The Need for Christian Education

by Dr. Randy Douglass
October 21, 2009

Closing the Back Door: The Need for Christian Education
Part One
About the Author
Randy Douglass is Adjunct Professor of Religion at Charleston Southern University as well as a Bible teacher at Palmetto Christian Academy in Mount Pleasant, SC. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree and is currently working on the Doctor of Education degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. He is the coauthor of two books with Dr. Norman Geisler: Bringing Your Faith to Work: Answers for Break-Room Skeptics (Baker Books, 2005) and Integrity at Work: Finding Your Ethical Compass in a Post-Enron World (Baker Books, 2007)

The Back Door is Open
In my World Religions class at a Christian university, I had an interesting cast of characters for students. About one-third of the students were solid in their Christians faith. The next group was somewhere in-between, trying to decide if the Christian faith they were raised in was the faith they now wanted to live by. The last group was definitely not Christian in thought and practice. In fact, two of these students were Wiccans.

After class one day, I was talking with Kathy, one of the Wiccans. She told me that she was raised in a good Southern Baptist church. However, she had many questions about the Bible that no one could answer. Was it really the Word of God or just of man? What about all of the errors she heard about? Aren’t there other ways to God than just through Jesus? On the outside she conformed, but on the inside she was full of doubts. Her college roommate, who was a Wiccan, convinced her that Christianity was not true. Eventually, Kathy walked away from Christianity and became a Wiccan convert.

I told Kathy that Christianity is the one credible faith and that no other religion could stand up to it in terms of logic and evidence. I asked her to listen in class with an open mind, and let the evidence alone convince her. She agreed to do that, and I committed to answer her questions in class.

Sadly, Kathy is not alone in her departure from the church. The hard truth is that we are seeing a large number of our adolescents walk away from the church and abandon the faith by the time they leave college. Many of these will never return. Why is this happening and what can we do to stop this mass exodus? These articles have been written in answer to these questions. In the first article, we will examine the reality of adolescent church dropouts and look at why this is occurring. In the second article, we will explore the more important question of when these adolescents are leaving, and conclude with some solutions to this problem.

Christian Adolescents are Going AWOL

Recent studies reveal the staggering number of young people who are dropping out of church. In a study done in 2006 by George Barna, he found that six out of ten 20-somethings who were involved in church during their teen years no longer attended church. The survey showed that 20% who were churched as teens remained spiritually active at age 29. 19% who were never churched as teens remained unconnected to a church. 61% who were churched as teens became disengaged by the time they were 23. Most of these 20-somethings who leave the church never return. The Barna research showed that the religious activity of teenagers is not translating into spiritual commitment as adults in their 20s and 30s.

A 2007 USA Today article discussed a LifeWay Research survey, which showed that seven in ten Protestant teenagers stopped attending church for at least a year by age twenty-three. This survey was conducted of 1,023 adults aged 18 to 30 who regularly attended church in high school. 34% had not returned by the age of thirty. "This is sobering news that the church needs to change the way it does ministry," says Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

Why are Church Adolescents Dropping Out?
College: Bias against Evangelical Students

There are at least five reasons that adolescents drop out of church. In a recent survey of 1,269 faculty members across 712 different secular colleges and universities, 53% of respondents admitted to harboring unfavorable feelings toward evangelical students. This survey was conducted by Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research. The professors’ defense was that the anti-evangelical bias did not translate into acts of classroom discrimination. Can that really be true? The rule of thumb is this: where there is smoke, there is usually fire.

Intellectual Skepticism: Angry Tribe of Opinionated Educators

As a college professor in a secular university (University of Texas), J. Budziszewski sees firsthand the bias of secular professors against Christianity in the university classroom. He labels them as the “angry tribe of opinionated educators.” Budziszewski believes that college is a war zone for young believers who are not prepared for the battle of their faith. He states,
Modern institutions of higher learning have changed dramatically in the last half-century, and from the moment students set foot on the contemporary campus, their Christian convictions and discipline are assaulted. “Faith is just a crutch,” they hear from friends and teachers. “The Bible is just mythology.” “Christianity is judgmental and intolerant.” “Morality is different everywhere.” “Everyone must find their own truth.” “I can be good without God.” “Jesus was just a man who died.” No wonder so many lose their faith!

