a nor’easter for the communicator

If you are up for it, I’d like to take you on a journey.
A Vacancy
Soon after I started teaching preaching (in 1989), I became fascinated by a space — a vacant space. James Engel created The Engel Scale in 1975. In it he attempted to describe ‘the spiritual decision process’, tracking how people moved towards Jesus and then on to maturity. God has a role; the Communicator has a role; while ‘Man’ has a response, warming up as you slide down the Scale…
What caught my eye was the vacant space (I’ve added the splash of red), signifying that there was nothing a communicator can do before proclamation and with people who only have an ‘awareness of a supreme being’. Really?! I realise hearts may be hard and minds may be closed. I recognise that it is the Spirit’s work to soften and to open — but is there really nothing that the communicator can do, or say, to offer the Spirit something with which to work? Surely not?!

One thing led to another. Filling ‘the empty space’ became the focus of my DMin thesis. As I journeyed, the questions gathered. One big issue was that it became clear, especially in the so-called postmodern context that I was considering, that ‘-8: Awareness of Supreme Being’ was not nuanced enough. ‘No Religion’ was becoming an increasingly popular option for census-fillers everywhere in the West. In time, I settled on a triumvirate of cynics-skeptics-critics as the focus for those in the upper reaches of the Scale. A second issue was that a single axis seemed insufficient. Are these (mostly) cognitive-informational categories enough? Is this all that is involved in making a spiritual decision?
I think not.

As I researched, I stumbled across The Gray Matrix, developed by Frank Gray in his missionary work within the context of radio ministries. The Matrix popped up in theses I discovered online, from places as diverse as Sudan and Nepal, in which conversion stories were studied, using the Matrix. The concept was simple, clear — and such an improvement on the Scale. I started corresponding with Frank and, eventually, visited him in his home in Gloucestershire (UK). He gave me permission to use and play with his ideas, just as I tried to encourage him to keep moving and to keep thinking. It was such a delight to see The Gray Matrix Handbook, published in 2020. 

Rather than the ‘spiritual decision process’ being something that moves ‘down a scale’, from -8 to +3 and beyond — Frank depicted it as something moving up and across a matrix, in a nor-easterly direction. So there are two axes, one covering the cognitive-informational movement (the vertical, moving up rather than down, as was the case with the Scale) and the other covering an affective-attitudinal one (the horizontal) because this is also a critical part of the ‘spiritual decision process’.

So, in this Matrix, Frank is working with ‘less’ and ‘more’ knowledge, as well as with ‘closed’ and ‘open’ attitudes. Engel’s vacant space then shifts deep down into the bottom-left area of Quadrant A. It doesn’t take too long to see what Frank is trying to accomplish…
In Frank’s own words:

Our overall objective is to help people reach the blue-shaded area where they know, love and serve God. There may be several paths to take. The red path suggest that a person is already eager to know more and come to faith without any significant hindrances. The blue path indicates a lot of resistance at the beginning, but warming up to Christian faith. The green line demonstrates a path in which there is much change in attitude before any significant learning is done. As for the yellow path, that also is possible—a very reluctant sinner who resists for a long time but ultimately gives in to God who, in love, has pursued him.  (Handbook, 58)

Simple, isn’t it? Maybe even a bit simplistic for the scholar, but so be it. I’ve found it helpful, prompting me to think more deeply about the kind of communication that might help facilitate people in a nor’easterly direction — while always affirming the sovereignty of the Spirit to blow where and when and how it likes! 
A Vocabulary
The journey took another turn…

The question I have heard most frequently in the classroom, across both the years and the cultures, has been “What is the difference between preaching and teaching?” So when I needed to choose a topic for a secondary assignment in my DMin, I settled on the ‘Vocabulary of Speaking/Preaching in the Book of Acts’. Ahhh, the memories come back of being cloistered away for a week in the tiny back bedroom of my father-in-law’s house in Bluffton, Ohio — just a few weeks after Obama won the election in 2008. 


It proved to be a transformational exercise for me.


