When I have visited this congregation in the past I have spoken bout the wider work of the church, the work that we are all involved in. The work of Frontier Services, of World Mission, of Chaplaincies, of the community service agencies under the umbrella of UNITING IN CARE.

However my role within the Synod is wider than just that. I am called a "consultant" and my responsibility includes consulting with parishes to help them with their communication needs and how they relate to the ministry and mission work of the parish.

Communication can mean lots of different things. But the basics of communication are the same whether it is communication on a one-to-one basis or mass communication. So this morning I am going look at the basic premises of good communication but in the context of promotion, advertising, or public relations. And I am going to take my examples from the best source I know - that is, how God and his son Jesus communicated with us.

Now some of you may think that promotion, advertising, public relations are new phenomena and not biblical at all. I hasten to assure you that although mediums may be different, for example we have television, radio, and the printed word, and words like advertising, and public relations were not known in Jesus time, the precepts have not changed. I once wrote in Western Impact that Jesus was the public relations practitioner par excellence. I was roundly criticised for that statement by one reader, but I still stand by it.

So let's look at the first law of the communicator which is to look at WHO you want to communicate with. When someone from a parish contacts me and says "How do we tell people about our services and programmes?' my question back to them is "Who do you want to tell?'
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They will usually say "Everyone" or "All the people who live between the Ocean and the Freeway." I then reply "Impossible".

It is simply not possible to have one message or one medium that will communicate to all people. Good communication means firstly identifying WHO you want to Communicate with.

When God wanted to communicate his love for all people, he did not try to do it in one hit. He picked out a TARGET AUDIENCE and worked out a way which would be most appropriate for them He sent his son to the Jewish people, his chosen people. The message Jesus brought was given in a way that was meaningful and relevant to those people and addressed their specific and personal needs.

So, here in Innaloo. if you want to communicate with the people here, don't try and do it in one hit. Identify the groups of people and decide who you really want to communicate with. It could be that you want to target young people, or older people, single people, people with disabilities, women, or one legged men. Your first target group could be the families who live closest to this building here or you may wish to look first at the needs of people who are living alone or who are on low and fixed incomes.

Once you have decided WHO you are going to communicate with, you are halfway towards achieving a good result because you will be able to match the message you want to give to the person who is going to receive it.

When we are talking with people face to face we automatically tailor the way we speak to the other person. For example, if we are speaking to a child we will use simpler words than if we are speaking to an adult. We will slow our speech down when we are speaking to someone from another country. We will use pictures to help communicate if the other person cannot read.

Jesus certainly tailored his message depending on whom he was addressing. He discoursed in learned terms with the rabbis, and he spoke in parables and stories to the disciples and ordinary people.

The second basic question that needs to be asked is WHAT message do we want to get across. And again the tendency is to try to fit too much into any one piece of communication. Think hard and carefully about what is the real message you want to get across.

In the story of Naaman, which we read today, there are several messages given. But the central message, the main thought is that God works in our lives. Other messages are given - the frailty of human power, on being the victim of violence, acting as a servant of God despite personal suffering, and about the political conflicts in Israel at that time. But there is one main thought. The other messages are extra information that elaborate on that one message.

I know you will have lots of very important messages you want to get across to people. You will want to say that this is a welcoming church, that worship time is 10.30 am on Sunday, that there is a cup of tea after the service, that people find spiritual refreshment here, that bible study groups meet regularly, that there will be special music at the service next Sunday, that weddings are conducted here, and baptisms and funeral services, that Jesus is Lord, that this is a church at mission which cares for people, where the minister lives and her phone number, and so on. To be effective communicators you must decide on one message and highlight that. The other messages will be incidental. People simply cannot absorb too much at one time. Advertisers know this. Look at the ads on television. Most of them have one message. Mitsubishi cars, Please consider. They also have lots of messages about the standard of finish on their cars, their reliability, their power and so on. But the one message they want to get across is - Please consider a Mitsubishi car. They know that if you respond to that message then they will have the opportunity to tell you all about the good things of Mitsubishi cars.

Closely allied to WHAT is WHY. Before you start any promotion plan you should know WHO you are talking to, WHAT you are going to say and WHY.

This one will call for some soul searching. Why do you want - people to come here? Because you are becoming an elderly congregation and you want young people here? Because you have something special to offer young people? Because you want to see all the pews filled? If we ask ourselves the WHY question we might find we don't like the honest answer. We may also find that we don't like the change that will be necessary. If we say, we want to contact young people and we know what the message is we have for them, and the answer to WHY is because we want this community of Christians to continue, we may also have to accept that the music will change, there will be more noise, services will be different. In answering WHY, look honestly and see if we want to serve ourselves and our own needs, or those of the people we want to reach out to.

