When U2 visit Australian shores next month, Sydney theologian Dr Greg Clarke says you too can use the Irish rockers as a platform to generate gospel conversations.

"It's about finding points of contact between what we're preaching and today's cultures," says Dr Clarke. 

The well-respected apologist will join the Dean of Sydney Phillip Jensen in addressing over 200 Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) apprentices at Monday's MTS Training Day.

Dr Clarke is Director of the Centre for Apologetic Scholarship and Education (CASE) at New College, the Anglican residence at the University of NSW.

He will be speaking on "Preaching Christ into our cultures'.

Understand culture to help others understand Christ

Dr Clarke says people must understand the cultures they are preaching to effectively help others understand Jesus.

"All of us are in a position to give a reason for the hope we have in Christ,” he says.

"If you can understand the culture behind the person you are giving your reasons to, you are more likely to answer their questions in a way they understand," Dr Clarke says.

Dr Clarke says the high profile actions of U2's lead singer Bono give Christians immediate ways to discuss their faith.

"The interesting thing with Bono is that most rock stars who call themselves Christian become less and less recognisable as Christians over time but Bono has gone the other way.

"It's becoming clearer and clearer that his own motivation for everything he does in life is that he is a servant of Yahweh.

"Bono's Make Poverty History campaign comes from a world view that all people are created in God's image. His words and actions give people immediate ways to discuss Christianity," Dr Clarke says.

‘Thank God for Dan Brown’

Dr Clarke says you don't have to be a sociologist to understand the interests of a particular culture but "just have your ears and eyes open to what interests them'.

Dr Clarke has named one of his workshops "Thank God for Dan Brown: preaching in 2006 with the help of films, books, music and politics'.

It is a topic he is well-versed in, through his latest book Is it Worth Believing: the Spiritual Challenge of the Da Vinci Code , which is published by Matthias Media.

"I am very thankful for Dan Brown," Dr Clarke says.

"Thanks to the Dan Brown novel [The Da Vinci Code] I have had a chance to talk to more non-Christians last year than I did in the last decade."

Dr Clarke says increased numbers of non-Christians are attending seminars discussing issues brought up by the international bestseller.

"As Christians we have answers to the issues they're interested in. We can tell people the truth about Jesus and church history," he says,

Dr Clarke says many theologians throughout the centuries have observed the importance of connecting with the surrounding culture.

"Karl Barth said when preaching you need to have a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other. I think now it's the Bible in one hand and a blog on the screen in front of you," he says.

This is the first of four MTS Training Days in 2006.

Dean Jensen, who spearheads Sydney Diocese’s department of Ministry Training and Development. will lead the morning Bible study on 1 Corinthians.

Members of the public are also welcome to attend by registering today at MTS website or calling (02) 9238 0271.