by Rob Lundberg
One of the things that I like to do in conversations with fellow believers is to encourage them and see how much they know about why they believe what they do? You might be thinking, what in the world are you doing that for? My response is quite simple. What is wrong with discussing the key facets about one’s faith. Things like why one is a believer in Jesus Christ, why one believes the Bible and other pertinent issues should be at the forefront of our conversation with fellow believers to encourage and build up one another’s faith.
Over the last few conversations with fellow believers, I have had the opportunity to speak with their older teenage/young college age kids. When the introductions are through and we get through the “where do you fellowship or go to church?” the other questions come in. The following is a sample of some of the dialogs that I have had with young people.
Before getting to the conversation, please know first and foremost that I rejoice with the young people that they are willing to profess their faith in Christ and that they are “excited” about their faith. My goal in these conversations is to get them more excited on the truthfulness of that faith that they possess. Now to the conversation(s).
Before getting to the conversation, please know first and foremost that I rejoice with the young people that they are willing to profess their faith in Christ and that they are “excited” about their faith. My goal in these conversations is to get them more excited on the truthfulness of that faith that they possess. Now to the conversation(s).
After establishing if they are high school or college, will determine how I approach the young person with the questions that are in the form of a personal survey.
Me: “Do you find if I ask you a few questions, I am kind of taking a survey on where young people like yourself are in their walk with the Lord.”
Young Person (YP hereafter): Sure I don’t mind. [If they don’t want to discuss it, I don’t pursue it]
Young Person (YP hereafter): Sure I don’t mind. [If they don’t want to discuss it, I don’t pursue it]
Me: “So (person’s first name) where to you fellowship at?”
YP: “I go to (church body name) Fellowship/Baptist Church et al.”
YP: “I go to (church body name) Fellowship/Baptist Church et al.”
Me: “So you would consider yourself a Christian having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, right?”
YP: [Some of those answers sound like, “Sure”, “Yes”, “I do, I received Jesus as my Savior at X years of age”]
Me: This might sound like a weird question but can I ask you why you are a Christian?
YP: After getting over the surprised look on the person’s face I help them through the shock of the question and hear things like,
“No one has ever asked me that question before.”
“Wow, I never really thought of that question!”
“Because I have Jesus in my heart.” (or the person starts giving me their personal testimony)
“No one has ever asked me that question before.”
“Wow, I never really thought of that question!”
“Because I have Jesus in my heart.” (or the person starts giving me their personal testimony)
[A side note here: If the person starts giving me their personal testimony, that does not answer the question ‘Why”, it answers the question “How?’ and what I try to do is steer the person back to answering “why’]
Me: If the person still struggles with the question after not being allowed to give their testimony in answering the question, I give them a hint. “The answer to that question begins with a “J”. . ., died for your sins . . ., rose from the dead. . .”
This usually gets the conversation rolling. But depending on whether the young person is in college or in high school, my next question will vary. For example, if the Young Person (YP) tells me that “I have had a personal experience or encounter with Jesus” I will ask, Me: “What makes your experience different from a Mormon’s experience having a ‘burning in their bosom’? The sad response is in many instances, an “I don’t know”.
On occasions where I have asked a young person about why they believe the Bible, the common answer is “because it is God’s Word” or “because it says it is God’s Word.” When I ask the Young Person “What makes it different from the Qur’an or the Vedas of Hinduism?”, I get the same answer, “I don’t know.”
Is there a problem?
Please understand, my desire is neither to intimidate, nor discourage the person; or even dishearten the person for following Christ. After we see the need for giving the Young Person some encouragement I move quickly to share with them that the person they are speaking to is a former skeptic who loves them for the sake of the gospel. I also give them a summary of reasons for the resurrection and why the Bible is true. On top of that I point them to some resources that they can get their hands on to begin studying. My prayer is that they will pursue looking further for reinforcement of the encouragement that I have given them.
But there is a problem. There is a need. The problem is that many of our kids are becoming casualties within their first three years of university, and perhaps while they are in their high school years. Why? it is because they are not getting the necessary equipping needed to reinforce their Christian faith. They are not getting at home, because of the various dynamics of those homes. If they are a fully professing Christian home, it is not happening there; and if it is, it is in the very minimum amount of homes. It does not matter whether those homes have public school kids, parochial or private Christian school students, or homeschool kids. If there is no training in the home, what are the odds of them getting it in churches that are more interested in bringing people into the churches, in order to stack their church growth statistics? What are the odds one is going to learn from one Sunday night per week, watching a DVD and filling out a worksheet or workbook? I am not saying these things are bad, but what I am saying is that due to the pulse of the culture, we need to step up our equipping in the defense of our faith. Why? We are seeing the answer to this question coming at us from four fronts.
