The High Road to Credibility

In the book “The Day America Told the Truth,” James Patterson and Peter Kim reveal that in 1989 only 22 percent of the American population expressed confidence in the leadership of organized religion. This represents a 55 percent drop since 1974. Recent findings by George Barna have been a bit more encouraging, but times have clearly changed.

Today, media personalities hold center stage in the public trust, while Christian communicators are left standing in the wings. During the 1950s, Billy Graham could stand in front of thousands and proclaim, “The Bible says,” and establish a sense of authority. Saying that today is more likely to cripple your credibility. Most contemporary communicators of the Christian message feel this tension.

Every week I stand before people who are not Christians and try to tell them about the Christian faith. With most of them, I have one shot to establish any kind of credibility. The pressure intensifies with the knowledge they are actively looking for a way to dismiss me as a messenger, and, as a result, the message.

That is the dilemma any communicator faces–you must be believed to be heard. Christian communicators, though, have the added burden of proclaiming an often unpopular, counter-cultural message. I have frequently taken my one shot and blown it, and in so doing have discovered five areas that help earn and maintain credibility.

ACCURACY

Nothing blows your credibility faster than engaging in what I call the “misses”: mispronouncing a word, misquoting a source, or misrepresenting a perspective.

Following a message in which I used a medical illustration, a doctor stopped me to say I had mispronounced a medical term. Another time a woman phoned my office on a Monday morning to find out my source for a startling statistic I had mentioned in Sunday’s message. I couldn’t find the reference and was unable to tell her its source. I simply blew my credibility.

But when we are accurate, enormous credibility can be developed.

After a talk on homosexuality, a lesbian seeker who had been attending our church said to me, “I knew what you were going to say; I just didn’t know how you were going to say it. It was fair, and you gave me something to think about.” She bought several copies of the message tape to give to her friends.

Her line of thinking intrigued me, because her starting point was accuracy: “Is he going to distort homosexuality and the homosexual life?” By avoiding stereotypes and caricatures, I earned the right to speak to her about my understanding of the Bible’s perspective.

Attention to accuracy serves me well, even beyond the immediate topic. When my lesbian friend listens to me talk about other subjects, such as the issue of salvation and eternity, she will probably have greater trust in me. She found me accurate in an area where she had firsthand knowledge, which signals to her I can be trusted on other topics.

AUTHENTICITY

Authenticity is the building of two bridges: the bridge of identification and the bridge of understanding. Identification is communicating “I’ve been there.” Understanding is communicating “I know how you feel.”

The degree to which you can do this varies from subject to subject, but most people can be authentic on most themes. I’m a committed father, but I’ve failed my kids in countless areas. I love my wife, but I’m not a perfect husband. I love Jesus, but my spiritual life has areas where a sign should be erected: “WARNING: road construction ahead.”

In a talk on what the Bible says about money management, I shared how just a few months after I got married, I received a letter in the mail that had DO not forward on the outside. I opened it and out dropped my very own VISA card with a $1,000 credit limit.

As far as I was concerned, somebody had just handed me a check for $1,000! Suddenly my mind was filled with all kinds of things I needed. So I went out and charged $700 or $800 worth of merchandise.

At first it didn’t bother me; I had to pay only $30 a month. I never even thought about the interest rate. My wife and I then used our new VISA to secure credit from several major department stores. With every purchase, we thought, What’s another $15 or $20 a month?

It wasn’t long before we had charged our way into a financial mess, and we didn’t know how to get out of it. It got so bad that we were getting cash advances on our credit cards to pay our credit card bills! It took us years to dig ourselves out of a mess that took only a few months to create, but we did it following the Bible’s advice about money management.

Using that story built bridges of identification and understanding, and opened the way to present biblical truth with credibility.

INTEGRITY

In planning a series on self-control, my topics flowed nicely–how to control your temper, credit cards, hormones, and stomach–did I say stomach? I had steadily gained weight over the past ten years. At first, it wasn’t a big deal. I was lean in college, and a few extra pounds looked good on me. But it didn’t stop with just a few pounds. Before I knew it, I was flat-out overweight. I couldn’t stand in front of anybody and talk about that subject with my own failure so visible. It was time for me to do a “gut-check” in the area of integrity.

So rather than change my sermon plans, I began a diet. When it came time to deliver the message, I had lost more than twenty pounds. I could then share authentically as both a fellow struggler and as someone actively trying to honor God with my body. People had noticed my weight loss, and credibility was gained.

I cannot challenge others toward evangelism if I am not actively building relationships with seekers in order to share Christ. I cannot talk about financially supporting the work of the church if I am not a generous giver. I cannot offer counsel on effective parenting if I am neglecting my role as a father. Regardless of the topic, my credibility and authority as a speaker are directly tied to my integrity in that area.

REASON

The use of reason means stating why you say what you say. It’s taking the time to back up your statements and offer sound, engaging arguments for your perspective.

When Paul argued in front of Festus and King Agrippa, he maintained that his proclamation of the biblical message was “both true and reasonable.” He gained credibility because he was able to reason with people about the truth of the Christian faith.