Sadly, Budziszewski is correct in his assessment. The problem is that we are seeing an alarming number of young Christians walk away from the faith by the time they finish college.

Surface Answers: Lifestyle Changes

LifeWay Research wanted to know why young people were abandoning the church. They found that 97% of the “dropouts” listed life-change issues as a reason they left the church. With a shrug of their shoulders, their reasons were as follows: “I wanted a break from church” (27%); “I moved to college and stopped attending church” (25%); “work responsibilities prevented me from attending” (23%); or “I moved too far away from church to continue attending” (22%).

Digging Deeper: Doubts then Departure
1,000 Church Dropouts:
20-29
No longer attend church
Attended conservative churches

However, there must be something else going on. Secular college and lifestyle changes cannot explain away the large exodus of young people from the church. Britt Beemer of America’s Research Group was commissioned to find out more about those who are leaving the church as the surveys of LifeWay Research and Barna discovered. Beemer felt that those answers were too shallow to explain the massive loss on our hands. Not content with the surface answers, he decided to dig deeper. He surveyed 1,000 people with three criteria: ages 20 to 29; those who said that they attended church nearly every week when growing up, but never or seldom go today; and those who attended conservative and evangelical churches.

Why did these young adults who regularly attended church growing up, seldom or never attend today? Beemer received the usual surface answers of “lifestyle changes,” so he dug deeper. Is biblical belief at the root of the exodus from the church as it was for Kathy? Interestingly enough, the majority of these dropouts held to a strong belief in God. 86% believed that God exists and created the world. When he asked if they believed they were saved and would go to heaven upon death, 66% said yes, 14% said no, while 20% were not sure.

Why doubt the Bible:
Written by men (24%)
Not translated correctly (18%)
Contradicts itself (15%)
Evolution proves Bible is wrong (18%)
Bible has errors (11%)
If God, why suffering (7%)
Hypocrites (6%)

However, when it came to the Bible, the majority of them felt that it was not a credible document. Consider the following questions about the veracity of the Bible: When asked if they thought the Bible contained errors, 40% said yes, 30% did not know, while only 30% said no. When asked what made them begin to doubt the Bible, the answers given were in the chart at the right:

Now we are finally getting somewhere! The primary reason adolescents are abandoning the church is not a matter of lifestyle changes. Lifestyle changes simply provide them with the opportunity to walk away from church with few questions asked. The primary reason adolescents are going AWOL is because of a deep distrust in the Bible. These adolescents had questions about the Bible that were not sufficiently answered. But wait a minute? Didn’t the majority of these young people go to Sunday school? Would this not be the place for teaching doctrinal truth?

Sunday School—Taught but Not Caught

Beemer had assumed that Sunday school was effectively teaching these young people. Of the 1,000 interviews, 606 of these 20-somethings were Sunday school students. Three out of five attended Sunday school when they went to church. That is very surprising when one considers the answers to the questions in the following chart.

Sunday School Questions
Attend SS
No SS
1. Regularly attend Sunday School?
Yes 61%
No 39%

2. Good people do not need to go to church?
Yes (40%)
Yes (29%)

3. Church relevant to you now?
No (46%)
No (40%)

4. Become more anti-church now?
Yes (39%)
Yes (27%)

The numbers showed that attending Sunday school did not help these young people develop a Christian worldview. One would think that those who regularly attended Sunday school would have deeper religious convictions than those who did not. However, the survey found the opposite. The causes for the church teen dropouts are many, but one thing is certain: Sunday school is not solving the problem.

Putting it All Together

We have seen the hard reality that between 60-70% of our churched teens are dropping out of church when they reach college. When we asked why, we saw that college professors, the atmosphere of intellectual skepticism, as well as life changes were most commonly given as reasons. However, in a survey of 1000 church dropouts, it was revealed that before the departure, there were doubts. The primary predictor of departure was when an adolescent had doubts in the veracity of the Bible. Now we understand that lifestyle changes simply provided these teens with the opportunity to leave the church.

