There are so many broken people, so many going through difficult times, that a kind word and an empathic approach can help people to allow us to apply the gospel to their pain. Sometimes the way to reach people is by taking the door of kindness and empathy which leads to discussions of truth.
4. Use the familiar to explain the unfamiliar.
Paul employed this principle in his Mars Hill message later in Acts 17. He used poets his audience would have known as a springboard into biblical truth. Thus, he took what was familiar to them and leveraged it to explain the unfamiliar. Today, we must find appropriate ways to do this with those who are far from Jesus.
This may include, but not limited to, having an awareness of the music people may be listening to, movies people may be in to, TV shows that may be popular, New York Times best-sellers, and widely read opinion articles.
In short, this is our attempt to know our culture and our cultural context and what may be familiar to them so that we can find winsome ways to communicate the unfamiliar by using what is familiar.
In closing, our post-Christian cultural context — particularly in the west and in North America — is much different than it was a few decades ago. Therefore, as we look at reasoning, proving, and explaining Christ to a post-Christian and postmodern culture, just as Paul pivoted his approach to a non-Jewish audience, we must take a different approach than we once did in engaging a Judeo-Christian context. While it may require learning different principles of engagement, we must remember that in every age the gospel remains the answer to humanity’s greatest need.
