By Carson Weitnauer. Many pastors would like to include apologetics in their preaching and teaching. Why?Because they know that people in the pew are starving for reasons to believe in Christianity, struggling with doubts, and hopeful for answers.They know that nonChristians are listening in, questioning everything, and wondering why they should change their minds about Jesus.But pastors don’t want to bore people, be overly rationalistic, or lose focus on their main point. And they are busy. So how can pastors add apologetics into their sermons?Here are six simple, easy-to-implement suggestions for time-crunched pastors.
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By Ken MannPart 1: As a Christian apologist I am haunted by the desire to share what I have learned about the Christian worldview. As someone immersed[1] in this field I am also confronted with the observation of Solomon,What has been will be again,what has been done will be done again;there is nothing new under the sun.Is there anything of which one can say,“Look! This is something new”?It was here already, long ago;it was here before our time.[2]In other words everything worth saying about the Christian worldview has been said. I will never write like C.S. Lewis or have the intellectual depth of a William Lane Craig, so what fuels this obsession I have had for almost 20 years? The answer is to be a light to those around me. To put it another way, I believe the role of the apologist is to be a conduit to bring the intellectual depth of the Christian worldview back to the Church and society. A modest goal would be to encourage believers and give skeptics something to...
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By Leslie Keeney. I am convinced that one of the easiest things to do as a Community Apologist is to use pop culture to demonstrate that everyone, everywhere (with the exception of the odd sociopath) has a moral intuition. And once people agree that this intuition exists, the conversation can then turn to why it exists and where it comes from.One of the commenters on my last post asked if I could provide some specific techniques for using pop culture to demonstrate moral intuition. I have not yet gotten to the point where I can tick off a numbered list of steps, but because of his promptings I am developing a kind of mini-curriculum that will premiere here at some point.In the meantime, the best way to show community apologists how to use pop culture to demonstrate universal moral intuition is to model how I do it. In other words, here is me trying to convince my readers that most television shows assume the existence of a shared moral standard even when the producers, directors,...
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The Christian Apologetics Alliance thanks Calvary Bible Church for its support of apologetics in hosting Dr. Tim McGrew's series of apologetics talks on the Gospels.Week 1 - Who Wrote the Gospels?Week 2 - The Gospels as History - External EvidenceWeek 3 - The Gospels as History - Internal EvidenceWeek 4 - Alleged Historical Errors in the GospelsWeek 5 - Alleged Contradictions in the GospelsLengthier, more detailed versions of these lectures, as well as other Dr. McGrew resources, are also indexed at Apologetics315.
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By Brad Cooper.Asking this question is like asking:*Do we need to obey the commands of Scripture?*Are we obligated to follow the example of Christ?*Should we follow the example of the apostles and other New Testament leaders?*Do we need the Bible?If we are Christians, the obvious answer to all of these is an emphatic "YES!" Let me show you the connection.Read full post.
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By Carson Weitnauer. The Christian Apologetics Alliance has featured an incredible diversity of posts this month on “Becoming A Community Apologist.” Let’s review the terrific posts we’ve had and then consider:in light of God’s grace, how might you steadily grow as an apologist? In particular, I want to talk with you about feeling overwhelmed. When we feel overwhelmed, how does God’s grace speak into our weakness and limits?So, a quick recap: we launched this incredible series on January 1st witha challenge to be a community apologist. But a challenge without equipping is not realistic. And so an amazing, diverse team of contributors has provided some really incredible, totally free articles about how to actually do this, in daily life, with your limitations, because you love God and you care about your friends (and their doubts).Looking back, I am thrilled with all the good resources the team developed!This series has included…Read full post.
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By Leslie Keeney. I’ve been contributing to a series at the Christian Apologetics Alliance with the goal of encouraging people to become “community apologists.” The purpose of the series is to help the local church develop an intellectual defense of Christianity by raising up, in every community, “someone with an interest in apologetics who will make themselves available to teach apologetics in their church and community.”Since one of my areas of interest (I can’t say “expertise” quite yet), is using pop culture to demonstrate the existence of a universal moral intuition, I thought it might be important to remind these community apologetists that anyone who wants to engage the church, in addition to being able to wade around in the historical, evidential, and logical arguments for faith, needs to be able to dip his toe in the pond of pop culture. Continue reading →
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By Sarah Abbey. For any lover of British humor Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a classic movie. The unique comedy of the film follows King Arthur and his knights as they search for the Holy Grail. As Arthur and his men draw closer to the end of their quest, they come across an old and dangerous footbridge guarded by an old man. In order to cross the bridge the brave knights have to answer three random and ridiculous questions. If they fail to answer correctly or have no answer at all, they fall into the ravine to their death.This movie is not typically known to cause one to stop and ponder the deeper issues of life. Yet I believe the footbridge scene is a good example of how many people view apologetics and why they are afraid to share their faith.For years I was afraid to share my faith and the hope that I had in Jesus. I was afraid that I would be asked a question I couldn’t answer correctly or wouldn’t know the answer to at all. I thought that if I didn’t...
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By Chad Miller If there’s one focus a Church should have, it’s on evangelism and missions. It’s almost a little redundant to separate those since missions, properly understood, is evangelism. If we’re truly doing the will of the Lord and making disciples of all nations, we can’t do that by giving people clean water without giving them the water of eternal life. We can’t give them bread to fill their stomachs without teaching about the bread from heaven who can fill their souls. We can’t provide shelter from the storm without telling the story of the One who has the power to calm the storms (and I’m talking about literal storms here, not “the storms of life”).Am I saying we shouldn’t feed the poor, clothe the naked, or be philanthropic in our communities and abroad? Absolutely not! However, we must never sever these actions from evangelism. Evangelism is the only reason the Lord has left us here on earth. Seriously… think about it....
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By Mark McIntyre. Imagine an army that never trained and was poorly equipped. Without training, the soldiers would not know how to use the weapons in their possession Such an army would be decimated by the enemy.Or, imagine a football team whose training table consisted entirely of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and other junk food. Instead of lifting weights they play video games. Instead of watching game film, they watch soap operas. This is not a team that will gain anything except a larger waist.In the same way, for the Church to accomplish her mission, we need to train our people to understand and defend their faith. We need to be able to explain to our children not only what we believe but on what basis we believe it.To encourage us in this endeavor, the Christian Apologetics Alliance has produced a petition. I encourage those who are committed to building up the church, defending their faith and willing to teach others to do so, to sign the petition.Knowing that two thirds...
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