Samuel Chun #101220003 Cross Cultural Ministry 3/5/12

Book Report #1: Communicating Jesus Way

Charles Krafts intention and purpose in writing this book is to aim for Christian communicators. This book is to serve as a manual for theology of communication, attempting to bridge both communication theories with an understanding of how God seeks to communicate. This book gives biblical foundational principles advocating that we imitate Jesus in our attempts to communicate. Throughout this book, Kraft helps us understand that Gods preferred medium is human life, not print, and that God has showed us in Jesus Christ how we are to be His incarnate message. This book shows us how Jesus communicated his message to his disciples and to his community. Kraft looks at three types of communication to discover which style of teaching is the most life changing for the audience. Firstly there is monolog as in a sermon, then dialog as in a group discussion and then life involvement as in the three years Jesus spent with his disciples. The most life changing of these was life involvement. However even Jesus was only able to do this with 12 men. Likewise in the discussion mode of teaching we can really only impact at most about 25 people. So in our modern society we tend to use the monolog even though it is the least impacting on peoples lives. Kraft then looks at how we can take monolog communication and make it more impacting by learning from the other styles of communication. Kraft also looks at how God communicates with his people and points out the enormous lengths God went to in order to connect with people. He took all the initiative, went out his way to establish and restore a relationship with people. God has modeled how to communicate and we can learn much by studying Gods methods. Throughout this book, the author achieved his objectives on what he wanted to say about communication. Kraft says to have an effective communication; we need to follow Jesus examples. The first example is the major principle: just as God is receptor oriented, so should we be. We need to imitate Jesus approach to communication. We need to do whatever it takes to understand the receptors frame of reference and to speak into it. Like Jesus, we need to use their language and thought patterns, to speak to their desires and felt needs, to not take for granted the relevance of our interests to them and their acceptance of us. We should be more careful to imitate God is at the point of taking the initiative. The initiative that we take is to move toward the receptor, into his frame of reference. We need to overcome the distancing created by a stereotype by becoming a

genuine human being to our receptors. The author suggests five steps process for escaping from a stereotype into the human being category of our receptors. The first step is to try to understand them. The second step is to go beyond understanding them to empathizing with them. The third step is to identify with our receptors. The fourth step is to participate in the lives of the people we are trying to reach. The last, fifth step is to become a human being in order to reach human beings, is what has been termed selfdisclosure. The sixth example is to demonstrate the messages we seek to communicate. The seventh example is to turn to the relevance of the messages that the communicators present. The eighth example is that the relevance of Christian messages to felt needs is demonstrated when such messages are specific to the real life of the receptors. In ninth example, like Jesus, we need to lead our receptors to discovery. The tenth example is that the communicator can bring the receptors to identify with him and to commit themselves to his/ her cause. The author argues that every communication is directed into a context and needs to be formulated in such a way that context is taken seriously. The author says that to be a receptor oriented requires that one take seriously the frame of reference within which the receptor lives. The author suggests that in the communication field, receptors are parts of reference groups. Receptors are never alone, even when they are by themselves. An important part of the context within which receptors operate, is the fact that all humans are related to reference groups whose opinions strongly affect the choices they make. The author also argues that receptors are already committed to groups and to values. In Christian communication, author says that we are seeking to lead people to seek first the presence of God and to put his requirements of them as their top priority. We all have commitments, such as family, occupation, self, friends, God, a hobby, organizations, material objects, values, and etc. God wants us to put him first. The author argues that it is okay to continue to be committed to other things in our lives, but should be committed to God first. The authors argument is that communication requires active involvement of those to whom the messages are directed as well as of those who originate them. This means that receptors are active whether or not they are doing much speaking and whether they are accepting, rejecting, or attempting to avoid what is being said or done. Based on what the author is saying throughout this book, we need to be receptororiented and follow the examples of Jesus Christ on how he communicated effectively to His disciples and people around Him. Throughout this book, what I learned was that to communicate better and relay the messages to people, language is important. Language is important because it is a tool for communicating what we want to communicate.