Exactly a year ago, I ran across a post at a blog by Guy Kawasaki, where he lays out his ideas about evangelism. I blogged about it here, noting that although his evangelism was for a product, or a brand, it seemed to be equally relevant to evangelism in the context of faith. In fact, remarkably so. It’s no surprise that Kawasaki should be so adept at building brand loyalty and product awareness; in the late 90’s he was hired by Apple computers to reinvigorate the Cult of Mac. What was surprising was that his view of product evangelism seemed to be conscientiously drawing from a kind of religious evangelism that is compassionate, focused on the real person in front of you.
Turns out, this is not a coincidence. I don’t know how I missed it the first time around, but in December of this last year, Kawasaki posted an article about how he learned to communicate, and where he developed his understanding of how to persuade people to consider perspectives they hadn’t previously explored. In the post, he talks about 5 pastors whose communication style he intentional studied, and their perspectives on evangelism. Kawasaki is on the board of Hawaiian Island Ministries, a leadership training organization. He credits the company of these men and women as that source of his perspectives on communication and honest persuasion.
You can read the post here. HT: Steve Addison