Let God's Voice Be Heard

Everyday we are bombarded with so much information (both useful and unvaluable) -- through our emails, facebook, twitter, billboards, tv commercials, ads on the internet and etc. We are also engrossed with the latest gadgets and the newest apps. Many of us are absorbed in the plots of  popular TV series' and movies. We are also busy with work, school, and family concerns. These among many take up our attention in our 24-hour day. It is indeed the information age.

With all these things that overwhelm our senses, the voice of God can easily get drowned in the background of the noise of the world. We can easily be distracted away from Him.  Many of these information promote values of materialism, secularism, relativism, as if trying to take God out of our minds--out of our system. Just try to notice how many Christians today struggle to have a consistent prayer time or even have the time to go to Mass on Sunday. I think one of the great challenges of evangelization today is how to get people to notice the wonderful and salvific friendship offered by Jesus Christ. It is God who initiates this relationship, but many cannot hear His voice.

Quoting Herbert Simon, he said, "What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention."

As evangelizing Christians, how do we grab the attention of today's people towards God?


1. Get Creative

Creativity is important.  Jesus will always be relevant, since He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is a matter of being able to communicate or evangelize the Gospel message with the right medium -- hitting what is relevant to the target audience.  We need to approach evangelization by means of Creative Fidelity.

 According to http://www.publicchristian.com/?p=196 :

“Creative Fidelity” is the solution Gabriel Marcel (French Catholic existentialist philosopher) provided for the problem of time and change in human relationships. [2]

For example, the man who made my wedding vows is not the man I am today. I am more experienced, more knowledgeable, more mature, perhaps wiser, have different interests and occupations. My spouse also has changed significantly. Why should these older and wiser persons be bound by promises made by younger and more foolish people who in so many ways no longer exist?

I am sure they should; that’s what ‘vow’ means.


Is our approach to evangelization stuck in the 80's when the world was "quieter"?  Are we not a different society, now with more history, and with an evolved behavior?  Getting creative doesn't only mean having an attractive poster or theme or a new program.  It means having fidelity to the truth and depth of God's message -- and expressing it in a manner that rises above the noise of the world.  "The Church recognizes that these media, if properly utilized, can be of great service to mankind, since they greatly contribute to men's entertainment and instruction as well as to the spread and support to the Kingdom of God." (Inter Mirifica, 2)

2. Be in the world, but not of the world.

“Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves." Matthew 10:16

Many have a tendency to alienate themselves from the rest of their peers. Sure, we have to be modern day martyrs and stand of for Christ amidst persecution or getting ridiculed, but we also have to look on saving the souls of those around us. We have to connect to our peers, but not with their addictions, corrupt ways, or general unchristian habits.  We have to be loving witnesses who do not judge and condemn, but who reach out and listen.

In today's generation, many are turned off by straightforward preaching. Although preaching truly proclaims God's Word, but to quote Evangelii Nuntiandi 41:

 "Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses."

What really wards off people from hearing about Jesus is how we represent Jesus to them through our own lives. Indeed it is a tall order to become witnesses, but by His grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, we will have the strength to be true witnesses for Christ amidst an environment of "wolves."

3. Find Common Ground

What we also need to do to catch people's attention towards the Lord is to find out what their interests are. They will listen if it concerns them. Are they young parents? So, they must be dying to hear about parenting or raising children to be good Christians. Are they sports enthusiasts? So organize a sports event like a basketball tournament or a fun run. Are they technology buffs? Organize a forum on making the most out of their gadgets. Sometimes we have to transform the "noise" of the world into the sweet sound of God's voice by Christifying the secular.

If we look intently, people's natural interests may as well be a new mission area.  It may not be geographic, but if you see  how the hundreds or thousands of people with a common enthusiasm gather, there is enormous potential.  "Missionary activity is closely bound up even with human nature itself and its aspirations (Ad Gentes, 8). By finding common ground, we let God transform it into holy ground -- His kingdom on earth.

Let God's voice be heard today!  Let us emerge from the drowning noise of the secular world and sound off the beautiful ensemble of the Good News.