This document discusses effective communication and pastoral communication. It begins by providing examples of communication breakdowns and then outlines various types and aspects of communication including interpersonal, group, mass, technological, and folk communication. It discusses principles of Christian communication and ways for pastors to improve their communication skills. It also addresses communicating through different media like newspapers, television, and the internet. Overall, the document provides a comprehensive overview of communication in the contexts of ministry, theology, and society.

1. Communicating Effectively
Presentation to the Pastors
from Tirunelveli Diocese on
May 19th 2006 by Rev Dr
Joshva Raja

2. Do we have a problem in
Communication
Person Q – What’s your name
Person A – I came from Tirunelveli
Person Q – May I know your first name
please
Person A – Yes Sir I come from Tamil
Nadu

3. To send and receive
Transmission
view
To share and participate
Ritual View
To speak
To see
To hear
To taste
To smell
To touch
Communio –
communicare – to
share common

4. Communication contd..
• Our body can feel, suffer, enjoy
• Our mind can think, imagine
• Our hands can write, type, draw
• Our subconscious can dream
• Our legs can walk, dance, act
• Our body parts can make noise, signs,
gesture, posture…
• Our dress can communicate

5. Communication through Eyes
Book
Mirror/Media

6. Communication means
Thodarpu
Uravu
Pahirvu
Parivu
Thelivu Panivu
Arivu
Purivu

7. Types of
Communication
Inter-personal Communication
Intra-personal
Communication
Extra-personal
Communication
Group
Communication
Mass
Communication
Folk
Communication
Technological Communication
Community
Communication
(Indian theories)
(Gesture,
dialogue)
(Interactivity, virtual
body of Christ)
(Mediated, public
sphere, opinion
shaping)
(leadership, youth,
fellowship)
(Eco-concerns)
(Grassroots,
developmental)
(traditional, alternative)

8. People’s Context
Lay Pastor
Churches’ context - Democratic,
continuity, taking sides…
Context of the people local and national
Global Context
Neo-Liberal values, Economic disparity,
concentration

9. My Audience – Am I Making Sense?
Youth
Children
Adults
Women
Outsider

10. Do we recognize Different Cultural Groups among
our audience? It follows their interest…
High
Low or popular
Mass
folk
Sub

11. Instrumental Perspective

12. Communication and Christian
Ministry
Conventional forms of Communication in the
church
Preaching and Worship
Street Preaching
Conventional means and tools
Loud Speakers,
Flannel boards, Posters/Charts....
Conventional places - Pulpit, street corners,
Schools

13. Communication and Ministry – present
approaches
Church
Effect
Effect Centered Perspective
Communication

14. To Communicate What?
Gospel?
Communicate Christian Faith? Doctrines?
Communicate Values? Gospel Values?
Communicating towards Liberation? Or
Humanization?
Communicating for building Communities?
Communicating Culture? Awareness?
Communicating Prophetically?/Critically?
Communicating towards development?

15. Communicating
What? as Pastor
Faith
Values
Doctrines Values
Gospel
Gospel
Cultural
Critical
Communitarian
Developing
Reconciling
Healing
Liberating
Gospel

16. YHWH
Logos = Word
Sign
word -
Language
Code
word –
flesh
word -spirit
Community of God - Trinity
Human Beings

17. Communication from God
 Where are you Adam? Caring
Communication Gen 1
 Let my People Go! Liberative
Communication Exodus
 I am the Lord. You shall not murder!
Normative communication
 You are the man! Prophetic
Communication Kings
 Will the bones be alive? Restoring
communication Isaiah

18. Communicating God
 Listening God –
opposite views
 God of silence
 Forgiving God
 Angry God
 Powerful God
 Speaking God
 Seeing God
 Dynamic God
Accepts audience
Breaks the barriers on his own
Use people’s language
Go to the margins
Corrects mistakes
Changes nature for audience
Space for other views
Struggles for relationship

19. Communication through Jesus
 Incarnation Model (Salt)
 Healing Model (Physician)
 Preaching Model (Stones)
 Demonstration Model (Water)
 Transfiguration Model (Light)
 Resurrection (Wheat)
 Crusification (Wine)

20. Post Jesus
Apostolic model (sent)
Social service model (share)
Church model (relate)
Letter model (command)
Spiritual model (fill)
Witness model (live)
Martyrdom model (die)

21. Christian Principles of Communication
Communication builds Community
Communication is Prophetic
Communication is Participatory
Communication is dialogic
Communication nourishes culture
Communication is credible
Communication liberates

