We live in a culture that is much more relationally needy than we realize, so much is done over the phone, texting, social media, snap, insta and so on, personal face to face communication is not only shrinking, but isn’t even necessary for so many things that it used to be needed for, like pumping gas, Amazon, Ebay, Paypal, or any of the dozens of ways we can now shop online, grocery pick up and so on.
So when you actually have a face to face conversation with someone, it is more impactful than it used to be, it is more rare, and any face to face interaction of substance is a great opportunity to really pour into the life of someone, but as followers of Christ many times when we want to share our faith, we fail on one of two fronts. We either shy away from sharing OR we say a lot of dogmatic stuff mixed with insider church language, we get offended and walk away puffed up. People in today’s culture don’t want another IN YOUR FACE convo where a Christian walks away feeling proud because they think they proved a point. What is that even accomplishing? The Bible doesn’t need us to begrudgingly defend it, it is self-attesting, it stands up for itself.
We have to find ways to cross the cultural divide between those who follow Jesus and those who don’t, those who are in the church and those who aren’t. Matthew 22:39 says, “…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 7:12 says, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
We need to be mindful that we live in a contemporary wilderness, we need to take in the cultural perspectives of those we are talking with. What has happened to them? What has shaped their world view? Why do they believe the way they do? When someone tells you that they don’t believe in God, try and find the root of that, don’t just say, “Well you are wrong, now get over it.” Discover where they are coming from and how you can help lead them to Christ and what God is doing in their life.
Only about a third of our population regularly attend church, we can’t throw out pithy spiritual platitudes and use insider church language to try and explain why somebody should come visit our church or accept Christ. We need to be relational with the gospel not confrontational.
Don’t try and convince someone to fix everything about themselves and then invite them to church, they can come just as they are, God accepted you as you were, and like a piece of clay, he began molding you and molding you and molding you, into the wonderful person you are today. We need contemporary believers and leaders who, like the men of Issachar (1 Chron 12:32), understood the times in which they lived and engaged culture with hard-hitting truth delivered with grace and humility.
