Disclaimer: Hot Mess Made Credible by His Grace
“Why should they listen to me?” With these words, Aristotle raised the question that western speakers have whispered to themselves for 2,400 years and counting. In his answer, he proposed a theory that speakers are most effective when they employ three things: pathos, logos, and ethos.
In this blog, I want to take a closer look at ethos, which focuses on the credibility of the speaker. Ethos is a speaker's capacity to convince an audience of their authority or credibility, often through their personality or qualifications. Ethos asks, "What makes you credible? What makes your message credible?" The ethos game assumes you have something going for you, and that something is a good reason for people to listen to you.
On any given day, any leader could find themselves playing the ethos game. Have you ever dressed or groomed yourself to look more desirable to your audience? Have you ever soothed your anxiety before getting in front of people by reminding yourself of your best qualities? Have you ever subtly mentioned your experience to someone to give meaning to the words that followed? Yeah, me too. Those habits are efforts at playing the ethos game.
This isn't unique to preachers. Everyone has a seat at this table: leaders in front of their small groups; parents in front of their children; leaders in front of their teams; staff in front of their church; volunteers in front of the people they're serving; Christians in front of their coworkers; Christians in front of those they're discipling or comforting.
We all play the ethos game. We all ask, "What makes me someone to be listened to?”
Chasing Ethos
I think we put so much effort into this game because we're trying to compensate for something. Could we be trying to compensate for the reasons we know people shouldn't listen to us? Could it be that we all know we're just hot messes holding microphones? We're aware of our weakness, insignificance, wickedness, and sinfulness, so we work hard to create the impression that we’re people worth listening to.
Let me tell you about a hot mess who held a microphone right in the middle of Aristotle's theatre. This cat was born and raised during a time when anyone and everyone who got up in front of people asked Aristotle's ethos question. He came up through an elite educational system that no doubt taught him Aristotle's ethos rule. He spent multiple seasons leading and working in the middle of a big, well-educated city, where every male was taught the ethos rule. This guy was swimming in the stream of ethos. If he were to have any sort of success in what he did, he needed to establish an ethos.
In a world that required ethos, this man was a hot mess. He had a court-side seat to a lynching, where he applauded and cheered the murderers on. He led a witch hunt against a minority religious group that was made up of undistinguished men and women. He eventually graduated from witch hunt leader to traveling terrorist, continuing to go after the members of this small religious group.
Yet somehow, this man found himself leading an influential Christian movement. As a leader of that movement, he contributed to a major split in his ministry team. The people he served didn't think he was the most put together person. He was a poor public speaker. If by some chance he passed a background check and made it onto a team at your church, you might have had some reservations about moving him up the leadership pipeline. The man was a hot mess holding a microphone.
This hot mess flipped the ethos game on it’s head. Paul, according to Dr. Frank Thomas in An Introduction to African American Preaching, says that Paul’s ethos was derived from the gospel.
Can I remind you of the gospel? It's God's message that God's king, Jesus, came to earth through a miraculous birth, lived a revelatory life, died a substitutionary death, rose victoriously, and sovereignly reigns for all time over all people and all things in all places. God provided ethos for Paul in the gospel, and he does the same for the hot messes who hold microphones in the church today.
God gives credibility to the hot mess through His message. Paul writes to some Corinthian Christians, those who were trained to look for credibility before listening to the speaker, and tells them, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." That statement refers to his responsibility as apostolic leader in the non-Jewish church. Paul believed he was an apostle by the grace of God. He believed that countless Christian communities should listen to his teaching because of God's grace, not because of anything Paul had going for him.
The Gospel Influence
During the summers, I preach for an organization that holds student conferences around the country, called CIY. A few years ago, CIY's summer theme was, "This changes everything." That summer was dedicated to showing students how the gospel changes every area of life. I want to relay that message to you: this changes everything...including leadership.
God's message is one of grace. His message includes the proclamation that dead enemies of God can become co-heirs with Christ, who will inherit glory and reign on earth and who did nothing to deserve it. The grace of God that seated you with Christ is the same grace that gives you a role in his mission.
You're a leader by the grace of God, not your own doing. You're a missionary to your workplace by the grace of God, not by your own doing. You're standing up in front of people - or a camera - on Sundays by the grace of God, not by your own doing. God's grace shown through His gospel gives hot messes like us credibility.
Paul writes to the same group of Corinthian Christians and says, "We ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure." The clay jar refers to Paul's less than admirable life. The treasure refers to Paul's role of speaking to the world. In other words, Paul is admitting that he's a hot mess holding a microphone.
But Paul goes on to say, "This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves." God's message is one of power in weakness. Jesus' assumption of weakness on the cross was God's greatest act of power.
Power in Christ
What makes our message believable? Not our expertise. God continues to show the credibility of His gospel of power in weakness by effectively speaking through hot messes who hold microphones. Every act, done by a hot mess, in the mission of God is a testament to God's act of displaying His power in Christ's weakness.
God's act of power in Christ's weakness is highlighted when a tired parent leads their family in prayer, when the unstylish and ineloquent person teaches the word on Sundays, and when the Christian who can't read Greek encourages their friend. God's power displayed through weakness is proved through hot messes.
God gives credibility to hot mess messengers. We don't have to make ourselves into something to prove we're worth listening to. We don't have to do any tricks to prove that our message is worth listening to. The gospel is the death of our efforts at proving ourselves. We're now free to proclaim the message because we're beneficiaries of God's grace. Because our proclamation is a testament to God's power in weakness.