First off the culture has become more and more hostile to Bible believing Christians. We are seeing an increase of liberal ideologies from the media and the government, with some pushing the myth of “separation of church and state” in workplace environments; pushing religious relativism, cultural relativism. It is not so much Barry Lynn’s People for Separation of Church and State. Christians who are published, conducting seminars for a company, minding their own business are being researched by skeptical employees or employees who are members of Islam and making false accusations of prejudice and bigotry. I cannot tell you how many conversations I get into about the fact that “separation of church in state” is not in our Constitution but it is in three constitutions from three communist countries.
But there is a problem. There is a need. The problem is that many of our kids are becoming casualties within their first three years of university, and perhaps while they are in their high school years. Why? it is because they are not getting the necessary equipping needed to reinforce their Christian faith. They are not getting at home, because of the various dynamics of those homes. If they are a fully professing Christian home, it is not happening there; and if it is, it is in the very minimum amount of homes. It does not matter whether those homes have public school kids, parochial or private Christian school students, or homeschool kids. If there is no training in the home, what are the odds of them getting it in churches that are more interested in bringing people into the churches, in order to stack their church growth statistics? What are the odds one is going to learn from one Sunday night per week, watching a DVD and filling out a worksheet or workbook? I am not saying these things are bad, but what I am saying is that due to the pulse of the culture, we need to step up our equipping in the defense of our faith. Why? We are seeing the answer to this question coming at us from four fronts.
First off the culture has become more and more hostile to Bible believing Christians. We are seeing an increase of liberal ideologies from the media and the government, with some pushing the myth of “separation of church and state” in workplace environments; pushing religious relativism, cultural relativism. It is not so much Barry Lynn’s People for Separation of Church and State. Christians who are published, conducting seminars for a company, minding their own business are being researched by skeptical employees or employees who are members of Islam and making false accusations of prejudice and bigotry. I cannot tell you how many conversations I get into about the fact that “separation of church in state” is not in our Constitution but it is in three constitutions from three communist countries.
Secondly, we are seeing the rise of militant Islam pushing its agenda of cultural domination in many pockets of this country. In Dearborn Michigan and along with other places are giving rights to Muslims seeking to implement Islamic law (shariah) into the culture and government rulings of law.
Thirdly, we are also seeing more and more from the media “gurus” like Oprah and others saying that the new spirituality is replacing the old religion of Jesus being the only way.
Fourth and finally, September 11, 2001 sparked a revolution of skepticism with atheists like Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion), Sam Harris (The Moral Landscape; and Letter to a Christian Nation), Daniel Dennett, and the late Christopher Hitchens. Professor Bart Erhman from UNC Chapel Hill, NC, and others like him (and those of his ilk) preys upon Christian students professing the Bible to be the authentic Word of God, by proclaiming that there have been changes, that the New Testament is a forgery and that the “original” documents were lost.
What have been the results? The church continues to march forward in the shadows of the skeptical culture thinking how to get more people into church, all the while parents around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays; around the Spring Break holidays or during the summer find out their kids are being swayed into atheism, agnosticism, or some other “ism” because being impressed that their professor is right and their parents have been “living under a rock.” Some of our kids are reading Dawkins, Harris, or Hitchens and being duped by their horrible arguments that atheism is the way.
What have been the results? The church continues to march forward in the shadows of the skeptical culture thinking how to get more people into church, all the while parents around the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays; around the Spring Break holidays or during the summer find out their kids are being swayed into atheism, agnosticism, or some other “ism” because being impressed that their professor is right and their parents have been “living under a rock.” Some of our kids are reading Dawkins, Harris, or Hitchens and being duped by their horrible arguments that atheism is the way.
Is there a solution?
The other day, I had a conversation with a local pastor about this problem. We talked about the cultural shifts from the days of the first settlers to America to the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, two World Wars, Woodstock, the Korean and Vietnam era, to the present. We discussed how in the sixties, God got kicked out of school. We recalled what it was like when we were in public school and where it is now. Many things have changed. I remarked that those who are mid late career professors and in senior positions of government were essentially older teens or early twenties in the Woodstock generation. One can trace the generations and see the ideological shifts in this nation as part of the reason why we are where we are today.
