THE PRAGMATIC PREACHER

 Making the Good News Effective for the people of today

Nwanyanwu Christopher

The Good News is the message of the Lord which has been commanded by him to be passed on to all generations. It is good news because it contains good information. Not just good for the now or for the then, but eternally good. It is eternally good because it contains those pieces of information that will help us to commune with God not only here on earth, but more importantly in the life of the world to come. This Good News is meant for the people of God whom God desires to save by bringing them closer to Himself. In view of achieving this purpose of disseminating the message of the Gospel, God chose special people whose work is basically to carry out this message to all the peoples of the world; for God wants all men to be saved. Thus, we have preachers of the Word of God whose duty is to bring the Word of God to God’s people wherever they may be.

Consequent to the above injunction to preach the Word of God to all peoples, preachers are sent to various places and in various times to preach to the people. In doing this, they adopt different methods or ways of passing this message to the people. For some preachers of the Gospel, they preach the Word of God in the Churches during different gatherings and celebrations. Some of them adopt the method of organizing retreats, crusades and conferences and other public gatherings to deliver the Word of God. For some others, they disseminate theirs through the media; while some preach through the   Radio stations, some others the television, others through the internet, and other social networks. Another method preachers use to spread the Word of God is through writings, some write books, others articles, other journals, etc. Besides these methods, others carry out theirs through house to house visitations where the message is brought to the door posts of people. These and other means are used to deliver the message of the Gospel so that wherever one may be the Good News will be made available to him or her.

 However, since this message is supposed to be effective to the people in terms of making meaning to them as they comprehend it and then translate it into their lives, it is very necessary we begin to think of how the message of the Gospel can be effective to the people. The first thing we must know as regards the effectiveness of the message is that there is a correlation between the effectiveness of the message and the effectiveness of the process or avenue of delivery. This correlation is expressed in the manner the gospel is expressed. This is because if the message is delivered effectively, the people will understand it effectively and translate it into practice. In other words, should the gospel be effective, the delivery must be effective as well.

Therefore, the effective delivery of the message can only be achieved when the message is delivered according to the intellectual development of the audience. Besides other development such as social and spiritual, the intellectual development is very essential. This is because the intellect being a vital tool for knowledge harnesses what has been received through the senses and then passes it to the brain who collaborates with other tools/factors in the process of applying them in daily life. It follows therefore that the language in its nature and structure must be such that is comprehensible to the people. For this reason, preachers of the word of God must be in the swing of things with the local languages of the local audience, so that they too may understand the message before putting it into practice. Also, people including the children must be spoken to in the way and manner they can understand. This is very important because in some cases you find the preacher addressing the primary school pupils as if they are undergraduates. Sometimes you find the preacher using very complex words to deliver the message such that it is either the audience avail themselves with a dictionary or they just stare at the preacher. In this case can you say the Gospel has been delivered when the audience never understood the message presented to them?

Besides the intellectual development of the people, their type of life should also be considered in the delivery of the gospel. This is because when the gospel is delivered in the way they detest, they will never grab what is being said. This is the case when preachers preach for very long period of time such that the people will become uninterested with what is going on as they either sleep or do other things even while the message is going on. And at the end of the day, nothing is taken home. In this case, can the preacher claim that the message has been understood by the people? If all these are addressed, I believe that there will be effective delivery and in turn the people will reveal the effectiveness of the message in the way they live after receiving the message. 

Furthermore and more significantly, for the message to be very effective or rather more effective to the people of God especially the people of our time, there is another factor that must be considered. This is all about the correlation between pragmatism of the preacher and the effectiveness of the Gospel. The relationship between the pragmatic preacher and the message of God lies in the fact that the message received must be sustained by the people. The message is not just for that moment, but one that should remain forever as they live their lives. The world today is full of problems and hardships and in the midst of all these, it is expected that the message will be lived out. If this is the case, it therefore means that the people of God will need another help for consistency in the application of the message received.

Consequently, as the people of today (just as it has been in the past though not pronounced) demands for the participation of the preacher in the application of the message given, it therefore follows that the practice of what is being preached becomes a conditio sine qua non in this regard.  If the message is all about sacrifice and the shunning of materialism, the people need examples of such a practice from the preacher; for it will make them understand and accept that it could be practised. To this end not only must the preacher practice what he preaches in the secret, but more importantly publicly so that the people could see for themselves the application of the message proclaimed. It is only when the preachers of today practice what they preach that the message of the Gospel received becomes not just a wine but a delicious and festive one to and for the people as they translate it into action.

Arguably, the preacher is a human being as well who has his limitations. Yes this is very true. But if he must tell people to make effort, people should see him making such effort. Also, even after the practising the message by the preacher, the people can decide to shun the message. This is true. But then, the application of the message by the preacher determines to a great extent the effectiveness of the Gospel received; for if he practices what he preaches, the people will be encouraged to follow him; but if he does not practice what he preaches and the people notice it, they are discouraged from applying the message in their lives. The people of today need a pragmatic preacher of God’s Word!