Who Are You Trying to Please

Speech and debate is one of the few places where it is widely considered acceptable for parents to judge other people’s kids. This is a common joke in NCFCA and Stoa circles, and it probably wouldn’t get that many laughs if I put it in my After Dinner Speech. However, it does point to something important: much of speech and debate surrounds students being judged, ranked, and critiqued.

In many ways, this is a good thing. This helps students grow and learn. It makes competition itself possible. However, while seeking to please judges, we must first and foremost seek to please God.

Please God rather than man

In the first chapter of Galatians, Paul begins to write about false teachers. He then says “For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10 ESV).

While this passage was focused on false teachers, it has broader implications for our lives as Christian speakers and debaters. Scripture makes it clear that we should be seeking to please God. In fact, if our goal was pleasing other people, we wouldn’t be serving God in the first place!

There are many important implications of this passage when it comes to speech and debate. I will address a few of them here.

Excellence and Winning

In Christ, we ought to strive for excellence. Our work is to be done for God’s glory, not our own (Col 3:23), so we should work even harder to strive for excellence because we are doing it for God, not for ourselves.

However, that does not mean that winning is the goal. Winning shows that someone persuaded judges that they are excellent. It is often correlated with excellence in God’s eyes as well, but it is not always.

You can win by cheating. If your number one goal is to win, then lying is permissible. Trash talking your opponents out of judges’ earshot is permissible. Plagiarism is permissible. However, our goal should not be to win, because even if we can please our entire region or the entire nation, if we fail to please God, we have accomplished nothing.

Pleasing God means pursuing excellence in his eyes. That includes speaking well, making good arguments, and all the rest of that. But more importantly, it means doing everything ethically. It means loving your neighbor (including both your judge and your opponents) as yourself. It means always telling the truth.

Excellence is not the same as winning. Winning is a good thing that often demonstrates excellence. However, our goal must be excellence in God’s eyes, not excellence in the eyes of other people.

Speaking the truth even when it costs you

Pleasing God rather than judges sometimes means giving a speech that you know will give you lower rankings.

Let's look at an example. You go into Apol finals. You draw your two topics. You are well prepared to give a winsome and impactful speech on the first topic. In fact, you think that it is a far more important topic for the judges to hear about than the second. However, the first topic is very controversial. Going with the first topic likely means 8th in the room, but you have a good chance at a high ranking with topic 2.

Although it could cost you, you should choose topic 1. We must always be winsome in the way we address any topic, especially controversial ones. However, our goal is God’s glory, not our success. We are seeking to please God first, then the judges. Presenting a controversial topic in a winsome way that impacts the judges for Christ is far more important than winning a tournament.

This principle applies beyond Apol–it applies to any situation where you are deciding whether to say something or not in competition. There are times when you should remain silent on an issue. If you think that speaking on an issue will only push the listener further away, then don’t speak. But if you are given an opportunity to share the truth and you are prepared to do so in a winsome way, don’t hesitate to speak because of rankings. Tournaments and trophies will fade, but God remains forever.

Pleasing God must be our highest priority. If it leads us to winning, that's great. But even if it means we graduate without a single plaque or medal, we have a far greater reward in Heaven than any earthly praise could ever bring.

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