We have seen that Paul had a firm reliance on God as he approached people with the gospel. At the same time we also see he was not passive. There was an active role Paul had to play to be a part of the harvest. We see a second principle at work that informed the way Paul engaged the people he wanted to reach. I refer to this as Paul’s missionary mindset. Much of what we will study from this point forward relates to this mentality. It is what I try to instill in others as I work as a ministry marketing coach.
Paul’s Missionary Communication Mindset
- Identify the traits of the target audience you want to reach
- Contextualize the message for the audience based on what you learn about them
Paul tailored his approach to the needs of his audience.
Paul knew the benefits of audience segmentation. In the passage we have been reading, you can see that Paul didn’t have the same approach to the Hellenistic Jews as he had with the Athenian Gentiles.
In the case of the Jews the Bible says he, “reasoned in the synagogue” (Acts 17:17). With the Jewish people he had a significant vocabulary of common understandings he shared with them. He could preach about Jesus by starting at the story of Abraham and working his way through the storyline if the Bible on a straight path to Jesus. In this way you could say he had a strong bridge he could use to tell the gospel message.
For the Gentile Athenians Paul didn’t have the same background. He didn’t have the bridge he needed to get the message to them. They were not Bible readers, so starting with Abraham and working through the storyline to tell about Jesus would have taken a significant amount of time and energy. Therefore Paul’s approach with them was different. The Bible says Paul still reasoned with the Gentiles, but he employed another presentation and approach to this Athenian “target audience”.
“For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).
When Paul explained the gospel to the Athenian Gentiles, he used another starting point. Instead of starting with Abraham and working his way to Jesus, he started at the Altar to the Unknown God and worked his way to Jesus. That is he used the common point of contact to reach them. (We will look at this later more in depth.) One principle of good ministry communication is that ministry leaders reach their target audiences by finding the points of common contact that become brides to reaching them with the gospel message. As a ministry leader buzzing the gospel, it is your job it to do it properly while remaining faithful to the Word of God.
Paul Contextualized the Message for the Audience
Another part of Paul’s approach, his mindset, was to take an uncompromising stand for the gospel. You didn’t see Paul watering down the message to get people’s attention. The Bible says the people understood Paul was talking about something new, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.” (Acts 17:18)
I fear in some ways our current attempts at contextualization are based on poor missiology. We need to strike a balance between what is relevant to the audience and what is compromise with their non-biblical worldview.
Your church should be delivering a message that has more in common with the Bible than with the TV guide! As you buzz the gospel in your community, stay on track with proclaiming the message. There is no reason to pander to people’s whims or soft-sell the message in ministry marketing. Instead, you can develop ministry communications that are sound biblically.
When Paul adapted his presentation he was not changing it, he was contextualizing it for the target audience. Missionaries all over the world are familiar with contextualization. It is a standard part of adapting the message to the context. In order to contextualize, you have to see and hear the message through the eyes and ears of the people you want to reach.
More later…
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