How to Give an LDS Talk That Actually Sounds Like You
- Salvatore Santaniello
- Jan 1, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 1
Being asked to speak in church is weird.
A member of the bishopric says, “We would love for you to speak next Sunday,” and suddenly your brain forgets how regular people talk. You sit down to write something spiritual; and thirty minutes later you sound like a conference talk, a lesson manual, and a greeting card got trapped in the same body.
That is not the goal.
In April 1998 General Conference, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave a talk called “A Teacher Come from God.” In it, he said most people do not come to church just looking for a few new gospel facts.
Thank goodness; because most of us are not walking into sacrament meeting hoping someone finally explains the entire plan of salvation with a color-coded handout.
People come because life has been kicking them around all week. They come tired. They come worried. They come grieving; ashamed; hopeful; confused; faithful; barely faithful; or just glad they got everybody dressed and into the building without saying something they now have to repent for.
They come needing something real.
A good LDS talk does not have to sound polished. It does not need six quotes; three scriptures; a pioneer story; and one suspiciously perfect spiritual experience from your teenage years.
It needs one truth that actually matters to you.
Maybe forgiveness has been on your mind because you are still trying to figure out how to give it. Maybe prayer matters because lately yours have sounded less like prayers and more like, “Heavenly Father; I have no idea what I am doing here.” Maybe grace matters because you finally realized repentance is not God standing over you with a clipboard; it is Christ opening the door again.
That is a talk.
Elder Holland said people come wanting peace; wanting their faith strengthened; wanting their hope renewed. That means the best place to start is probably not, “What topic can I make sound impressive?”
It is: “What has God been teaching me the hard way?”
That is usually where the good stuff is anyway.
Real Life Is Allowed in Church
There is a strange temptation when speaking in church to pretend the gospel has only helped us in tidy; easily explained situations.
But real life is not tidy. Real life is marriages; funerals; kids; bills; mistakes; loneliness; second chances; and prayers that took a long time to get answered.
Sometimes the most honest thing a person can say from the pulpit is, “I have needed Jesus Christ too.”
That does not mean unloading every painful detail of your life on a room full of people who were just trying to peacefully take the sacrament. Some things stay sacred. Some things stay private.
But honesty is different from oversharing.
You can talk about the season when your faith felt thin. You can talk about learning patience from a child who apparently was sent to earth specifically to test the limits of the word patience. You can talk about the mistake that taught you more about mercy than years of hearing the word mercy ever did.
Elder Holland warned about giving people the spiritual equivalent of junk food; something that fills time but does not actually nourish anyone.
People can tell the difference.
They can tell when someone is speaking from a life that has actually needed the gospel.
Use Scripture; Just Do Not Hide Behind It
Scripture belongs in a talk. So do the words of prophets. But nobody is blessed because you speed-read seven quotes in twelve minutes like the pulpit is about to close.
One scripture that means something to you can do more than an entire stack of quotations that never really lands anywhere.
Read it. Sit with it for a second. Tell people why it mattered when you needed it.
That is why Elder Holland’s message hits so well. He was not asking Church members to become impressive speakers. He was asking them to feed people; to offer something with enough truth and Spirit in it that somebody leaves stronger than they came in.
That is a much better goal than trying to sound like you personally wrote the footnotes in the Gospel Library app.
Somebody in That Room Needs the Real Version
Somewhere in the chapel is someone carrying something heavy.
They may look fine. Church is full of people who have become very good at looking fine for two hours on Sunday.
But somebody is grieving. Somebody is wondering if the Lord is tired of them. Somebody is holding a marriage together with prayer and duct tape. Somebody is sitting through the meeting hoping for one small reason not to quit.
Speak to that person.
Not with a perfect version of faith that makes them feel even worse. Not with a list of things they should be doing better. Give them the Savior.
Give them the Christ who stays with people in the middle of the mess. The Christ who forgives. The Christ who helps people stand back up. The Christ who has never once required a clean life before He was willing to enter it.
That is the nourishment Elder Holland was talking about.
A Testimony Can Sound Like You
The ending does not have to be dramatic.
There is no rule that says your voice has to drop three octaves; your eyes have to get glassy; and every sentence has to begin with, “Brothers and sisters; I just want you to know...”
Say what is true.
I know the Savior has not given up on me.
I know prayer still matters; even when I do not understand the answer.
I know grace is real because I have needed more of it than I ever wanted to admit.
That is enough.
Elder Holland said people come to church hoping for peace; strengthened faith; and renewed hope. A real testimony can give them that. Not because it is perfect; but because it came from someone who has lived long enough to know that the gospel is not decoration.
It is survival.
So when your turn comes to speak; do not build a spiritual book report. Do not try to sound like someone else. Do not hand people a theological Twinkie and hope nobody notices.
Tell the truth.
Share the part of the gospel that has held you together.
Talk about Jesus Christ like you actually know why people need Him.
Then sit down; breathe again; and trust the Lord to do something good with your honest effort.
I leave you with these thoughts in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
General Conference Reference:Elder Jeffrey R. Holland; “A Teacher Come from God”; April 1998 General Conference.
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