In the next article, we will discover the answer to the most important question of when are these teens truly departing from the faith? We will conclude with giving some practical, doable suggestions for the church as well as for the parent.

Part Two: When are Church Adolescents Dropping Out?

When are we losing this group of young people? In our last article, we saw that Britt Beemer of America’s Research Group surveyed 1,000 young people aged 20-29, who regularly attended church while growing up but not today, and attended conservative or evangelical churches. Beemer dug deep to ask them why they no longer went to church. He discovered that the majority of these dropouts doubted the veracity of the Bible. But when did these doubts develop?

Beemer’s study went on to reveal the answer. He discovered not only why young people were leaving the church, but also when. He discovered of all the 20 to 29-year-old evangelicals who attended church regularly but no longer do so:

95% attended church regularly during their elementary and middle school years
55% attended church regularly during high school
11% were still going to church during college

These findings are both revealing and startling. Most people assume that we lose our young people in college. However, this most recent survey shows that 89% have begun to walk away from the church by the time they entered college. Why is this occurring? He found that in the hearts and minds of these churched young people, there was a delayed reaction going on. First came the doubts, then came the departure. Many students did not begin doubting their faith in college; they just departed by the time they went to college.

As we will see, high school was when we lost nearly half of this group. A large group was lost even earlier in middle school due to doubts about the accounts and stories in the Bible being true. Of those who doubted the veracity of Scripture, four in nine said they had their first doubts in high school.

Beemer wanted to ascertain where these young people went to school. When asked what type of high school they attended, they answered public (86%), Christian (7%), home school (3%), and other (3.6%). Therefore, the primary place of schooling for these dropouts was the public school system.

The next two questions were even more eye opening. When asked at what age they began to question contents in Bible, the answers were early college (11%), high school (46%), and middle school (42%). This number comes from a combination of grades 7-9 (29%) and grades 4-6 (13%). When Beemer asked them if this questioning was beginning of their doubt in the Bible, 56% said yes, 31% said no, while 13% were not sure.

What this means is that by the time our adolescents get to college, most are already gone! Their hearts are fertile soil to the seeds of doubt. Make no mistake about it. College professors are not the primary casters of the seeds of doubt. They are simply the harvesters of the fruit of doubt that was placed deep in the hearts of these people when they were in high school and middle school.

Effective discipleship must address these doubts in the hearts of our young people before they go to college, not afterwards. By then it is too late. What can be done to stem the loss of our adolescents who are dropping out of church?

Solutions to Close the Back Door

Southern Baptist Convention researcher Ed Stetzer noted:
There is no easy way to say it, but it must be said. Parents and churches are not passing on a robust Christian faith and an accompanying commitment to the church. We can take some solace in the fact that many do eventually return. But, Christian parents and churches need to ask the hard question, “What is it about our faith commitment that does not find root in the lives of our children?"

Remember that belief in the Bible is a major predictor of whether a young person will leave the church and whether he or she will one day return. However, let us not lull ourselves into complacency by thinking that most of these dropouts will one day return when they have children. When asked if they expected to attend church regularly after they had children, only 38% said yes, while 32% said no, and 30% did not know. These numbers do not provide a lot of “solace” for the majority will not return even after having children.

We have seen that a full 62% of these 1,000 absentees did not believe all the accounts and stories in the Bible. What should the church do about this problem? How can we begin to stop the flow of our adolescents who are dropping out of the church? The answer is to recognize that the primary reason for their abandonment is distrust in the Bible and to answer those questions and show them that the Bible is credible. We must answer their questions before they go to college while there is still time. To accomplish this, we must do three things:

1. Teach apologetics.
What is apologetics? 1 Peter 3:15 is the classic text for apologetics which says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect….” The phrase “give an answer” is from the Greek word apologia from which comes our English word “apologetics.”

