Bob Fuhs

Comm Lab Day 2

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...

Comm Lab Day 1

I am in Westfield, Indiana for a training event for Campus Crusade staff called the Comm Lab and I'm hoping to post some of my learnings throughout the week. The Comm Lab grew out of a training program CCC used to offer for staff and students that I went through during the summer of 1991 in Colorado as a senior in college. I came out of that training with 2 talks I wrote designed to present the message of Christ in a relevant way to groups like a dorm floor or a fraternity. My last semester in college I spoke to groups in every dorm on campus and that training changed my life. Now I am part of the faculty and design team providing the training. Wow...how time has flown! Content will come mainly from Tim Downs, speaker and author as well as Dr. Tim Muehlhoff, a professor at Biola University and a popular speaker in his own right. I'm excited to share with you ove the next couple days some of the insights from these two stellar communicators. To be continued...

Emcee and Weekly Meeting Training Audio

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