Rhetoric and the Holy Spirit: Persuasion Methods as a Tool in Missional Evangelism

As time continues to pass from the date of the original call from Jesus to “go, and make disciples”, we find ourselves in various frames of history. The early church fathers found themselves in an entirely different world than the one we live in. There are things that have carried through the test of time, though. Our sin has remained. Our brokenness has remained. The love and grace of God, has also remained. The contexts that frame the Gospel message of Jesus Christ are constantly changing, and we may begin to wonder how the methods of sharing the Gospel have changed as well. While the Word of God is Truth, the facts in it indisputable, the words infallible, and the canon durable, we have been tasked as Christians to tell the story of the great book to the world around us. Within this study of the Great Commission, a concept of debate in both Christian and secular circles is the overlap between persuasion, storytelling methods, and the Bible. Is it ethical to exist in the space between those? How must we approach sharing the Gospel if it is not human reason that leads to the spiritual step of accepting Christ and being saved. This question poses a larger applied theological concept. The primary question within mission theology that will be addressed is this. How should we as Gospel-sharers balance the use of persuasive techniques (rhetoric) with the work of the Holy Spirit in the process of evangelism? While rhetoric holds space in helping convey excellence, context, and clarity to an ever-changing world, salvation is ultimately the work of the Holy Spirit. Thus, we can approach global missions with a holistic approach, including strategic communicative methods along with a wholehearted surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit. Using the text “Evangelism in a Skeptical World” by Sam Chan, as well as the work “On Christian Doctrine” by Saint Augustine, this thesis will be understood in context. 

Let’s begin by defining some key terms. The first is the concept of “missions” or “evangelism.” This term is best understood not as the process of conversion, because that would be salvation, to which there is extensive discourse about the initiation and process of that the moment of salvation. Evangelism is defined by Chan as “the message that Jesus Christ is Lord. Evangelism is our human effort of proclaiming this message– which necessarily involved using our human communication, language, idioms, metaphors, stories, experiences, personality, emotions, context, culture, locatedness– and trusting and praying that God, in his sovereign will, will supernaturally use our human and natural means to effect his divine purposes.” This description of evangelism gives a very detailed view at the methods that could be used to convey the message of the Gospel. Human communication is the vehicle for our understanding of God. The second term to define is the term “rhetoric.” Rhetoric can be understood as language with the means of influencing or persuasion. What differentiates rhetoric from mere language is the intent, the craft. Rhetoric exists in various shapes all around us. It’s an art of invention that combines context, intertextual arguments, and exigencies. Finally, the definition for the Holy Spirit. Millard Ericson describes the Holy Spirit as “the point at which the Trinity becomes personal to the believer.” The author goes to explain that the Holy Spirit has three functions to note, the third of which is relevant to the thesis here. First, the Spirit is an overflow of God’s love to God’s people, binding others in unity and communion, expanding the heart of God to His people. Second, the Holy Spirit communicates divinity itself to a finite world. The author states; “It is a real opportunity for finite humans to experience the transcendent God in ways that are almost palpable.” Finally, “‘It is by the Spirit that we participate in the life of God and God participates in our life together.’ In this way, the Spirit operates with a mission outward toward the created order. God is a ‘missionary God,’ searching the highways and byways to urge people to join God’s party.” The Holy Spirit is the bridge between the finite and the divine, the third party of the incomprehensible trinity that is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Spirit, then, accentuates the missional heart of God by continuing to operate towards humanity with the intention of communicating God himself to his people.

