God Cares About How the Church Communicates
What would it take to change the world? What would it take to persuade some of the most powerful people and to convince some of the largest institutions to change how they function?
In 1517, a thirty-four-year-old professor in Germany posted a document on the doors of his university in Wittenberg critiquing the catholic church for its practice of selling indulgences. His name was Martin Luther. Five years later, he became one of the most published influencers in all of Europe. His critiques of the church and theological influence spread across the world sparking what we now know as the Great Reformation. When people marvel at the story of Martin Luther, they often commend him for his courage, tenacity, theology, and love for God and his word. And all of these things are worthy of commendation. However, one thing that is seldom noticed about Luther’s story is his approach to communication. Luther did not simply “say” things to the Catholic Church. He published them. The case could be made that he was the most widely published author in the world at the time. It wasn’t that Luther was simply courageous, stalwart, bold, or controversial. Luther cared about the manner and brand of his communication. In other words, he wasn’t simply careful about what he communicated but he cared seriously about how he communicated.
Today, we find ourselves in a much more modern context but similar to Luther’s world in numerous ways. The culture around us has strayed from the truth. We have seen larger institutions in the state, the academic realm, and even within the church begin to deviate from the core tenets that make up our Christian faith. We need reformation. And now more than ever we need reformers like Luther. Furthermore, as a church, we need to not simply care about what we communicate but additionally refine how we communicate. As the church, we need to develop a proper, biblical framework for how we communicate while we navigate the biggest shift of communication in our modern culture.
While we have seen the church survive through modernity, her influence has waned and that is most certainly not because of the content of our message. The truth we tell is timeless. It is potent. It is effective! But throughout the centuries, we have lost our ability to communicate it with potency. I would argue that we haven’t simply lost what we could have learned from Luther, but I believe that we have lost what we should have learned from God himself. Scripture gives us a compelling reason to care about the medium of our communication. Of course, the church needs to communicate the truth both internally and externally, but we ought to pay attention to how we do it. God doesn’t simply communicate his will for us in a bland, unorganized, vain, or ugly way. Psalm 19 tells us that the “heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork!” Think about the sky. Think about the heavens. These are God’s means of communicating his glory to us. The best gradients, brightest colors, and the boundless expanse of the sky are the means God has chosen to reveal himself to us. He does not neglect beauty or order when proclaiming his truth about himself. The communication through God’s creation is so compelling, potent, clear, and beautiful that Romans 1 tells us that we, as his creatures, are without excuse to neglect our thanksgiving or admit his existence. "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”(Romans 1:19–20). God cares about how he communicates and therefore we as the church need to do the same.
Pettegree, Andrew. 2015. Brand Luther. Penguin Books.