The Concept HEART Language

By the Rev. Dr. Arne H. Fjeldstad
  
 [Full Text]
  
God reveals himself through personal, passionate and indeed
untraditional acts of communication. In this he reveals his heart to us
to establish, nurture and develop real communion and fellowship with
us. Real communion with God leads to communication that in its turn
gives rise to more communication.
  
God has commissioned us to communicate the gospel of salvation and
eternal hope into every language, every culture and every “reality”
that has not yet heard and received the good news. Being faithful to
this commission, through communication we need to establish
relationships to touch the core of the human being: the heart. Because,
as the apostle Paul writes in Romans 10:10: “For it is with your heart
that you believe and are justified.”
 
However, as communicators we know that only sending the message, or
giving out information, is not enough. Communication is what is heard,
not only what is said or written. Cultural patterns of a society
fundamentally influence the form of communication. Existing beliefs and
value systems are a major factor in building communication. Personality
and experience modify the form of the message.
 
Our goal must be to penetrate to the very core of the human being,
the heart. We need to establish knowledge, or maybe even better, an
integrated understanding that can be transformed by the Holy Spirit to
a growing, vibrant faith. We need to have the same goal as Paul, who
writes in Colossians 2:2-3: “My goal is that they may be encouraged in
heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of
complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God,
namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge.”
 
How, then, can we be effective communicators aiming at the heart —
to give the Holy Spirit a foothold with a human being? In the
following, I would like to propose a grid, or maybe we could call it a
set of criteria, to help the quality control of our communication
efforts. I have chosen to call it “HEART language,” based on the first
letter of each word.
 
Communicating in a postmodern era challenges our Christian testimony
to be real and embodied in our own personal stories of lived life. It
must be passionate, incarnating God’s heartfelt love and desire for
relationship with every person. A new model for this communication
approach can be the HEART language.
 
The purpose of the concept of HEART language is to communicate
Christ with a holistic approach, an evangelistic focus, an authentic
content and a reconciliating purpose aiming at a transforming outcome
(result). We need interactively to communicate Christ crucified to the
core of the human being, which the Bible says is the heart.
 
HEART language can be identified with five characteristics, each connected to one of the five letters in the word: