3 Ways Pastors Can Develop Genuineness and Integrity

Cultivating Ethos in the Preacher Learning to preach persuasively takes work. It requires effort—effort beyond exegesis. As a preacher, you need to possess command over not only what you say but how you say it. You need to grasp an essential principle, however, before giving yourself to mastering the elements that go into making your message. You must first commit to cultivating a positive ethos—that is, the making of the man—for as a preacher, your character will either help or hinder how your message is received. Put differently, those of us who have the privilege of proclaiming God’s good news must be men known for exhibiting the goodness of God in our own lives. Even pagans understand the importance of ethos. It was Quintilian who said, “My aim, then, is the education of the perfect orator. The first essential for such a one is that he should be a good man, and consequently we demand of him not merely the possession of exceptional gifts of speech, but of all the excellences of character as well.”1 For our purposes, let us restate his dictum plainly: The persuasive preacher cultivates ethos in his person. The church must educate a generation of preachers to cultivate all the vir...