An Apologist in Every Church
by Clay Jones
It is my heartfelt contention that every church in the world needs an apologist. Here’s why I say that. I have found that the average member of the average congregation is riddled with doubt. They hear The Da Vinci Code proclaim that the Council of Nicaea suppressed contrary gospels. They hear that James Cameron has discovered the Lost Tomb of Jesus. They hear from the Zeitgeist movie that Jesus is just a rehashing of a long line of pagan dying and rising gods. And so on and on.
The trouble is that these confused congregants often don’t know where to turn. Those who do seek advice will often go to their pastor whom they considered to be the wisest man they know. The problem with that is that the pastor is usually very busy! Not only is the pastor preparing Sunday’s sermon, he’s probably preparing the Wednesday night sermon too. Then there’s counseling to do, church administration, hospital visitation, meeting with his staff, etc. I used to be a pastor and I know from experience that most pastors are really busy. And, honestly, for most of them, reading The Da Vinci Code or watching the Zeitgeist movie (both were silly, by the way), can’t be that high on their list.
So what happens? The pastor does his best. The trouble, however, is that unless that pastor really has studied these things he isn’t really going to be able to answer these issues so the congregant then walks away and thinks, “wow, I just asked the theologically smartest person I know and he didn’t know the answer.”
That’s bad.
What happens to the confused Christians then is that they push these questions down inside. The problem with that is that in time these repressed questions begin to build a wedge between them and real confidence in Jesus. As we like to say around here, You can’t love the Lord with all your mind and secretly suspect that Christianity can’t answer the hard questions…
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If churches want a way to begin nurturing a future apologist, they could check out www.witnesskit.com. It is a free online study course that gives students a background for serious apologetics study, using Francis Schaeffer's HE IS THERE AND HE IS NOT SILENT, and Josh McDowell's THE NEW EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT as textbooks. The website is in progress of being built, with 8 or 9 lessons posted in the form of PDF files. Each lesson includes a set of introductory slides, followed by homework readings and questions. The slides cover more information than the books, while simplifying concepts in the books for those who have not studied apologetics before. Other apologetics books are referenced in the slides as well, for further pursuit of the subject.
Posted by: Beth | 09/20/2012 at 11:33 AM