June 25, 2025 • 23 mins
Ever feel called to speak, teach, or lead—but wonder how to actually grow in it?
💬 Someone recently asked me:
1️⃣ What do you wish you knew before you started in ministry?
2️⃣ How do you practice and improve?
3️⃣ Does comedy just come naturally—or is it learned?
🔥 In this conversation, I unpack the honest truths about preparation, confidence, humor, and the not-so-glamorous grind behind public speaking and ministry communication. Whether you're leading in a pulpit, a classroom, or a boardroom—this one's for you.
🎧 Listen to the full episode now and take the next step in your growth as a communicator.
Thank you for taking the time to jump into Life, Hope, and Leadership with me. I hope you are encouraged today by our time together. Grab something to take notes with, and know I am praying for you and cheering you on in your walk with God. If you have questions about Jesus and Christianity, please take a moment to check out the following links: www.ghow.net/saved or www.pastornick.net.
Show your support or Jump into the conversations here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nick-chybrzynski Leave a comment and let us all know where you are watching from.
#PublicSpeakingTips #CommunicationMatters #LeadershipDevelopment #PreachingLife #SpeakWithPurpose #YoungLeaders #MinistryTraining #GrowthMindset #PodcastForLeaders #ChangeYourWorld #ChristianLeadership #LifeHopeLeadership #SpeakerLife
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
You are listening to the Life, Hope and Leadership Podcast with
Nick Shabrinsky. A transparent, honest and
encouraging podcast to equip youthrough real life experiences.
(00:23):
Hey, thank you guys for jumping in on these Life, Hope and
Leadership podcast with me. Nick Sabrinski, I hope that you
are enjoying the content that iscoming out of each and every
episode. If you are, it means the world
to me if you just take a second to hit that, like subscribe or
follow button on whatever platform you're listening on.
And do me a favor, send it to a few people you think would
benefit from the conversation. Also, don't forget that you can
(00:45):
jump into the dialogue of each episode on the Spotify app by
leaving comments about how you liked or disliked or whatever
your takeaways were from each episode.
So once again, thank you for being a part of the Life, Hope
and Leadership podcast communitywith me and all of those who are
listening. So let's jump into the next
episode of Life, Hope and Leadership. yo-yo, yo, what up
(01:07):
guys? I am vibe and on a Wednesday,
man, ready to get into action with y'all and thank you
everybody who has been listening, subscribing following
it has been cool. I've seen some bumps in listen
ship, so I'm just encouraged by it.
And if you're if you're getting stuff from these podcasts, do me
(01:28):
a favor, share it with someone, send it to him, subscribe
comment. I read the comments.
Appreciate you guys. Hope they keep getting better as
well. Work hard to try to stay fresh
on it and keep giving fresh and genuine and authentic content
for you. Today actually is a episode from
(01:51):
some Q&A I've actually had over the last few weeks.
A few folks from church and fromlife e-mail me, message me and
some giving me lists of questions that they have about
faith, life, leadership. And one of my brothers just got
married and he gave me this lista few weeks back.
(02:11):
And I'm really grateful to to goover these because a lot of
y'all listening right now might be thinking about doing a
podcast. Maybe you want to get better in
your ministry, maybe you want toget better in your skill set,
public communication, different things like that.
So a lot of these questions actually revolve around
communication. And I thought that this would be
(02:33):
cool to just do a couple a couple episodes that'll be
strictly based on communication,ministry, pioneering, kind of
growing in your gifts and talents.
And so the first question they gave me, and I'm not sure how
many we will get to per episode,but I hope that you get
something from it. And I also want you to know I'm
(02:53):
not I'm not reading a script. I'm like just giving you if we
were sitting at a coffee table. But I love that they asked me in
such a way that I could give back to to many that might
pursue this information from from me or whomever else.
So the first question was, what do you wish you knew before you
started ministry advice you wishyou received different things
(03:17):
like that. So one of the things that I wish
I would have known. And I guess what do I wish?
Not one thing because there's a lot of things I wish I would
have known. I'm grateful that where I went
to Bible college, he, although Idid not finish, one of my pastor
teachers there would often say that ministry is spelled WORK,
(03:41):
ministry spelled WORK. And I've actually never thought
about what I'm about to say until just now.
As I said that out loud to you guys, I realized that work is
spelled MINISTRY. Realistically, if you love the
Lord, then everything you do is ministry.
