By Mark Palmer

To preach is to lead. Whether preachers realize it or not, they lead when proclaiming God’s word. The only question is, “To where or to what?” If the proclamation is not carried out with biblical and personal passion, the message will not resonate with listeners.

Although the message of the gospel is intrinsically compelling, people need more than basic information to be persuaded. They need to be impacted on an emotional level. If passion or pathos is not deeply ingrained in a preacher’s message, the listeners may conclude that whatever does not grip the preacher’s soul may not be particularly important.1

How, then, will the vision of the church be advanced? How will the preacher lead listeners toward maturity in faith or “God’s agenda?”2 How will a major shift in focus or renewal effort succeed?

According to Aristotle, rhetoric is concerned with the maintaining and scrutinizing of an argument, with speaking “in both self-defense and accusation.”3 He proposed that public speaking was all about persuasion.4 Of this persuasive nature of speech, there are three forms: “The character of the speaker” (ethos), “how the listener is disposed” (pathos), and “the argument itself ” 5 (logos). While all three aspects of rhetoric are important concerning persuasion, this article is concerned primarily with pathos6 and how it can be used to lead people through its application to preaching via the business change model of the “burning platform,” which is a metaphor first used by Daryl Conner.7 Aristotle’s rhetorical pathos and biblical pathos, when combined with a burning platform business model, will help the preacher’s passion to connect with the audience in a compelling way and lead people to engage in change efforts.

Business Pathos

In the business world, leaders must provide a compelling reason to move their organizations to adopt radical shifts in strategy. These shifts are important and urgent to ensure the company’s success. In such a scenario, companies may develop a “burning platform.” The term refers to the story of a worker on a North Sea oil rig, who was awakened one morning by a loud explosion. Fire was consuming the rig, and upon reaching the platform’s edge, he was confronted with a thirty-metre drop into freezing waters. With no other options, he decided to jump. He survived and noted that a “burning platform” had caused a radical change in his behavior. 8

If the situation requires immediate and significant action, leaders must evoke a visceral response which a burning platform helps to achieve, as it provides a specific, urgent, and painful message. This is often the first step in securing commitment to change. It motivates people to move toward the vision and overcome obstacles because they can no longer stay where they are.9

Market dynamics in the business world demand significant change within organizations to provide for resilient growth. Leaders must provide rational and clear reasons why the status quo is not an option. However, they also need to be emotionally committed.10 To bring about the needed change with the cooperation of the organization, business leaders must cast the vision, present the burning platform, and communicate the path to achieve the vision.

To create a burning platform, the leader must first understand what needs urgent attention within the organization and then determine what must be done in response. When communicating with the burning platform, the status quo must be presented as the worst option, as it will lead to certain failures. Thus, the burning platform is the “push” that a leader needs for change, whereas the vision is the “pull.” Vision is critical to leading change, but without the burning platform, it is nothing more than a dream. It is something we desire but are unwilling to overcome obstacles to achieve.11

The nature of the burning platform is one of emotion. It reaches the affective domain of people and elicits a response on an emotional level. Leaders who communicate a burning platform with passion have a greater ability to convince people that their vision is a worthy goal, even if it involves a difficult path ahead.

Rhetorical Pathos, Preaching and Leadership

Preaching and leadership are intrinsic to one another. It is an act of leadership that requires the preacher to creatively engage in emotional persuasion for the sake of the congregational mission.12 For this reason, church leaders need to develop emotional intelligence in leadership practice. This emotional intelligence should be used in interpersonal relationships, staff meetings, and the weekly sermon.13

God’s word is powerful, and the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to bring conviction to people’s souls. Paul acknowledged this by saying, “My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power.”14 However, that did not dissuade Paul from using rhetorical devices, including passion and emotion, in his preaching and writing.

The importance of emotion to leadership in preaching is based upon the nature of humanity. People are not merely rational; they are emotional. In past centuries, reason was the basis of preaching and an appeal to logical arguments and theological systems. Descartes’ famous statement, “I think therefore I am” was indicative of the emphasis on rationality. However, people are more complex, and to lead through preaching, preaching must reach the heart. Preaching can be merely an information dump if preachers are only concerned with communicating the text and not reaching or impacting the listener.15

Aristotle proposed that the speaker’s emotion or passion must align with, or be proportional to, the subject presented.16 Pathos, then, is integral to rhetoric or persuasive speech. It is no less so for preaching and leadership. If a burning platform has been communicated without passion, it will be brushed aside.

Imagine floating on the ocean atop a small wooden section of the boat after it capsized. Someone decides to light the platform on fire to keep warm, but this will consume the only place of safety and lead everyone to certain doom. If you were to quietly and without emotion whisper, “I don’t think you should do that,” you may not obtain the response you need to extinguish the fire immediately. However, if you scream from the top of your lungs, “Stop! Put that fire out right now, or we will all die!” the response will be immediate. Using emotion effectively will move the listener to the edge of their seat, ready to act.17

Jesus often stressed the importance of the heart in matters pertaining to God and that true religion was about more than mere knowledge of the truth. “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”18 He also said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”19 Of course, the heart, in biblical terms, includes more than emotion. It includes the mind, conscience, will, and passions. Yet, it is affected and moved through both reason and emotion. The heart matters to God and is where He does his work of transformation.

As we adopt a robust understanding of humanity, Jesus’ emphasis on the heart, and Aristotle’s rhetoric, we understand the need for emotion in preaching and leadership. Recent research indicates that leadership is not merely a rational process. It also engages the varied dynamics of emotion in human relations to be effective. In other words, “effective leader- ship requires affective sensitivity.”20

John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey’s work in emotional intelligence demonstrates this sensitivity. When a person is aware of their own emotions as well as those of others, it shapes both speech and behaviour in social interactions. Emotion and reason function together in making decisions, but emotion takes the leading role in this process. It directs reason and is thus neither a separate or a lower neurological event.21 Jeffrey Arthur holds a similar view on the interplay of emotion and reason and believes that separating them is a failure to understand how people make decisions. They simply cannot be separated.22

The preacher must therefore know or exegete his audience. How will they perceive their circumstances? What will cause a response? How a preacher frames those circumstances through words, expressions, tone, and passion will affect the audience.23 Preaching that leads will access human emotion in its delivery and its appeal. The idea is that passion and emotion should not merely reside in the speaker or leader but should be evoked, by design, in the listener. There are many different resident passions within people. To be effective, leaders must learn to differentiate between the emotions and understand how they impact the organization in different ways.24

Biblical Pathos

To this point, we have considered rhetorical emotion – that which is used by the speaker and which resides within the listeners, and business pathos via a burning platform. However, for the Christian preacher, pathos also resides within the text of scripture. Indeed, God Himself is revealed as possessing great passion and emotion as is borne out by people who bear the imago Dei. In considering the persuasiveness of emotion in preaching and leadership, equal consideration must be given to the pathos of the biblical text and not only that of the preacher and listener. Preaching should seek to impact the audience within the emotional parameters of the biblical text.25

The Bible is full of emotion. Within it, we see the anger of God as He judges the wicked. We see the compassion of God as He offers forgiveness to those who repent. We see the love of God as He gives His Son for the sins of the world. God’s desire is revealed as is that of the world.

Consider the emotional content as David is confronted by Nathan, the prophet, about his sin with Bathsheba. A man “after God’s heart” had committed adultery and, subsequently, murder to conceal his sin. Nathan was preaching for an emotional response, and he received one! Nathan skillfully draws David in through his illustration and appeals to David’s sense of justice. Nathan knew David would become angry, and at this point, he was appealing to David’s inherent passion. David responds just as expected. The text says he was “infuriated.”26

Nathan has David right where he wants him – filled with rage. Now, imagine the passion in Nathan’s voice as he reaches the climax and says, “You are the man!”27 Nathan goes on to explain or preach God’s passion. God’s mercy and grace to David in choosing him to be King. God’s compassion towards David as He saves him from Saul. God’s desire to bless David by giving him Israel and Judah, and if that had not been enough for him, even more! God’s disappointment as David turns away from the God he has known so intimately in committing this great evil.

Nathan preached with passion and targeted David’s inherent passion. Nathan preached the passion of the text in that he delivered God’s word to David and shared the passion of God. In doing so, he obtained an angry response from David, which drove his point home, resulting in contrition, humility, and repentance.

Here we see rhetorical and biblical pathos at work to achieve the desired result. This is leadership through preaching by using emotion to persuade. According to Jeffrey Arthurs, “Pathos is primary in human decision-making because God made us to respond to emotional appeals, and he himself uses pathos. He motivates us through awe of his immensity, fear of his holi- ness, confidence of his goodness, and joy of his grace. Pathos is crucial, not incidental, to God’s communication.”28

Given the pathos of Scripture, preaching that leads should embody the spirit of the text and not merely its content while helping the audience do the same.29 Vines and Dooley believe a thorough hermeneutic must include “emotional exegesis” based upon these five realities:30

1.  Every biblical text has pathos that is inspired.

2.  The Bible’s lexical realities cannot be separated from its emotive structures.

3.  Discerning pathos is not only possible but also essential for correct interpretation.

4.  Utilizing the persuasiveness of biblical pathos is not manipulation.

5.  Emulating and eliciting textual pathos leads to a better understanding and application of the text.

Emotion in Preaching as a Leadership Tool

In his last public address, Martin Luther King Jr. used a compelling burning platform when he said: “Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.” King left them with no options and no ability to turn back. He used “nonexistence” as the pain to create a vision of peace.31 His passionate use of the burning platform affected people emotionally, leading to the most significant civil rights movement in American history.

Washington, Hacker, and Hacker interpret the story of Moses leading the children of Israel out of Egypt as another example of a burning platform. Moses had presented God’s vision concerning his people to Pharoah. “Let my people go, that they may serve me.”32 However, Pharoah refused. It was not until the tenth and final plague that the burning platform became evident to Pharoah as he experienced the death of his son and heir to the throne. The vision was communicated, but there was no compelling reason for Pharoah to adopt it until he had no other viable options. Thus, the burning platform pushed him to accept the vision.

Throughout this pericope, we see the use of passion and emotion in both Moses and Pharoah. Moses used emotion to evoke the response needed to lead the people out of the country. His message and God’s agency worked with Pharoah’s pride and subsequent anger to achieve the desired result. Aristotle suggested that the audience’s passions should be aroused to affect the right decision on the matter presented. “I mean, for example, in what concerns anger: how the angry are disposed, and with whom they are accustomed to being angry, and at what sorts of things. For if we should grasp one or two of these, but not all of them together, it would be impossible to foster anger in another, and similarly in the case of the other passions.”33

The Apostle Paul was a skilled rhetorician. His epistles used forms of argumentation like those of educated Greeks. His writing included passion with eloquence, logical argumentation, and even urgent pleading. Paul’s writing is among the most persuasive rhetoric in the ancient world.34 This persuasion was not devoid of emotion. An example of this is found in the Book of Acts:

When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all. The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently, “We find nothing evil in this man.

What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks.35

Paul spoke passionately and with great emotion. However, he also knew that anger resided within these two religious groups that he could leverage to his advantage. In this case, he skillfully brings this out through a simple statement regarding God’s vision of the future promise of resurrection. One group was already on board with this vision, and one was not.

A key component of leadership is the use of emotion to elicit a heart-level response to a stated vision. The same principle applies equally in business and the church. The vision of a better future, as defined by a leader, must be combined with a compelling reason or burning platform. This includes understanding the target destination, the current crisis and the passions of those who need to embrace the vision.

A Caution

The danger in persuasion through emotion is manipula- tion. This is a common objection concerning the desire to lead people to adopt a vision through preaching. Some believe that decisions should only be made rationally, without emotion, or they are illegitimate. Emotion can be regarded as indecent or improper. Beyond this is the potential for narcissistic leaders to abuse people because they hold such a position. This is known as symbolic status.

It refers to a psychological phenomenon – the tendency for followers to tacitly regard leaders as parent figures, a tendency that becomes pronounced in the presence of charismatic leaders. This particular power is important because of its fundamental impact on the followers’ perceptions and beliefs. Abuse of this power can insidiously and significantly undermine the followers’ psychological well-being.36

Pastors tend to be held in high regard by congregants, and the level of trust is significant. A pastor can potentially use passion to lead people in an unhealthy direction. However, this type of emotion is not derived from the biblical text; is not grounded in a healthy personal relationship with the Lord himself and does not seek to move people onto God’s agenda. It is a selfish passion that seeks its own ends. Abuse occurs when a leader acts to manipulate others for personal gain while avoiding responsibility, whether intentionally or not.37

Due to the potential for dangerous abuse and manipulation, the argument is not for any passion in preaching but that which accords with the text, godly character and God’s vision for his people. The burning platform must also be rooted in reality and not make use of unrealistic potential realities.

A Concluding Summary

Aristotle proposed that pathos or emotion was one of the three supporting legs of rhetoric. To entice listeners to decide in the speaker’s favor, they must be affected emotionally. The speaker must appeal to the listener’s internal passions and communicate with the appropriate passion. For leaders to move people onto God’s vision, they must provide a compelling reason to do so, for which a burning platform is beneficial. It provides the logic and emotional rationale to change.

