Active Listening

Have you ever wondered are the members of a church are really listening to the message? If there was any other place where someone would be more focused I would think that it would be either at a church or at the doctor’s office. I have decided to take a look into the crowd of a church to see how the audience receives what could be a moving message. Something that should be life changing and you’ll find that for the most part, it is. As the doors open to the sanctuary there is a since of serenity and calm to the air although there is singing going on in preparation for the speaker of the hour. Many participants are making their last minute shuffles to get situated for a message to hopefully enrich their lives, faith, or even temporal situations.
He believes that the process should be receiving, understanding, remembering, evaluating, and responding. (DeVito, pg. 83) When this process is put into practice, usually during the responding stage, you can gauge whether there is active listening going on. For a church situation, those who may be listening completely, per the basic five steps, may give an occasional head nod. They may participate by responding to a question asked or even give a verbal affirmation of agreement. On the other hand there also could what is known as the “dead” crowd. Where in this situation, the only response that a speaker may receive is an empty blank stare, not from confusion or misunderstanding even then it will prompt for a visual response. If a speaker is observing his audience he could pick up on the confused looks and begin to reiterate what was said. The “dead” crowd may be not even looking up; some may be sleeping, or even trying to maintain children while other are simply passing notes or checking their blackberry emails. In either situation, DeVito describes these behaviors as feedback, verbal and non-verbal. (DeVito, pg.