All right, o wise readers of mine, I’ve got a question for you. How do you get invited to speak at lectureships, workshops, etc.? For obvious reasons, it’s a plus for our ministry for our people to be visible and one of the best ways to be visible is to speak at public gatherings. For that reason, our ministry team is being asked to get more invitations to speak. But just how do you go about that?

To me, calling somewhere and asking to speak is really poor taste. It reminds me of what I used to do in first grade, when I would invite myself over to Stephen Templeton’s house every afternoon. I would ask Stephen: “Is it OK if I go to your house today?” and he was too nice to say no. Then my dad overheard me one day and told me not to do that anymore. Guess what. Stephen never invited me to his house again.

When I was in college, there were guys who practically lived outside the chapel office, begging for their chance to speak. I felt that I should wait for an invitation. It’s been over 25 years. I’m still waiting.

While living in Argentina, we worked with Amway for a while. One basic principle we learned was that you can’t promote yourself. Their teaching was that you build up your sponsor in people’s eyes, then they stand up and build you up. You talk about how great they are, they talk about how great you are, and everybody’s credibility increases. They taught that if you tried to promote yourself, you’d end up losing.

So do you have any suggestions for us? Should we swallow our pride and make the call, asking to be invited to speak? Should we call people we know and ask them to call these places? Or do we keep doing what we’re doing now, trying to make the most of the opportunities we get?