When I first started preaching, I tried to sound like my favorite pastor at the time.  He had this amazing memory and he would quote entire passages of scripture.  I thought that was so cool that I tried to do it too.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a great memory and I would blank out as I was trying to get a riff going.  It was terribly embarrassing!

Being quick, I soon realized that trying to be that pastor wasn’t going to work so I determined to be myself but that proved more difficult than I thought.  The truth is that it takes you a long time to find your “voice” when preaching. 

For better or worse, you’ve been impacted by those that you’ve heard preach and it sort of works its way into you.  It’s only after you get comfortable teaching in public over a long period of time that you really come into your own. 

Looking back, it seems that it took me about three years to start teaching like me.  (I think that’s about the norm for most preachers.)  I now teach my way and I enjoy it so much more.  Beyond that, I’m sure that those that hear me teach receive so much more from hearing ME speak and not my best impersonation of the latest pastor that impacted my life.

If you’re just starting out, I would encourage you to not worry too much about this.  The fact is that you can learn a lot from other preachers and you might just need to preach like someone else for a short period.  If, however, you’ve been doing this for a little while and it still doesn’t feel like you when you teach, I would humbly suggest you toss your impersonations aside and start working on being yourself.