In thinking about the 3 V’s of delivery, we have looked at the voice (vocal) and are in the midst of the visual (non-verbals).  Yesterday we considered the supreme issue of eye-contact (watch a video of yourself if you don’t believe me when I say you probably don’t look at your congregation as much as you think you do!)  We also got into the whole field of gestures.  A couple more non-verbal issues to consider:

Visual delivery issue – facial expression. Basically this needs to vary (rather than get stuck in a perma-grin, or perma-frown).  And it needs to be consistent with what you’re saying.  Joy should show on your face.  So should sorrow or genuine concern or fear or hope or amazement, etc.  Don’t try to become a facial performer, just work to overcome the effect of nerves so the real you can show through (nerves, or unnatural situations -like speaking to a crowd – tend to stultify our expressional freedom).

Visual delivery issue – posture. The goal here is to have a natural, comfortable and confident stance.  If you are able to move, do so confidently and naturally.  Slumped posture, or nervous jolting steps, or hesitant movement, can all undermine your words.  If you are confident in the truth of what you say, you won’t slouch when you say it.

Visual delivery issue – dress. Not a major issue, unless you make it one.  It only makes sense to be well-groomed and appropriately dressed.  Unless it is part of an overarching plan to shift and re-shape the culture of your church, don’t make how you dress an issue.  If you are an infrequent or visiting speaker, never make how you dress an issue.  Dress appropriately for the setting.  Don’t over dress.  Don’t under-dress (in either way you could take that!)  Perhaps a notch or two above the average standard present is appropriate.

Visual delivery issue – proxemics.  This is a big field in its own right, but basically it relates to the issue of space and where the speaker is in relation to the listeners.  Here are a couple of brief posts to look at on this issue –Delivery More Than Words and Proxemic Considerations.

Visual delivery issues need to work together with vocal to support and reinforce the verbal.  If they don’t, they will certainly undermine the verbal.