God desires to transform the lives of people and to develop the character of Christ within them. The Bible is full of emotional content. God is revealed as an emotional and passionate being, and many of the Bible’s great leaders used emotion to move people toward God’s vision. Those who preach today are responsible for moving people onto God’s agenda. That is, to adopt God’s vision. A significant rhetorical device is the proper use of emotion in preaching and leadership.

Passion is developed in a preacher’s life through living with the text, the world, and God’s people. It is a way of life. An “ongoing, at times all-consuming, journey.” 38 It arises from living with the text day by day and week by week. Passion must be communicated and appealed to in the process of leading through preaching. This will include personal pathos, biblical pathos and the use of pathos as created by a burning platform for change. 

Endnotes

1.   Daniel L. Akin, David L. Allen, and Ned L. Mathews, Text-Driven Preaching: God’s Word at the Heart of Every Sermon (Nashville: B&H Academic, 2010), 31.

2.   Henry T. Blackaby, Richard Blackaby, Spiritual Leadership (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2011), 36.

3.   Robert C. Bartlett, Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric: Translated and With an Interpretive Essay (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019), 5.Mark Palmer is Pastor

4.   Bartlett, 11.

5.   Bartlett, 11.

6.   Both biblical and rhetorical.

7.   Daryl R. Conner, Managing at the Speed of Change: How Resilient Managers Succeed and Prosper Where Others Fail (New York: Random House, 1992).

8.   https://www.managementcentre.co.uk/management-consultancy/create-a-burning-platform/, accessed April 17, 2023.

9.   Marvin Washington, Stephen Hacker, and Marla Hacker, Successful Organizational Transformation: The Five Critical Elements (New York: Business Expert Press, LLC., 2011), 73.

10. Campbell Macpherson, “A Burning Platform for Change.” Money Marketing, July 18, 2013, 27. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=bft&AN=89533888&sit e=ehost-live, accessed April 17, 2023.

11. Washington, Hacker, 71.

12. Carson E. Reed, “Motive and Movement: Affective Leadership through the Work of

Preaching.” Journal of Religious Leadership 13, no. 2 (Fall 2014): 67. https://search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=rfh&AN=ATLAn3770994&site=ehost-live.

13. Reed, 63-82.

14. 1 Corinthians 2:4-5. 

15. Murray Capill, The Heart is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2014), 14.

16. Bartlett, 173.

17. Gregory Keith Hollifield, “The Dynamic of ΠΑΘΟΣ in Expository Preaching: With Special Attention Given to the Theory and Practice of Haddon W. Robinson” (PhD diss., Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002), 13. ProQuest Information and Learning Company.

18. Matthew 15:8, CSB

19. Mark 12:30, CSB.

20. Reed, 66.

21. Reed, 66.

22. Jeffrey D. Arthurs, “The Place of Pathos in Preaching.” The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society 1, no. 1 (December 2001): 15 -21. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&Aut hType=sso&db=rfh&AN=ATLAiREM190610000479&site=ehost-live.

23. Hollifield, 15-16.

24. Reed, 63 – 82.

25. Hollifield, 93.

26. 2 Samuel 12:5, CSB.

27. 2 Samuel 12:7, CSB.

28. Arthurs, 17.

29. Jerry Vines, and Adam B. Dooley, Passion in the Pulpit: How to Exegete the Emotion of Scripture (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2018), 27.

30. Vines, Dooley, 28.

31. Washington, Hacker, 71.

32. Exodus 8:1, CSB, 2017.

33. Bartlett, 77.

34. Ervin R. Stutzman, “The Perils of Persuasive Preaching I Corinthians 1:18 – 2:5.” The Journal of the Evangelical Homiletics Society 11, no. 1 (March 2011): 84 – 89. https://search.ebscohost.com/login. aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=rfh&AN=ATLAiREM190617000467&site=ehost-live.

35. Acts 23:6-10, CSB.

36. Daniel Sankowsky, “The Charismatic Leader as Narcissist: Understanding the Abuse of Power.” Organizational Dynamics 23, no. 4 (Spring 1995): 57 – 71. doi:10.1016/0090-2616(95)90017-9.

37. Sankowsky, 57-71.38. Charles L. Campbell “Learning to Blush: The Emotional Formation of the Preacher.” Journal for Preachers 24, no. 4 (Pentecost 2001): 48 – 51. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true &AuthType=sso&db=rfh&AN=ATLA0001325473&site=ehost-live.