Chuck Swindoll Had a Speech Impediment???

Chuck Swindoll, an author we’ve been representing since 1979, is widely known in the Christian world as a master communicator. His teaching and preaching have been highly respected for several decades. You probably already knew that.  But did you know that Swindoll had to overcome a speech impediment in his younger years?  In his brand new book, Saying It Well: Touching Others with Your Words, he shares that story, along with all he has learned about the art of public speaking.

The Christian Post has run a great interview of Dr. Swindoll on the topic of this new book.  Here’s how that interview starts:

CP: Would you share with us the idea behind your new book Saying It Well and what your aim for the book was?

Swindoll: I’ve been doing what I have been doing for about 50 years. It occurred to me that it would be helpful if the general public understood not only my philosophy for speaking publicly but also something about the process.

At first I was a little hesitant about doing that because I am not one to call attention to myself. They wanted a lot of it to be in first person and that wasn’t a thrilling idea to me. I always enjoyed writing on biographies but someone else’s rather than my own. However, I thought it would be helpful to know from own end and my own lips, as it were, what I go through and the process that is involved in that. So I addressed everything from my calling and preparing all the way down to the process of putting a message together. However you want to call it, some people are public speakers, others are leaders of large companies and they are required to speak publicly regarding that company, still others present papers and technical information. The point is we are all involved in communication, some of us more than others. I thought it would be helpful if I put that in print so that it would help others go through the process themselves. That was what drove me to write the book.

CP: In the book you reveal that despite your success at being a communicator it was not always that easy for you. The speech problem you experienced was paralyzing for you, how did that shape your vocational view point?

Swindoll: You are referring to my battling with stuttering when I was younger. If anyone has ever seen the movie “The King’s Speech,” though I am not in a category of a king, they will see something of the struggle that I went through. There is nothing more fearful for the average person in our society than to stand before a group of people and speak. When you add to that the battle of stuttering, your problem is exacerbated beyond words.

So when I began to learn how to speak I still had the fear because I always had my speaking interrupted with the impediment. So it took some time to gain confidence over that. I am thankful that over time I have been able to conquer that battle though admittedly there are still times that I go back to the principles that were taught by my speech teacher. My book is designed not to hide that, but to highlight it and to let people know that even if you struggle with some fears or an impediment in your speech, there is help available. You can conquer that and go on to be successful as a speaker or as a preacher or whatever is your calling.

Head on over to the Christian Post to read the rest of the interview.