The Apostle Paul, discussing worship in 1 Corinthians 11-14, says that we must speak words of understanding to our audience or we are speaking into the air.  If people do not understand what we say, it is as though we speak in a foreign tongue and they cannot respond.  Paul, like our Lord, is the master communicator who demonstrates the importance of understanding our audience.  He said in 1 Corinthians 9:19-22 that we must be willing to do anything, short of sinning, to communicate the Gospel.  

Henderson follows the model of the Apostle, encouraging us to be aware of the need to understand our world in order to know how to communicate in meaningful ways.  We cannot expect the average unchurched person to understand Christian vocabulary and jargon. Henderson also emphasizes that we cannot expect the average layperson or youth in the church to understand either, and I increasingly find this to be true.

As Carl Henry points out in God, Revelation and Authority, also reviewed in this issue, we cannot effectively communicate with this generation if we do not understand its language, thought patterns, and lifestyles.  Neither can we communicate if we insist on using yesterday’s vocabulary.  Henderson’s book is extremely challenging, practical, and principally sound in its basic thesis.  He poses numerous situations throughout the book on how to, and how not to, communicate meaningfully.  He insists that we not fall into the trap of accommodating the world’s ideas, but rather that we translate our message into the language of the people.

Culture Shift helps flesh out what I believe the Westminster Divines had in mind in the first chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith when they stated that the Word of God written is to be translated in the “vulgar” streetwise language of the people.  Of course they did not mean that we could alter the Word, but neither does Henderson. He encourages us to choose our words carefully and thoughtfully in order to demonstrate sensitivity to our audience. He challenges us to know the world and suggests ways that we can do that. He gives examples of ineffective communication and suggests how it could have been more effective.  Some of his ideas are merely common sense, but we do not always use that ability. While we know that all truth is spiritual truth and the Holy Spirit is the ultimate teacher, He has chosen to place his treasure in broken clay pots, as the Apostle Paul has said.  This makes us part of the communication process of biblical truth.  While we do not use gimmicks, deceitful persuasion, or manipulation to communicate truth, we must use the best communication skills possible.  As the Henderson writes, “ God’s Word is for today’s world.  It holds answers that this world longs for.  It contains within it the power to send men and women into the future changed.  It is a bolt of lightning sizzling with the promise of hope and meaning and new life.  And when we standing on high on the narrow ledge, faithfully bring Word and world together, God’s courses through people with power and hits home.” 

Henderson believes, as we do, that we must speak Word of God clearly, faithfully, and without the least compromise; however, he points out that we must be relevant in our framing of God’s truth.  He claims we must be aware of  two types of relevance: actual and functional.  Actual relevance refers to the fact that every part of God’s written Word is relevant to us because it is God’s Word; however, not everyone is able to see that connection to their own lives. Therefore we must strive to be functionally relevant as communicators, preachers, and teachers—to do everything humanly possible to help the listener or audience see how a particular passage from the Word touches their lives. Like Henderson, I am convinced that much biblical preaching is not biblically implemented because we fail to make the Word as understandable as humanly possible. 

I appreciate the late Francis Schaeffer and his unique ability to read his audience and frame the Gospel message in their thought patterns in order to win them to Christ. When I read that this book was written in the Schaeffer tradition, I immediately determined to read it.  I was not disappointed.  Henderson understands not only the Word of God, but the world around him, and he realizes that people (even people involved in the church all their lives) are so influenced by the mind of the world that they fail to develop a fully biblical world and life view.

In every sermon we preach, lesson we teach, or conversation we have, we should aim to help the person or persons know how to think biblically, how to develop a biblically reformed world and life view.  I believe we are not faithful to our calling when we fail at that point, and maybe that is why we have so obviously lost the Christian consensus that was once present in our country.  In general, it does not appear that the people are getting it—that is, getting the Gospel at the deepest heart level and maybe that’s why so many of the surveys show that there is very little difference between the thought patterns and behavior of Christians and non-Christians.

Henderson quotes Albert Camus the French existentialist (an especially interesting comment since Camus claimed to be an atheist). “What the world expects of Christians is that Christians should speak out loud and clear…in such a way that never a doubt, never the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man.”  He also quotes the outstanding British preacher, Dr. Roy Clements, “Prophetic preaching is speaking God’s truth to a specific place and time, digging in to where people are and applying the Bible in specific ways to their circumstances.  It’s risky.  But it is a risk we need to take.  We can’t play it safe.”  He also quotes P. T. Forsyth, “We must all preach to our age, but woe to us if it is our age we preach, and only hold up a mirror of our time...We must of course go some way to meet the world, but when we do we must do more than greet.  A crisis has from time to time to be forced, a crisis of the will.” 

Are we not in a crisis in our western culture?   It is dying, and what seems to be taking its place is not of Christ but seemingly of anti-Christ.  Can we afford the consequences of not communicating, equipping, and training a generation of people to know the Lord, know His Word, know the world, and know themselves in order to serve His kingdom purpose?  This book will be a valuable resource.  Read it!  Discuss it with others who preach and teach! You will find the footnotes and suggested reading list to be a tremendous resource in identifying other books and tools to help you with this process. I have appreciated this book so much that I have given each CE/P staff member and the CE/P Committee’s directions committee a copy to read, study, and discuss.

Do not be ineffective in communicating God’s message of truth to this generation.  There is too much at stake. Henderson closes the last chapter with this sentence that reflects the book, “And the best place for us to be is on that narrow ledge, the Word in one hand and the world in the other, bridging heaven and earth.”

- Charles Dunahoo, CEP Coordinator