Are We Relevant? (part 3)
A second standard Google uses to measure a site’s relevance is connectivity. Being linked to many other sites helps the browser ranking of your site. So how does this apply to sharing our faith?
Merely bumping into a lot of people and hitting them with the gospel or trying to one-up them in a debate is not true connectivity. We need to show an interest in the person as much as the answers. We want them to see us as a link to the truth and ultimately to the gospel. That means cultivating a relationship through civil dialogue and finding out what concerns them.
In Athens, Paul was taken before the philosophers at the Areopagus who were eager to debate him (Acts 17). After speaking, he got 3 responses: some sneered, some wanted to hear him again, and some became followers.
We can do little about those who sneer, but if they want to hear us again, even if they don’t completely agree with us, we have taken a first step toward creating a link. The more of these connections we are able to make, the more authentic and relevant our message will be perceived.
Our faith becomes more relevant to the culture when we can show its value to others. The best way to relate that value is to be able to explain the substance of our beliefs while connecting with the individual.
“In Athens, Paul was taken before the philosophers at the Areopagus who were eager to debate him (Acts 17). After speaking, he got 3 responses: some sneered, some wanted to hear him again, and some became followers.”
Is that before or after the Christians burned down the library of Alexandria and closed the schools of philosophy ushering in the Dark Ages?
“We can do little about those who sneer, but if they want to hear us again, even if they don’t completely agree with us, we have taken a first step toward creating a link. The more of these connections we are able to make, the more authentic and relevant our message will be perceived.”
Here’s the think I don’t think religious apologists get. Religious people ARE trying to do something about “those who sneer”. They’re passing laws that derive their basis from their holy text seemingly through the proclaimed maxim “There’s sanity in numbers.”
You’re “message” is only authentic if you can support it through logic, reason and evidence which you don’t seem to be able to do and (at the time that I’ve written this) you’ve not done in the slightest. The only reason you’re “message” is relevant at the moment is because enough people believe it – because of childhood indoctrination, sheer ignorance of the inherent contradictions in Christianity and/or the belief drilled into them by the traditional tripe that morals come from a voice in a burning bush – to force the issue. Some Christians (or other religious believers) may be authentic as in they truly believe what their preachers say about their holy book but that does not make their message authentic in the way that you’re putting forward in this post.
“Our faith becomes more relevant to the culture when we can show its value to others.”
So do it. Stop assuming that which needs to be proven as if simply saying that your faith is of “value to others” closes the issue of BEING valuable to others.