After 18 years as pastor of a church he planted, Ron Martoia’s ministry has shifted to that of a “transformational architect,” equipping leaders to deal with change. His speaking and writing seeks to help leaders understand a shifting culture and learn to minister effectively in an era of change. (You can visit his website at velocityculture.com.) He recently visited with Preaching editor Michael Duduit about what he is learning and how that can help preachers in an era of cultural transformation...

Preaching: In your book Static (Tyndale House), you use that term to argue that we have obscured the communication of the gospel in some way. What do you see as the problem with how we communicate the gospel today?

Martoia: You have absolutely captured the essence of that whole concept of Static. When I use a word, I am encoding that word with specific sorts of ideas – I am assuming that the kinds of things I am investing in its meaning are the sorts of things you extract from its meaning.

I actually used this is an illustration: If I used the word “barn,” in a sentence I obviously have all sorts of experiences and ideas and thoughts into me using that particular word “barn.” If those are positive experiences of growing up at Grandma’s farm and going into the barn and swinging on a great big tire from the rafters and jumping off into hay piles, then that is a pretty positive word and a pretty positive experience. But if by hearing me use the word “barn” you recall what was actually a tragic experience for you – perhaps you lost a loved one in a barn burning down – all of a sudden the sorts of idea and feelings, the intangibles that are conjured up in that word are definitely not what I am hoping it provokes in you when I use the word. So we have some static.

The issue that we are really being challenged with here is obviously something we talk about in preaching a lot. What I am investing the words with is what I am hoping you are getting out of the words, and if they are not the same it is up to me to communicate or to make sure that somehow I get that clarified.

When we move that concept into the arena of biblical communication or preaching, we’ve got an even harder complexity to face. Now not only do I have the material invested in your head and in my head of what the word might mean but we have how the world has defined a lot of our Christian nomenclature. As a result we often have got barriers to overcome that makes the language game more challenging.