I discovered that rather than there being just two or three words in the vocabulary — with ‘preaching’, ‘teaching’ and ‘evangelizing’ the leading contenders — there were, in fact, closer to thirty-two words in the vocabulary (with one scholar settling on this very number). WOW. Such diversity… I tried to engage with most of them. Along the way, I stumbled across an observation in Peter Adam’s Speaking God’s Words that galvanized me. He had taken the different words which he had discovered in this vocabulary and placed them in five groups, which I like to call The Adam’s Family: information, declaration, exhortation, persuasion, and conversation. 


As I became more familiar with each member of the Adam’s Family, a thought occurred to me. While each of these words could be used by the Spirit at any place in the quadrants of the Gray Matrix, nudging people in a nor-easterly direction, might they each have a particular role in a particular place? I think it is possible. Even more fascinating, the order in which Peter Adam listed them appeared to be a suitable order for them, as we travel up and across the Matrix. It looks something like this (with ‘intrigue’ being adopted into the family — from my DMin work on the parable, next door in the Gospels — as a possible way forward for those deep in Quadrant A):



A Vision
This diverse vocabulary at work, with a diverse audience situated in diverse places — the temple courts, the synagogue, the riverside, the marketplace, the lecture hall, the home etc — raised some questions for me. Is that hallowed ‘ministry of the word’ sufficient? Is the ‘sermon slot’, together with a dollop of small group Bible study and a pinch of personal Bible reading, enough? Is there not a case, as Peter Adam himself concludes, for ‘many different ministries of the Word’, developing a more spacious approach to preaching and communication, while intent on equipping and involving a wider range of people?
Permit me to place these questions next to an exclamation…
Over the years, it is my observation that we preachers tend to become wed to our favoured approach, oftentimes stuck in it. Unlike the skills required to handle automatic payments at the bank, we are resistant to ‘add, delete, or change’. What’s more, we can be good at painting our own approach in its best light, even becoming a bit defensive about it, while other approaches are painted in their worst light. 
This is neither fair, nor wise.
Here, I’ll put ‘my cards on the table’. As a communicator, the biggest influence on my life has been John Stott. His expository approach ignited me. Listening to it was the context in which God called me to be a preacher. It remains my first love as a communicator. I’ll always be committed to doing it. Furthermore, when utilized by a shepherd who loves their people, such exposition, even an unspectacular brand of it, is central to the nurturing of the people of God into maturity.
However, is exposition, even in its most spacious expressions, all that is needed in our challenging missional context? Is exposition all that the Spirit wants to use? I think not — and, once again, it is the book of Acts that helps me think this way. While Acts is designed more as a descriptive book, than a prescriptive one, there are still observations that can guide us…
Acts 17, all on its own, convinces me. The diversity in approach and focus across the diverse audiences in Thessalonica, Berea and Athens is remarkable. On this matter, the chapter is the book of Acts in microcosm. Because in Acts we have exposition, from both Peter and Paul (Acts 2 & 13), following the characteristic deductive logic of commencing in the Old Testament scriptures on the way to their listeners. Then, going back in Acts 17, in Athens, this is tipped on its head as we have a more inductive approach which commences with the listeners, with the arrival at truth and at Jesus being delayed. We have a more narrative approach, with Stephen in Acts 7, for example. And then what about the way God communicates with Peter in Cornelius in Acts 10? It is kinda different again — a more subversive, almost abductive, approach which has similarities with the intriguing parable (and proverb) of Jesus … and of Nathan, before him.
And so one more image emerges in my journey… The first time I tried it out was in 2019, with a series of talks at Christian Leaders’ Training College (CLTC) in Papua New Guinea. I take a deep breath, accompanied by a shudder, whenever I’ve shown it. Why? It is just so rough and crude. Plus it is easy to focus on what I am not saying, rather than on what I am saying. I am not trying to suggest that certain ovals are only appropriate at certain places in the Matrix, nor am I trying to restrict the Spirit to certain ovals at certain stages. All I am trying to suggest is that maybe that diverse vocabulary, now with our diverse audiences in our diverse situations, needs to lead towards a vision for a diverse communication?
     

