It is my opinion that one of the areas where the church (at large) is really weak is in equipping people how to share & defend their faith. Furthermore, I have the opinion that it is critical our youth ministries make a shift in its programming to help students in this area. This is such a firm belief for me that a few years ago out of my great conviction I immediately called our leadership team together and shared that we would immediately begin to focus on several different areas in our programming. I soon put pen to paper and wrote down several things that needed intentional focus in our student ministry.I determined that I wanted students to know four things by the time they graduate from our youth ministry: (1) know what they believe, (2) know why they believe it, (3) know how to share their faith, and (4) know how to defend their faith. I must admit, it was what I thought (and still do to some extent) a very lofty goal. We have six years with students (middle & high schoolers) in our youth ministry and that is a lot of time (and yet it passes like a vapor!); however, we've had to be very strategic in making the most of our time with them as we program, disciple and mentor. Quite honestly, I'm still not happy with my plan & approach but its something that is still a very strong conviction for me and what I feel is very important for all of us, as leaders, to consider.
Today I spent most of my day at a network meeting in Richmond, VA listening to apologist Mike Licona. Mike is author of Peter Meets Muhammed and The Case for the Resurrection and is the apologetics coordinator for the North American Mission Board. In his role he spends a great deal of time speaking at colleges & universities debating people of other religions. NAMB has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing resources, specifically a website that you must check out, to help equip leaders in the area of apologetics.
This is only scratching the surface (and a small tease for what is to come here on the blog) but I hope to continue the conversation and even brainstorm with you leaders about who is really providing some great resources in this area and who is leading the way and could offer some insight in teaching & equipping our students in these different areas.
Labels: Church, Hot Topics, Issues, Resources, Students Only, Youth Pastors
Trendy messages of the day that deny the infallibility of scripture, deny the penal substitutionary death of Christ, ridicule the second Coming of Christ as Judge of All, and call sinful lifestyles 'biblically virtuous', and promote socialism as 'Christian charity' are among the things that demand an answer from Christian students. May you help your students to give an answer from the scripture.