Naturally I have heroes who do what I desire to do.  Effective preachers who handle God’s Word very carefully and preach it very relevantly.  Some of these are big names, others are not.  But there are other communication heroes that are not doing what I am trying to do.  They are doing what I feel very incapable of doing.  Here are a couple of examples:

Effective Children’s Sunday School Teachers – the ones that capture the attention of a group of young children and present the teaching of the Bible in a way that makes sense and sticks.  Seeds planted that will bear fruit long into the future.  I’m happy to teach my four children, but I am scared to death of a group of non-Mead children.  People who can handle that are communication heroes in my book!

Effective and Proactive Interpersonal Evangelists – the ones that seem to be finding opportunity after opportunity to share the gospel and lead others to Christ.  I try to get around non-believers, I try to get the conversations around to the gospel, I try to be a witness in the power of the Spirit, but I am also clear that my primary gifting is not in the area of evangelism.  Those that make this look easy are heroes in my book!

What about you?  Are there people using communication skills in the work of the gospel that you know you cannot emulate?  They may look up to you as a preacher and express how glad they are they don’t have to stand in front of a crowd of adults and preach.  Let’s be sure to also affirm those who do what we are glad we don’t have to do!