Communication is unavoidable…in fact, if you try to avoid communicating that in and of itself communicates something to those who notice your behavior.
If people can tell you care – that communicates.
If people can tell that you don’t care – that communicates.
If a ministry is running smoothly – that communicates.
If a ministry has endless trouble that goes unaddressed – that communicates.
Every communicates whether we like it or not.
You might as well be intentional about communicating the right thing rather than be unaware of the messages that are being screamed out by what is happening all around you, even without words, signage, etc.
PS – did you spot the typo in the post? 😉 What did you think when you ran across it?
4 Responses
I noticed – and wondered about it, since you are normally very meticulous|
Hi Matt, be careful what you wish for. If we’re down to a request for straight shoot-from-the-hip communications, how about answering some embarrassing questions that the Church usually goes into weasel-word political mode over? To start with, how about the question of the First-Century-cutting-off of gifts of the Spirit, like prophecy, healing, etc re Christians. The usual arguments tend to hover round 1 Corinthians 13: 8, and little else except for a fundamentalist determination not to give any credence to any reports that would allow those that they deem unworthy, to do such things (when so many better people who are staunch in the Scriptures can’t?). And yet we know that God used the unworthy as well as the worthy, as He deemed fit – the Balaam son of Beors as well as the Jeremiahs. We seem to have overlooked the fact that only one man was prophesied to be born with the authority to speak as God: the Messiah Jesus [Deuteronomy 18: 18-19]; and he attests that certain signs would accompany the bodty of believers [Mark 16: 17-18]. So, Paul’s argument may only be a pronouncement on the efficacy of caring love, and the unreliability of other things: he doesn’t specifically address healing (a major visible part of the Lord’s work in Judaea and of the First Century disciples’ outreach), and yet it’s tied up and bagged as discontinued, along with the three gifts that Paul mentions as not always being available (to those who were trying to use such gifts, or to the whole Church in perpetuity from some point in history not disclosed but presumed?). What happened to, “We will keep quiet where the Bible keeps quiet”? Is there no place in our doctrines for an honest “We don’t really know. There are several possibilities.”? At least we could have the referenced Pauline scripture supporting that position – “… whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away”.
I am down for straight, shoot from the hip communication. Your comment doesn’t upset my apple cart, for whatever that is worth.
Matt, there was nothing personal in it, except maybe a wariness against the making of generalising statements. For a lot of human communication (at least) involves misinformation, rather than information, whether deliberate or by error,.triggered by misunderstanding and, in some instances, presumption. If we follow the Lord’s instruction, we should not be doing the Gentile thing (taking the higher seat) and calling the shots where we aren’t sure (haven’t any indisputable proof) that we’ve got it right.