Our apologetics class

So last week we started our sixth year of apologetics classes at our church. Looks like a good group of people eager to learn and share ideas. Here's what we covered as an introduction to apologetics.

I shared a motto that might be good for the group: "Answering seekers, equipping Christians, and demonstrating the truth of the Christian worldview." In other words, we want to have answers rather than saying we just believe it and that's enough. In addition, we want to equip Christians so that they are not deceived by false doctrines. Finally, we want to talk about the Christian worldview as truth to a world that doesn't believe in truth anymore. The key word there is "worldview"– we want our beliefs to permeate all parts of our lives, not just on Sunday.

We took a look at some verses in the New Testament that support apologetics. If you have some time, you might want to check out 1 Peter 3:15, Colossians 2:8 and 4:5-6, as well as 2 Corinthians 5:20 and 10:5. They challenge Christians to have ready answers, to use apologetics defensively, and to use it to  attack false doctrines.

We then covered the value of apologetics. We want to change the culture, show the value of truth to society that has lost its ability to talk about truth, show that Christians can think, and draw people to Jesus.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions and confusion when it comes to apologetics. It does not mean we have to argue with people, we need to realize that all Christians are supposed to be involved in this field, it should be carried out with kindness, our job is not to save people (that's up to God), we are to bloom where we are planted, we need to admit it when we have no answer, and we have to realize that often the person challenging knows very little about the topic he or she brought up.

We ended with a challenge from J. Warner Wallace. He said we need to get into the game; our culture is growing very dark. We must also spend more time learning and less time vegetating in front of the television. We need to know what our strengths are so that we can focus on using apologetics there. My goal is that this apologetics session will encourage Christians to use their gifts and make a real difference in the lives of people around them.