I have a confession: I failed as a parent to prepare my children to defend their Christian faith. My failure is especially embarrassing because I'm a Christian apologist.
Since apologetics is a rational defense of the Christian faith, I travel around North America and sometimes outside it sharing the remarkable historical, scientific and philosophical evidence supporting the truth of the Christian faith. I equip Christians with evidence so they may have a strengthened faith they can share confidently with others. Through lectures and public debates I also challenge seekers of truth to give the evidence a fair look and become a Christ follower.
Yet, I never equipped my own children. There were two reasons why. I'm not discounting a bit of laziness on my part, but my wife and I have always wanted the faith of our children to be their own and not ours. And we made the huge mistake of assuming their youth pastors would occasionally touch on Christian evidences. I was shocked about two years ago when I asked both of my children how often they had received teaching related to Christian apologetics during their Sunday School classes and youth group meetings. Answer: Never. Not once? Zero. Zilch. Nada.
This void was even more alarming when I realized that our family had been members of several churches during their lifetimes. So, it wasn't the neglect of a single youth leader. What were their leaders teaching? Admittedly, they didn't remember much. They played video games, other games, did fun things, had nice periods of worship, and received Bible lessons that, for the most part, they didn't recall.
Did their youth pastors drop the ball on preparing them adequately to withstand the attacks on their faith they would experience when they went off to college? Yes. But the buck stops with Dad. I failed and I admit I'm embarrassed because, of all people, the children of an apologist should know the evidence.
To read more, click here.
No comments:
Post a Comment