The world seems to be stalled at the intersection of pandemonium and chaos.
Caught off guard, nobody seemed to have a contingency plan to mitigate a global pandemic. So in Spring 2020 the world scrambled to assemble protocols and systems to accomplish things many human beings have not had to deal with in their generation. We’ve grown accustomed to YouTube videos going viral, usually of some trivial amusement, like a cat playing chopsticks on the piano. We were not prepared to deal with an actual life-threatening virus (Covid-19) going viral, spreading disease and mayhem around the world.
Reader Note: This post was made during the Spring 2020 Global Covid-19 Pandemic, and is targeted for ministers and speakers or anyone who is delivering online video messages to connect with people experiencing isolation due to shelter in place orders or quarantines.
This is especially true for churches and pastors who are used to having a literal platform to stand on with a nearby audience to preach to. All that changed in a moment when governors across the United States and authorities around the world issued edicts to shelter in place, outlawing gatherings of any kind. This was not an attack on religion or First Amendment rights, but an issue of public safety. Most churches readily complied, and within a few hours were devising new methods to communicate and continue to engage their faith community.
When it comes to making significant leadership decisions that involve extensive changes and effort, many pastors and church leaders historically take a “wait and see” approach. Change is hard and often painful, especially for groups of people known for their propensity to cling to traditions, ancient or modern. Motivation for real and substantive change requires a sense of urgency to help people move from where they are to where they need to be. The ultimate sense of urgency brought about by the Coronavirus Crisis and subsequent government officials’ lockdown orders in states and municipalities created an immediate sense of urgency.
Organizational change generally requires a systematic process that involves a coalition of people who can intelligently answer the “why?” and the “when?” questions that present the compelling reason for change in the first place. For many churches, debate is all that ever takes place, leading to procrastination and stagnation as the world changes around them, and leaves them arguing about insignificant relics of the past, like replacing the pews with chairs, or style of worship, or even service times. All that changed when pastors were forced by reasons of public safety to find a different way to do church. We simply could not do “business as usual” for the foreseeable future.
So without wasting time debating the “why?” or the “when?,” churches sprinted in an effort to discover answers to the “what?” and “how?.” They quickly pivoted toward online delivery systems and other creative ways of doing and being the church. Pastors who had never dreamed of streaming their services on Facebook, or lacked the equipment and resources for doing livestreaming or preparing a video, discovered that someone in the congregation with a smartphone could effectively use that tool to accomplish the task. There are a multitude of ways to take church online, from the simple smartphone to a million-dollar state of the art audio/visual system with all the latest HD cameras, bells, and whistles. But at the end of the day, it all boils down to this:
How do you effectively pivot from communicating with a live audience to simply speaking into a faceless camera in an empty room?
If you listened closely, you could hear echoes of the past back to a time when churches were forced to go underground, literally or figuratively, because of a different kind of government edict. And if you took a moment to explore back even farther than the history of that echo, you would discover an unlikely source of inspiration for the connection and communication challenges of today in the writings of Aristotle (384-322 BC), a disciple of Plato. His thoughts on the art of persuasion, what we usually refer to as rhetoric, might shed some ancient light to illuminate and enhance how we communicate with a virtual online audience in today’s pandemic panicked world.
Aristotle’s Rules of Rhetoric have been taught to speakers, politicians, lawyers, and preachers for thousands of years. Using the Greek words of Logos (logic), Pathos (emotion), Ethos (ethics or trust), and Kairos (a moment in time), he proposed a logical way to persuade or win an argument. When we stand or sit to speak to our audience, we certainly don’t want to take on the tone of an argument. That is what politicians do. But we do want to be persuasive.
Also bear in mind that Aristotle’s use of those words does not necessarily align with the New Testament Greek use of the words. For example, pathos occurs three times in the NT, with the connotation of sinful desire (Rom. 1:26; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:5). But the word itself is the basis for English words like empathy and pathetic, which convey a feeling or emotion, good or bad. And the writer of Hebrews uses a similar word, sumpatheo. Hebrews 4:15 describes how Jesus was touched by “the feeling of our infirmities” (KJV), in contrast with Aristotle’s mythical Greek gods, whom he believed could never be compared with humans.
