In Romans 10:14-15 we read…
[14] How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? [15] And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (NIV)
Central to the way we have thought about communicating the good news of Jesus has been through us telling and people hearing. It is the way we think about sharing the message of the gospel, and it is central to the way we think and do discipleship.
I asked a pastor not long ago about how he and his congregation were consciously doing discipleship. He looked at me a long time and then said, as if this was the most stupid question he had ever been asked, “People come to church, get involved in worship and praise, then are fed through the sermon and challenged to grow in their spiritual walk.” He paused for a moment and then added, “What more do you need?”
Actually that is a good question. What more do you need? At the same time we ask that question in the context of the church, it might be interesting to ask a business leader or someone running for public office the same question. Would a business that wants to grow and impact people, or would a public figure that wanted people to know their ideas and agenda so that they could get elected, feel that calling a meeting, providing some good music to get people happy and then stating their position or their product, feel that they had done enough?
You don’t even have to think about the answer to that. We are bombarded by thousands of advertisements every day. We are told the value and benefit of every conceivable product over and over. And that is just the start of it.
I left the house last week and forgot my cell phone. Because I travel a lot, my cell phone is where I get e-mail, google maps to find out where I am going and where I am at, my web browser, how I keep track of my appointments, where I get text messages and tweets and – by the way – it is my phone for talking to people. I felt lost! My family were trying to get in touch with me and couldn’t. We were supposed to meet some people for supper and couldn’t make arrangements as to where to meet. Several people were trying to get in touch with me and left several messages which I never returned. It was a painful (if wonderfully quiet) day. But when I finally did get my phone I had to deal with a whole pile of communication that I had missed all day long.
E-mails, web pages, newspapers, yellow-pages, blogs, skype, facebook, ning, youtube, godtube, vimeo, twitter, texts, TV, videos, movies, electronic meetings, webinars, electronic newsletters and more. We live in a day and age where simply calling a meeting and telling people the truth is but one small, and at times seemingly inefficient, way that we can communicate.
So where does communication in the context of the church fit in? How are we to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ and fulfill the great commission to be about the task of making disciples?
In 1 Corintianse 9, Paul tells us…
[22]… I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. [23] I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
If we are going to accept that Paul’s statement about himself is to be a model for us, we are probably going to have to realize that there is going to have to be more than one way to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ to our church people and to the world. Pastors often spend hours preparing a sermon and often a lot of good thoughts simply don’t fit into a sermon. A blog is a wonderful way to allow people to see beyond the sermon to a pastor’s heart and thoughts. Prayer requests may get read much more quickly as texts to people cell phones or as a post to a facebook page then by putting it in the Sunday bulletin. Connecting your people through a gotomeeting kind of meeting where they can connect together without having to make the 30 minute drive in heavy traffic might change how willing people are to participate in a board or committee. A video announcement on youtube might get lots of people and many outside your congregation to listen to it and remember it. (Not to mention that they can play it over and over to be sure to get the details right – “Was it 7 or 7:30 we were to meet?”) And the list goes on and on.
Can each church or every pastor do it all? No, of course not. But we can take small steps in the right direction. Feel free to get help. Ask a 14 year old for advice – they will know how to get you connected! Do one thing at a time and grow into what is comfortable for you.
Oh yes, there is one more thing. There is probably no better way to communicate the good news of Jesus Christ than sitting across from someone over a cup of coffee and just sharing your testimony with them. The new can be good, and we should find productive ways to us it, but it is not always better!
Ken
