Finding Your Voice in the Pulpit

Every preacher starts by sounding like someone else. The slow, winding work of ministry is learning to sound like yourself. In this episode, Brandon Hayes sits down with David Hannah to talk about finding your voice in the pulpit and why that work is about far more than communication style. David brings an unusual path to preaching, from preacher's kid to attorney to Bible teacher to pastor, and he's honest about what it has taught him: your voice is shaped by the people you actually know, your confidence rests in who God made you to be, and authenticity is no longer optional for a generation that can see through a facade in seconds. They get practical, too, on outlines versus manuscripts, understanding your sermon rather than memorizing it, watching game film, and receiving feedback without losing your nerve. In this episode, you’ll learn: -Why finding your voice starts with confidence in who God made you to be, not in copying a communicator you admire -How your context and your congregation, the people you actually do life with, shape the way you preach -The difference between memorizing your sermon and understanding it, and why that's where natural delivery comes from -How to grow as a communicator without getting trapped in comparison -Why authenticity and a willingness to say "I don't know" matter more for this generation than any before it -What appropriate vulnerability looks like in the pulpit, and who to run it by first -How to receive hard feedback with humility instead of defensiveness -The two things David tells every newer preacher: trust the voice God gave you, and watch the game film Meet the Guests David Hannah is Campus and Teaching Pastor at The Church at Lockeland Springs, an East Nashville congregation where, in his words, it's "impossible to not know and be known," and his road to the pulpit ran through law school and years in litigation before ministry. Brandon Hayes is Campus and Teaching Pastor at The Church at Harpeth Heights, a preacher honest enough to admit he still goes back and forth on whether to use notes, whose advice to anyone nervous about preaching without them is simple: leave the iPad on the pew and just go do it.