Will the real Bill LaMorey please stand up!

As a communicator, I constantly study other communicators in order to learn from them so that I can improve at what I do. I think it's a healthy thing to do, but there is a danger because there is a fine line between inspiration and imitation; and when the latter happens you lose effectiveness because you are not being you. 

For example, Andy Stanley is one of my favorite communicators. He has been a great influence on me for awhile, and after reading his latest book on communication I was convinced to try emulating his outline-construction of one-point messages. There were elements I liked, but there were also some great frustrations in trying do do it exactly as he prescribed...because it's NOT ME. Andy Stanley and I are very different people. He is much smarter than I am, and I am much more funny than he is. He has almost 20,000 people attend his church, and I have less than 100 (maybe I better try harder at his techniques...). Bottom-line: The lesson I needed to learn from him was not to copy his style (VERY focused), but simply to learn some principles to help me in my own style (narrow the focus, etc.).

I had a freeing moment not long ago while listening to a Catalyst lab session of Craig Groeschel in which he pointed out the key strengths of many communicators and expressed admiration for them, but also pointed out how he's keenly aware that he's not them. But he is Craig, and that the best thing he could do is find HIS voice. Then he (and God through him to me) challenged me to "Find my voice." I have been in this process of trying to find my own voice from the beginning, but I think my last two messages (for better or worse) have been more "my voice" than ever.

I'm talking about a concept through the lens of my world, but I think this applies to much broader applications than preaching. God has a unique expression for all of us, and the biggest threat to our own creativity is the tendency to copycat (due to insecurity, laziness or whatever). As Rick Warren says, "The world doesn't need another Rick Warren (or whoever else), it needs it's first you!

Comments

[John Koontz]

Hey Bill,
good post, it made me think about homiletics class at Bible college.I could not believe how many of the guys sounded like Bob, and nothing like themselves

[Bill LaMorey]

John,

Yeah, you're right! And imitation may be an OK place to start, but it's a lousy place to end up!!!