Malcolm A. C. Pinto is a husband, father, grandfather, structural engineer and owner of a professional firm. His days involve relationships at many levels: marriage and family, colleagues and employees, questions that require decisions, and conversations in which people expect him to respond clearly. Christ-Like Listening invited him to reconsider what it means to be truly present in all those encounters.

​

Malcolm distinguishes ordinary hearing from listening to a person whom he genuinely wants to encounter. Authentic listening is not restricted to the ears. It involves the whole self—attention, emotion, observation, patience and a willingness to receive what another person is communicating both through words and beyond them.

​

That insight became particularly personal when Malcolm reflected upon his marriage. He recognized that his wife would experience something very different when he listened with his full attention rather than merely hearing her words. Loving another person includes the willingness to become engaged with what they are expressing and to respond from that place of genuine encounter.

​

For Malcolm, the distinctive purpose of Christ-Like Listening is to welcome the Holy Spirit into that encounter. Faith does not sit outside the conversation as an additional idea. It shapes the way the listener slows down, receives the other person and chooses a response.

​

He began applying this approach within his professional life. During one conversation, a colleague came to him with a question. Instead of moving immediately into explanation or instruction, Malcolm consciously drew upon what he had learned. He slowed down. He paced himself. He listened attentively, paused and reflected before responding.

​

The result was a more meaningful conversation for both of them. His colleague was not simply given an answer or told what to do. They became engaged together in the discussion. The quality of the interaction changed because the person was received as a participant rather than treated as the recipient of Malcolm's expertise.

​

This experience also taught Malcolm that a seminar alone is not enough. Christ-Like Listening must be used and practised. He continued meeting with two other participants in a group of three. Together they practised listening, reflecting, reframing and using the tools they had received. The structure helped each person attend both to the other and to the movements or insights that might come through the Spirit.

​

Practice gradually carries the formation into ordinary life. It can change the way a husband listens to his wife, the way a parent listens to an adult child, the way an employer receives a colleague and the way one Christian accompanies another. It offers no promise of perfect conversations, but it creates the conditions for relationships to become more respectful, prayerful and human.

​

Malcolm's final invitation summarizes the heart of his experience: come to Christ-Like Listening not to become an expert, but to become a presence. Expertise can place the emphasis upon what the listener knows. Presence places the emphasis upon the person who is here now—and upon Christ, who is already present within the encounter.