(04:03):
And I think the reason that I'm in ministry is because I
ministered everywhere I I was. But what do I wish I would have
known? And I'll tell you that that is
one thing I wish everybody knew is that ministry is spelled
WORK. Ministry is hard work and
there's ideas that the, the morequote UN quote successful you
(04:26):
get in ministry, the easier it should be or that other people
will do it for you. And you know, that's just that
is such a bunch of bull crap. And you have must, you must have
a tenacity for the vision and for the instruction that God has
given you for your life and, andto work hard for it no matter
(04:51):
what. To full obedience, full passion,
though it cost you everything you have.
What do I wish I would have known before I started
Generations House of worship or full time ministry as a pastor
that people don't have to be with you to be for you?
This took me a long time to understand and it was actually
(05:14):
after a big exodus in my life ofpeople leaving and some it was
impacted my wife and I impacted our church.
It impacted friendships, but I but the Lord told me something
that really helped me to stay open and close to people that
(05:34):
are no longer with me was that there are three types of people
in the world. Those who are for you, those who
are with you, and those who are against you.
A lot of people get a misconception that if people are
with you, they are for you. But I think we've all found out
that that it's often people thatare with you that actually you
(05:57):
find out were against you. So I wish I would have known
that, but I've learned that there are people who are for
you, even though they're not with you.
And a lot of times in ministry, you think, oh, if you were for
me, you would be with me. You would be serving with me or
be where I am. But there are many people in my
life that are nowhere near me geographically, Some who have
(06:17):
even left our church and maybe moved to another church or moved
to another city. But even even, and I'll say even
more, the, the ones that are close but went to another church
that they're like, no, I believein what you're doing, but I, but
it was time for me to change or a different direction.
And I just, I didn't get that early in my young ministry
years. It felt like an, a personal
(06:38):
attack when people would leave you and if people didn't support
you even in planting our church,I had, I had been heavily
involved in two ministries for majority of of my life at that
point. And, and nobody really did
anything to financially support our church plant.
And I like, there was a part of me that was like True Grit, like
(07:01):
it is what it is. And, and I understood that my,
that people that I had served under and, and loved and
believed in that they wanted me to learn.
I mean, I'm a learn the hard waykind of guy, not personally,
like I want to always learn the hard way, but I believe that
there are certain things that people, if they help you too
much, you just won't learn. And so I kind of leaned that way
(07:25):
because of the way I grew up. And sometimes it has failed me
because I have allowed myself tonot ask or to believe and help.
But on the other side, I, I wishI would have also been able in a
season of my life, not have taken that as an attack.
The people who weren't personally doing things that I,
(07:47):
they, they didn't see my need. Maybe I didn't ask for help.
Maybe they, maybe, maybe they don't owe you anything people.
And that's one thing that I think most people need to know
before it doesn't matter how anointed you are, nobody owes
you a thing. Whether you're planting a
church, whether you've worked for them, served under them,
(08:08):
helped them, been there for them, nobody owes you a thing.
And if you will learn that you will minister out of the
fullness of your relationship with Jesus and not for a
paycheck, not for a position, not for a title.
There's so many things that I that I would can answer when you
ask what do you wish I would have known?
(08:30):
Because there's two parts. It's like the things I wish I
would have known, the things I did know, and the things I wish
most people would know. So there's a lot with that.
And I guess I don't even know I could do a whole episode on
this. What is some things I wish I
would have known before I started ministry?
(08:50):
Gosh, man, I honestly, I, I just, there's so many.
So maybe I'll do a whole episodeon that one day, but let's jump
to the next question. How do you practice or
preaching? I assume that this is the
question is how do I practice preaching and communicating?
And this is someone who is interested in growing in their
(09:11):
communication skills. So one of the greatest ways to
practice is to listen to your audience.
A lot of times people think communicating is talking, but
really communicating is connecting.
So one of the greatest ways to practice communicating is to
(09:32):
learn to listen to others better.
And that is something I had to learn to do and something I'm
still learning. But because it doesn't matter
how, what's that saying? It does.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much
you care. So but the practically they
said, do you record yourself? Do you play it back?
Do you take notes? Do you you know, I've know
people that rehearse their sermons.
I don't I would not pragmatically tell people to to
(09:58):
do a lot of the way that that I,I do some things in
communication, but there are some things that I do to get
better. And it is I listen to a lot of
communication. I watch a lot of other people
communicate. I watch a lot of churches and
messages. I watch worship leaders,
pastors, teachers. I do listen to myself.
(10:19):
I don't like my voice, I don't like listening to myself.
And I get very, very critical when I listen to myself teach
because I get disappointed in things I could have said, should
have said, or shouldn't have said.
