This is the subject of my unpublished book, ‘Hear the Word: Listening to the Eternal Word in the Contemporary World’. This work is a popular version of my doctoral thesis: ‘Preaching to the Postmodern Congregation’ (Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, 2006).
The book consists of six chapters. Chapter one explores the three parts of persuasive communication: pathos, ethos, and logos. In Christian spiritual transformation, this is the authentic content of the Word of God (logos), spoken in the authentic context of the hearing audience (ethos), by the authentic Church conveyors (pathos).
Chapter two is a theological reflection exploring and defining a biblical paradigm for spiritual formation through the exposition of the biblical logos that crosses cultural and generational boundaries.
Chapter three discusses the cultural shift that has taken place in the ethos of western culture, from a modernist worldview to a postmodern one, and its impact on Christian life and ministry.
In chapter four, I describe the results of an exploratory study project investigating the pathos of a representative group of ten young, emerging Church conveyors, and how they understand and practice the function of spiritual formation within the context of their postmodern congregations.
Chapter five puts it all together with nine recommendations for contemporary, western conveyors of the authentic content of God’s Word in the language, culture and history of their actual hearer’s context.
