{"id":25065,"date":"1981-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1981-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1981\/07\/01\/if-you-want-chickens-to-follow-you\/"},"modified":"1981-07-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1981-07-01T00:00:00","slug":"if-you-want-chickens-to-follow-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/if-you-want-chickens-to-follow-you\/","title":{"rendered":"If You Want The Chickens To Follow You &#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a speaker, I have always accepted responsibility for people listening to me. I&#8217;ve never been able to rationalize that I&#8217;m too deep for them and they simply have to listen harder.<\/p>\n\n<p>I came by this conviction many years ago while driving through the farm country of Indiana to make a speech. I was just starting out as a speaker, and my talks were getting heavier and heavier. Although I was greatly pleased with what I heard, I found I was talking to fewer and fewer people.<\/p>\n\n<p>Then suddenly, there in the field that spring day in Indiana, I saw the model for my public speaking that would last all my life. A man was plowing with a single mule, and there must have been fifty chickens following him. As I watched, this thought began to grow in my mind: The chickens will always follow the fellow who&#8217;s plowing up the worms. I realized then I had to feed people not only what I thought would feed them, but what they are really hungry for.<\/p>\n\n<p>Over the years I&#8217;ve found it&#8217;s always the same: If you want the chickens to follow you, you have to turn up the worms. When you do, they will be there-I promise you!<\/p>\n\n<p>Fred Smith<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"is-style-article-copyright\">Copyright &copy; 1981 by the author or Christianity Today\/<em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/le\/help\/permissionsprivacy\/permissions.html#answer\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"copyright\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a> for reprint information on <em class=\"citation\">Leadership Journal<\/em>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a speaker, I have always accepted responsibility for people listening to me. I&#8217;ve never been able to rationalize that I&#8217;m too deep for them and they simply have to listen harder. I came by this conviction many years ago while driving through the farm country of Indiana to make a speech. I was just <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/if-you-want-chickens-to-follow-you\/\">Read more&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"tax_ctp_authors":[1585],"tax_ctp_books":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[154],"tax_ctp_field_guide_subcategory":[],"tax_ctp_field_guides":[],"tax_ctp_format":[131],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[572,156,575],"tax_ctp_tags":[3641,4688],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-25065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tax_ctp_authors-fred-smith","tax_publications-1981-leadership-journal","tax_publications-leadership-journal","tax_publications-summer_1981-leadership-journal","tax_ctp_tags-communication","tax_ctp_tags-preaching"],"acf":{"scripture_references":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If You Want The Chickens To Follow You ... - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As a speaker, I have always accepted responsibility for people listening to me. I&#039;ve never been able to rationalize that I&#039;m too deep for them and they\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/if-you-want-chickens-to-follow-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If You Want The Chickens To Follow You ... - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a speaker, I have always accepted responsibility for people listening to me. 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