And so I'm OK with that. But it's OK and I want you to, I
want you to remember this for the rest of your life as you're
(10:39):
going to better yourself and help better others.
There is a difference between critique and critical.
So it is important to critique yourself.
It is very important not to be critical in yourself and I get
very critical on myself, so I listen to others.
Hey, what did you get from today's message?
(11:00):
What did you did? Is there anything that stuck
out? I will go to people that I look
up to, people I trust, people that are peers that I trust.
Hey, is there anything? What did you think about what I
said? What do you think about my
message? Is there anything that was
lacking? Is there anything I could have
said, anything I shouldn't have said?
And then I do listen, but I do take notes.
(11:22):
I take notes all week long for Sun, for a Sunday message, for
instance. I think about it all day long
everyday. I'm constantly ruminating over a
thought. And then typically for me, I
shut Saturdays down and I'll really lean into putting it all
together. And then I use AI, ChatGPT and
(11:43):
I'll say, hey, here's my message, my notes.
Can you put it all into order for me?
Remove redundancy and help me have a streamline for thirty,
3540 minutes and it'll actually help me stay on par.
Now I put everything I'm teaching in it and ask it to
organize it. I'm not, I'm not.
(12:04):
You can't listen. Don't use ChatGPT for
inspiration. You can use it for affirmation.
You can use it. You can use it for some
inspiration, but not what you'regoing to inspire others with.
You can use it to inspire yourself, but you must regret.
You must have your own hamburgerif you're going to feed others
(12:25):
and give them what's it? What's cooking.
OK, so that is one of the way, as I also practiced when I was
in Bible college, I failed miserably at sermon prep, but
then I passed very, very well insermon delivery and it was like
all my teachers were like, dude,your sermon prep stuff like your
notes are crazy. But that's one of my gifts.
(12:45):
And one of my problems, my weakness and my strength is my
mind is colorful and pictorial and abstract.
I see things in different ways. And so my notes make sense to
me, but they they probably when it makes sense to most.
And so that has been difficult for me when it comes to when it
(13:10):
used to come to staying on point.
I really had to get better and not rabbit trailing going off.
And I still do that because I have a very, very just a lot
going on in that Dome upstairs, right?
But, but I, I noticed, OK, I need to be more streamlined.
So if I'm not very good at putting practical outlines
(13:30):
together for, for order of thought, then I, I use my tools
and my assets to make that happen.
So part of practicing is gettingbetter tools, right?
It's good to be hit a bullseye with the crappiest bow on the
block. But like, if you got a really
good bow, you could hit that bullseye easier.
But you're going to have to learn now how to shoot a better
(13:50):
bow because you're you're not going to have to handicap.
And so I say that because there are a lot of people who get
they're like, Oh, I can't use that.
It's like cheating. And it's not, you know, I can't
use, you know, logo, so I can't use the like I have to flip the
book open. And no, dude, get your resources
together. And, and I would rather you have
more time to ruminate over what you're going to teach rather
(14:13):
than taking time to find it. If you can shorten the time to
find the information of that Godis giving you and dropping in
your spirit, then then you can practice more time talking about
it, thinking about it. So my wife gives me feedback.
She tells me things, she tells me what not to say.
And, and men, please, you know, I don't care.
I am my wife is submitted to me,but I'm also submitted to my
(14:34):
wife and she tells me things andI think about it and I tell her
she's wrong and I basically listen to her without her
knowing. So that's not always, but
sometimes. OK, so I do not rehearse my
sermons. I typically don't even preach my
sermons the way that I put them in notes.
I, I, I, I'm trying to get, likeI said, get better at that.
(14:55):
So in the question it does ask, do you, you know, do you play it
back? Yes, sometimes.
Do you take notes, notes all dayevery day?
And, and, and then I, I don't repeat.
It is weird because I do preach twice on Sundays typically.
And so that's weird because sometimes I'm like, oh gosh, I
think I said that already #3 does comedy come natural to me?
(15:17):
You know, everybody has their sense of comedy.
And I think part of engaging andconnecting with your audience is
learning where your style of, ofcomedy is.
Like the thing you humor, The thing is your dry humor.
You have people just different types of humor, right?
I actually like I, my wife wouldroll her eyes because she tells
(15:39):
me I'm funny all that. I don't think I'm that funny and
I don't like, I have friends whoare so funny, my friend Travis,
my friend Gianni, like my friendJeremy.
They are just stupid funny people.
