Dear ITEM Next Gen Friends,
We finished the very successful seminar today with four more lectures and a good Q&A time. But neither of these was the highlight. I’ll get to that later.
Lectures today included: Why We Believe that God Exists, Why We Believe that Christianity is True, Is Christianity a White Man’s Religion?, and Using Questions to Answer Questions. Again today, I insisted over and over and over, apologetics is not debating, not trying to win debate points, and not trying to win an argument. Apologetics is built on relationships where two people an discuss the claims of Christianity, with the emphasis for the believer being, first, a good listener, asking good, information-gathering questions, and listening well as the questions are answered for the purpose to truly understanding the other person.
We had only time for three questions, partly because of my long answers.
The first was from Eccl 9 where Solomon wrote that the good and the bad suffer the same fate…Sheol. The question: How do we use this verse when doing? ANS: I had to explain to the person that Solomon was recording his search for meaning in the book of Ecclesiastes and that this is not a passage we should consider when doing evangelism. It is a passage to illustrate the futility of looking for meaning without God as part of the equation.
The second was asked from 1 Pet 3:15, our primary apologetics verse. It reads, “be ready to give an answer for the HOPE that is within you…” The question: Some people say they are hoping for rice or food, or something else. Is that what this verse is talking about? ANS: I reminded them to check the context and took them back to chapter one where Peter describes the “hope” as our “hope” for eternal life in heaven. Then I talked about the context of the entire book, suffering, and that they were to be ready to answer questions about their hope in the midst of persecution and suffering.
The third came from Eph 4 that reads “one faith, one Lord, one baptism.” And the question was that different groups say their faith is the one. What is the answer? ANS: Again, we looked at the context and the entire passage was about believers being one body, united by the same faith…. Etc. Then I asked them who was in the body of Christ and how does one get there? By “faith” in Christ. That is the ONE faith that makes us one.
But the highlight was conversations after the seminar ended. In broad strokes, I mentioned yesterday that pastors don’t want to field questions from Gen Z and Gen Z is frustrated with that. So, I talked with Norman, the older coordinator of this seminar about bringing pastors together to explain to them the needs of Gen Z in their churches and challenge them to engage Gen Z. Norman liked the idea.
Later in the evening, my very good, long-time friend, Nathan Chiroma stopped by and I came up with another brainstorm. “Nathan, what do you think about bringing both pastors and Gen Z together, teach a lesson and pair them up and have them have a conversation. Nathan thought it was a great idea but wasn’t sure many pastors would actually “have a conversation” with a Gen Z person.
Then I said, “How about bringing pastors together. Instructing them regarding the relational needs of Gen Z then bring a Gen Zer onto the platform and model what I was talking about?” Nathan thought that might work.
Later Vital, the younge assistant coordinator, came by and his suggestion was to simply bring pastors together, have a one day seminar, and make this one presentation so it is within the context of a one day seminar, not a stand alone lecture.
So, we will continue to brainstorm this issue.
One last comment. During the talk on “Is Christianity Just a White Man’s Religion?” I mentioned Critical Theory and asked if they had heard of it? (The theory that divides everyone into two groups, oppressed and oppressors, and that activists are using this theory to divide us into groups and get us to fight with each other. Only one or two had heard of “the theory.”
I mentioned this to Norman later and he said, “It’s here! In the media!” So, my thought is that the philosophy is here also but they don’t have a formal name for it.
That’s all for now. It’s almost 10pm and I leave for the airport at 5:45am. Of course, Kenya airways delayed one of my two flights but fortunately, it is the second. I still expect to arrive in Uganda early enough to get a good nights sleep before taking a five hour car ride north to Gulu, Uganda for meetings Tues, Wed, and Thurs.
I put a couple of pictures into the album. Click here to see them.
Thanks for praying and following along.
By His grace,
Steve