Normal conversations blow around in little eddies and big gusts and it is hard to keep any of them on track. My theory is that the greater the number of people involved the more chaotic and hard to keep up with the conversation will be. So unless one is going to dominate it by talking non-stop without taking a breath, a different expectation is needed.
We could practice “sound bite grab” answers to common questions – such as: the problem of evil and suffering, is the Bible reliable, what about other religions, Christians are judgmental hypocrites, do good people go to heaven, is Jesus the only way to God, and so on.
We could practice answering these questions (or one you were asked recently) with a Christian friend. Try different approaches, including leaving a teaser at the end of the answer. However giving answers is not always the best answer. Sometimes asking a question in turn is helpful. “Why do you think that?”, “Can you help me understand what you mean?” are questions that may reveal that the person has a poor understanding of the issue.
They may also reveal that the question is not the real question. Being aware of this helps us not to give long-winded replies to first questions. Sometimes people are testing us out to see if they could converse with us without getting a big lecture – whether we can listen to them. Sometimes people have a BIG question which they won’t ask until they are sure that you are listening and can be trusted.
Dale