This question regarding the relationship between human persuasion and the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation is one to which the answer may seem obvious. It would be wrong to put limits on the movement of the Holy Spirit as it is an expression of God, whose power is unfathomable. But on the contrary, messages of salvation that are poorly communicated, contextually confusing, or even just adequate, don’t always do effective work of garnering attention to the Gospel of Jesus. Garnering attention to the message of Christ, though, is only a fraction of the work of salvation. In reference to the definition of evangelism above, we can merely pray that God decides to use our work to effect his ultimate purpose. With that said, sources and scriptures point to the conclusion that coming to faith in Jesus is a work completed by the Holy Spirit alone. Robert A. Pyne states; “When considering the more specific revelation of the gospel, it is obvious from experience that unbelievers are capable of articulating the terms of the gospel without embracing it. As with their rejection of natural revelation in Romans 1, the problem is not one of comprehension, but of acceptance. The truth is evident, but it is wrongly thought to be foolishness.” and then goes on to explain that only through the Holy Spirit can a nonbeliever both understand and accept the message of the Gospel, for it is our intermediary, the Spirit, that makes “foolishness” become a reality. He claims that minds governed by a sinful heart are not able to understand the Truth of God. To extend this point, another author illustrates, “The Holy Spirit is essential to evangelism because he alone prepares the hearers to receive the message. Think, for a moment, of the area of mass communication. Thousands of messages are on the electronic media at any moment of the day. But unless some set is tuned into the proper frequency, the message will not be received. How dependent we are likewise on the Spirit of God to get people tuned in to the message we have to share.” More than just a relevant analogy to digital communications, this quote gives us a glimpse into the divine coordination that must take place for unbelievers to tune into the work of God around them. Not only does the Spirit coordinate our missions, but this article also discusses how (1) he attends them and (2) does the finished work of bringing people to salvation. After we share the Gospel with others, the Holy Spirit does the work of “pressing the playback button” in the hearer’s mind, doing the work of bringing our witness to the point of salvation and pursuit of the redemption of Jesus. The author equates this with the third runner of a relay race, breathing a sigh of relief as the baton is passed to the fastest runner on the team. It is understood that the Holy Spirit brings us to repentance by illuminating our sin to us. This gives light to the salvation that takes place as Jesus meets people in dreams and visions, coordinates messengers to the most remote corners of the world, and allows avenues for his children to hear the message of ultimate grace and redemption. Theologically, this gives a holistic view at the unseen work that the Holy Spirit does to prepare our Gospel messages, prepare the hearer, and take that message from foolishness to transformation in Jesus Christ. Conversion is ultimately in the hands of God. We are utterly reliant on the Holy Spirit to craft every ounce of our Gospel messages – we have yet been entrusted as messengers.

So then, if conversion is coordinated and followed through by the work of the Holy Spirit, why must we learn to become tactful communicators, keenly studying how to use scripture in navigating faith conversations? Is rhetoric only an available means to those who feel the urge to persuade? We can look at On Christian Doctrine, a work by Augustine of Hippo. One of the earliest names to enter into this theological conversation is Saint Augustine, who argued for the inclusion of rhetorical principles in the communicative life of a believer. Augustine was a rhetorician who turned bishop, but continued to carry these principles with him. He understood the concept of literacy, the need to be able to comprehend words and communicate with other humans, as a mode of understanding the Gospel. His foundation for uncovering Truth was different from those who came before him. Johnson states; “Augustine lived in a very différent world from that of the older rhetoricians. In his time, everyone, not merely in theory but also in fact, had a right to pursue happiness because the concept of happiness had been completely transformed. Happiness now means understanding that God loves us and that we can come to love God.” The pursuit of happiness had been changed, and Augustine weathered the storm of extreme culture shifts by continuing to communicate the necessity of the Gospel. He writes in his work, On Christian Doctrine; “Since, then, the faculty of eloquence is available for both sides, and is of very great service in the enforcing either of wrong or right, why do not good men study to engage it on the side of truth, when bad men use it to obtain the triumph of wicked and worthless causes, and to further injustice and error?” The primary argument by Augustine for the sake of the combination of persuasive rhetoric and the Gospel is multifaceted. First, we as teachers of the Bible have a responsibility to convey this message with Truth and honor. We have been given a holy book with foundational principles and we must communicate them in a way that is understandable to our audience. Second, He argues that the epistles of Paul and the prophecies of Amos display the use of contextualization and eloquence in storytelling, and that our skill is suitable for a message so grand. For a final observation, we see that Augustine explains that our message should be just as palatable and understandable for our audiences as the lies of the world are. It can be observed that early Christian communication, such as the epistles of Paul, follow similar frames of logic and thought as the rhetoricians of his time. If this is an accurate assumption, we can observe that even a fraction of the Biblical canon was contextualized rhetorically based on the literary needs of the time, yet God’s work continues to be done through the scriptures nevertheless. To summarize this fraction of the discussion on the value of rhetoric, it is understood that devices of communication like contextualization, eloquence, and form have been affirmed by both church fathers and early apostles. 