After answering WHO, WHAT and WHY, then we can come to the easy question of HOW.
Effective communication does not use just one HOW. It uses as many ways as possible.
We do not communicate only in words. We communicate in many different ways using all our senses. Again we can use the Bible as our textbook. God uses lots of different ways to talk to his people. He spoke in a variety of interesting and effective ways. For example, He spoke with Moses through the burning bush. He seems to rather like spectacular events - look at Pentecost. That was certainly spectacular.
If we look in the New Testament at Jesus as a communicator we can see that he addressed specific and personal needs of people. That is very important. Communication must be relevant to the person who is receiving it.
Every week I receive lots of leaflets, pamphlets, and other advertising stuff from local estate agents. I am not interested in selling my home or buying another house. That material has no relevance for me, so I simply put it straight in the rubbish bin. These estate agents do not communicate with me despite the fact that they have put printed material into my hands. HOWEVER, if I was thinking of selling and moving house, that material would be very relevant to me, and I would read avidly and carefully every word!
In the story from Luke, Jesus knew that the disciples would blame themselves if the good news they brought was not received. So Jesus made sure that his message included the reassurance that God leaves each person free to accept or reject the good news and acceptance of the message is not part of the messenger's task. This gospel, of course, was written some years after Jesus death and there would have been quite a few of the early Christians who would have experienced the disillusionment of not having the exciting message of the Risen Lord accepted. Luke realised that how to cope with that disappointment would be very relevant to his readers and so he made a point of including this reassurance from Jesus in his gospel.

Communication is not a one way street, it is very much a two -way process. We are not communicating just because I am standing up here in front of you and speaking. We are only communicating if you are just as active in listening as I am in speaking. Communication always involves a sender and a receiver. It is essential, therefore that material, in what ever form it is presented, is easy to receive.

The gospel writers knew this and so made the stories of Jesus interesting. They used everyday illustrations, they told great truths in the form of stories and they used humour. They made the gospel easy to listen to. Any material, especially printed material, must be easy to read, easy to receive.

All of us are basically lazy. We don't like having to work at anything. If a leaflet is attractive, and tells me something in a few words, then I will read it. If it is printed on red paper, or shiny paper, which is hard on the eyes, and every inch of the paper is covered with words, and long words at that - forget it. I simply won't make the effort.

In his ministry, Jesus was very aware that God loves everyone. He therefore treated each person he met as a special person. We need to do the same. Our communication needs to be as personal as we can make it. We need to address letter, telephone calls, and personal visits to each person whenever possible.
Of course, sometimes this is easier that at other times. It is possible to word general invitations to make people feel included and that they are really welcome. Unfortunately it is much easier to make people feel excluded and that is the trap we so frequently fall into. My own parish was organising a social evening. The organiser stood up during the service and invited people to come along with their partners to the social evening. He then sat down. Those people in the congregation who do not have partners immediately got the message that the evening was not for them. Next Sunday, he tried to amend matters and included single people, but the damage was done. The message received was that this occasion was for couples only.

There is always a danger in issuing general invitations that people will think "That sounds like fun, but it doesn't mean me." There is nothing as effective as the personal touch. If you want people to come to a function, the best way is to personally invite them. Ring them up or visit and say "Come with me". No piece of paper, however good and clever its production will ever be as effective as a personal invitation.

Even when it is impossible to personally deliver invitations or similar communications, knowing how important the personal touch is you can improve things.
As another example. When we were about to induct a new minister into our parish, some of us thought it was important that as many members of the parish be present as possible. We had been to other induction services when the actual members of the parish had been outnumbered by visitors and we did not want that to be the case this time. We produced a simple invitation using the computer and stationery that the parish had and put it into envelopes with addressed to each member. These were either hand-delivered or posted. Yes, we had to spend a bit of money, not a large amount but we achieved our objective. The church was overflowing for the service and there were more parish members than visitors! The reason was that people were treated as if they were wanted.

Other lessons about communication we can learn from Jesus are the essentials of enthusiasm and sincerity. There is no substitute for these and nothing is more patently obvious if they are lacking! Whatever the communication and however it is presented, enthusiasm for what you are saying and sincerity are vital. Without these, people will get a message - but not the one you want them to receive.
Which brings us to the point of body language or non-verbal communication. We all communicate in many ways and the non-verbal ways are the most powerful. How we say something is more important than what we say. Did you know that 65 % of all our communication is through non-verbal ways?
How does this parish communicate non-verbally? Well, the position and look of the buildings for a start. Is the front door open? Is it hard to pull open? If it needs a special touch to open or keep it propped open then it says loudly and clearly that only those who are in the know are welcome here. The use of symbols, the logo on the wall, the open bible, just look around yourself and see how many non-verbal communicators you can see.
Now, look in the bible and see how often Jesus uses non-verbal communication. He actually heals the blind man, he helped the Samaritan woman draw water from the well, he overturned the tables of the moneylenders in the temple. He raised Lazarus.
No amount of words could have been as powerful a message as that action.

The other thing about communication that we can see used in the Bible is that messages are not just given once or in only one way. The message is repeated several times and in several different ways. We must do the same thing. We must look at the message we want to give and then see how many ways and how many times we can give that same message. I know that you will tell me that you get sick of seeing the same messages advertising products. But studies have shown that people need to see and hear an advertisement 6 times before it registers. After that repetition does tend to result in a negative reaction. However there is a lesson there for us.

So for this parish, in fact for any parish, if it wants to be effective in its communication then it must look firstly at-
WHO you want to communicate with,
WHAT you want to say
WHY and be prepared to be honest and perhaps make difficult changes,
HOW taking into account such things as being relevant to the receiver, and personal.
Also recognising the importance of repetition, variety, and non-verbal communication.

Let us finish by going back to the story from Luke we read today- the well -known one about the sending out of the seventy - or seventy two in some manuscripts. This is a definite message from Jesus for those who try to communicate, who try to get information and messages across. Whatever we do, however well targeted we make our message, however many ways we repeat it, some messages will still not be heard. We have to accept that. However, we must not use that as an excuse. We have received a commission to take the message of God's love to all people. We must continue to do our utmost to ensure that that message is heard in all places including here in Innaloo.

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