Better listening

In articles elsewhere in this edition of en we hear two important observations about the virtues of listening.

Dan Strange says: ‘It is an important Christian virtue to listen like this in a polarised age, where people are talking past each other.’ And Steve Midgley states: ‘We need both the courage to speak and the humility to listen.’

It is something, of course, that Jesus emphasises when He reminds us to truly listen to God’s Word: ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear!’

Most of us tend to think we are good at listening, but in reality have a lot to learn in this regard. In relation to evangelism, the late Tim Keller reminded us of attentive listening, saying: ‘Everybody has got a story. If you’re able to inhabit that so well that [people] feel that you know their story better than they do, and then show in a compelling way how that story is only going to find resolution in Jesus, then they are going to find a compelling case for Christianity.’

But listening in every area of life is something that is increasingly needed in a fragmented world of social media silos, online shouting, and the generally angry, frustrated culture in which we live. Most people want to be listened to genuinely, and appreciate it when time and space is made for it.

In our reformed evangelical culture – as in the wider church – the importance of listening to survivors and victims of abuse and other misuses of power is increasingly being recognised as vital (see book review at foot of p.27). One of the benefits of modern technology is that it is not simply the voices of the powerful and those in authority who can be heard, but the bruised and battered too.

At en we appreciate all the letters, emails and phone calls we receive: the correspondence section is a vital place where readers can listen to varying views and comments. And we listen hard to all the communications we receive, both brickbats and bouquets. So keep them coming. And, more importantly, in whatever context you are about to go into now: keep listening.