There are two things that need to be briefly addressed here: 1) generally what audience analysis can do to help us
contextualize the gospel, and 2) how sociological research can contribute to that audience analysis.
First, when one considers how to translate ideas from one culture to another it assumes a knowledge of both and the better you know the nuances of both culture’s communication, the better one can do it. Audience analysis helps you gain a reliable knowledge of a particular culture which can and often does help in translation.
Audience analysis is the project of discovering and using reliable sources of information to better understand a particular sociological or ethnic culture for the purpose of communicating better with it. Thoughtful and careful audience analysis increases the chances that your message is being heard because the analysis should help you translate what you communicate into the ideological coins of the realm and idioms of the culture.
A classical example of audience analysis occurs in Acts chapter 17 where Paul reveals to his Hellenistic audience that he had earlier, “...walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship...” NIV. And from that investigation Paul was able to say. “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.....[N]ow what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you....”NIV
Why shouldn’t we follow Paul’s example and use all of the resources at our disposal to better understand the people to whom we seek to influence for Christ?
Second, sociological research into the habits and beliefs of our target audience (rather than just guessing) give us a more objective source of input about the relevant beliefs of our audience. The maxim that “all truth is God’s truth” view offers some justification for thinking that under certain conditions and in certain ways the deliverances of “settled” science give Christians (and everybody else) reliable information about Creation.
While there are skeptics of this view, fairly weighing all the arguments pro and con are not what we’re after here. Indeed, we will proceed as if it is reliable with some modesty because admittedly research on humans can in its own way be more problematic than research on chemical properties and research on humans can carry in some assumptions that not all will agree with. But, for the most part, we will treat well done sociological research as giving us reliable enough information about our audience to move on to the task of translating the glorious ideas of the gospel into terms they are more likely to understand. The idea of gospel fidelity is key to understanding why we seek to translate it well--our stewardship of the gospel requires that we work hard at this and in doing so we broaden the span of our abilities to minister.
So this section of the site will be committed to offering tools and resources to help you better understand your audience so you can better translate the gospel into idioms that they understand better.