Over three-hundred years ago, Blaise Pascal wrote these observations on mastering the art of eloquent, relevant communication: "Eloquence is an art of saying things in such away (1) that those to whom we speak may listen to them without pain and with pleasure; (2) that they feel themselves interested, so that self-love leads them more willingly to reflection upon it." Pascal noted further, "This assumes that we have studied well the heart of man so as to know all its powers, and then to find the just proportion of the discourse which we wish to adapt to them.”1

 The Art of Salty Speech

 Colossians 4:5, 6 provides a biblical framework for such eloquent, relevant and effective communication of the gospel. Paul wrote, "Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person."

 Let us take a closer look at this passage to learn some principles of "salty" communication. First, Paul says to "conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders" (pagans). To be wise means, in Paul's words, to "make the most of the opportunity." Paul is saying that we are to be alert for every opportunity to present Jesus Christ to those with whom we make social contact. Our friends, neighbors, business associates and anyone else we meet in our daily routine are prime candidates for such opportunities. As Proverbs 11:30 states, “He who is wise wins souls.” Time is a precious commodity; it belongs to the Lord and should therefore be used to further His aims. His aim in this case is that the believer will enter into social contact with the nonbeliever with eyes wide open to gospel opportunities. The opportunities are always there. Most of the time it is simply a matter of seeing them.

 Whether these social contacts are regular and highly relational or sporadic and superficial, they can be “sanctified” by serving as a platform to introduce others to Christ.

 Second, Paul's use of the word “grace” to define our speech shows us God's concern that we approach others in the same manner in which He already has approached us in Christ. Grace here means charm, winsomeness and attractiveness, relevance and sensitivity. Grace always loves, always accepts, always tells the truth and always points to the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about change. Our speech must exhibit these same qualities.

 Grace in our speech also brings with it a humility of spirit. God has dealt with us in grace, and God wants to deal with this “outsider” in the same way. We are just one beggar telling another where the bread line begins. Grace leaves no room for a haughty, superior spirit, for the ground is level at the foot of the cross.

 Third, Paul uses a common kitchen metaphor as he relates our speech to adding the appropriate amount of salt to food to suit each person's taste. Wisdom in communicating the gospel is more than just seizing the opportunity; it is tailoring the opportunity to meet the needs of the individual nonbeliever. Thus, Jesus salted His communication with the woman at the well by presenting Himself as the giver of “living water.”

 A pastor tells the story of two secretaries talking at the office paper-shredding machine. The Christian was sharing the gospel with the nonbeliever, who was troubled by her guilty conscience. The Christian secretary said a “salty” word to her friend as she compared the ability of God to forgive and forget her sins to the shredder's ability to make short work of a piece of paper. The nonbeliever got the point: God has taken our sins and run them through His shredder, the cross of Christ.

 Paul's use of the salt analogy points to the truth that God desires His gospel to appeal to the spiritual palate of each person. The implication is that the Christian communicator actually can make difference as to whether the gospel is perceived as a "bland," irrelevant message, or spiced just right to make it the most relevant, joyful news the listener has ever heard. Thus, being wise is a matter of initiating with boldness and following through with the sensitivity of gracious, salty speech. We are not to violate our audience by insensitive pontifications, nor are we to bore him with dull, irrelevant conversation.

 Salty Speech in Action

 As Proverbs 15:23 states, “A man has joy in an apt answer, and how delightful is a timely word." Proverbs 15:2 says, "The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, but the mouth of fools spouts folly." The burden of salty speech is to make the gospel acceptable, palatable good news to the nonbeliever. I would like to suggest two ingredients necessary for the practice of using salty speech: a listening ear and a commitment to sensitivity.

 The Priority of a Listening Ear

 An authority on communication estimates that poor listening skills could cost the American economy a billion dollars a year. He estimates that a great many of the three million divorces per year are related to the simple inability or unwilligness of one or both parties to listen. The sinking of the Titanic and the attack on Pearl Harbor are tragedies that might have been avoided – if people had listened.2

 An absence of a listening ear can have just as tragic effects on the task of evangelism. The evangelist must affirm with the Lausanne Covenant that "our Christian presence in the world is indispensible to evangelism, and so is the kind of dialogue whose purpose is to listen sensitively in order to understand."3 We must listen in order to understand, for discernment is invaluable as we seek to gain common ground with our listeners so that they may hear and understand our message.

