Better interviews
People today love stories, and a personal testimony is a powerful story.
One way to approach a testimony is through an interview, rather than a monologue. Interviews can add interest. However, we have all sat through too many poorly prepared, poorly done interviews. Here are a few simply guidelines which, if followed, will greatly improve the quality of most interviews in a church setting:
- Be clear about the purpose of the interview. Communicate this clearly to the interviewee, and to the listeners.
- Ask questions. Far too many interviewers try to ask the answers instead of the questions. The information content in the interview should come from the person being interviewed, not from the interviewer. When the interviewer puts the information in the question, they leave nothing for the interviewee to do, except to agree with them:
You are off to Mongolia next week aren't you?
Yes.
And you're going to be translating the Bible into Mountain Mongolian?
That's right.
So much better would have been simply to ask,
Where are you going?
What will you be doing?
Why is this important?
- Good questions are open-ended: who? what? when? where? why? how? Poor questions are closed - they have yes/no answers
- Prepare properly. You cannot just walk on and wing it. However good you may be, you can't. Really can't. Honestly. Trust me on this. Know in advance the questions you will ask. The person you are interviewing should know the questions you will ask too - and should prepare their answers.
- Keep control of the interview. Don't let the interviewee digress, or waffle on into irrelevancies. If they start to waffle, don't be afraid to break in and ask them your next question.