The Best Argument

"Character is almost the most authoritative form of persuasion."
-Aristotle, On Rhetoric. Book 1, Chapter 2 Section 4.

Working as a minister to young people is an amazing job to have at 22. The types of things that you see and the experiences that are seemingly handed to you are so diverse that you always wonder how and why you are getting paid to be there.

I am a third generation teacher, coming from a line of men who taught everything from Math to Sexual Education. I love teaching. I think that education (both in the church and outside the church) is our society's silver bullet for a profitable and peaceful future. But the type of teaching that most of us 21st century teachers do is very distant.

For a lot of my job, I speak to groups of people. Each Wednesday night, our high school students gather together and I teach the Bible from a stage (what Christians call a "pulpit"). This lecture style teaching has been with us for the last 400 years or so in Western Europe and America and has thus traveled across the globe.

Recently I have noticed the profound limitations of this teaching style. Lectures and sermons can only go so far. My teaching is a weak support for my argument that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. What could persuade the world, is how I life my life as a servant.

In my research of Aristotle's On Rhetoric (which is an endless research project), I came across the quote I began with. In the section, Aristotle defines rhetoric and what it means to persuade an audience. Through his exhortation, he says that sometimes people can have no evidence but their own character, who they are, and use that as the best possible means of persuasion. People are more convinced by watching your life than by you explaining the best way to live life. That's how most of you fell in love with a certain subject in school. There was some teacher in high school who was enthralled by the subject, intoxicated by it, and you wanted a piece of what they had.

Teaching is as much about information as it is about the character who brings the information.

The Apostle Paul and Christ himself spoke like this in places through the New Testament and I believe this to be my championing concept for today's teachers. The raw information must come across, the essence and historical information of the Gospel is real and must be communicated (as it is "news"), but do not be fooled: your greatest argument is who you are, the person you are to your wife, the man you are amongst your friends, the citizen you are to your city.

This is why I am so confused by Evangelicals who believe that climbing the political ladder will help us advance the good news. Getting a bigger megaphone to project your rhetoric will only go so far and it will rarely change hearts and even minds. But serving and loving your neighbor, your city, and your world could be the best rhetorical strategy for our church leaders, school teachers, and politicians to create a better world. Your character, who you really are, is the most powerful vehicle for true change.

24 A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. 25 And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. 26But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. 27 For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.

-Luke 22:24-27