The evaluation of the logos and the ethos of the preached message are only two of the three parts of the communication of the eternal Word to one’s contemporary audience. One can rank the logos and the ethos of a message in a grid of nine options. Finally, one must also evaluate the perceived pathos of the message. This adds a third dimension to the evaluation process, enabling anyone to assign the sermon to one of twenty-seven options, as in the figure below:
The pathos of a message is the ability of the speaker to connect with his or her audience. It is the perceived authenticity of the speaker. What allows an audience to receive a message depends on the perception of the speaker as one worth listening to, one who can hold the audience’s attention. The pathos of Christian Spiritual formation is the authentic, Spirit formed conveyor of God’s logos in the contemporary ethos. The goal is to be in the one quadrant that would have the message be the authentic logos, in the authentic ethos with authentic pathos.
Here then, is a tool to evaluate the full measure of a given message. After hearing a message, my wife, Liz and I will ask each other, "So, how was the message: logos? ethos? pathos?" Then we will rate it as high, medium or low on each dimension. The serious conveyor of God's Word must aim for the only acceptable square out of the 27 possibilities. Only that would be the proclamation of God's authentic Word to the authentic contemporary audience by an authentically reliable proclaimer. And, only that will lead to kind of authentic Spiritual formation in the lives of the hearers we want from preaching.
Some believe this contemporary generation will not accept a hearing of God's Word proclaimed. Darrell Johnson of Regent College comments, "The younger generation, in preaching, is looking for authenticity in the communicator; the communicator having something to say that they don’t hear anywhere else, and the communicator treating young people as smart and not dumbing it down and buying into the television view of a young person. I think (being) given the chance to enter into a text and engage that text is what young people are looking for, and (it) is much more powerful than the “pabulum” that they are given. And I think young people would flock to a church where, either young or old, a communicator was to do that."