 The late Lyndon Johnson was fond of a sign that hung in his office: "You ain't learning nothin' while you're talking." It would be wrong to assume that the sole challenge of communication is to talk correctly. One must listen attentively. As we have noted, a message delivered without feedback may become irrelevant to the listener and fail to fulfill its persuasive intent.

 The Challenge of Listening

 Listening is a rare art. In The Listeners, Taylor Caldwell has one character, wise old John Godfrey, express a universal lament as he tells a reporter, "Nobody really listens." The Roman poet Seneca wrote, "Listen to me for a day – an hour – a moment! Lest I expire in my terrible wilderness, my lonely silence! Oh my God, is there no one to listen?"4

 Why is it so hard to listen? One reason is that we think much faster than we talk. As one person speaks his 125 words a minute, the other person's mind is racing ahead, figuring out what he wants to say. This is not listening, for the second person's attention is focused on plotting his next move, not on giving feedback to the speaker. The second person is a "foot tapper," just biding his time until his turn to speak. The effective other-centered communicator must give the other person his undivided attention, and this does not come easy to self-centered humans.

 Listening and Discernment

 Discernment is the process of taking note of the concerns that are important to my audience. This involves listening to the feedback and then analyzing it in light of what I just said. Note that feedback can be words, body language, or even silence. As I discern feedback, I am able to speak wisely as the gospel conversation progresses. How do I know what to say next? How can I more effectively zero in on and speak to the listener's felt needs, erroneous assumptions and any other barriers that keep him from seeing the cross of Christ? In other words, how can I season my speech with grace and salt (Colossians 4:5, 6)? The answer lies in listening with discernment.

 God places a high premium on listening with discernment. Proverbs 29:20 states, "Do you see a man who is hasty in his words? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Proverbs 17:28,29 says, "He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is counted prudent."

 We need to work at the art of listening in silence if we are to be effective persuaders for Jesus Christ. A "cool spirit," ready to listen for comprehension, slow to interrupt with a barrage of words, quick to discern the right amount of salt to add to one's speech to satisfy the spiritual palate of the listener is what God is looking for in His ambassadors.

 Learning Listening

 It is estimated that most of us listen at an average of only 25 percent efficiency.5 How, then, can you become a better listener?

 First, be responsible to make your conversation a dialogue, not a monologue.

 Second, practice "listening alertness" by asking yourself questions about your listener's feedback. Use Figure 6, the feedback model on page 221, to zero in on significant factors that influence his reception of the gospel. For example, does he understand your terminology? Has his response to the gospel been affected negatively by his nominalist, religious or secular assumptions?

 Third, and most important, pray for the godly discipline of listening. Proverbs 18:2 states, “A fool does not delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own mind." Proverbs 18:13,15 reads, "He who gives an answer before he hears, it is folly and shame to him....The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge."

 To listen is to be wise; to give an answer before he hears is the way of the fool. The art of listening is mastered only by those who have been taught by God to overcome the tendencies of their self-centered communicating style and have replaced them with the "cool spirit" of discernment.

 Saying It Sensitively

 Sensitivity is the prize commodity of insight gained by listening to feedback. If communication is composed of three elements – what you say, how you say it and to whom you say it – then sensitivity is the thread that binds these three components into an effective communication experience.

 Feelings are powerful factors in our decision-making process. They can shape our attitudes and responses to people and concepts, and information in general. To further complicate the communication process, our words have a powerful influence on others' feelings. Words are verbal arrows that always find away to penetrate the heart. As Proverbs 18:21 states, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."

 Imagine for example, a friend saying to you with great sincerity and feeling, "You are one of the most enjoyable people I have ever met. Your life is a constant source of encouragement to me. There are days when I think I cannot go on, but then I think of you and life seems worth living again." What a lift such remarks would give! You would be encouraged. Your heart would respond with thanks.

 But suppose an hour later another person tells you, "You absolutely disgust me. You are a sorry excuse for a human being. I never want to talk to you again." Your spirit would be crushed, your vitality drained. You would be hurt. As the author of Proverbs realized, words carry an impact that penetrates to the very core of our being.

 The Christian communicator must take note of what he says and how he says it. How we deliver the gospel can affect whether or not our message is heard and embraced, for how a person feels about the message will be a crucial factor in its acceptance or rejection.

 The sensitive communicator delivers the message, listens to feedback, takes note of message fidelity, noise factors and feedback, and continues to present the gospel in light of these factors. Thus, sensitivity is essential to facilitating a true dialogue.

