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COMMUNICATING CHRIST
IN A POSTMODERN WORLD
Every period of history and every new generation need to receive the gospel as their own. Jesus Christ must be communicated as Savior and Lord for every human being on earth. Understanding God’s ultimate role as communicator throughout history is essential for the process of building a bridge of understanding between the story of the Bible and the story of our time.
God the Communicator
God is the God who communicates with the human being. As Johannes Henrici points out: "Communication is deeply rooted in God’s nature, and it is this nature he imparted to humanity when he created us in his own image."1 Communication is a God-given capability given to the created human being and is "the only way to be fully human."2 In principle, to be a human is to be a communicator.
This basic understanding of communication as a result of God’s creating act in history deepens the understanding of God’s own deep desire for communication and relationship with his created beings. Communication with Man is a deep desire in the "heart" of the Almighty God. Based on Luther’s understanding of being created "in God’s image" Dr. Knud Jørgensen writes:
"Luther is right when he claims that to be created in God's image has to do with relationship and communication: to be created in God's image means to be wortempfänglich, capable of receiving a word; I am placed in a communication relationship to God where I can hear his word and where God expects an answer; I am capable of hearing and comprehending God's word, not as something abstract, but as a direct address calling me into existence. This address expects an answer, a word of resonance. That means I am created for dialogue: God's communication with me takes the form of a conversation. This is the basic theme in all of Scripture: God is continually seeking man out to talk with him, from the story of Eden until the proclamation of the new heavens and the new earth. In the same way the concept of covenant is based on two-way communication." 3
By understanding this innermost desire in God’s heart we may better understand his method of communication: incarnation. The Almighty, Supreme God is really a
"God who bends down and, lowering himself, speaks that we might hear and understand. This "bending down" means that all God's communication is incarnational: God reveals himself in and through the ordinary situations of human life, and nowhere else. And that leads us into history and culture, into created life as well as its vulnerability and brokenness." 4
As Christians the Lord Jesus has commissioned us to be his communicators. Our task is to communicate the good news about Jesus Christ in any way possible to every human being. (Matt 28:18-20, John 20:21) This task was given both to the Church as a whole and to every Christian. Dr. Viggo Søgaard points out that,
"As Christian communicators we are entering into the ministry which has been God’s concern through the ages: revealing himself to humanity. This commission to communicate permeates all aspect of Christian ministry, and it is the motivational force for commitment and dedication. This "communication for a purpose" is always present in Scripture." 5
Søgaard emphasizes that incarnation is "the ideal model of communication."6 The heart of all communication is that it takes place in a person-to-person encounter. It is never only a "transmission" of messages. "Communication is to be involved, it has to do with relationship and communion between people."7 Realizing this have a profound impact on the methods and goal for Christian communication. Every proclamation of the gospel must, according to Jørgensen,
"result in Christ becoming flesh and blood in ever new settings. It is the very nature of the Good News that it will sound differently in Addis Ababa and London, because it is the Good News about the Word that became a human being. The gospel is the same, but its form will differ according to the situation." 8
This fundamental approach to communication in a Christian setting is truly liberating. God’s heartfelt desire for any Christian is to do whatever possible to communicate the good news in a way that every human being is able to understand. Dr. Charles Kraft further emphasizes that God himself is a fence mover and a bridge builder in very innovative ways to communicate His message to humanity. "He goes beyond the predictable and the stereotype in his communicative efforts." 9
God moves into the receptor’s frame of reference, i.e., cultures, language, space, time, etc., really to try to be understood. He uses language and thought patterns of those whom He speaks. God’s method of communication is above all personal and interactional, and invites personal discovery. Ultimately God invites us to identify with himself, as He has identified himself by the act of incarnation. The ultimate desire and outcome in God’s act of communication are "that people give themselves in commitment to His cause."10
This understanding of God’s heartfelt desire to communicate his eternal message of love and redemption also has a profound consequence for the basic missiological approach to the universal task of mission and evangelization. Taking the apostle Paul as example, Dr. Dean S. Gilliland emphasizes many of the same attitudes from a missiological perspective. Firstly, Gilliland states that
"Paul's theology is dynamic. A dynamic theology is one that relates specifically to the needs of people in a particular place and situation. Paul was convinced of two points and these became the underpinnings of his entire ministry. First, the gospel is absolute in its central message and, second, it must be made vital to every people and place. Paul addressed his teaching and preaching to the moment. He knew that people must be met on their own terms and in the context of their own world." 11
Secondly, the Apostle Paul’s theology is evangelical, "the central message of the cross is the very content of the gospel." 12 Thirdly, Paul’s theology is pastoral. "Paul put the cure and the care of souls before any other issue in his ministry." 13 All of this comes together in the fact that the apostle lives out a holistic theology in his ministry. Gilliland writes that
"Paul showed in many ways and in various situations that he was concerned with people in their total life, and with the effect that the gospel could have on the whole of life. He was, before everything else, the evangelist, calling for the heart and mind to be put right with God. ... practical application of Christian truth was more important to Paul than apprehension of all the content." 14
Taking the apostle Paul as a model challenge our own understanding of the mission task. Communicating the gospel in today’s world also needs to be carried out in a holistic way, with an evangelistic focus, and a pastoral heart authentically caring for people to be reconciled with God. Mission’s theology must never only be ‘a pure theology’ or theoretical construct. Dr. Gilliland further underscores this when he writes,
"What I mean by a theology of mission for our own day is that, while it builds on the Bible, such a theology must be in touch with real needs and find ways to meet them. The holistic quality of Paul’s teaching stands in judgment on any theology that elevates the cognitive and the reflective above the pastoral and the practical. ... The appeal here is for an outgoing, untiring commitment to a gospel that uplifts and redeems, because it is oriented to ministry rather than to the reproduction of a creed taken from one people or one place and insisted upon among another people and in another place. An assumption for any good theology is that the symbols and terms used must connect authentically with the common life and the real needs of the day." 15
A true commitment to be in touch with the real needs of people and find ways to meet them has in many ways been the hallmark of Christian mission throughout the centuries. The need for a reconciliation and redeeming gospel is definitely present in the "buster" generation, as the next sub-chapters will reveal. However, first there is a need to discuss the different challenges from (post) modern technologies presented in part II of this dissertation and how they might impact the task of communicating the gospel. Then some basic principles for Christian communication will be discussed; in particular the concept of HEART language.
Notes:
1. Johannes Henrici, "Towards an Antropological Philosophy of
Communication" in Communication Resource, March 1983. London WACC 1983:1.
2. Viggo Søgaard, Communicating the Gospel: Media in Church and Mission, (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 1993), 11.
3. Knud Jørgensen "Remote Control or Incarnation?"World Evangelization,
December 1996/January 1997, 5.
9. Charles H. Kraft, Communicating the Gospel God’s Way, (Pasadena, CA:
William Carey Library, 1983), 11.
10. Ibid., 15.
11. Dean S. Gilliland, Pauline Theology & Mission Practice, (Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Book House, 1983), 12.
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