We just wrapped day 2 of the Comm Lab. Who knew communication would be so intense? I really need to get to bed, but here are some quotes from today:
From Tim Downs' first message:
-"How you say what you say is as important as what you say."
-"If all we have is content, we die."
-"The non-Christian world is happy for us [Christians] to exist as long as we are marginalized."
-"The church must be profane." (Profane-meaning "outside the church." In other words we must go to the people and not wait for the people to come to us.)
-"If Christ is not significant outside the church, He is not significant inside the church." RC Sproul as quoted by Tim Downs
-"Paul's model was to first persuade, then if that's not working to proclaim."
-"Public speaking is dying to yourself in front of a group of people."
-"Think of the spotlight as an x-ray...The longer you stay in it you'll get a deadly disease."
Tim Muehlhoff talked about "The Power of Human Communication." Here are some quotes:
-"Most of us take communication for granted...I mean, we've been communicating our whole lives."
-"Dialog is to love what blood is to the body." (quoting another author)
-"Communication is God's gift to form connection."
Honestly, Muehlhoff talked about so much that it's hard to break it into some quotables. He really drilled down into the theory of communication on a deep level, asking "what is communication?" The whole point being we need to understand how complex it is to actually communicate with another person. Like he said at the start, we've done it our whole lives that we just take it for granted. And that's why most of us stink at it.
He just published a new book called "Authentic Communication" that we all got that I am very excited to read and recommend. You can buy it here if you like.
We also spent time in our coaching groups working on eye contact and gestures. We want to teach communication like you would a sport, so we are doing lots of hands-on coaching and drills in speaking mechanics. My group really made me proud as they stepped out of their comfort zones and tried some new skills.
So far the Comm Lab has exceeded my expectations! I'm beat, so it's off to bed but there will be more to come tomorrow...
fun to read those quotes bob. thanks for taking the time to pass it on.
the muehlhoff quotes really stand out. will be thinking about those for a while.
Posted by: Brian Barela | 04/06/2010 at 08:13 PM
man, the Comm Lab seems awesome. Wish i could of made it... especially would of liked to "drill" with work group. Sounds fun. thanks for blogging about it.
Posted by: Paul Nunez | 04/08/2010 at 11:08 AM