They are so funny. And so I, when I'm around them,
I feel it's, it's funny because I like, I watch them for the
humor. But there's a lot of times when
(16:01):
I'm with them that I'm like, Oh my God, like, like I'm like,
don't even feel like I'm on the Richter scale.
So I guess I know that comedy helps us adhere with one
another. This world's too serious.
And so I love to make people laugh.
Although I don't think of myselfas a very funny person, I will
(16:23):
do everything I can do to get someone to know Jesus and often
to help break the tension. I don't want you sad.
I don't want you defeated. I want you to, to know that God
loves you. I want you to know that life
will go on, that we can keep moving forward.
You know, we're so anxious and depressed in this world.
(16:46):
So I, I was always silly as a baby, as a kid.
I, I have home videos of me just, you know, shaking my butt
at the camera and just being goofy.
I was weird. And that's probably more like
how I probably would, would I would define myself, define
myself as weird more than funny growing up and very quirky.
(17:12):
I made sound effects and noises and tongues in my voice and, you
know, I like, you know, cry likea baby.
I just did weird stuff and can Ithink by being that way, and I
think this is what I started offwith, I think by being that way,
I started to really find me. And there's a lot of me that's
(17:34):
hurting a lot of me that is broken.
A lot of me that is God is stillrestoring and healing and I'm
still discovering, right? And I think we should all be in
that place. But there are parts of me that
when I gave my heart to Jesus at15, like I started to become OK
with me. And then I went through a season
(17:55):
of my life where parts of my like physical, I became really
ashamed of and really embarrassed by my height and
losing my hair. I was, you know, I, I don't,
there was a lot of stuff that I just wished that I could have
changed. But but there.
But sadly, you know, those things do come and go.
But but when I became a Christian, there was a part of
(18:16):
me that I started being OK with.I started being OK with my voice
the way that I sounded. I, I don't like to hit listen to
myself. I think everybody feels that
way. It, I think it'd be weird if you
did. But like I started, I didn't
stop trying to change my voice for others, you know what I
mean? But not to not contradicting
what I said. I don't like it listening to
(18:38):
myself, but I'd also back and when, when I was younger, I was
embarrassed by my voice. I, you know, I, I, I was a
loner. I was afraid to engage people
and I just started getting better at that.
I started loving people. I started really connecting and
started being bold in my faith in Christ.
(19:01):
And when I started learning how to tell others about my faith, I
started learning how to connect with people and to hear what
they were really trying to say. And so bringing humor into that
I knew was important. I study the psychology of
communication a lot and humor and, and I feel like, man, if,
if there's something funny we can say without derailing the
(19:25):
deep that that's important. And I was really taken back by
the question, to be honest, I didn't write down any answers.
I, I might regret some of the answers.
I doubt it, but like, if I do, I'll come back.
Maybe I'd regret not saying enough or saying it the wrong
way, but I was taken back when Iread this comedy natural come
(19:49):
naturally because I really couldn't say no and I can't
really say yes. My mom told me that we had a
family that took my mom and whenmy mom's mom died, and that was
when my mom was 17 or 18, her mother died.
So I never knew my grandmother, barely knew my grandfather and
never knew my biological grandparents really.
(20:10):
On my dad's side. I've only met my dad like one
time and so. I don't really know where I come
from, but this family that took my mom in the grandfather, my
what would have been my like my we call them Graham and grandpa
or grandma and grandpa. But but I didn't know him.
(20:34):
But my mom said that when he held me as a baby that she that
he said I would be a comedian. I remember my mom told me that
story. So I think it's funny that he
said that and then I read this question.
I can't really say it does or doesn't.
I think I had to find me. And the way that I can make
people laugh and not try to be somebody else.
(20:56):
And as we go into this communication episodes and
ministry episodes, I think that that is one of the most
important things that I wish I would have known before I
started, and I wish that everybody would know is that you
really have to know you and findyou.
When I went to Bible college, I think that I was feeling like I
(21:16):
had to fit into a box. And about the first year in, I
was done with that box. A lot of stuff happened between
then and it really changed the way I saw church myself,
ministry, and then a lot of stuff happened after that.
You have to know that God chose you.
He didn't choose you to be Stephen Furtick, Benny Hinn, you
(21:37):
know, Billy Graham, Nick Chabrinsky.
He didn't, he didn't pick you upand, and pull you out of
darkness and bring him, bring you into his marvelous light so
that you could be Joyce Meyer orChristine Kane or I don't know
some names. He, he died for you.
