JA Gamache.com: Thank You Toastmasters

Today I get to hear JA Gamache speak at a Rotary Luncheon. JA is preparing for the World Championship of Public Speaking. Last month he won his regional contest and now is one of the top seven speakers in the world. He's giving his message several places in Watertown and getting some feedback to prepare for the Championship. I'm offering him some evaluation. I met JA last night and spoke with him this morning. He's from Montreal. I love Canadian pronunciations. This morning he said the word, "ego", which we say "ee - go". He said, "egg - oh". Yesterday my neighbor said, "produce", which we say, "pro - duce" but he says, "prah - duce" -- as in, go to the doctors office and say "ah". Very funny eh? My neighbor, John, is the local Toastmasters leader. He's originally from Toronto. He was competing also but I think he is only one of the top 13,000 speakers in the world. It's a long road to the top. John tells me that I give excellent evaluations and that I am a very good speaker. He came and heard me at ¡alive@5! a couple of times and gave me a lot of nice compliments on my sermon. Wouldn't it be fun to have a pastor's version of Toastmasters and see who the best preacher is? We would organize local preaching clubs and hold contests, and then have statewide and regionwide contests. I'd put my money on The Revinator, Pastor Stacey Littlefield, even if his blog does suck. I'm ashamed to admit that I skipped chapel a lot in seminary, but never when Stacey was preaching. Best preacher I've heard - hands down. John & JA stopped by the church this morning to borrow my lavalliere mic for the luncheon. The church is old and beautiful so they wanted to go on a little tour. JA wanted to know about my public speaking training. He mentioned his background is Roman Catholic and he thinks they don't get enough training in public speaking and aren't very good. I concur. HOWEVER .... let me jump to the defense of our Roman Catholic priest friends. These guys work their ass off! I think I would not be very good either if I had 2-3 weddings, 3+ funerals and 5 weekend masses to preach at EACH WEEK, with possibly weekday masses on top of that! Your local Catholic priest preaches more in a week than most of us do in a month! Give 'em a break. I'll give a report later on JA.