The TED Commandments... for preachers?

Thanks to Maggi on her blog for the TED commandments...

TED - whose web strapline is: Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world - hosts speakers each year, presenting on topics ranging as widely as the latest advances in technology to cultural or philosophical proposals. If you've never watched any of the TED videos (and I've linked to quite a few in the past), then go and have a surf - you won't agree with all you hear and you'll find most of the provoking and thoughtful.

And how do they keep their speakers' input at such a high standard? Apparently, these are the ten commandments they send to their speakers - and several of them are particularly appropriate for preachers to chew on:

2. Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.

3. Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.

4. Thou Shalt Tell a Story.

6. Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego. Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thyFailure as well as thy Success.

8. Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.

9. Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.

10. Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee.

Challenging stuff, especially for those of us who preach regularly - would be an interesting exercise, though not one for the faint-hearted or insecure, to get some scoring on the above for any given sermon! Not that I'm offering you understand...

Reckon Jesus would have scored pretty high!