The simple concepts of logic, trust, emotions, and timing provide us with guidance as we communicate in this crisis, and plan our communication strategy. Virtually every communication and conversation, especially those being broadcast or livestreamed, should combine elements of rhetoric, and be recognized as Crucial Conversations, defined by the authors of the book by the same name, as “high stakes, high emotions, and diverse opinions.”[1]
Having been afforded the opportunity a few years ago to attend a two day Crucial Conversations training workshop, I learned the importance of their first rule, “Lead with the heart.” Thus, I place pathos as self-awareness and awareness of the emotions and feelings of others, as the first consideration of any crucial conversation.
Pastors can be themselves. They should lead with their hearts in the current crisis, but make calm decisions using their heads so that the resulting actions (hands) will produce positive outcomes. In simplistic terms, I am suggesting the below graphic model might help you as a template or matrix for what you say and how you say it. So, with appreciation to Aristotle, I’d propose that you consider these thoughts as a potential matrix or lens as you create online content:
Lead with the heart: Pathos/Emotions (Heart)
- Gospel = “Good News” that God is still in control!
- Be pastoral – be a shepherd
- Be warm and empathetic: “Jesus wept”
- Smile & be vulnerable
- Look into the camera
- Visualize you are speaking to a large crowd, but focused on a single attentive young person who is looking to you for answers to their persistent questions
- Consider the feelings of your audience, their pain, anxiety, fears, or grief
- Recognize some may feel guilty because they are OK, still have their jobs, etc.
- Don’t minimize their fears
- Be kind
- Model and propose generosity
- Don’t add to their shame
- Point them to the love of God
- Tell uplifting stories from your own faith community and from elsewhere
- How are we impacting our neighbors?
Be Biblical: Logos/Logic (Head)
- Speak truth in loving ways
- Don’t claim to be an expert
- Don’t try to answer every question
- Direct them to a community group
- Check your facts
- Emphasize Christ’s Sufficiency and God’s attributes
- Remain Gospel-focused
- Point them to Jesus
- Direct them to Scripture
- Ask them to consider the “why” question of their life: “Why am I here on earth?”
- Lead them to a decision: “What about you?” “How will you respond?” but don’t coerce
- Application for today, show them the steps for helping themselves, then helping others
- Keep the community and broader community in focus
- Direct them to resources for further study
Speak with confidence: Ethos/Ethics/Integrity (Hands)
- Rely on the Holy Spirit
- Be yourself
- Practice your message in front of the mirror, record it on your phone video and playback or ask for someone in your home to watch at a safe distance (But don’t increase home tensions if you are in isolation together!)
- Be positive
- Be calm
- Be encouraging
- Focus on hope and faith
- Cast vision, not stones
- “This shall pass”
- Leave them with something to believe in
- Leave them with something to do
- You may not be able to solve the world’s problems, but what is one thing you can do today?
Consider the timing: Kairos/Timing (Horology = Clocks/Schedule)
- Remember what is happening in their world
- Keep it short & simple
- Slow down
- We are all mortal, but we all have this Kairos moment today
- Destiny
- Think “is this tweetable?”
- Consider your team’s time, and express appreciation
- Examples from history of people who made it through tough times
- Remember both the “here and now” and the “then and there”
- Encourage them to take time for spiritual disciplines and Sabbath
- Stay connected
- Pray
Feel free to share and add your own thoughts in the comments section. You can decide what is right, wrong, missing, or confusing about what I have written. But hopefully it will provide a lens for some of you to sharpen your communication strategy in these crucial days. How will you lead with your heart, head, and hands?
Remember, Jesus has placed you in this time of history for this purpose: to communicate His love and a certain future to an uncertain world. You have a destiny. You can do it. Jesus is enough. I am cheering you on.
Below is a graphic showing my rendition of Aristotle’s main components in the art of gaining favor with an audience and leading them toward engagement toward you and your message:
[1] Patterson, Kerry, eds. Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2012. Print, various pages.