Socrates built credibility by engaging people in well-reasoned conversations that led to specific conclusions about what was true and right. Socrates would ask questions that poked and prodded people into rethinking their assumptions and conclusions. In the Socratic approach, you don’t begin by telling people what to think as much as help them to think it through on their own. For the Christian communicator, a Socratic approach can help people think through issues in a way that leads them to biblical truth.

In a recent talk on the validity of the miracles in the Bible, I said, “Let’s say I was going to write a book about the 1995 NBA playoffs. Instead of writing that Houston swept Orlando in four games, in my book, the Charlotte Hornets beat Houston four games to three. And in my book, I go into great detail about how the games were played, how many points were scored, and that Muggsy Bogues was the MVP.

“If I wrote such a book, no publisher would buy it, because everyone knows that Charlotte wasn’t in the finals and that Houston did sweep Orlando. My account of what took place would be shouted down in the marketplace.

“Why? Because people saw the games.”

I then applied that to the Bible. I discussed how the New Testament documents were written and circulated in a short enough period of time that people who were alive at the time of Jesus were still around either to say “Yes, that really happened” or “No, those guys are nuts!” I then pointed out the widespread acceptance of the New Testament material, despite references to supernatural events and miracles. As Paul argues in Acts 26, the resurrection of Jesus “was not done in a corner.”

My goal was to teach on the authority of the Bible. I did not begin with the Bible’s claims about its authority, for my audience was filled with seekers. My method was to help them use their minds to come to the conclusion that the Bible is trustworthy.

THE BIBLE

Ultimately, my credibility as a communicator of the Christian message is my allegiance to and dependence on the source document of the Christian message. The effective presentation of the Bible is the greatest way I can build credibility.

People hunger to know what the Bible has to say about the issues and questions of life. I’ve found that even the most antagonistic listeners will pay attention to the effective and practical teaching of the Bible on the issues they face in life–even when the biblical message goes against cultural norms.

One of the worst caricatures of unchurched people is that they must be served a watered-down, pleasant-tasting version of the Christian faith. In reality, that type of presentation repels them. Recently, CBS News filmed a story about our church for their Easter Sunday newscast. On that day, Palm Sunday, I had planned to speak on the cross of Christ and what the death of Jesus means for our life. It was a straightforward talk on the serious nature of sin in our lives, how the penalty for sin is death, and that only the cross of Christ can offer us hope. cbs came, filmed, and left.

Later, I spoke with a man who had made a decision for Christ and been baptized at the church. He had watched the “cbs event” with great interest as part of his seeking process. He confided that he was watching to see if I would change my message for the cameras. He said that if I had watered it down in any way for the mass media, he would have walked. In his mind, our credibility was directly tied to the faithfulness we demonstrated to the biblical message.

People are drawn to high levels of commitment and have little patience for wishy-washy perspectives. As early as 1972, Dean M. Kelley in Why Conservative Churches Are Growing noted that churches most closely aligned with the values of contemporary culture tend to be in decline.

The challenge today is to take the timeless truths of the Bible and proclaim them in a way that captures the attention of the modern listener. Credibility is gained when you preach with the Bible in one hand and, to butcher Barth’s famous line, cnn in the other. When Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, he talked of water. When he dialogued with fishermen, he talked of fishing. When he conversed with tax collectors, he spoke of money. The apostle Paul, confronted with Greek philosophers on Mars Hill, responded with a conversation rooted in Greek philosophy. Their strategy was to establish relevance, and then within that context, proclaim biblical truth. Our goal is translation–not transformation–of the message.

WHERE CREDIBILITY ENDS

There is a point where my effort toward achieving credibility ends. While Paul argued for both the truth and reasonableness of the gospel, he also alluded to its utter “foolishness” to the mind of a secular world. Ultimately, my credibility is awarded by God, not those who listen to me.

Not long ago I delivered a straightforward sermon on the Christian message of salvation. I talked about the coming judgment, the reality of heaven and hell, and how our choices on earth determine our eternal destiny. I spoke on the failure of morality, knowledge, and religion to save us, and that Christ alone was the Way.

During that talk, a strange thing happened to me. My mind began to operate on two levels. At one level, I was thoroughly occupied with delivering a message I believed in passionately. Eternities were on the line, and I was fighting for people’s lives. But on another level, my mind was thinking, “Jim, this is too much for these people. It’s too bizarre, too strange, too distant from their world and its understandings. You’re probably sounding like a rambling fool who needs to have his head checked. Just look at these people–affluent, educated, successful–living in the world of stocks and bonds, science and technology. You’re talking about sin and judgment, heaven and hell. This just isn’t going to work.”

The feeling was so overwhelming and discouraging, I didn’t even want to extend the invitation for salvation that I had planned on giving. But at the end, out of duty, I did ask people to respond. It was probably the weakest invitation I’ve ever extended. I just wanted to get it over with. Yet that day, dozens of people made professions of faith in Christ.

Paul was right: “The foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

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James Emery White is the founding pastor of Mecklenburg Community Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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