Theologically, what is the resolve to the dynamic between complete coordination of the Spirit of God and communicative agency on behalf of the messenger? When beginning this research, rhetoric and the Holy Spirit seemed to be like variant forces, with the resolve to this hypothesis lying in a formulaic way of understanding how these two may get along. Conclusively, it is not our understanding of rhetoric that informs our understanding of God. Our theology informs our rhetoric, our theology is rhetoric. The Holy Spirit prepares the hearer prior to our message to them, that is context building further than we could analyze. The Holy Spirit attends our message-bearing, acting as a dual witness to whom we share the Gospel with. The Spirit then continues the work, nudging our hearts towards repentance in Christ Jesus. “The Holy Spirit is essential to evangelism because he is the one who fashions our message. The content, the communication, and the effects of our message are all shaped by the Spirit of God” Because the Spirit is in and through all things, acting as our divine unifyer and comforter, it is only suitable that he would be the one shaping our means of persuasion. The answer to our question sits atop Mars Hill, echoes over the ancient hillsides of the Middle East, and rests on the ears of hearers at Pentecost. At each of those locations, various message-bearers of the Word of God spoke the Gospel message, but with contextual differences to each audience. There is a sort of simultaneous work done by God and by the messenger. As we craft our messages using rhetoric and persuasion–speaking to heart-needs, contextualizing, evoking emotions in the hearer– that requires us the skill of interpreting the Truth of the Gospel, which we cannot do without the work of the Spirit. Although our human hands and mouths may be the ones writing and orating, we would not be able to enter into that space in the first place without divine intervention. Further, as we deliver the message of the Gospel with various techniques, as echoed in Chan’s definition of evangelism, we are able to discover those tactics and narrow them based on the Spirit’s leading and craftsmanship. It is a symbiotic act of our obedience and reliance on God. As we remain sensitive to Truth, keenly aware of scripture and its use, observant of our audience, and eloquent in our delivery, we “keep in step” with the Spirit’s preparation and completion in the work of salvation. God gives the power of the Spirit to those who ask and surrender. Prayer is alignment with God, which ensures our coordination with the Spirit in our work in missions. In conclusion, strategic communication methods have value in our evangelism, as modeled by many apostles and church fathers, and real transformative work is done as the Spirit meets us in our work and aligns these methods for us.

Bibliography 

Chan, Sam. Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News about Jesus More Believable. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2018.

Keefer, Luke L. “The Spirit of Evangelism!” Paper presented at the Allegheny Regional Conference of the Brethren in Christ Church, 1986.

Augustine. On Christian Doctrine, Book IV. Translated by J. F. Shaw. In Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Vol. 2. Edited by Philip Schaff. Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Accessed May 11, 2025. https://faculty.georgetown.edu/jod/augustine/ddc4.html.

Pyne, Robert A. “The Role of the Holy Spirit in Conversion.” Bibliotheca Sacra 150, no. 598 (April–June 1993): 203–218. 

Johnson, W. R. “Isocrates Flowering: The Rhetoric of Augustine.” Philosophy & Rhetoric 9, no. 4 (Fall 1976): 217–231. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40236996.

Gunderson, Erik, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Rhetoric. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=4ALBbkfhyVkC&oi=fnd&pg=PA245.

Larsen, Timothy, and Daniel J. Treier, eds. 1​ The Cambridge Companion to Evangelical Theology. 2​ Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.