Dear Prayer Partners,
I am waiting on dinner at Biblica Guest House after a long day. It rained hard all night resulting in very muddy dirt-roads. And bad weather and muddy dirt-roads slow things down. So, our start time was pushed back from 9 to 10:30.
We had two audiences today. We started with a group (see the picture) of men and women who want to be trained as apologists. Some have attended my other presentations here. Some had not. We ended the day with an expanded group of mostly teens.
I started with a review of the importance of having a firm understanding of the biblical Christian worldview especially when it answers the questions related to origin, morality, meaning, and destiny. That is, where did everything come from? Are there moral absolutes and if there are, where did they come from? Is there some overriding meaning in life that applies to all of us? What happens when we die? I followed with a review of “God’s Story” which has four chapters; Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration (i.e. new creation).
I believe that having a firm understanding of each of these provides a foundation for being able to make a defense of the faith and give a reason for the hope we have (1 Pet 3:15).
I followed that review with a new presentation: How to Answer Questions With Questions. I created this talk after reading two books by Greg Koukl, “Tactics,” and “Street Smarts,” and one particular chapter out of the book, “A New Kind of Apologist.”
There are many good reasons to answer questions with a question of your own. It puts you in the drivers seat in the conversation, it helps you gather information about what the person believes and why, if makes the other person think through their presuppositions, etc. I gave them some examples along the way.
That was the morning.
After a break of almost two hours, I talked with a second group at the same location. Actually, many from the first group stayed. I gave two other new presentations I have just finished putting together. The first is, “Does God Exist?” and the second is, “Is Christianity The Only True Religion?”
In the first, Does God Exist,” I rely on three scientific realities that are causing even the most ardent atheists to think twice about Darwin’s theory. The first is the concession that the universe had a beginning. The second is the fine-tuning of the universe to allow life to exist. The third is DNA and the amount of information found in each and every cell.
After this talk, I answered questions I was asked about God. None were too new. “Is God a male or female?” “Did God have parents?” “Why does God allow consequences of sin continue after Jesus dies for sin?”
In the second, I demonstrate that not all religions can be true because they are all so different. Then I give reasons to believe that Christianity is the one true religions.
My vision is to not just give lectures on apologetics topics but to see those who attend get out and practice. With that in mind, I have come up with a plan to get the process started. I am going to put together a simple, short religious survey and ask each one to interview a minimum of 5 people for the purpose of finding out what people think about God, religion, heaven, Jesus, etc. Then have them compile the answers, and use them as a framework for upcoming workshops.
This is only the beginning of the Next Gen Ministry strategy. I think the first short seminar will be on introductory topics (mentioned above) and “how to do apologetics.” Then, once the foundation is laid and the how-to’s explained, we can start getting into specific questions and how to answer them.
A look ahead
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Tomorrow, Sunday, I will be preaching at the church where we held the seminar today.
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Monday I head to Rwanda.
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Tuesday is a scheduled rest day
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Wednesday is another seminar day.
It’s only 9:30 but I feel like it’s midnight. I’ll sign off and wind down. Thanks for praying for today and for the upcoming days.
A few new pictures added to the album. CLICK HERE for the pic album
By His grace,
Steve
P.S. No update on the two boxes of books that I left at the airport after arriving.