I think you have the right approach: casually spark an interest and gently
teach only those who are interested. This will give you a core group of
enlightened folk, and the small group setting will allow you to deal fully
with people's questions. Should you later be attacked you have a "critical
mass" of support which will back you up. (Mob psychology: once you are
identified as an potential heretic by critics, they can be very critical
to--and unaccepting of-- your responses, which can snowball. They will be
much more prone to listen to your supporters, since (1) they are peers, and
(2) the critics are now in a minority.
On the other hand, I'm not a psychologist, so what do I know?
I think one of our short comings is indeed that we are often in the ivory
tower, working on the details, instead of translating our knowledge &
beliefs for layfolk. Consequently, we shouldn't be suprised when the YEC
crowd "steal our thunder" by proclaiming their message first on the
layperson's level (even if it is full of inconsistencies and errors).
God bless you!
Dennis Sweitzer