 People want to be communicated with, not at. Not only do we need to know what our listeners are thinking, but they must also know that we know what they are thinking.

 The sensitive communicator will create an atmosphere in which the listener feels the freedom to raise questions or even to disagree. If barriers to the understanding of the gospel exist, they need to be dealt with. The communicator cannot afford to gloss over them in the hope that they will take care of themselves.

 Sensitivity in Action

 Every Christian communicator must reckon with the barrier of hostility toward the gospel. This hostility may be grounded in the listener's misconceptions about the gospel, his negative experiences with other Christians, or his own rebellious, sin-darkened soul. Often the sensitive spirit of the Christian communicator can defuse this hostility.

 The writer of Proverbs says, “A soft answer turns away wrath" (Proverbs 15:1). One spring day at a midwestern university, I had the chance to put this truth to the test. A crowd had gathered outdoors to hear a Christian singer. After the concert, many of us attempted to talk to those in the audience about Christ. I asked a young woman what she thought of the concert, and she responded, "I liked the music, but I don't like the message behind it." When I asked her why she felt this way, she said, "Christians make me mad. I just can't understand why they make such a big deal about Jesus." As she spoke I could sense her deep-seated bitterness.

 At this point I could have turned away and approached another person, or I could have taken out my Four Spiritual Laws booklet and asked her if she would be interested in hearing the gospel. Neither alternative seemed wise. Instead, I decided to see whether it was true that a "soft answer turns away wrath." I said, "It seems that you've had an unfortunate experience with Christianity. I'm interested in knowing why you feel this way."

 I'll never forget her expression as it changed from bitterness to curiosity. "You really want to know why I feel like this?" she asked.

 "Sure," I said.

 "No one has ever asked me how I felt about Christianity before," she said. "Are you sure you're interested?"

 I assured her that I was, and she proceeded to tell me the story of how her high school friends had "rejected her" because of their faith in Christ and the fact that she was not a believer. She felt that Jesus had taken away her best friends. She was still deeply hurt by this experience, even though it had happened more than three years earlier.

 After listening for about twenty minutes, I asked her if she had ever understood exactly what it meant to be a Christian. She replied that she was not sure, but then she had never wanted to know until now. I invited her to go through the Four Spiritual Laws booklet with me, and she said, "If you had asked me twenty minutes ago, I would have said no, but I now think I'd really like to." She did not trust Christ, but for the first time she understood the gospel and was genuinely touched by the experience.

 There are so many who, for various reasons, have hostility barriers that hinder their ability to understand the gospel. Be sensitive to these opportunities. Remember, "If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive."

 Saying It Salty

 Sensitivity means knowing how to respond to a given person in given circumstances so that all barriers to understanding can be addressed and, by God's grace, removed. The writer of Proverbs underscores the communicator's need for sensitivity: "Like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, or like vinegar on soda, is he who sings songs to a troubled heart" (Proverbs 25:20). "There is one who speaks rashly like the thrusts of a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" (Proverbs 11:8). "Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances" (Proverbs 25:11).

 As Lord Chesterfield said, "Learning is acquired by reading books, but the much more necessary learning, the knowledge of the world, is only to be acquired by reading men, and studying the various editions of them." The evangelist must be a student of the people with whom he intends to communicate. One cannot read the gospel accounts of Jesus' dealings with men and women without being struck by one truth: Jesus dealt with every person in away that perfectly matched the need of that person's heart.

 As Jesus addressed the woman at the well (John 4), He was able to expose her sin without crushing her spirit, that she might see her need for Him. Jesus spoke uplifting words to the down-trodden, the outcasts, and the poor in spirit, that they might see Him as the answer to their deepest need. Jesus also spoke words of sober warning and judgment to those blinded by their pride, self-sufficiency and complacency.

 The other-centered communicator is committed to the proposition that if Jesus is to be accepted or rejected, let it be the true Jesus and not a Jesus made of the misconceptions and ignorance of the audience. If the gospel is to be presented, let it be communicated in simplicity, clarity and power, unhindered by noise in the heart of the listener.

 Figure 9 illustrates various barriers that can be erected to prevent a person from coming to the Savior. But we must realize that if there is to be any barrier at all between a nonbeliever and a proper understanding of the gospel, it should be only the one beyond our ability to remove – that of a sin-blinded heart. Only God can remove that barrier through the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit's convicting ministry.

FIGURE 9

BARRIERS TO RESPONDING TO THE GOSPEL