FIND YOUR AUDIENCE by Bo Sanchez
Wednesday, 4. April 2007, 05:54:42
From "The Boss"
Kerygma Magazine, January 2007
By Bo Sanchez
I WAS BORN in Manila.
But when I was a year old, my family transferred to Cebu because Dad worked there. When I reached eight, we returned to Manila.
Because of my short stint in that beautiful island, I understand Cebuano1. But also because of that fact, I wasn't exposed to Tagalog2 early enough.
And so by Grade 4, I was flunking in Filipino3. I couldn't understand the language so I spoke in English.
I started preaching at age 13. Consequently, I preached in pure English. And I'm embarrassed to say this, but I spoke with an American twang. (Too much TV as a kid.)
But I had great love for the poor and I wanted to speak to them. So I vowed to myself I'd learn to preach in Tagalog. That was my big dream.
For the first three years of Anawim's4 history, I lived in its compound, doing work for the poorest of the poor. I t was way out in the boondocks of Montalban, Rizal. During that time, I led our weekly prayer meetings of 40 people. My audience? The orphans and abandoned elderly we picked from the streets and the little kids from the barrio.
Oh, it was pure torture. I couldn't communicate to them. My Tagalog was so twisted, they kept laughing at me half the time.
The irony of my situation became terribly obvious when, one day, I arrived from the US and Canada. I just preached to a big conference where 75% of the audience were non-Filipinos. And believe me, I had them in the palm of my hand. I spoke with so much passion, I was in my "zone". People were so blessed, I could feel it in my bones.
Landing in the Manila airport, I went straight into my home in Anawim. It was prayer meeting night and I wanted to preach them.
So there I was, the international preacher wowing humungous crowds in whatever country I went - America, Europe, Asia - now about to address a tiny bunch of 40 people. Gosh, what's so hard about that?
But as usual, I was stumped again. It was like hitting my face on a brick wall.
I couldn't express myself in Tagalog.
I think the only reason why my Anawim audience stayed with me was because they had nowhere to go. At that time, we had no electricity. (Yup, a world with no TV sets.) So I was their biggest entertainment for their entire week!
Even if I was the lousiest speaker in the eastern hemisphere.
Finally, I gave up and asked someone else to preach - someone whose core gift was to preach in Tagalog. And they were happy.
I realize now that this little quirk in my history (being relocated to Cebu at the early part of my childhood) shaped my core gift (preaching in English) and my entire destiny. Because of this core gift, I'm able to do what I do now - publish six magazines, write two or three books a year and preach 300 times a year all over the world. I just had to find my core gift and the right audience for it.
Friend, God created you to serve a specific audience.
Ask yourself: Who is the audience I was born to serve?
1. Dialect dominantly spoken in the islands of Cebu, Negros, Bohol, Leyte, Siquijor, and almost all of Mindanao.
2. Dialect spoken in Metro Manila area and outlying provinces.
3. A subject taught in elementary and secondary (and college)schools in the Philippines where Tagalog is the base language.
4. A ministry of Bo Sanchez whose aim is to house and to take care of the abandoned elderly and children and orphans.
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Kerygma Magazine, January 2007
By Bo Sanchez
I WAS BORN in Manila.
But when I was a year old, my family transferred to Cebu because Dad worked there. When I reached eight, we returned to Manila.
Because of my short stint in that beautiful island, I understand Cebuano1. But also because of that fact, I wasn't exposed to Tagalog2 early enough.
And so by Grade 4, I was flunking in Filipino3. I couldn't understand the language so I spoke in English.
I started preaching at age 13. Consequently, I preached in pure English. And I'm embarrassed to say this, but I spoke with an American twang. (Too much TV as a kid.)
But I had great love for the poor and I wanted to speak to them. So I vowed to myself I'd learn to preach in Tagalog. That was my big dream.
For the first three years of Anawim's4 history, I lived in its compound, doing work for the poorest of the poor. I t was way out in the boondocks of Montalban, Rizal. During that time, I led our weekly prayer meetings of 40 people. My audience? The orphans and abandoned elderly we picked from the streets and the little kids from the barrio.
Oh, it was pure torture. I couldn't communicate to them. My Tagalog was so twisted, they kept laughing at me half the time.
The irony of my situation became terribly obvious when, one day, I arrived from the US and Canada. I just preached to a big conference where 75% of the audience were non-Filipinos. And believe me, I had them in the palm of my hand. I spoke with so much passion, I was in my "zone". People were so blessed, I could feel it in my bones.
Landing in the Manila airport, I went straight into my home in Anawim. It was prayer meeting night and I wanted to preach them.
So there I was, the international preacher wowing humungous crowds in whatever country I went - America, Europe, Asia - now about to address a tiny bunch of 40 people. Gosh, what's so hard about that?
But as usual, I was stumped again. It was like hitting my face on a brick wall.
I couldn't express myself in Tagalog.
I think the only reason why my Anawim audience stayed with me was because they had nowhere to go. At that time, we had no electricity. (Yup, a world with no TV sets.) So I was their biggest entertainment for their entire week!
Even if I was the lousiest speaker in the eastern hemisphere.
Finally, I gave up and asked someone else to preach - someone whose core gift was to preach in Tagalog. And they were happy.
I realize now that this little quirk in my history (being relocated to Cebu at the early part of my childhood) shaped my core gift (preaching in English) and my entire destiny. Because of this core gift, I'm able to do what I do now - publish six magazines, write two or three books a year and preach 300 times a year all over the world. I just had to find my core gift and the right audience for it.
Friend, God created you to serve a specific audience.
Ask yourself: Who is the audience I was born to serve?
1. Dialect dominantly spoken in the islands of Cebu, Negros, Bohol, Leyte, Siquijor, and almost all of Mindanao.
2. Dialect spoken in Metro Manila area and outlying provinces.
3. A subject taught in elementary and secondary (and college)schools in the Philippines where Tagalog is the base language.
4. A ministry of Bo Sanchez whose aim is to house and to take care of the abandoned elderly and children and orphans.
« Back to archive
WIDGETIZE
Laertes Tito Del Rosario Ocampo # 5. April 2007, 17:01
is it okay, if i call you bo, anyway you were asking, who is the audience you were born to preach. i am a true blue cebuano. about your question, you are born to preach. as you said you've been to all those places and preached to all kinds of people by the hundreds, yet you can't make 40 people listen to you, you're wrong why did they laugh at you, cause they are listening at you, only thing is they are amused in the way you delivered your tagalog, but that doesn't mean they did not listen. for you are so blessed that even people who doesn't understand you, will listen to you. you are so blessed. in listening you don't have to face the speaker to understand what the speaker is talking about. maybe if i was with you in anawim i'd also be laughing, but not ignoring what you are saying, that's the difference there. listening and ignoring. for me, its better to be laughed at with all them 40 around than be laughed at behind my back, or to be with someone who are pretending that they are listening. i think that's all i can say, you have the gift of preaching.
laertes
Rosetta2002 # 8. June 2008, 02:21