There are two simple tips that can make your spiritual conversations more effective.

The book “Unapologetic: A Guide for Defending Your Christian Convictions” is out. It's on Amazon. Click the link in the sidebar. Get yourself a copy.

Now while that book is out, I am still working to be a better writer, to be a better communicator. I'm working on curriculum for the book. I'm working on my next book. Someone heard that and suggested the following title: “Unapologetic II: Still Not Sorry”. Not exactly what I'm going for, but a very witty and funny suggestion nonetheless.

Because of all that, I am working to improve my writing. There are two simple tips that can make someone a better writer. Here's why I want to share them with you: because they can also make you a better ambassador for Christ when you're speaking with your friends, your coworkers, your family, or your neighbors about spiritual topics. Here's what these two tips are.

The first is know your audience. The second is maintain focus. Audience.

As a writer, as a communicator, I have a primary audience. That would be people who have grown up in the church, most likely. They're faithful, committed Christians and they want to be faithful to Christ when topics of faith or values come up. I also have a secondary audience. This is probably people who are struggling or who have struggled with doubts. I know both of these groups. I have grown up in the church and I have had my struggles with doubts.

Here's where this comes in when you're talking with other people. You need to know who you're talking with and where they're coming from before you can say something that's going to be effective. If someone says they're not a Christian and you start saying, "Well, here's this great argument for why God exists. You see, everything that comes into existence has a cause. The universe came into ... " they might not care. Their objection to the existence of God might not have anything to do with their intellect or what they know. It might have to do with a family member dying. You're going to give them an intellectual piece of evidence when they don't even want that. The better thing to do would be find out where they're coming from. Who are they? What is their objection?

“Okay, so you don't believe God exists. Would you mind telling me why? I'd like to know. I'm curious.” They might tell you that it's something that deals with evil in the world, or maybe they think they're the only one who exists! Who knows. Nonetheless, you need to find out where that person is coming from.

Let's say someone says, "I am bothered by all the evil in the world. I'm so strongly bothered, I don't see how a loving God like you say exists could actually exist."

You still don't know enough to reply to that person. You could give them a logical reply about how God's existence is not logically incoherent with evil, how they're not contradictory, but that might not matter. They might be grieving inside and they need something that's more suited for their emotional needs. Their objection might not be intellectual.

We need to find out as much about people as we can in conversation to know our audience, to better address where they're coming from. You might realize that this is Greg Koukl's tactics approach, just with a slightly different angle on it. And it is. Using questions wasn't invented by Koukl, and it will be used far, far into the future, but it is the most effective and personal way to have a conversation, when used correctly.

The last thing I'll say on audience is that sometimes knowing your audience means giving out age-appropriate truth. I've written about this before, but somewhere between when a child is born and then when they go off to high…