(21:59):
And he, he, I believe God truly is pleasured to the fullness of
his heart. When you communicate naturally
from a relationship with him, you experience comedy because
you're not oppressed. You love to laugh and that you
are sharing from an overflow of who you are in him.
(22:24):
All right guys, that's episode 1.
I, I, I hope this helps. I'm grateful to answer
questions. I got another 4 sheets coming,
so I hope you're enjoying these.Please let me know how you like
them and if they're helping you,please subscribe, like, share,
follow Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all those things.
All right guys, love you, thank you, appreciate you.
(22:46):
Have a great day and hope this episode blessed you.
You are listening to the Life, Hope and Leadership Podcast with
Nick Sabrinsky, A transparent, honest and encouraging podcast
to equip you through real life experiences.
You are listening to the Life, Hope and Leadership Podcast with
Nick Shabrinsky. A transparent, honest and
encouraging podcast to equip youthrough real life experiences.
(00:23):
Hey, thank you guys for jumping in on these Life, Hope and
Leadership podcast with me. Nick Sabrinski, I hope that you
are enjoying the content that iscoming out of each and every
episode. If you are, it means the world
to me if you just take a second to hit that, like subscribe or
follow button on whatever platform you're listening on.
And do me a favor, send it to a few people you think would
benefit from the conversation. Also, don't forget that you can
(00:45):
jump into the dialogue of each episode on the Spotify app by
leaving comments about how you liked or disliked or whatever
your takeaways were from each episode.
So once again, thank you for being a part of the Life, Hope
and Leadership podcast communitywith me and all of those who are
listening. So let's jump into the next
episode of Life, Hope and Leadership. yo-yo, yo, what up
(01:07):
guys? I am vibe and on a Wednesday,
man, ready to get into action with y'all and thank you
everybody who has been listening, subscribing following
it has been cool. I've seen some bumps in listen
ship, so I'm just encouraged by it.
And if you're if you're getting stuff from these podcasts, do me
(01:28):
a favor, share it with someone, send it to him, subscribe
comment. I read the comments.
Appreciate you guys. Hope they keep getting better as
well. Work hard to try to stay fresh
on it and keep giving fresh and genuine and authentic content
for you. Today actually is a episode from
(01:51):
some Q&A I've actually had over the last few weeks.
A few folks from church and fromlife e-mail me, message me and
some giving me lists of questions that they have about
faith, life, leadership. And one of my brothers just got
married and he gave me this lista few weeks back.
(02:11):
And I'm really grateful to to goover these because a lot of
y'all listening right now might be thinking about doing a
podcast. Maybe you want to get better in
your ministry, maybe you want toget better in your skill set,
public communication, different things like that.
So a lot of these questions actually revolve around
communication. And I thought that this would be
(02:33):
cool to just do a couple a couple episodes that'll be
strictly based on communication,ministry, pioneering, kind of
growing in your gifts and talents.
And so the first question they gave me, and I'm not sure how
many we will get to per episode,but I hope that you get
something from it. And I also want you to know I'm
(02:53):
not I'm not reading a script. I'm like just giving you if we
were sitting at a coffee table. But I love that they asked me in
such a way that I could give back to to many that might
pursue this information from from me or whomever else.
So the first question was, what do you wish you knew before you
started ministry advice you wishyou received different things
(03:17):
like that. So one of the things that I wish
I would have known. And I guess what do I wish?
Not one thing because there's a lot of things I wish I would
have known. I'm grateful that where I went
to Bible college, he, although Idid not finish, one of my pastor
teachers there would often say that ministry is spelled WORK,
(03:41):
ministry spelled WORK. And I've actually never thought
about what I'm about to say until just now.
As I said that out loud to you guys, I realized that work is
spelled MINISTRY. Realistically, if you love the
Lord, then everything you do is ministry.
(04:03):
And I think the reason that I'm in ministry is because I
ministered everywhere I I was. But what do I wish I would have
known? And I'll tell you that that is
one thing I wish everybody knew is that ministry is spelled
WORK. Ministry is hard work and
there's ideas that the, the morequote UN quote successful you
(04:26):
get in ministry, the easier it should be or that other people
will do it for you. And you know, that's just that
is such a bunch of bull crap. And you have must, you must have
a tenacity for the vision and for the instruction that God has
given you for your life and, andto work hard for it no matter
(04:51):
what. To full obedience, full passion,
though it cost you everything you have.
What do I wish I would have known before I started
Generations House of worship or full time ministry as a pastor
that people don't have to be with you to be for you?
This took me a long time to understand and it was actually
(05:14):
after a big exodus in my life ofpeople leaving and some it was
impacted my wife and I impacted our church.
