Communication: Complicated Made Simple

I was out and about one day in Demopolis, Alabama and paid a visit to a church member that had missed church. He owned a windshield business in town. After swapping a few pleasantries I asked why he was not attending church and what his relationship to the Lord.

He hung his head and sheepishly said that my preaching was not deep enough. I asked him to explain. He said that my sermons were too simple. I told him that the art of communication was to take the complicated and make it simple.

I try to get on the same level as my listeners whether they are two or ninety-two, educated or not, blue collar or white collar, skilled or laborer, and professional or not. I always try to reach common ground.

I said so you want more hermeneutic, exegesis, Christology, Eschatology, Apocalyptic, Parousia jargon. He smiled and said that’s what I’m talking about. I looked in the eye and said, “You are clueless to what I just said.” He hung his head again.

I told him that I could go deeper, but much of the congregation would be oblivious to what I was saying. I told him that in the congregation were children, educated and uneducated, farmers, medical doctors, nurses, schoolteachers, lawyers and a wide variety of folks.

I told him that hermeneutics was the theory and method of interpretation of texts. Next, I said that exegesis was the interpretation of text, especially the Bible. I explained that Christology was the study of Christ, the Eschatology was the Second Coming, Apocalyptic was the study of End Times and Parousia was the Rapture.

I reminded him that my Pastor’s Pals was an introduction to the sermon. I was taking the “complicated and making it simple” giving a head’s up to what was coming in the sermon. My preaching was like him installing a new windshield so folks could see better. He never returned. I guess I was too shallow for him. He eventually closed his business.

Back when I worked at the cement plant, I worked with Sam. Sam was an instrument technician. He had the ability to read an electrical schematic and explain it. When I worked with him in the electrical shop it helped me to read the schematics.

He would say, “See the thing-a-jig here connects to the Hickie-me-dodgy over there and controls the what-you-me-call powers the machine. He probably did know the technical jargon, but he knew how it worked.

I have kinfolks and friends that are ignorant of the technical, but have the knowledge to repair equipment, computers, and most anything that runs, twist, or turns. As my father-in-law told me as a young man, “You can do most anything once you understand it.”

When the Creator of the universe came to earth as Jesus, he spoke to people in a way they could understand. He took the complexity of the universe and made it simple enough for children to understand.

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Proverbs 4:7KJV

I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Psalm 78:2

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Matthew 13:13 KJV.

I Will Speak Using Stories: Thirty-one Day Devotion Bobby E. Hopper