22. Improving Pastoral Communication
 Professional Communicators
 Public Communicators
 Prophetic Communicators
 Committed Communicators
 Caring Communicators
 Creative communicators
 Listening Communicators
 Leading Communicators
 Liberating Communicators
 Decent Communicators
 Disciplined Communicators
 Devoted Communicators

23. Pastors are good communicators
A successful communication begins from
our failure in communication
Pastors are the best communicators in the
world more than any charismatic leader
New Era – Movement or Institution – ICE
age – Technology oriented life or life
oriented technology

24. Ministry
Creative
Tension
Church with
others missio Dei
Mediating
Salvation
Quest for
Justice
Evangelism
Liberation
Common
Witness
Ministry by
(Whole) People
of God
Witness to
people of
Other Living
Faiths
Action in
Hope
Theology
Using David Bosch’s Transforming
methods for Ministry
Additions by Norman E Thomas to
Bosch – Contextualization, and
Inculturation in Classic Texts

25. People’s Centered
Ministry and
Communication
Prophetic
Liberative
Nourishes
Culture
Building
Communities Dialogic
Development-
oriented
Participatory

26. Hinduism
Ministry – engage in this
search for God – participating
in people’s search!

27. Prophetic and
liberative
Healing and
Serving
Nourishes
Relationship
Reconciling
Communities
Individual and
Commity
Development
Dialogic
People
Centered
communication
for effective
ministry
Proclamation
Preaching and
Worship

28. Jesus Engaged in others’
search for meanings
Jesus often listens to his
audiences
Jesus accepted his listeners
‘as they were’

29. Church and Communication
Church Pastor Congregation
servant
evangelist
prophet
Shepherd
Ecumenists
Diverse ministries
People’s faith and church
traditions
Professional standard
concerns for contextual reality
Transition?

30. Communication
Roles and
Functions
Window
Mirror
Filter
Signpost/
guide/
interpreter
Platform/forum
Screen/Barrier
Mediation Metaphors – D McQuail
Information
Entertainment
Education
Value and social
formation
Functions of the
Communication

31. Mass
Media
Market Pressure/Profit
motive/increasing space
Negative
/Stereotype
reporting as
Practice
Popularizing
strange things -
fundamentalism
Constructing
Realities:
Turning reality
into a myth…
Media refers to TV/Radio/Newspapers/Magazines/Internet…
Information
Communication
Entertainment
Rich, powerful,
professionals
get more space

32. Common ground
Communication
Education
Information
Social and economic
Development –
oriented?
Individualistic
Community Building?
Cultural act
Public sphere?
Critical …

33. Mass
Media
Christian
Mission
Divergence
Profit Making
construct reality
and myth
Entertainment
Power and rich
based
Bias and
Manipulation
Ideologies,
Values
monologue
Hegemony
Loss
Powerless?
Truth Telling
Liberating
Dialogue?
Diversity?
Wholeness
Pro-Poor

34. Media as Social institution
Media play different roles – such as teacher,
priest, parents – reflect, reinforce, mediate,
promote, impose, spin – values, ideologies
worldviews and attitudes… Gregor Goethals
Media – a centre for power, profit-making,
influence, information, entertainment,
socialization, globalization …
Media as part of social structure –
interdependent and interactive with the
political process at local, national and global
level

35. Mass Media influence
1. Language- Oral and written language to Audio-
visual language to Convergent language
2. Culture of communication – listening to seeing
to converging feeling
3. Technology – interaction and fast and user
based
4. Faith praxis – symbols, signs and new cults
5. Values – perceptions and attitude and
worldview

36. Alternative
Media and
Ministry
Sharing the
Gospel
Serving
Christian
Community
New Spirituality,
Alternative media
and mission
Ecumenical
Media as
alternative
Interacting with
Communities
Networking
different
Communities
Alternative
Media for
Development
Net as
Alternative
Media
Training Priests
and
Missionaries
Banking the
Knowledge
Alternative - Media
Education as
mission
Alternative
media and
cultural groups

37. ALTERNATIVE
MEDIA and Ministry
Global
to local
Local to
global
Cheap,
available
Effectiveness
Simple,
plain
Easy access
to community
Development and
social change
Democratic,
participatory
Against
mass media
in promoting
culture of
peace,
dialogue
Promote communitarian values
and Individual freedom
Inter-cultural
understanding
Purpose
Reaching the mass
but not for profit
Fair representation of
minorities, disabled,
refugees…
Taking sides
with poor,
labourers in
reporting
Voice of
the
voiceless
Culturally rooted,
community building,
inter religious harmony
Praxis

