Communicating? Are you sure?

Are you a communicator? I know some great ones, able to hold an audience in the palm of their hand. When they speak, we hang on their every word. But not everyone is a great communicator. Or even a good communicator.

Just because we speak doesn’t mean we are communicating. And just because we put a program on the air or on the internet doesn’t mean the communication process has been successful. Remember the old question, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Aristotle (384-322 B.C) was a Greek philosopher from Northern Greece. He was also the teacher of Alexander the Great. While exploring the human nature scientifically, Aristotle developed a linear model of communication for oral communication known as Aristotle’s Model of Communication. To simplify, there needed to be a speaker, a speech, an audience, and an effect. In other words, what you say has to be understood in order to bring about an effect.

Aristotle also talked of the three important elements of the communicator.

• Ethos– your credibility…the reason the listener should believe what you are saying.

• Pathos-the emotional connection…the reason the audience believes what you are saying will matter to them.

• Logos-your ability to appeal to the listener’s sense of reason. In other words, logic.

All the authority and empathy in the world won’t help you if the audience doesn’t understand what you are talking about, or how you arrived at your conclusion.

Those of us who hope to communicate biblical truth, must first receive that truth from God, His Spirit, and His Word. In his famous prayer, St. Francis of Assisi asked God to help him to “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” This is still true in our communication process today.

And, we need to be sure we use the language and words that are easily grasped by our audience. Again, Aristotle had instructions on this important element.

“Think as wise men do,

but speak as the common people do.”

George Bernard Shaw once said, “The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.” Don’t fall into that trap. The public speaker has the audience to look at to determine if his or her message is getting through. How are you evaluating your communication…your programming?

Ultimately, our communication process should seek to please the Lord. The Psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gave us this guideline as a prayer.

[blockquote author=” Psalm 19:14 (NLT)” link=”” target=”_blank”]May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. [/blockquote]