It impacted friendships, but I but the Lord told me something
that really helped me to stay open and close to people that
(05:34):
are no longer with me was that there are three types of people
in the world. Those who are for you, those who
are with you, and those who are against you.
A lot of people get a misconception that if people are
with you, they are for you. But I think we've all found out
that that it's often people thatare with you that actually you
(05:57):
find out were against you. So I wish I would have known
that, but I've learned that there are people who are for
you, even though they're not with you.
And a lot of times in ministry, you think, oh, if you were for
me, you would be with me. You would be serving with me or
be where I am. But there are many people in my
life that are nowhere near me geographically, Some who have
(06:17):
even left our church and maybe moved to another church or moved
to another city. But even even, and I'll say even
more, the, the ones that are close but went to another church
that they're like, no, I believein what you're doing, but I, but
it was time for me to change or a different direction.
And I just, I didn't get that early in my young ministry
years. It felt like an, a personal
(06:38):
attack when people would leave you and if people didn't support
you even in planting our church,I had, I had been heavily
involved in two ministries for majority of of my life at that
point. And, and nobody really did
anything to financially support our church plant.
And I like, there was a part of me that was like True Grit, like
(07:01):
it is what it is. And, and I understood that my,
that people that I had served under and, and loved and
believed in that they wanted me to learn.
I mean, I'm a learn the hard waykind of guy, not personally,
like I want to always learn the hard way, but I believe that
there are certain things that people, if they help you too
much, you just won't learn. And so I kind of leaned that way
(07:25):
because of the way I grew up. And sometimes it has failed me
because I have allowed myself tonot ask or to believe and help.
But on the other side, I, I wishI would have also been able in a
season of my life, not have taken that as an attack.
The people who weren't personally doing things that I,
(07:47):
they, they didn't see my need. Maybe I didn't ask for help.
Maybe they, maybe, maybe they don't owe you anything people.
And that's one thing that I think most people need to know
before it doesn't matter how anointed you are, nobody owes
you a thing. Whether you're planting a
church, whether you've worked for them, served under them,
(08:08):
helped them, been there for them, nobody owes you a thing.
And if you will learn that you will minister out of the
fullness of your relationship with Jesus and not for a
paycheck, not for a position, not for a title.
There's so many things that I that I would can answer when you
ask what do you wish I would have known?
(08:30):
Because there's two parts. It's like the things I wish I
would have known, the things I did know, and the things I wish
most people would know. So there's a lot with that.
And I guess I don't even know I could do a whole episode on
this. What is some things I wish I
would have known before I started ministry?
(08:50):
Gosh, man, I honestly, I, I just, there's so many.
So maybe I'll do a whole episodeon that one day, but let's jump
to the next question. How do you practice or
preaching? I assume that this is the
question is how do I practice preaching and communicating?
And this is someone who is interested in growing in their
(09:11):
communication skills. So one of the greatest ways to
practice is to listen to your audience.
A lot of times people think communicating is talking, but
really communicating is connecting.
So one of the greatest ways to practice communicating is to
(09:32):
learn to listen to others better.
And that is something I had to learn to do and something I'm
still learning. But because it doesn't matter
how, what's that saying? It does.
People don't care how much you know until they know how much
you care. So but the practically they
said, do you record yourself? Do you play it back?
Do you take notes? Do you you know, I've know
people that rehearse their sermons.
I don't I would not pragmatically tell people to to
(09:58):
do a lot of the way that that I,I do some things in
communication, but there are some things that I do to get
better. And it is I listen to a lot of
communication. I watch a lot of other people
communicate. I watch a lot of churches and
messages. I watch worship leaders,
pastors, teachers. I do listen to myself.
(10:19):
I don't like my voice, I don't like listening to myself.
And I get very, very critical when I listen to myself teach
because I get disappointed in things I could have said, should
have said, or shouldn't have said.
And so I'm OK with that. But it's OK and I want you to, I
want you to remember this for the rest of your life as you're
(10:39):
going to better yourself and help better others.
There is a difference between critique and critical.
So it is important to critique yourself.
It is very important not to be critical in yourself and I get
very critical on myself, so I listen to others.
Hey, what did you get from today's message?
(11:00):
What did you did? Is there anything that stuck
out? I will go to people that I look
up to, people I trust, people that are peers that I trust.
Hey, is there anything? What did you think about what I
said? What do you think about my
message? Is there anything that was
lacking? Is there anything I could have
said, anything I shouldn't have said?
And then I do listen, but I do take notes.
