What is revealing about the predilection for deliberative rhetoric in the NT is that it suggests that the orator believes the audience is free to respond positively or not and, therefore, needs to be persuaded. In other words, good evangelism and good preaching involved persuasion, not manipulation and strong-arm tactics. It may well be very revealing that Paul repeatedly called the house meetings of Christians meetings of the ekklēsia—formerly the term for the democratic assembly; now the term for