why It Matters

Your voice helps guide people through the message. It makes your sermon more interesting and personal. You’re not just reading a script. You are speaking directly to the congregation, and they should sense that while hearing you.

Your voice should convey authenticity. Amid the fake, manipulative, and deceptive voices in our culture, it’s refreshing to hear someone speak from the heart. Knowing and using your unique voice will communicate that you are who you say you are.

The uniqueness of your voice will make your sermons more effective. Knowing when and how to vary the tone and volume can add a certain audible weight to your words. Such inflection lets listeners know what is most important. Without those cues, listening to a sermon can be like trying to navigate a strange city without a map. Your voice provides direction.

How to Find It

The best way to find your voice is through careful practice. Through trial and error, you will discover what works best. However, without intentionality, it’s easy to lose your voice.

Young preachers starting out often copy the style of the preacher they hear the most. Imitating others isn’t always bad, but it can produce some bad habits.

Amid the fake, manipulative, and deceptive voices in our culture, it’s refreshing to hear someone speak from the heart.

More established preachers may have constructed their voice by accident. If they are not consistently intentional about maintaining that voice, though, they could easily slip back into a practice of just repeating what they most recently heard.

Finding and maintaining your voice can take work. The most dedicated preachers hone their craft in this area with care. Here are some ways to develop your preaching voice:

Record and listen to some of your sermons. If you can, pick out a few random sermons from the past few years. The further back you can go, the better, as it will show you how your voice has evolved over time. Take special note of repeated phrases, words and stories. How often do you raise or lower your voice? How often do you tell a joke or get serious? What patterns are emerging?

Practice writing. You are already writing your sermon on a regular basis, but how much of that is actual prose? Reading shorthand and outlines won’t give you a complete sense of your voice. Instead, try journaling daily for a week or a month, and then go back over what you’ve written to find those same patterns emerging.

Listen to speakers whose style is similar to yours. These will include preachers, of course. But you could also learn from other communicators, such as TED Talks speakers. Pay attention to what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Ask for feedback. Talk to trusted staff members and congregants, asking them what they notice about your preaching style. Ask specific questions, such as these: Is it effective or distracting when I get louder? What did you think of the joke I told last week? What are your thoughts on how we set up the stage?

Put It to Use

Once you’ve done the work of finding your voice, use it weekly. Using your unique voice will go a long way toward increasing your effectiveness.

Put into writing value statements about your own life and ministry, and share them often. You may also want to write down simple definitions of theological ideas as you like to convey them.

Use notations within your script or outline to help cue up certain phrases or gestures. Put a smiley face next to a main point you want to go light on. Perhaps an exclamation point in red will let you know it’s time to get more serious. Use whatever technique is easiest for you to follow.

Follow through to the end. Make sure you utilize the best of your unique voice during the most crucial part: the conclusion and response. This isn’t a time to just copy someone else’s approach or repeat what you’ve heard. Make it authentic and from the heart, communicating in your own special way. That is probably the best way to ensure your people respond authentically as well.

God has given you a voice, so use it. You may not know what it is right now, or you may have lost it. But with a little work, you can lean on what makes you unique to draw attention to Jesus.