(11:22):
I take notes all week long for Sun, for a Sunday message, for
instance. I think about it all day long
everyday. I'm constantly ruminating over a
thought. And then typically for me, I
shut Saturdays down and I'll really lean into putting it all
together. And then I use AI, ChatGPT and
(11:43):
I'll say, hey, here's my message, my notes.
Can you put it all into order for me?
Remove redundancy and help me have a streamline for thirty,
3540 minutes and it'll actually help me stay on par.
Now I put everything I'm teaching in it and ask it to
organize it. I'm not, I'm not.
(12:04):
You can't listen. Don't use ChatGPT for
inspiration. You can use it for affirmation.
You can use it. You can use it for some
inspiration, but not what you'regoing to inspire others with.
You can use it to inspire yourself, but you must regret.
You must have your own hamburgerif you're going to feed others
(12:25):
and give them what's it? What's cooking.
OK, so that is one of the way, as I also practiced when I was
in Bible college, I failed miserably at sermon prep, but
then I passed very, very well insermon delivery and it was like
all my teachers were like, dude,your sermon prep stuff like your
notes are crazy. But that's one of my gifts.
(12:45):
And one of my problems, my weakness and my strength is my
mind is colorful and pictorial and abstract.
I see things in different ways. And so my notes make sense to
me, but they they probably when it makes sense to most.
And so that has been difficult for me when it comes to when it
(13:10):
used to come to staying on point.
I really had to get better and not rabbit trailing going off.
And I still do that because I have a very, very just a lot
going on in that Dome upstairs, right?
But, but I, I noticed, OK, I need to be more streamlined.
So if I'm not very good at putting practical outlines
(13:30):
together for, for order of thought, then I, I use my tools
and my assets to make that happen.
So part of practicing is gettingbetter tools, right?
It's good to be hit a bullseye with the crappiest bow on the
block. But like, if you got a really
good bow, you could hit that bullseye easier.
But you're going to have to learn now how to shoot a better
(13:50):
bow because you're you're not going to have to handicap.
And so I say that because there are a lot of people who get
they're like, Oh, I can't use that.
It's like cheating. And it's not, you know, I can't
use, you know, logo, so I can't use the like I have to flip the
book open. And no, dude, get your resources
together. And, and I would rather you have
more time to ruminate over what you're going to teach rather
(14:13):
than taking time to find it. If you can shorten the time to
find the information of that Godis giving you and dropping in
your spirit, then then you can practice more time talking about
it, thinking about it. So my wife gives me feedback.
She tells me things, she tells me what not to say.
And, and men, please, you know, I don't care.
I am my wife is submitted to me,but I'm also submitted to my
(14:34):
wife and she tells me things andI think about it and I tell her
she's wrong and I basically listen to her without her
knowing. So that's not always, but
sometimes. OK, so I do not rehearse my
sermons. I typically don't even preach my
sermons the way that I put them in notes.
I, I, I, I'm trying to get, likeI said, get better at that.
(14:55):
So in the question it does ask, do you, you know, do you play it
back? Yes, sometimes.
Do you take notes, notes all dayevery day?
And, and, and then I, I don't repeat.
It is weird because I do preach twice on Sundays typically.
And so that's weird because sometimes I'm like, oh gosh, I
think I said that already #3 does comedy come natural to me?
(15:17):
You know, everybody has their sense of comedy.
And I think part of engaging andconnecting with your audience is
learning where your style of, ofcomedy is.
Like the thing you humor, The thing is your dry humor.
You have people just different types of humor, right?
I actually like I, my wife wouldroll her eyes because she tells
(15:39):
me I'm funny all that. I don't think I'm that funny and
I don't like, I have friends whoare so funny, my friend Travis,
my friend Gianni, like my friendJeremy.
They are just stupid funny people.
They are so funny. And so I, when I'm around them,
I feel it's, it's funny because I like, I watch them for the
humor. But there's a lot of times when
(16:01):
I'm with them that I'm like, Oh my God, like, like I'm like,
don't even feel like I'm on the Richter scale.
So I guess I know that comedy helps us adhere with one
another. This world's too serious.
And so I love to make people laugh.
Although I don't think of myselfas a very funny person, I will
(16:23):
do everything I can do to get someone to know Jesus and often
to help break the tension. I don't want you sad.
I don't want you defeated. I want you to, to know that God
loves you. I want you to know that life
will go on, that we can keep moving forward.
You know, we're so anxious and depressed in this world.
(16:46):
So I, I was always silly as a baby, as a kid.