Apologia was a Greek legal term, meaning among other things: an answer, or a verbal defense. An apologetic is a defense, or a statement of a position one holds or wants to defend or prove. In this case, the cause is Christ and Christianity. Apologetics does not mean an excuse or apologizing for what you believe. Rather, apologetics is the presenting of Christian evidence and logical arguments or reasons why a person ought to believe in Christ.

Unbelievers have good questions, but we have good answers. Rational people, including adolescents, want evidence for the claim that Jesus is the Son of God before they place their trust in Him. Remember that these 1000 dropouts departed from church because they had many questions, especially about the Bible. We must be prepared to answer such questions as: where does the belief in a God come from? Are all religions true? How do you know God exists? If there is a God, why is their evil and suffering in this world? Is the Bible alone the Word of God? What about all of the errors in the Bible? Is Jesus really the Son of God? Is there only one way to heaven? These questions must be answered or our adolescents will one day walk out.

“The objections that unbelievers raise are not trivial. They often cut deep into the heart of the Christian faith and challenge its very foundations. If miracles are not possible, then why should we believe Christ was God? If God can’t control evil, is He really worthy of worship? Face it: if these objections cannot be answered, then we may as well believe in fairy tales. These are reasonable questions which deserve reasonable answers.”

We must prepare our children for the questions and objections to the Christian faith. Too many Christians go out into battle ill equipped for the war. The war zone for the Christian begins in middle school and into high school. It continues on to the college campus, which even may include the Christian college campus. For the disciple after college, the war zone moves into the workplace, which is filled with different worldviews and religions.

“Most skeptics have only heard the questions and believed that there were no answers. But we have some great answers to their questions. Christianity is true. That means that reality will always be on our side, and we just need to find the appropriate evidence to answer whatever question is asked” (Ibid, 11).

2. Apologetics in the Pulpit.
Back Door Solutions
1. Teach Apologetics
2. In the Pulpit
3. In Sunday School

What should the church do about this problem? We must make apologetic & worldview training a core part of our discipleship process, all the way from Sunday school to the pulpit. The pulpit is the primary means of teaching God’s Word to the gathered congregation. All week long, those who attend the church are bombarded in the school, workplace and media by messages that undermine the authority of God’s Word. Apologetics is one of the most life-giving things that a pastor can inject into the veins of his church. Believers need to hear not just sermons from the Bible but also on the Bible. Is it credible and relevant to our lives and world? We must defend the Word in this post-Christian world. We must make the connection between fact and faith so that the Bible again becomes authoritative and relevant in the church.

There is also an opportunity of which we must be aware. When Beemer asked those who are no longer attending church if they plan to come to church during the Easter and Christmas holidays, 49% said no, but 51% said yes. The church is always full on these most important Christian celebrations. Many of these absentee adolescents will be in church on these two days. Since this is true, the pastor must become intentional and preach apologetically to those who come to church on Christmas and Easter. Instead of having a Christmas play with children in bathrobes on Sunday morning, preach about how we know that God really did become a man. Instead of having a choir cantata on Easter Sunday morning, preach about how we know that a man named Jesus actually lived, died on the cross, and three days later, His tomb was empty! Use this opportunity to speak to the questions of these dropouts on the credibility of Christianity and the Bible.

3. Reeducate Sunday school.

Churches need to evaluate the teachers who are teaching Sunday school and ensure they know how to answer the skeptical questions about their topic. Students are not being taught how to defend their faith, and how to answer skeptical questions. Many teachers have not been trained in apologetics themselves. It is possible that some teachers may even harbor some doubts themselves. Every church should provide apologetic training for their teachers from at least middle school and up. Our teachers must not teach Bible stories as moral “tales” but as historic fact…and then be able to give the evidence to back it up.

Sunday school curriculum from middle school through adults needs to include a steady diet of apologetics. Our entire culture (including secular schools) is aggressively teaching the apologetics of evolution and secular humanism. They indoctrinate our students in the humanistic worldview, and they model that worldview. At the same time, our churches and Sunday schools are teaching Bible stories that may seem nothing more than fairy tales to these young people. They are not connecting the Bible to the real world. Our young people are not being taught how to defend their faith—and we wonder why we are losing them.

