We sometimes talk about the gap that has opened up. Inside church there is a Christian culture -- language, customs, skills, and expectations. Outside Church there is a non-Christian culture driven by other "isms"-- materialism, pluralism, relativism -- with need for efficiency, competition, and power.

Any talk like this hugely oversimplifies the situation. All of us, both inside and outside churches, have been dragged by an undertow of cultural shifts as Western society moves from modernism to postmodernism. Sometimes, without realizing it, Christian communities actually think and behave under the thrall of contemporary culture rather than of Christian teaching. Ronald Nash in his book An 8 Track Church in a CD World suggests that churches have actually allowed American cultural values such as efficiency, competition, and power to infiltrate and pervert the gospel inside our churches. Inadvertently the gospel has been misapplied as churches become businesses.

In some parts of the Western church the majority of the population are still church-goers and the pressures of secularism are faint. Secular pressures are growing year by year. The more secular, and the more hostile (often), your environment, then the more likely people outside will regard church as boring, irrelevant, and, sadly, the gospel with it. And inside many churches, congregations are greying and shrinking with preachers talking more and more to themselves.

SW? and YBH?

As soon as the sermon has begun to take shape on the word processor screen or piece of paper, preachers should imagine themselves as a listener who is asking SW? and YBH? about this sermon. Imagine the situation of a teenager who is easily bored and thinking about giving up going to church all together. Or a single person in their twenties trying out church again. Or a married couple in their thirties with their own set of needs. Effective preachers always have the gift of empathizing with their listeners and making imaginative links across age, gender, and Experience barriers. Preachers must dare to ask positive SW and YBH questions before their listeners pose negative ones.

There are several other ways in which preachers can become better appliers in a secular culture.

So you want to be a better applier? Ten starters for preachers.

1) Apply scripture to yourself first.

2 Timothy 2:15 tells us to "Do your best to be a worker ... who correctly handles the word of God." First we have to be workers with scripture, and that means effort, sweat, and discipline. Secular questions do not need different answers. They need the same answer heard relevantly. There has been a fevered search for new ways and techniques to connect with Joe and Joanne Secular. Special programs have been devised for Generation X audiences. Many preachers are yearning for mall credibility. But first we need Bible credibility.

The golden rule for preachers is: First, open scripture and listen to God yourself. Pray for the Spirit to breathe again on your understanding and listen to what God says and does. Just you and God's word. If it doesn't apply to your head and heart, you'll have trouble applying it to anyone else's.