I've often found myself grateful for a series of lectures I attended years ago put on by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason. His organization exists to train Christians to be better ambassadors in the public square <quoting from memory rather than copying from the website> and I couldn't recommend his materials more highly.

One thing Greg said that always sticks in my mind is how our culture views religion. I can talk til I'm blue in the face about the truth claims of Christianity, but in the end more likely than not I'll be greeted with a polite, if blank stare, as if I'm trying to sell them on nothing more significant than the merits of vanilla ice cream over mint chocolate chip. It's unbelievably frustrating.

An article I read the other day reminded me of the Ice Cream Dilemma -- it was entitled "America's Unfaithful Faithful" and discussed a recent survey about Americans churchgoing habits. Or more accurately, their church-hopping habits. One quote I found fairly disturbing talked about the 'marketability' of religion:

What it says is that this marketplace is highly competitive and that no one can sit on their laurels, because another group out there will make [its tenets] available" for potential converts to try out.

Once again, putting forth the notion that the church and/or religion you choose has more to do with personal preference and response to a slick marketing campaign than with the truth claims of that particular religion.