Posts Tagged by evangelism
In Defense of the Arts: Article in ChristianVideoMag
| August 24, 2010 | Posted by Anthony under apologetics, Blog, Christianity and Culture, literary apologetics, Love |
I was recently invited to submit articles for consideration in a mag called Christian Video Magazine. I was delighted to take them up on the offer. My first article was published today in their August edition.
Interestingly, our online apologetics conference presenter Robert Velarde also appears in this edition. Check his article out. It’s worth it.
Excerpt:
“He has set eternity in the hearts of men…” So begins chapter three, verse eleven, of the book of Ecclesiastes. I bet everyone sometimes falls into the habit of thinking that the only real things are those things we grasp with our five senses, but I would also wager that we have all experienced the angst and restlessness that shows that our rat race lives cannot provide us all the satisfactions we need. Christianity would offer another interpretation for that unsettled feeling: it is homesickness.
Connecting the dots between unbelief and abortion
| March 17, 2009 | Posted by Anthony under abortion, apologetics, atheism, Blog, Christianity and Culture, evolution, General, morality, Obama, politics, theism |
These types of considerations drive me to paint a different picture of the current situation in America on the subject of abortion than normally presented. What if aiming at passage of pro-life legislation is only a small component of the solution? What if aiming to persuade people to a pro-life position is aiming too low? What if in fact we Christians should be focusing on creating more Christians and retaining the ones we’ve got?
A Christian does not believe, like the atheist, that he is god. A Christian understands that he is the product of a Creator and that Creator has the right and privilege of defining right and wrong and defining ‘personhood.’ A Christian knows that he cannot dispense with another person because it is inconvenient to someone or to a nation. All this comes in automatically once one adopts the Christian worldview. Even Christians who vote pro-choice don’t generally approve of abortion, generally, and would like it reduced.
Should Churches Adopt a No Child Left Behind Approach?
| March 16, 2009 | Posted by Anthony under apologetics, atheism, Blog, Christianity and Culture, evolution, General, spirituality |
What I mean is this: we know that the Church in America is in decline by survey and personal experience, and we can suppose that this is because of ‘the way we are doing things’ but we can’t be sure what is producing strong Christians or weak Christians unless we have some sort of assessment.
Of course, you have to actually want to know, don’t you? If a 100 kids leave your congregation and 98 of them fall from the faith within 5 years and 90 never return that is something that I would want to know if I was the leader of a congregation. Then I would want to know what kind of framework those kids had when they left and how they received it. If I learned that my programs were actually setting them up to get smacked around like a pinata at college, I’d want to know.
Literary Apologetics: Missionary Work in the Language of the Masses
| March 14, 2009 | Posted by Anthony under apologetics, atheism, Birth Pangs, Blog, Christianity and Culture, General, literary apologetics |
America is increasingly a mission field in its own right. Just as missionaries have to learn the language of the natives before they can present the Gospel effectively, so too do we need to do the same in America. This does not mean (per some trends in apologetics today) adopting the ‘language’ and methodologies wholesale. For example, some aspects of post-modernism provide legitimate insights into the nature of reality. However, much of post-modernism needs to be rejected as rubbish. Nonetheless, if we want to communicate with a Pomo person, we have to be able to speak their language, presenting truth in their context, without necessarily accepting as truth that context.
Internet Evangelism Day
| March 12, 2009 | Posted by Anthony under Blog, General |
I’d like to direct churches and Christian organizations to the following website promoting an ‘Internet Evangelism Day.’ As so much of my own witness occurs online I really appreciate what these folks are trying to accomplish. If you feel like you or your org should be ministering more through the Internet and don’t know where to start take a look at these guys: http://www.internetevangelismday.com/index.php
Christianese and Shibboleths as Roadblocks to Faith and Brotherhood
| March 3, 2009 | Posted by Anthony under atheism, Blog, Christianity and Culture, General, philosophy, spirituality, theology |
Here is an excerpt of a blog entry I posted at the ChristianPost. It was probably a good time to poke the boys at Godisimaginary.com in the ribs, anyway. I know, cheap thrills.
In Judges 12, the Gileadites find a way to distinguish between friend and foe by compelling captured refugees to say the word ‘Shibboleth.’ Evidently, Ephraimites couldn’t pronounce it correctly, saying instead ‘Sibboleth.’ Those that said that latter were struck down while those who said the former were allowed to pass.
‘Shibboleths’ abound in society, including among Christians. Unfortunately, even among Christians, a Shibboleth isn’t simply a quick way to distinguish where a person stands in relation to you but is used in a manner akin to the Gileadite’s use, thankfully, of course, without the resulting slaughter.
…
In other words, Christianese is a Shibboleth in the ears of the nonBeliever. The moment you begin engaging in Christianese you are at risk of being dismissed or marginalized in the eyes of the person you are talking to.
The Internet is filled with skeptics and scoffers poking fun at various aspects of Christianity as though they were the substance of Christianity when in fact they are slogans and phrases that are more part and parcel of Christianese- how the things are communicated- rather than the actual substance of Christianity.
Why did God Create the Devil Knowing He’d Be Naughty and other Free Will
| September 16, 2008 | Posted by Anthony under Blog, General |
Here is a second clip from a Q and A that I gave this summer. There are at least three questions here and they all surround the notion of free will, why God would tolerate bad things, why he doesn’t act, and the like. Enjoy.
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