Sst
last_modified_at: 2024-09-28 01:46:27
title: How to Write a 5 Minute Talk in Less than a Minute last_modified_at: 2024-09-28 01:46:27 — Writing a talk1 strikes fear into the hearts of so many people. Public speaking can cause typically smart, articulate, intelligent people to second guess, panic, stumble, and feel incredible imposter syndrome from even a short talk.
As I have worked with young people to prepare talks for school, church, and presentations, I’ve developed a simple framework that helps them. See more information here about the power of Frameworks.
Having a simple framework for giving a talk helps in many ways, from the preparation to the delivery of the talk.
Here’s the framework: SST
Scripture, Story, Testimony
For this example, we’re talking about giving a talk in a church setting, but you can easily swap out the Scripture for Source.
What you do is you take whatever your topic is, and you find a source or scripture that talks about what your topic is.
It’s quite simple.
Let’s say, for example that you’re giving a talk about Love.
You’re going to find a scripture about love, a story about love, and a testimony about love.
Finding a Scripture or Source
To find a scripture, start doing simple searches about your topic. It doesn’t have to be anything ground breaking or amazing. In fact, it will be better for you if it is simple, and easy-to-understand.
Very rarely do you need to give a talk where you don’t know what your topic is. (As an aside, I use this strategy with coaching and helping others in 1:1 situations. In these situations, I follow the same protocol, and depending on the nature of the situation, I share a scripture, quote from a book, or something else before I share my story and testimony.)
Finding a Story
Rather than think your story has to be personal or real to you, you can use stories from other people, history, or anywhere else. You can even make up a story or parable or fable to illustrate the point you are trying to make. If you make it up, don’t pretend like it happened to you.
What is a Testimony?
In a court of law, a testimony is just a description of what you saw or experienced. On a much simpler scale, that’s what your testimony of the story and the scripture is. You’re just telling how that impacts you personally. Or, if it is not supposed to be personal, how that source or story could impact someone who hears it.
Once you have these three things just jot them down in a table like the one below.
| Scripture | Story | Testimony |
|---|---|---|
| Matt 22:36-39 | Neighbor loved my sister-in-law when her son was in hospital | While we were far away, and couldn’t be there, we were comforted knowing someone was watching over them. |
The simplest form of this talk is to share the scripture, then the story, then the testimony. That will be a short, 2-3 minute talk.
Here’s the key: Repeat this same framework as much as you need to in order to fill whatever time you have allotted to you. This also works great as a brainstorming session so you can find what topics actually resonate with you and your audience.
So, if you need to give a fifteen minute talk, you could have about five rounds of SST—more or less depending on how fast you talk when you’re nervous standing in front of people!
| Scripture | Story | Testimony |
|---|---|---|
| Matt 22:36-39 - 2 great commandments | Neighbor loved my sister-in-law when her son was in hospital | While we were far away, and couldn’t be there, we were comforted knowing someone was watching over them. |
| Good Samaritan | Watched people help someone who got fell down stairs in a public place | People who didn’t know this person sprung into action |
| Nelson - Luputa - Running Water | People helped provide access to a mountain spring 18 miles away from their city of over 100,000 people with NO running water | We don’t help provide clean water that can travel 18 miles, but we can do little things |
| Feed my sheep, John 21:15–17. | How my youth leaders have shown me love | I can show love to others by feeding His sheep |
| By love serve one another, Gal. 5:13. | When we love others we serve them - serving my kids instead of demanding they do chores | I can show love by serving others. |
Here’s where this is powerful: Even if you are shy, nervous, or afraid, you can give this talk based on this table.
Once you have completed this table with whatever length of talk you need, you can start writing or outlining your talk.
This is how you go about writing your talk
- To set up a source or scripture, share the things that people need to understand if they don’t know that source.
- Transition to your story with phrases like “This applies to us by…” or “You can apply this to your life like…” or “Here’s where this really impacts us…”
- Tie your story and your scripture together with a testimony. How does this apply to you personally? What experiences or evidence have you seen of this in your life? Share that with your audience.
Once you have this system in place, the talk falls together quite nicely.
You can go as deep as you need to for the scripture, story, and testimony. Then repeat as many times as you need to for time’s sake.
If you’re comfortable with just an outline, this process keeps you on track, helps you remember where you are, and helps you know what is next.
Common pitfalls using this method:
How do I say this?
A lot of times, people get lost on trying to focus on how to say a specific word or phrase in their talk. Don’t worry about this until you have your scripture, story, and testimony table filled out. Once those are filled out, you have your outline and can make it how you want it.
What if I can’t find the right scripture or story?
That’s the whole point of the talk. Find those things that illustrate or explain what you need to focus on. The stories will follow once you cite something. Because the simple question is: What’s a story that illustrates what this quote is saying?
What if I don’t have much time to prepare?
The real beauty of this system is that you don’t need a lot of time to prepare. You can be asked to give a talk and be ready with about 45 seconds of jotting down ideas, stories, and your testimony. For me, if I needed to give a 45 minute talk, I could do it on many different subjects, because I would just use this process and go deep on each aspect of it.
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Giving a talk is not just about the speaking part, but also about the preparation part, which is what I’m going to address here. ↩