4. Restructure Youth Ministry

Many youth ministries seem to be nothing more than entertainment systems. As long as we keep our teenagers busy, the youth minister must be doing his job. Instead of evaluating the effectiveness of a youth ministry by the number of events and all-nighters it had, maybe we should rather evaluate how many of the high school graduates stayed the course for Christ one, two and more years after high school.

Youth ministers must become passionate about learning and teaching apologetics. Teens are about to step out the door, and approximately 60-70% of them will not come back after they leave the youth ministry. Teenagers will be more likely to ask the youth pastor a question about their faith than their parents. The youth minister has one hour every Sunday with his flock while the school, friends and media have the rest of the time. A godly youth pastor will make the most of his time.

Back Door Solutions
1. Teach Apologetics
2. In the Pulpit
3. In Sunday School
4. In Youth Ministry
5. In the Home

5. Apologetics in the Home

Parents must commit themselves to the study of apologetics as well. It is normal that teenagers will ask questions about their faith as they begin to develop their own personal worldview. When the parent is asked one of these apologetic questions, the response could very well set the tone for the child’s future spiritual development. Many teenagers hear their parent reply, “That’s a good question (meaning=I don’t know). Go and ask the pastor (meaning=I don’t care to find out).” Many adolescents will conclude that either there is no answer to their question, or it is not important enough to find out. The seeds of doubt have now been sown in the mind of the adolescent, but not by an atheistic college professor but by the Christian parent! In reality, the college professor is the one harvesting the crops of doubt, not the one casting the seeds of doubt. No, the seeds of doubt were sown in the mind of the teenager years earlier.

6. Walk away from the Public School

This is a hard recommendation for me to make, for I have long been an advocate of remaining in the public school system to keep a Christian presence there. However, the data is now overwhelming. Yes, there are many fine Christian teachers in the public school system, but I find that many of them send their own children to a Christian school to be educated rather than in the one in which they teach. What do they know that we don’t know?

In the public school system, the Christian worldview is not taught, not allowed to be taught, and will actually be taught against. For example, the average public school is pro evolution, pro abortion, and pro homosexuality. The effect of this anti-Christian worldview has left its mark on our church adolescents. I used to think that the war zone for the Christian young person began on the secular college campus; the hard facts now tell us that the war zone begins in the middle school and high school. Remember that 86% of these church dropouts attended a public high school. We can no longer ignore this negative impact of the public school system on our children. If possible, the parent should do everything possible to remove their child from this atmosphere of poison.

Back Door Solutions
1. Teach Apologetics
2. In the Pulpit
3. In Sunday School
4. In Youth Ministry
5. In the Home
6. No to Public school
7. Yes to Christian school

To the parent who chooses or must keep their child in the public school, the onus is on you. You have been warned. Your job in raising your child is now much more difficult and you must be up to the task. My suggestion is that every night you “debrief” your child from their training at school. Ask your child what was taught in their various classes, and then teach the Christian worldview to these ideas. This must become your sacred task for the spiritual health of your child.

7. Choose a Christian School with a Proper Worldview

It falls upon the Christian school to provide the student with an education that is not only excellent, but Christ-centered and apologetically focused. Christian schools offer a Christian environment unlike that found in the public school system. They also offer committed Christians who are trained teachers and experts in their field.

Beyond this, we must choose a Christian school that has a Christian worldview and teaches it. Having teachers who are born-again and pray at the beginning of class is good, but that is not enough. These teachers must bathe their subject in a Christian worldview. For example, the science teacher should be teaching evidence against evolution and for creationism. The English teacher should be training the students how to identify the worldview of the literature they are reading. The math teacher must teach the math courses from a Christian perspective…yes, that is important. The history teacher should be unveiling the work of God in the history of the world. Sadly, just because a school has the name “Christian” in front of it does not mean that they are teaching from a Christian worldview.

