Relevance - in our word choice

Today's blog, to use cooking terms, is a reduction of many ingredients that I have read /heard over the past few days, mixed and marinated.

I am reading Bill Hybel's book entitled, "Axiom"- who said that careful selection of words matter in order to engage people.

I also listened to "Maximum Impact" podcast, which spoke to the Leader of Giant Impact, a Leadership training organisation in the US. He said the 3 characters of a good leader are: Trustworthiness, Competency and Relevance.

I have been musing the thoughts of relevance for the past 24 hours. How do we become relevant. Are we, as a church, as teachers, relevant? Are the words we choose letting seekers know that we are relevant to them, or are we using concepts/lingo that is common to Christians because it's easier.

Take for example Billboards. I have seen a couple of billboards on the way to Dalby and Stanthorpe that quote scripture. Here's an example from the web (obviously not in Australia)

The challenge with this type of public message is that I'm not sure people would understand what this means to them. Is it relevant? Does it inspire them to check out more of the gospel message.

Could it say something like:

"Do you really want to get what you deserve for all the bad things you've done? You can have forgiveness instead - but you have to ask for it.. Google Romans 6:23"

Or here is another one I've found on the web:

Words matter. Make them relevant