Effective Evangelism: Proper Order of Persuasion | Ep. 2

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So you want to get out there and you want to share the gospel effectively, in a manner where somebody leans into your message, where they're not only engaged, but they also are open to changing their minds.

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And let's face it, nobody is changing their mind in today's culture, particularly on social media. And so the question is, how do

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I get people engaged with my gospel message? Or if you're on the apologetic side, how do I get people engaged with my apologetics message?

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Did you know that there is a proper order of persuasion, such that if you follow this order, you will have success in changing people's minds?

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Did you know that Jesus followed this proper order of persuasion? What are you talking about, Nate? That's a great question.

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Let's get into it. I'm Nate, and welcome to Wise Disciple.

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We're all about living effectively as Christians in today's culture. Now, before we go any further, I have a question for you.

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What are some obstacles for you in sharing your faith in Jesus right now? Throw them down in the comments below.

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I would to interact with them and see if I can help in any way, and I hope you guys are doing well. Well, as I said at the outset, there is a proper order of persuasion.

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And if you get this order wrong, you will crash and burn faster than Wonder Woman 1984.

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Was that too soon of a joke? Okay, we'll cut that out and edit. Aristotle once identified the principles of good rhetoric.

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Now, he wrote all of this down in his book of the same name, Rhetoric. Now, the word rhetoric just simply means effective communicating, whether that's speaking or writing.

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Okay, here's what Aristotle said. He said, persuasion must in every case be affected either, number one, by working on the emotions of the judges themselves, number two, by giving them the right impression of the speaker's character, and number three, by proving the truth of the statements made.

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Nowadays, we refer to that as pathos, ethos, and logos, respectively. Okay, these are the elements that go into persuasive communication.

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Now, that was back in the time of Aristotle, but if you fast forward to about a hundred years ago, there was another great philosopher.

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His name was Mortimer Adler, and he wrote a book called How to Speak, How to Listen. In the book, he took those principles of rhetoric, pathos, ethos, and logos, and he put them in their proper order.

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Here's what he said. When it comes to communication, the opening should attempt to establish the speaker's ethos first.

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That should be followed by bringing pathos into play. Logos should be left until the end.

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Have you ever had that moment where somebody showed up for the first time and they started speaking, whether it's at your local church, or at school, or wherever, and not only are they speaking, but they're kind of challenging you a little bit on some things that you hold dear.

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What's the first question that pops into your mind when that happens? Who is this person? Here's the thing.

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That's everybody's initial response. It's a question of trust. Who is this person coming at me and speaking to me?

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That's why the first thing that you need to focus on, and Mortimer Adler identifies this, is your ethos, your credibility, so that people can trust you.

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Look, if people don't trust you, they will not confer upon you the authority to speak into their life. That's why that's the first thing that you need to develop.

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The next thing you need to develop is what Aristotle called pathos, what I would refer to it as an emotional connection.

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Mortimer Adler says basically not only should you move the minds of the people that you're talking to, but also you need to get their emotions stirred.

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If you look at the previous video, you'll understand that we are the intersection of logic and emotion. In other words, if you come at somebody purely using logic, you are going to underwhelm your message because you forgot that emotions are a big component of decision making and beliefs.

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Guess what? You need to take the requisite time necessary to establish your ethos and your pathos.

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I would refer to that as developing trust and an emotional connection with a person before you give them your logos, the content of the message that you want to say.

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How many of us get that order wrong? We jump over to social media and we just start giving everybody the content of what we want to say.

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How's that going for you? Is anybody changing their minds, skipping the first two steps of the proper order of persuasion?

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No. Think about it. Jesus didn't just jump to logos.

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He didn't walk around to all synagogues in Jerusalem and the surrounding towns and just nail his message to the front door of every synagogue, which is kind of like what we do on social media, right?

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We just kind of give everybody our message. No, instead, the first thing that Jesus did was he spent some time developing his credibility, developing trust, and he did so by getting two celebrity endorsements.

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This is how he established his ministry. He got John the Baptist to vouch for him. John the Baptist, arguably the most popular person in Jerusalem in the first century.

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Big platform, big following, if I can use those current terms. And he got God the Father to vouch for him.

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And this all culminated in the moment of Jesus' baptism. Okay, so John the Baptist was getting his crowd ready for Jesus.

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He said, look, there's going to come a man and he is way more important than me. I baptize with water.

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He's going to baptize with fire. I'm not even worthy to untie his sandals. And then that fateful moment when

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Jesus finally arrived, John turns to his followers and he says, look, there he is, the

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Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What happens next? Jesus goes down in the gets baptized, comes back up.

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The Holy Spirit comes down and rests on Jesus' shoulders like a dove. And out of heaven, the voice of the

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Father saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That's two celebrity endorsements right there.

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And what happens next? Some of John's followers follow Jesus. That's how he began his ministry.

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Shortly after that, we see that Jesus calls a few more men to follow him. And then where does he go next?

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He goes to a wedding to sit down, to break bread, to eat and spend time with his disciples, to develop an emotional connection with his disciples.

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But wait, not only at the wedding is he spending time with his disciples and developing that emotional connection, there was a call for a miracle.

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And so Jesus performs a miraculous sign that then reinforces again, the notion of his credibility.

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Jesus is building trust at that point. Jesus hasn't taught yet. Shortly after that, Jesus begins teaching.

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And it says in Mark chapter 1, after he teaches in verses 27 and 28, that his fame began to spread throughout the land.

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Let me say the same thing using different words. Jesus' credibility, his ethos spread everywhere.

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Now don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that God in human flesh was beholden to certain rules. God could have done whatever he wanted.

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What I am saying is God, the creator of humanity, understands humanity. And God has a desire to meet the creatures that he has made where they're at.

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The bottom line is that what I'm telling you is effective and it is persuasive. It resonates with people.

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And I believe Jesus knew that. That's why he did what he did in the order that he did. But of course, now that we've established what

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Jesus did in the first century, then the question arises, how do I take what Jesus did and those principles, but bring it into my 21st century context today?

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That's exactly where I'm going next. It's called First Date Evangelism. It's our signature method of communicating your faith.

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And I will hit that on the next video. So if you haven't subscribed, you've got to subscribe. Click that notification bell, and I'll see you on the next one.