The call to 'being relevant'

Alright, let me just shared this while I still have this at the back of my mind, ahahha....

Yesterday when driving someone back home, while talking to him I reminded myself again about my passion for my friends (non or pre-believers) to be saved. We were actually talking about something else, but I ended up sharing about my conviction to reach out to all my friends and the struggles I had (and many christians had as well).

Anyway, I believe as christians we need to learn to be relevant to non-christians. And for that to happen, we need to put the effort. By gaining information and if possible, experience the things that can help us to be relevant to them (not at the expense of our faith, or so long as it does not contradict the Word of God).

I found one of the main causes why many christians struggles in building friendship with non-believers is because they could not relate with them (non-believer), because they don't know what to talk about in casual setting/atmosphere. So when christians meet new people, they struggle to have a decent conversation, hence when their friends talk about something (say sport), they pretend to listen and pray hard in their heart for the conversation to end soon and find ways to share the Gospel. I am guilty as charged as well, many times I've done this.

Please note that there's nothing wrong to find ways so we can share the Gospel as quickly as possible. But be mindful that when do that, we might miss the point. Here's a point for you to ponder;

"How can a person listen to you when you don't even to listen to that person?"

Communication is always 2 way.
A good listener is someone who listens attentively and able to give feedback when/if required. One won't be able to give feedback if one does not know anything what-so-ever regarding the things that is required for feedback, and this is the part where christians need to be relevant by gaining information (and understanding as much as possible) about what's going on around them.

Knowing and understanding the things that go on around us can also help us to deliver the message of Salvation in a better way so it becomes is easier to understand for non-believer.