Having Something to Say

This article from the Telegraph is about British politics, but it has everything to do with preaching. opinion.telegraph.co.uk – The Tories have hated themselves for long enough

Whenever the subject of charisma comes up, I remember a conversation with a foreign head of government who was renowned for the strength of his personal appeal. “What is the secret?” I asked, like the questing traveller in some Arabian legend. There wasn’t any secret, he said. Charisma was just what happened when you felt that you had something desperately important that you wanted to communicate urgently to your audience. Whenever he lost that sense of urgency, he could feel his public performance falling flat. It is the self-belief, the conviction that you hold a significant truth that you are determined to proselytise, that brings the vibrancy to your voice and the brightness to your eye that people call charisma.