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 

The More I Attend School, the Dumber I Become

I want to squash a vicious rumor that has slowly circulating around.  As with any rumor, it is hard to locate the source.  Rumors and gossip have a tendency to be bigger and better than reality.  Rumor has it that I am very intelligent or as some say, smart.  Well, It ain’t so.

Truth is you do not know what I do not know.  In the words of the great communicator and master of wit, Will Rogers, “It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so.”

My late father-in-law once asked me why I was going to school, referring to seminary, for so long.  I responded by saying that when I was a young man I thought I was pretty smart.  That was until I started classes at the University of Montevallo.  Once I started into the wonderful world of academia, I realized I did not know anything.  I told paw-in-law that the more I went to school the dumber I got.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.”

I know that I cannot spell.  I rely heavily on the dictionary, the thesaurus, and the spell check.  That reminds me of my late friend Lamar from the University of Montevallo carpentry shop who talked real slow, but could spell anything.  He asked me how I spelled correctly.  I said, “I use the dictionary.”  With all of his Chilton County Alabama wit he asked, I might add very slowly, “How do you use a dictionary if you don’t know how to spell the word?”  I called Lamar a “Smart Aleck!”  What’s funny is I had to use Roget’s Thesaurus to look up “aleck” while writing this article because spell check could not understand what I was trying to say.

The thing is I appear to be more intelligent than I am.  I enjoy being with intellectual thinkers, theologians, and people of wisdom.  I listen more than I speak and act as if I know what they are discussing.  If I listen long enough, a familiar topic will pop up and I will chime into the conversation.  I remember one time in church they were talking about Communion.  I sat among these church folks and I was clueless.  I had visions of something from a hippie commune or something.  I kept my mouth shut long enough to realize they were talking about the Lord’s Supper.

I like what Christian motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says, It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference.  He also says, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”  Confucius says, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”

In Seminary, my friends would ask, “How in the world are you an English minor and cannot spell?”  I replied, “Very limited vocabulary.”  During lectures, I was continually asking my friends how to spell theological words and terms.  I remember the professor talking about “exegesis.”  I was clueless to what exegesis was and spelled it Xahjesus.  Hermeneutics was another one.  I spelled it hermahnudecks and was clueless to what it was.  Regardless of what Lamar says, I am glad I had a dictionary at home to look up these words.

I had a pastor friend call and ask me what I knew about “such and such ism” that was the new hot topic in scholarly thought.  Having no clue, I said, “I don’t know, what do you think?”  After a while, I figured out what he was referring and I told him my take on the subject.   Jewish scholar Mivchar Peninim says, “A wise man’s question is half the answer.”

It is always good to ask someone how to act and what to wear when attending special events.  Admitting that you do not know something is a very important step in the road to knowing something.  To know that you do not know is true knowledge.  Knowing when to say I don’t know is very librating.  I like Yogi Berra philosophy that says, “If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.”

It reminds me of a statement from a preacher friend’s sermon on Esther.  It is important knowing what you do not know.  Esther was not afraid to ask for help when meeting the king.

When the turn came for Esther (the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her (Esther 2:15 NIV).

 

"If You Can't Spell, How Do You Use A Dictionary?"

I want to squash a vicious rumor that has slowly circulating about me.  As with any rumor, it is hard to locate the source.  Rumors and gossip have a tendency to be bigger and better than reality.  Rumor has it that your Director of Missions is very intelligent or as some say, smart.  Well, It ain’t so.

Truth is you do not know what I do not know.  In the words of the great communicator and master of wit, Will Rogers, “It isn't what we don't know that gives us trouble, it's what we know that ain't so.”

My father-in-law once asked me why I was going to school, referring to seminary, for so long.  I responded by saying that when I was a young man, I thought I was pretty smart.  That was until I started classes at the University of Montevallo.  Once I started into the wonderful world of academia, I realized I did not know anything.  I told paw-in-law that the more I went to school the dumber I got.  Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Knowledge is knowing that we cannot know.”

I know that I cannot spell.  I rely heavily on the dictionary, the thesaurus, and the spell check.  That reminds me of my friend Lamar from the university who talked really slow, but could spell anything.  He asked me how I spelled correctly.  I said, “I use the dictionary.”  With all of his Chilton County wit he asked, I might add very slowly, “How do you use a dictionary if you don’t know how to spell the word?”  I called Lamar a “Smart Aleck!”  What’s funny is I had to use Roget’s Thesaurus to look up “aleck” while writing this article because spell check could not understand what I was trying to say.

The thing is I appear to be more intelligent than I am.  I enjoy being with intellectual thinkers, theologians, and people of wisdom.  I listen more than I speak and act as if I know what they are discussing.  If I listen long enough, a familiar topic will pop up and I will chime into the conversation.  I remember one time in church they were talking about Communion.  I sat among these church folks and I was clueless.  I had visions of something from a hippie commune or something.  I kept my mouth shut long enough to realize they were talking about the Lord’s Supper.

I like what Christian motivational speaker Zig Ziglar says, “It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference.”  He also says, “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”  Confucius says, “Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.”

In Seminary, my friends would ask, “How in the world are you an English minor and cannot spell?”  I replied, “Very limited vocabulary.”  During lectures, I was continually asking my friends how to spell theological words and terms.  I remember the professor talking about “exegesis.”  I was clueless to what exegesis was and spelled it Xahjesus.  Hermeneutics was another one.  I spelled it hermahnudecks and was clueless to what it was.  Regardless of what Lamar says, I am glad I had a dictionary at home to look up these words.

I had a pastor friend call and ask me what I knew about “such and such ism” that was the new hot topic in scholarly thought.  Having no clue, I said, “I don’t know, what do you think?”  After a while, I figured out what he was referring and I told him my take on the subject.   Jewish scholar Mivchar Peninim says, “A wise man’s question is half the answer.”

It is always good to ask someone how to act and what to wear when attending special events.  Admitting that you do not know something is a very important step in the road to knowing something.  To know that you do not know is true knowledge.  Knowing when to say I don’t know is very librating.  I like Yogi Berra philosophy that says, “If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.”

It reminds me of a statement from a sermon on Esther.  The preacher said, "It is important knowing what you do not know.  Esther was not afraid to ask for help when meeting the king." 

When the turn came for Esther (the girl Mordecai had adopted, the daughter of his uncle Abihail) to go to the king, she asked for nothing other than what Hegai, the king's eunuch who was in charge of the harem, suggested. And Esther won the favor of everyone who saw her (Esther 2:15 NIV).