38. Alternative
media
characteristics
Dialogic, democratic,
communitarian, local,
participation
Voice of
voiceless,
minorities
and others
Cheap, easy
access, non-
profit, simple,
non-
professional
Towards
Social
change,
human
dignity
and
development
Intercultural in nature,
culturally rooted, folk
culture, updated
interactive technology
Alternative
perspectives and
practices
Space for
disabled,
HIV/AIDs
infected,
refugees,
Eunuchs, and
less privileged
people
Promote a
culture of
peace and
harmony

39. Possible Alternative Media are posters,
writings on the wall, loud speakers,
postcards, Christmas cards, cards, flannel
boards, pamphlets, tracts, notices boards,
notices, magazines, newspapers, puppets,
slide projectors, audio cassettes, VCDs,
DVDs, Video cassettes, VCRs, television,
computer, websites, Internet, radio and
special training programs and seminars,
fellowship groups, street theatre; some
types are - Christian education, access to
schools, festival programmes, house-visits,

40. Further Possibilities to explore –
- FM Radio Stations in colleges and
Schools for education and awareness
Narrowcasting, community radio…
- Local Cable Channel space or Cable
Channels
- Running a Newspaper for local
community
- Online broadcasting, webhosting,
networking the members of the church
and sending them clips of songs,
messages and information

41. Examples of Alternative Media
Street Theatre Programmes
for HIV/AIDs Awareness
ICT for Development Training
NGOs in Bangladesh
Thailand Training NGOs

42. High Speed
Interactivity
Convergence
Hypertext
User based
Searching
self
God &
Other
E-vangelist for Netizens
E-mission
Online Pastoral counseling

43. Myths and Media
-Created
-Constructed
-reiterated

44. Mediated Myths of
Fundamentalism

45. Media, Myth and Ignorance
Huntington’s thesis on Clash of Civilization
Edward Said’s Clash of Ignorance
Ignorance does not refer to ‘not-knowing the other’ rather
means to ‘knowing more or only the negative side of the
other’. It is often articulated by the vested groups and so
can be identified as ‘articulated ignorance’ of the other.

46. Muslim
Refugees
Dead bodies from
the train
Bogie on fire
Post Godhra
hatredness
hum paanch,
hamaare pachhis
(we are five and
we will be twenty
five).
Flash and Clash

47. Years
No of
rel. news
Hindutva[1
]/Hindus
On
Muslim
s
Other
Rels
1981 119 54 42 23
1992 172 77 59 36
2002 348 126 173 49
Years
Total
Rel issues
Hindutva
/ Hindus
Muslms Other
Rel
1995 270 93 118 59
2002 336 124 168 44

48. India Today
No of articles
Islam.Vs
Hinduism
Terrorism(Islam)
Vs Nationalism
Iconic clashes –
Picts-Colours
(green.vssaffron)
1981 3 7 00
1992 14 21 08
2002 56 73 17
Frontline
No of
articles
Islam Vs
Hinduism
Terrorism
(Islamic)
Vs
Nationalism
Iconic
Clashes
Pictures
1995 12 8 3
2002 71 79 17

49. Media and Mythical statements
‘Christianity is a slow poison which is the
cause of peace and family felling among
the tribals. Christian missionaries have
made use of Government resources for
the purposes of conversions’. – Sandesh
Newspaper
missionaries do forceful conversion in
Gujarat -Gujarat Samachar (a daily
newspaper), Nav Gujarat (a daily),

50. culture of
suspicion
culture of
confrontation
culture of
violence
e.g. Islamophobia
Conversion-phobia

51. Mass Media alone cannot be blamed for the communal
problems. We have not initiated a dialogue at grassroots.

52. Attacks on the churches in Gujarat
after these reports

53. Examples of Alternative Methods of
communication
Street Theatre and
Puppets for
HIV/AIDs Awareness
God-talk
includes
AIDs-talk?

54. Programs in Nepal, Bangladesh,
Indoensia and in India –IR
Communicating Networks between
NGOs and Different Religions
Building
Communities
through the
Net

55. Dialogue about the Media

56. Mass
Media
Christian
Ministry
Technology
People of God
Social, political, cultural and
psychological contexts
Technological
determinism
People’s use of the Mass
Media for search for
Religious meanings
Mission shaping technology
Mass Media Influence