I, I have home videos of me just, you know, shaking my butt
at the camera and just being goofy.
I was weird. And that's probably more like
how I probably would, would I would define myself, define
myself as weird more than funny growing up and very quirky.
(17:12):
I made sound effects and noises and tongues in my voice and, you
know, I like, you know, cry likea baby.
I just did weird stuff and can Ithink by being that way, and I
think this is what I started offwith, I think by being that way,
I started to really find me. And there's a lot of me that's
(17:34):
hurting a lot of me that is broken.
A lot of me that is God is stillrestoring and healing and I'm
still discovering, right? And I think we should all be in
that place. But there are parts of me that
when I gave my heart to Jesus at15, like I started to become OK
with me. And then I went through a season
(17:55):
of my life where parts of my like physical, I became really
ashamed of and really embarrassed by my height and
losing my hair. I was, you know, I, I don't,
there was a lot of stuff that I just wished that I could have
changed. But but there.
But sadly, you know, those things do come and go.
But but when I became a Christian, there was a part of
(18:16):
me that I started being OK with.I started being OK with my voice
the way that I sounded. I, I don't like to hit listen to
myself. I think everybody feels that
way. It, I think it'd be weird if you
did. But like I started, I didn't
stop trying to change my voice for others, you know what I
mean? But not to not contradicting
what I said. I don't like it listening to
(18:38):
myself, but I'd also back and when, when I was younger, I was
embarrassed by my voice. I, you know, I, I, I was a
loner. I was afraid to engage people
and I just started getting better at that.
I started loving people. I started really connecting and
started being bold in my faith in Christ.
(19:01):
And when I started learning how to tell others about my faith, I
started learning how to connect with people and to hear what
they were really trying to say. And so bringing humor into that
I knew was important. I study the psychology of
communication a lot and humor and, and I feel like, man, if,
if there's something funny we can say without derailing the
(19:25):
deep that that's important. And I was really taken back by
the question, to be honest, I didn't write down any answers.
I, I might regret some of the answers.
I doubt it, but like, if I do, I'll come back.
Maybe I'd regret not saying enough or saying it the wrong
way, but I was taken back when Iread this comedy natural come
(19:49):
naturally because I really couldn't say no and I can't
really say yes. My mom told me that we had a
family that took my mom and whenmy mom's mom died, and that was
when my mom was 17 or 18, her mother died.
So I never knew my grandmother, barely knew my grandfather and
never knew my biological grandparents really.
(20:10):
On my dad's side. I've only met my dad like one
time and so. I don't really know where I come
from, but this family that took my mom in the grandfather, my
what would have been my like my we call them Graham and grandpa
or grandma and grandpa. But but I didn't know him.
(20:34):
But my mom said that when he held me as a baby that she that
he said I would be a comedian. I remember my mom told me that
story. So I think it's funny that he
said that and then I read this question.
I can't really say it does or doesn't.
I think I had to find me. And the way that I can make
people laugh and not try to be somebody else.
(20:56):
And as we go into this communication episodes and
ministry episodes, I think that that is one of the most
important things that I wish I would have known before I
started, and I wish that everybody would know is that you
really have to know you and findyou.
When I went to Bible college, I think that I was feeling like I
(21:16):
had to fit into a box. And about the first year in, I
was done with that box. A lot of stuff happened between
then and it really changed the way I saw church myself,
ministry, and then a lot of stuff happened after that.
You have to know that God chose you.
He didn't choose you to be Stephen Furtick, Benny Hinn, you
(21:37):
know, Billy Graham, Nick Chabrinsky.
He didn't, he didn't pick you upand, and pull you out of
darkness and bring him, bring you into his marvelous light so
that you could be Joyce Meyer orChristine Kane or I don't know
some names. He, he died for you.
(21:59):
And he, he, I believe God truly is pleasured to the fullness of
his heart. When you communicate naturally
from a relationship with him, you experience comedy because
you're not oppressed. You love to laugh and that you
are sharing from an overflow of who you are in him.
(22:24):
All right guys, that's episode 1.
I, I, I hope this helps. I'm grateful to answer
questions. I got another 4 sheets coming,
so I hope you're enjoying these.Please let me know how you like
them and if they're helping you,please subscribe, like, share,
follow Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all those things.
All right guys, love you, thank you, appreciate you.
(22:46):
Have a great day and hope this episode blessed you.
You are listening to the Life, Hope and Leadership Podcast with
Nick Sabrinsky, A transparent, honest and encouraging podcast
to equip you through real life experiences.
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