The Christian school should also train these teachers how to answers questions about their faith. Many questions are asked questions about and have comments made in class that pertain to spiritual things. Once these teachers are trained in apologetics, they will be more confident in their faith, understand what questions their students are asking, and look for opportunities to share these answers.

A strong Christian school will also provide a curriculum that includes classes on apologetic subjects, such as Bible study classes, world religions and cults, and Christian evidences. If a Christian school can produce a curriculum and faculty that are grounded in apologetics, this will provide the parent with an opportunity to ensure that their child will at least be taught the Christian worldview, if not develop it as well. My own experience in teaching apologetics at both the college and high school level for the past three years substantiates this concept.

The parent should place the child in the Christian school as early as possible, at least by the middle school years. This will ensure a smoother transition for the adolescent into the Christian high school and help to develop a more substantial Christian peer group, which is essential for the teen years. There is another reason for placing the child in the Christian school as early as middle school. Remember we have learned that it is in the middle school where 42% of the church dropouts began to have doubts about their faith. View the chart on the right that was shared earlier. When asked at what age the 1,000 church dropouts began to question contents in Bible, the answers were early college (11%), high school (46%), and middle school (42%). When Beemer asked them if this questioning was beginning of their doubt in the Bible, 56% said yes, 31% said no, while 13% were not sure. The Christian school must be aggressive about apologetics not just in high school, but beginning in middle school as well.

While it is true that a Christian school is expensive, there is a cost to the public school as well. A parent once told me, “Why should I pay to send my child to a Christian school? The public school is free.” The evidence now shows us that the public school is not free, for there is a cost. The cost is the spiritual life of our children. The reality is that we will pay for it now (Christian school) or we will pay for it later (church dropout). For those parents who desire to send their children to a Christian school, but cannot afford it, there may be other options. Make it a matter of deep prayer and talk to the Christian school administrators. There may be other avenues available, such as scholarships. It is possible that after reading these articles, God will lay it on the heart of a wealthy Christian who wants to help to stop the church adolescent dropout rate. Giving a donation or setting up a scholarship at a Christian school such as PCA will help many who would love to attend but cannot because of finances.

We need to make hard decisions and we need to make them now. Our children and the future of the church are at stake. We must declare war and reclaim our children whom we have voluntarily handed over to many who do not have our worldview, our attitudes, our faith or our Christ. This solution is not only doable; it is also available. We do not have to start a Christian school where one does not exist. Good Christian schools already exist which offer an excellent education, a Christian environment, and committed Christian teachers. A few Christian schools even have an apologetic worldview in its curriculum. What are you waiting for?

8. Teach apologetics in a way the adolescent can comprehend.

Many Christians have the perspective that apologetics is only accessible to the highly intelligent. Who can understand all the issues that are involved in apologetics? How could an average Christian debate subjects such as evolution versus creationism or Jesus versus Muhammad? I have had people tell me that they have read some books on apologetics but were now more confused than before! No, only those geniuses with Ph.D.’s are equipped to handle such deep subjects that apologetics deals with.

We are blessed in our time to have some great evangelical minds in the field of Christian apologetics who have written many books on the subject. Contemporary examples would include such men as Norman Geisler, Ravi Zacharias, and Lee Strobel. With all of the material available both in book form and on the internet, one has to wonder what else needs to be done. If a teenager has a serious question about God, Jesus or the Bible, then just read a book on it. Nevertheless, all of this wealth of information on apologetics has not made a dent on the church adolescent dropout rate. Is it simply a matter of “you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink?”

Back Door Solutions
1. Teach Apologetics
2. In the Pulpit
3. In Sunday School
4. In Youth Ministry
5. In the Home
6. No to Public school
7. Yes to Christian school
8. Teach Apologetics to Mind of Adolescent

The problem is that there seems to be a fundamental flaw in our apologetic teaching materials. These materials are written at a level beyond the reading ability of the average adolescent. For example, what happens when a teenager asks the question, “How do we know there is a God?” The standard apologetic answer is the cosmological, teleological, and anthropological arguments for God’s existence. I tested the readability level of different articles written by well-known apologists on the “Teleological Argument” for the existence of God. The readability score of one of these articles according to the Flesch-Kincaid was 12.27, or well above a 12th grade reading level. In fact, it was at the beginning a college level. Consider that the 1040EZ tax code is at 10.50 readability level. Therefore, this article is more difficult to read than the tax code! My examination of the other apologetic articles revealed that the readability level of these writings to be consistently high.

