Communications

2.1 Devotional. Red-Letter Communication - Part 2Getting Started

Throughout the Holy Bible, we are able to see ways in which Jesus demonstrated leadership principles that we today hold up as best practices. Throughout the class, we will look at this Red-Letter Leadership (in many Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in red) as it applies to communication.

In past courses, your devotional reflection has been a 1/2 to 1-page interaction between you, the Bible text, and some provided prompts. For this course on communication, we are going to switch things up a bit. Instead of a written reflection, you will provide a 3-to-5-minute video reflection using the Video Note tool (like you have done for the course opening biographies). While you may want to make some notes or a basic outline of key ideas that you want to communicate in your video (in response to the Bible text and prompts), important values for the video reflection are authenticity and transparency. Often it can be helpful to think about three categories of response:

1. What are the key insights that occurred via your reflection?

2. What are some of the ideas, principles, or perspectives that really touched you deeply?

3. What are the questions you are grappling with as a result of the reflection?

Consider your video note to be like a personal conversation you are having with a trusted friend or advisor in a quiet booth at the back of a restaurant over a cup of coffee or tea.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

· Appraise a biblical perspective regarding communication.

Background Information

At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” John 8:1-11 (NIV)

This was a crucial conversation that was sprung on Jesus in an attempt to trap him. He could have said, “follow the law” and then could have been accused of condemning a woman to death. Or he could have said that they should let her go and be accused of breaking the law of God. This feels like the Fool’s Choice referenced in the book  Crucial Conversations. But Jesus didn’t fall for it. He took his time. He collected himself while writing in the dirt. And then he looked for a better answer. And then once all of the woman’s condemners left, he did not make the mistake of ignoring the woman’s bad behavior, as we so often want to do as leaders. He addressed it directly, but with compassion.

Instructions

1. Record a 3- to 5-minute video response to the questions below using the Video Note tool. Additional assistance on the use of Video Note can be found in this  article (new tab) .

a. How does Jesus’ use of silence impact the message he was trying to convey?

b. The biblical passage contains an element of judgment. But, it also contains a deep statement on the idea of the value of people. While, certainly, it challenges how we feel about others, perhaps it also challenges how we think (and judge) ourselves. Consider the story from the perspective of the woman. How might she have felt differently about herself at different stages of the event? How about you? Where do you condemn yourself? Where do you struggle with questions of self-value? How is Jesus speaking to you in this story?