The comment has been made, "Most preachers are like the peace and mercy of God. Like the peace of God, they are completely beyond your understanding and like the mercy of God, you are scared to death they are going to continue forever."

Ask non-Christians how they feel about preaching and you may receive an answer that conveys something very similar to those sentiments. I'll never forget the experience of participating with some young people in a community study. The question was asked, "What do you think of when you think of church?" The four biggest responses were, "God, Jesus, buildings, and boring." To think for a moment that the "boring" was only a reference to the service, and not the sermon, would be the height of delusion.

In light of their already being "turned off" by negative experiences of the past, how do you "turn them on?" One thing we have going for us in American society is that, according to some surveys, 60% of Americans claim membership in some church, and 40% attend on a given Sunday. Although they attend, many do not know the Lord. They have never appropriated the meaning of Christ's words on the cross, "It is finished" (John 19:30), and are therefore depending not on the sufficiency of His sacrifice but on their own good works as a basis for justification. What an opportunity to speak to those who have a reverence for God, but not a relationship with Him! How do you reach them when inherent in their mind is the idea that listening doesn't do any good? How do you capture the attention of non-Christians?

Many things could be said but at least five things are worth accenting.

- Give yourself thirty seconds to get their attention, thirty minutes to keep it.

Non-Christians are not noted for their patience. They decide quickly whether or not you are worth listening to. Unless you capture their attention in the first thirty seconds of a message, they may begin to reminisce about the past week or plan for the next week instead of listening to you.

How does one capture their attention in thirty seconds? My friend and mentor, Haddon Robinson, has said it well. "Communication is saying the same thing in different words." Suppose one is speaking on the subject of worry. It is dull to get up before non-Christians and say, "I'd like to talk about worry. We all have a problem with that, don't we?" There is no doubt that statement is true but it's not very attention-getting.

Suppose, though, you got up and said, "All of us have them. Some have more than others, but all of us have them. They have a way of plaguing us wherever we go and affecting just about everything we do. At times they make us move faster and other times they so grip us, they slow us down. Now that simple thing I'm referring to is that very serious thing called anxiety." I assure you, as a non-Christian, you have captured my attention. I started wondering what in the world you were referring to and by the time you told me I was hooked.

Are you speaking on the issue of hardships and trials? One could start by saying something such as "The topic I want to speak to are those unpleasant experiences of life -- the times when life seems so unfair and everything could not be going more wrong."