Body Language:

As Christians, we are called the "body of Christ". Well, that's got me thinking about the HOWs and WHYs behind the reaction some have to my being a Christian or, ultimately, how some react to the "Christian Church" in general.

I'm a simple person so it all brings me back to my freshman year of college and a psych course i took where i remember reading HOW people, in general, process information and ultimately "receive" communication. We all know this, this is not "new" information. I believe that these are the ratios, but if i'm wrong, oh well, it isnt central to the discussion anyway. Human communication - both sending and receiving - can be boiled down to 3 general categories:

Spoken Words, the technical words we use
Tonality, the emotion behind those words
Body Language, those words in action

and these all carry different "weights" of influence or have different levels of impact on the message we wish to deliver. These weights are:

Spoken Words: 7%
Tonality: 38%
Body Language: 55%

in other words, our actions really DO speak louder than our words...

BUT that all leads me back to the notion of the "church" being the "body of Christ"... what message are we really saying? A wonderful sermon and bulletin, combined with a terrific worship service can begin a very distinct and Christ-like communication -which can easily be undermined if the "body language" of the church - how welcoming are we... do we really feed the poor and care for the orphans... do we genuinely act out of love or something else...

We may be "saying" all the right things, but our actions send the real message. Where DO we spend our time and our other resources?

Look at the actions and the behaviors of your "church body"... of the small groups... of the... well, you get the picture... what message ARE you REALLY saying? is it consistent with who you say you are?

"You can not talk your way out of something you've acted yourself into." - Stephen Covey