Evangelism
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Updated
July 20, 2007
In
a recent article in USA Today, Rita Rubin wrote an article concerning
the communication gap between physicians and patients. She writes of
Barry Weiss, a professor of clinical and community medicine at the
University of Arizona, who remembered a time when he consulted with a
colleague about a diabetic patient. The consulting physician looked
at the patients infected foot and determined it must be amputated. He
said, "I don't think we're going to be able to deal with this with
local treatments." The patient responded, "Does that mean I'm going
to have to go to Los Angeles for treatment?"
J. Michael Shannon is professor of preaching at Cincinnati Bible College in Cincinnati, OH.
Weiss likes to remind physicians they need to speak so that the patient can understand. The same admonition could be given to people involved with evangelism. We should be careful not to speak in theological code or "church lingo" and assume the listeners can break the code.
_______________J. Michael Shannon is professor of preaching at Cincinnati Bible College in Cincinnati, OH.