In my childhood, I remember trucks in India often being equipped with a Fatta Box. ‘Fatta’ is a word used for when things break down. So, essentially, it is a tool box equipped with what is needed when faced with challenges along the journey. Maybe preachers need a Fatta Box? Read the audience. Know the time frame. Understand the culture. Be adept with a range of genre. Try different things. I work a lot with deductive and inductive. One of the preachers I admire most in this New Zealand setting is John Tucker, at Carey Baptist College. He is just so adept with deductive and narrative! And then, maybe local churches need to nurture a team of communicators — not as clones of the senior pastor, but as a group being equipped for different types of communication to be used in different situations, in the power of the Spirit, who is in control of the nor-easter.

nice chatting 
Paul

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About Me

paul06.16

the art of unpacking

After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.

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4 Comments

  1. Ken Keyte on June 30, 2021 at 11:22 am

    Hi Paul, thank you for this helpful blog on the process of evangelism. Your blog and the intriguing conversations discussion group you've been facilitating has got me wondering about whether the rate of gospel uptake by a local community could be represented by an equation similar to that of a heat transfer equation in physics?
    Thermal engineers use an equation to calculate the rate at which heat is transferred across a thermal conductor that is represented like this:
    q = h x (t1 -t2)
    Where:
    q is the heat flux
    h is the heat transfer coefficient
    t1 is the temperature on one side of the thermal conductor
    t2 is the temperature on the other side of the conductor
    The higher the heat transfer coefficient of the conductive material, the greater the rate at which heat is transferred through it.
    The greater the temperature difference between T1 and T2, the greater the rate at which heat is transferred through it.

    I wonder if the rate at which the gospel can be transferred across the social barrier between a Christian community (a church) and the local community it resides in could be represented by a similar equation:
    r = g x (a1 – a2)
    Where:
    r is the rate at which the gospel can be transferred across the social barrier between church and local community
    g is the gospel transfer coefficient of the local community
    a1 is the level to which the local church community represents the gospel in word and deed
    a2 is the level to which the local community represents the gospel in word and deed.
    The higher the gospel transfer coefficient of the local community, the greater the rate at which the gospel may be transferred to it.
    The greater the difference between the level to which the local church represents the gospel and the level to which the local community represents the gospel, the greater the rate at which the gospel may be transferred from church to community.
    I wonder if the difference between the church's and local community's representation of the gospel may also determine the level of intrigue a community is likely to have toward the gospel.

    eg. I think NZ will have a higher gospel transfer coefficient g relative to places where it is illegal to publicly communicate the gospel. But NZ churches may have a low differential between the level at which the local church and local community represent the gospel i.e. not much driving force across the social barrier between church and local community means a low level of gospel intrigue by the local community.

    Such an equation might help churches to develop greater levels of intrigue while also being patient if they are located in a community with a low gospel transfer coefficient?

  2. Paul on July 6, 2021 at 1:45 pm

    Thanks, Ken, for this reflection.

    I reminded myself that I got 53% in Scholarship Physics in 1977 and consulted my brother, who taught Physics, and took courage! [You and he would have a very good conversation methinks!]…

    I think I got the general idea of what you are suggesting, but I'm not clear here and there. For example:
    How does a local community — outside the local church one — represent the gospel in word and deed? Do you have any examples in mind of how this looks?

    Paul

  3. Unknown on July 14, 2021 at 12:49 pm

    Hi Paul,
    Thanks for this thought provoking piece. I am teaching a class on Communications in Ministry at Eastwest College, Gordonton in the coming semester and this has given me some helpful inputs for the class.
    I am especially intrigued by the inclusion of themes of 'subversion' which you have incorporated into the Gray Matrix. This connects to some thinking and reading I have been doing around the idea of the 'subversive fulfilment' provided by the Gospel of secular (and other) narratives. Dan Strange deals with this in his excellent book 'Plugged In', as does Tim Keller in 'Centre Church'. I think this is a very fertile field for gospel interaction with those who are very much at the south-western tip of Gray's Matrix.
    Best wishes,
    Lewis

  4. the art of unpacking on July 19, 2021 at 3:25 pm

    Hi Lewis — I would very much like to meet you and have some conversation together.

    I am in Auckland, if you are up this way sometime. I've been aware of Eastwest College since its inception, but have never visited. This would be a good excuse!

    best wishes

    Paul

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