Authenticity

Over two thousand years ago, the ancient Greeks spent a lot of time thinking about how to persuade an audience to take a certain position or course of action. In our world, we tend to focus most of our attention to what the Greeks called the logos dimension of persuasion. This is the actual logical argument.

What the Greeks realized is that it was equally important – in fact, sometimes more important – to pay attention to whether your audience trusted you (the ethos dimension) and to the intuitions and feelings of the audience (the pathos dimension). If an audience doesn’t trust you, it may not matter how solid your argument is. Also, among us fallen human beings, emotion frequently wins over logic.

Believe it or not, we see New Testament authors like Paul using some of these Greek modes of appeal. Paul spends the first two chapters of Galatians assuring them that they can trust what he teaches. The book of Philemon is filled with subtle emotional appeals. For example, even though Paul is writing to one person, the whole church is listening in on the conversation… PEER PRESSURE!!!

Accordingly, our first piece of advice for you as a presenter is to be trustworthy. You might wonder, “How do I do that?” You do that by being authentic. You do that by treating your audience with respect (no condescension, please). You do that by coming across as fair to those who might disagree with you.

As the video overview mentioned, authenticity wins out over professionalism every time. Don’t worry about something like having a teleprompter to record your videos. Be natural.

Most people will resonate with a more relational, personal feel. This sense happens when the audience feels like you’re really talking to them rather than reading something. Authenticity, relatability – these will connect you with your audience much more strongly than polish and professionalism.