The value of both cultural awareness and cultural relevance has been stressed by a number of writers including John Stott (1975), who in his book Christian Mission In The Modern World argued for “double listening” to both Scripture and culture, and integrated evangelism with social responsibility through the Lausanne movement. We would go a step further than Stott, affirming that the most important ‘listening’ of all, for any evangelist, is that of listening to Jesus, who alone is the ‘author and finisher’ of faith. The man or woman who speaks the words of Jesus into the life of another, will always be the most relevant communicator of all. Nothing beats this! As the Samaritan woman said, after hearing Jesus’ words to her at Jacob’s well, “Here is a man who told me everything I ever did” (John 4:29). It doesn’t get more relevant than that.
