"Double Listening"

One thing I have been thinking about recently is: "How do we proclaim the gospel truths to the unique problems of our day?" I was reading the introduction to John Stott's book entitled The Contemporary Christian (which was written in the pre-internet, pre-millennial world of 1992) and it summarized what I thought was an excellent approach to ministering in any age: "I believe we are called to the difficult and even painful task of 'double listening'. That is, we are to listen carefully (although of course with differing degrees of respect) both to the ancient Word and to the modern world, in order to relate the one to the other, with a combination of fidelity and sensitivity...It is, however, my firm conviction that, only if we can develop our capacity for double listening, will we avoid the opposite pitfalls of unfaithfulness and irrelevance, and be able to speak God's Word to God's world with effectiveness today."

Because every age has its own set of unique challenges and issues. People today wrestle with the same sin people have always wrestled with, only it is in different forms. They have the same unbelief, but that unbelief is manifested in different philosophies. They have the same emptiness common to the whole of the human race, but they are asking different questions. The teacher was right to proclaim there "is nothing new under the sun", but that does not mean we see complete continuity between all ages and cultures. As Mark Twain said, “History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”

And while the gospel message, the truth of God's Word never changes--the challenges of the world are ever changing. The "what" of the truth is the same yesterday, today, and forever--it is the "how" of the message which needs to be adjusted to fit the specific difficulties of the age. How does Biblical, Orthodox Christianity answer the profound isolation we experience in the modern internet age? How does the story of the resurrection speak to a world that is increasingly disenchanted with the complete and total "personal autonomy" that we have so celebrated? How does the teachings of Paul and Peter reach a generation that is growing up without a Father and Mother--that is finding its fulfillment and meaning in the alternative realities of video games and sports? How does the law of God address the moral outrage of a divided world?

It is these unique manifestations of the same common sickness--that we need to (1) identify and (2) allow the Word of God to speak to. In that order too.

In some ways, I lean a little too much on the side of "listening to the Word" at the expense of listening to the culture. I have written before about my own wrestlings with escapism--my desire to withdraw from the decadence of our age. I shy away from words like relevance, and church appeal. So many of these "seeker sensitive" movements have come at the cost of changing / cheapening the message which is something we can never do if we are to be faithful messengers. Perhaps some were listening to the modern world too attentively.

But on the other hand we cannot just regurgitate line for line sermons from Spurgeon, Whitefield, and Tozer. We can learn from the Puritans, but we cannot become identical to them. Their proclamations in their days were for their days; and ours need to be for ours. The truth must remain, but our message, our application, needs to relate to the 2018 world and the unique challenges it has brought.

Perhaps in the 1950s a simple Bible tract with “John 3:16” written on it would have been effective. To a world with a degree of Biblical literacy—quick presentations would suffice. Perhaps in a former time a road side banner proclaiming the glorious truth: “Jesus Saves!”—would yield a response. But today people need to understand why they need saving in the first place. And from what? And what does this have to do with my immediate circumstances? They need to see how Jesus actually does overwhelmingly satisfy the questions they are asking.

So “Double Listening” is a big challenge for us. I think Stott does well to call it “difficult” and “painful”. To listen to the world demands emotional toil. It requires that we be a little slower to speak, as we seek to understand the stories and struggles of those around us. And then, THEN can we unleash the powerful Word of God which will answer the questions, no matter how different they may seem today. And remember:

As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Isaiah 55:10-11