However, we can do all the tracing and rewinding of the past, and still not deal with the issues. When this pastor asked me what can be done, I told him that there needs to be a renewal of serious apologetic study in the local churches, starting with the young people and in the pulpit. That’s right pastor. Instead of teaching your people how to be good parents, you need to change your approach a bit and give them the “so what” of the text you are preaching. In many senses you need to be preaching apologetically, giving the background, a little bit of history and show the people that not much has changed between the cultures and our interaction with the culture as Christians.
Churches need to step out and have local apologists and ministries come in and do workshops and seminars to equip their people on how to answer the challenges of the culture. We need a renewed sense of apologetics and equipping of our young people, because it is this generation that is the target of much of the skepticism in the universities and the public milieu.
The apologists are allies of the churches and their pastors. We are not looking to undo or cripple what the pastors are trying to accomplish, or should be trying to accomplish, “the equipping of the saints for the work of service and THE BUILDING UP OF THE BODY OF CHRIST” (Ephesians 4:12). If that is not happening, then one needs to find a church where that is happening.
The Christian faith was under assault back in its beginnings in the First Century, and nothing has changed in the Third Millennium of the Christian church. Peter tells us, “but sanctify (set apart and make holy) Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense (apologia - απολογια - an answer back) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” (3:15). When we do this we are obeying what Christ has called us to do, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. . .and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36,37). It is about living a transformed life that God could use to transform the culture, starting with the home and in the churches.
Conclusion.
However, we can do all the tracing and rewinding of the past, and still not deal with the issues. When this pastor asked me what can be done, I told him that there needs to be a renewal of serious apologetic study in the local churches, starting with the young people and in the pulpit. That’s right pastor. Instead of teaching your people how to be good parents, you need to change your approach a bit and give them the “so what” of the text you are preaching. In many senses you need to be preaching apologetically, giving the background, a little bit of history and show the people that not much has changed between the cultures and our interaction with the culture as Christians.
Churches need to step out and have local apologists and ministries come in and do workshops and seminars to equip their people on how to answer the challenges of the culture. We need a renewed sense of apologetics and equipping of our young people, because it is this generation that is the target of much of the skepticism in the universities and the public milieu.
The apologists are allies of the churches and their pastors. We are not looking to undo or cripple what the pastors are trying to accomplish, or should be trying to accomplish, “the equipping of the saints for the work of service and THE BUILDING UP OF THE BODY OF CHRIST” (Ephesians 4:12). If that is not happening, then one needs to find a church where that is happening.
The Christian faith was under assault back in its beginnings in the First Century, and nothing has changed in the Third Millennium of the Christian church. Peter tells us, “but sanctify (set apart and make holy) Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense (apologia - απολογια - an answer back) to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence.” (3:15). When we do this we are obeying what Christ has called us to do, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. . .and love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:36,37). It is about living a transformed life that God could use to transform the culture, starting with the home and in the churches.
Conclusion.
I started off this essay, trying to keep it focussed, with a conversation about a need. That need is apologetics in the church in order to engage the culture. Now that need has hit home in that we need it more than ever to solidify our families. Anyone has the right to believe what they want, but that does not mean that what they believe is right.
The other night I asked my daughter these same questions. Thankfully, her answers reflected the desires of my heart for young people who belong to Christ. Her answers were on target, but we are needing to hone those answers and sharpen them. For this I am thankful, but there is a lot of work to do, in both the home and the churches.
As the director of an evangelism and equipping ministry undergird by the task of apologetics, Stand4Truth.Net is dedicated to strengthening the belief of Christians and interacting with non-Christians who are interested in matters of faith and understanding. Please feel free to call upon us to assist you in the matters that I have discussed in this essay.
The other night I asked my daughter these same questions. Thankfully, her answers reflected the desires of my heart for young people who belong to Christ. Her answers were on target, but we are needing to hone those answers and sharpen them. For this I am thankful, but there is a lot of work to do, in both the home and the churches.
As the director of an evangelism and equipping ministry undergird by the task of apologetics, Stand4Truth.Net is dedicated to strengthening the belief of Christians and interacting with non-Christians who are interested in matters of faith and understanding. Please feel free to call upon us to assist you in the matters that I have discussed in this essay.
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