Tag Archives: Youth Pastors

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Why Pastors Need Apologetics

As Christian leaders and pastors, we need to take seriously our charge to watch over the souls of those in our spiritual care and to prepare them for what they will face from Monday morning through Saturday night (cf. Hebrews 13:17). If we don’t teach them, who will? C. S. Lewis famously remarked that “good philosophy must exist, if for no other reason, because bad philosophy needs to be answered.” We can no longer just relegate apologetics to the small group that 5 percent of the people in our churches will participate in. We need to creatively include it in our sermons where appropriate and in church life regularly.

Pastor Tim Keller, author of The Reason for God, shared the following regarding apologetics and his ministry: “Over the last twenty years my preaching and teaching has profited a great deal from doing the hard work of reading philosophy, especially the work of older Christian philosophers and scholars (Plantinga, Wolterstorff, Mavrodes, Alston) and the younger ones. Ministers need to be able to glean and put their arguments into easy to understand form, both in speaking and in evangelism.” Furthermore, “If pastors fail to do their homework in these areas [science, biblical criticism, philosophy], then there will remain a substantial portion of the population — unfortunately, the most intelligent and therefore most influential people in society, such as doctors, educators, journalists, lawyers, business executives, and so forth — who will remain untouched by their ministry.”

I am more convinced than ever that Christianity is actually true and that our faith is well placed. But we need to do the hard work to make these good reasons available in an accessible way to everyday Christians. This is especially true in the age of skepticism that we live in.

Unfortunately many pastors do not have advanced training in Apologetics, Worldview, Culture, and Philosophy and don’t have the confidence to speak to these issues. This is one of the reasons that I wrote Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture (Zondervan, 2011). To give Christians a substantive overview of the issues our culture is talking about and where to go for distinctively Christian responses to everything from God and Science, to Bioethics, to Pluralism.

Here’s what some Christian Leaders are saying about Think Christianly:

“As someone who has devoted many years of ministry to teaching Christian worldview. I am thrilled to see dynamic and faithful worldview leaders like Jonathan Morrow stepping to the fore. Think Christianly…equips Christians young and old to engage the culture winsomely, intelligently, and with confidence.”-Chuck Colson, colsoncenter.org

“We Christians love to lob rhetorical grenades at the surrounding culture from the safety of our holy huddle. What’s far more difficult…is to engage the issues of our day with intelligence, moral clarity, and biblical wisdom. That’s exactly what Jonathan Morrow does in Think Christianly.”-Drew Dyck, Managing editor of Leadership Journal

“In a time when truth is distorted and biblical teachings are misunderstood, our commitment to engaging culture must not be compromised…Think Christianly is a much needed resource as we seek to honor God in both what we believe and how we live.”-Jason Hayes, National Young Adult Ministry Specialist, LifeWay Christian Resources

“Think Christianly is a remarkable and important achievement. Written in an…accessible style, it covers an exhaustive range of topics. Indeed, I know of no other book like it in this regard, and it is now the first book to which to turn for learning the specifics of how to think Christianly.”-J. P. Moreland, author of The God Question

Recently, Trevin Wax wrote a blog post on the importance of pastors preaching with unbelievers in mind and it is well worth reading as it draws from two of the best communicators of our day (Tim Keller and Andy Stanley).

Let’s keep the conversation going, have you Subscribed to the Think Christianly Podcast yet?

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How to Prepare Teenagers for College and Beyond – New Podcast

Click Here to Order Welcome to College

There’s a lot of confusion among teenagers today…

  • 72% of 18-29 year olds self identify as “Spiritual but not religious”
  • 54% of “conservative protestant” teenagers affirmed that there was more than one way to God
  • 32% of 13-17 year olds left their faith behind because of “intellectual skepticism”
  • Less than “one-half of one percent of adults in the Mosaic generation – i.e., those aged 18 to 23 – have a biblical worldview.”
  • 60% percent of young people who went to church as teens drop out or disengage after high school.

In light of these challenges, what can you do as a parent to prepare your teenager to flourish in college? To not just see them survive the challenges of college life, but to see them influence others for Jesus Christ? I talk about this and more in the latest Think Christianly podcast (iTunes / RSS).

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What do you think is the greatest challenge that today’s students face in college?

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Why Are Christians So Defensive?

There are several factors. But I think lack of knowledge is a big one. Nancy Pearcey explains how this works, “Generations of churched youngsters have been encouraged to shore up their religious commitment by sheer will power, closing their eyes and ears to contrary ideas. This explains why so many churches are full of people who are closed-minded, dogmatic, harsh and judgmental. Only people who understand that Christianity is true to the real world are capable of the relaxed confidence that allows them to be open, patient, and loving toward those who differ from them.”

We need to raise up a new generation of Christians who know what they believe, why they believe it, and why it matters in life (1 Peter 3:15; Col. 4:5-6; 2 Cor. 5:20). Christians need a holistic vision for life that is integrated and compelling. Here is one place to start.

Think Christianly with Jonathan Morrow

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Some Help For Raising Digital Kids To Use Media Discernment

CPYU (The Center for Parent/Youth Understanding) is a helpful ministry that is doing important work in the area of raising the digital generation. Here is something you need to know:

“One of the most sweeping and influential changes is the rapid expansion and growth of media technologies and outlets. The most recent research indicates that the average 8 to 18-year-old in America is engaging with media for 7 hours and 38 minutes a day. Much of their media engagement includes time spent engaging with others via social media technologies that didn’t even exist six years ago (Facebook, etc.). Today’s children and teens are a “wired” generation. They are constantly connected to their media and their media is constantly connected to them. Because they are at an impressionable and vulnerable age, children and teens are eager and willing to follow a media world that is attractive, pervasive, convincing, and compelling. Media is increasing in influence. In some cases, media is the main socializing and nurturing influence in a child’s life, shaping their worldviews in powerful ways.”

Here is a helpful “family digital covenant of conduct” to help you make clear what everyone’s expectations are in this critical area. More from CPYU.

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The Barna Group Releases Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church

These are fleshed out in the new book You Lost Me by David Kinnaman. Here is one of the six reasons:

Reason #5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
“Younger Americans have been shaped by a culture that esteems open-mindedness, tolerance and acceptance. Today’s youth and young adults also are the most eclectic generation in American history in terms of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, technological tools and sources of authority. Most young adults want to find areas of common ground with each other, sometimes even if that means glossing over real differences. Three out of ten young Christians (29%) said “churches are afraid of the beliefs of other faiths” and an identical proportion felt they are “forced to choose between my faith and my friends.” One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).”

You can find the other 5 reasons here.
We need to do a better job of talking about truth in our churches. It is not enough to say that this is the right and answer and leave it at that. As Christian leaders we need to model the process of how to arrive at truth. What are the reasons we hold our views? Why are the slogans and soundbites like “that may be true for you but not for me” mistaken? Narrate the difference between false tolerance and true tolerance. We can no longer assume people (even Christians) accept the Bible as an authority; they don’t. In our feeling culture, we need to recover the ability to think well–dare I say Think Christianly–about the biggest questions in life. I offer some analysis and suggestions here.
I am grateful for the work of the Barna Group and David Kinnaman for helping clarify the assumptions and questions of this generation. Learn more here.