These apologetic materials, while well written, are far beyond an adolescent’s scope in reading and comprehension. Consider that the Flesch reading ease number for the average American is 65. The one article in question that I tested had a reading ease number of 47. The SMOG readability test graded this article at an even higher level, being 14.95.

National literacy surveys have shown that the average adult in the U.S. reads at the 8th-grade level. Many students read "below grade level". For example, it is well known that many college graduates read at the 10th-grade level, many high-school graduates read at the 8th-grade level, and many eight graders read at the sixth-grade level (DuBay 2006, National Assessment of Adult Literacy). Nearly all of today's blockbuster writers write at the 7th-grade level, including John Grisham, Stephen King, J. K. Rowling, and Dan Brown. Experts today recommend writing legal and health information at the 7th-grade level.

We must examine our apologetic material from the reading and comprehension level of an adolescent. This material then must be rewritten at a level that the adolescent can comprehend. At the same time, this apologetic material must not be watered down or diluted from its biblical wisdom. When that happens, we will have ammunition in this battle for the hearts and minds of our church adolescents. Writing apologetic material at a level the adolescent can comprehend will be the focus of my Ed.D. dissertation.

These articles began by examining the large number of adolescents who are dropping out of church, many of whom will never return. It revealed that the primary reason was a distrust of the Bible. The seeds of doubt in the Bible and Christianity began in middle school and grew in high school and bore fruit in the college years. It was stated that apologetics must be brought to the forefront of the disciple-making ministry of the church, and suggestions were offered in how to do this. Finally, it was clearly seen that our apologetic material must now be written on a level that the adolescent can comprehend. It is my belief and prayer that when these suggestions are put into practice, we will begin to see our discipleship efforts rewarded with the most important group of all…our children!

“I’m Back”

It was Monday, the day after Thanksgiving break and I was in my classroom setting up for class. Kathy, the girl mentioned at the beginning of the first article, came up and said, “Hi, Dr. Douglass. I’m back!” I looked up and smiled, and said, “I see that. Welcome back. Did you have a good Thanksgiving?” “Yes, I did,” replied Kathy. “But that is not what I mean. I’m back.” I was puzzled. “I don’t think I understand what you mean, Kathy,” I said. With a smile, she replied, “On Thanksgiving evening, I had a long talk with my parents. On Friday, afternoon, I had a good talk with my pastor. And yesterday, on Sunday morning, I went forward and rededicated my life to the Lord.” I was thrilled!. “That’s great!” I exclaimed. “What happened?” With tears running down her cheeks, she said, “You know how you so often say that unbelievers have good questions, but we have good answers? I had good questions but I didn’t know the answers. Now I do know the answers and they’re my answers. I’m back!”

In high school, many parents are passionate about getting their child into college. These parents must now become just as passionate about helping their child to spiritually survive college. Remember…unbelievers have good questions, but we have good answers. We must know them and share them with our children, before it is too late.

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MacArthur, J. (1989). The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 24-28. Chicago: Moody Press.
Railsback, G. (1994, 2001). An Exploratory Survey of the Religiosity and Related Outcomes Among College Students. Doctoral dissertation , University of Cailifornia at Los Angeles, Dissertation Abstracts International, 55, 03A.
Ravi Zacharias, Norman Geisler. (2003). Who Made God? Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Stetzer, E. (2007). LifeWay Research Uncovers Reasons 18-To 22-Year-Olds Drop Out of Church. Retrieved on September 22, 2009, from
http://www.lifeway.com/lwc/article_main_page/0,1703,A%253D165951%2526M%253D201117,00.html
Zacharias, R., Geisler, N. (2003). Is Your Church Ready? Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

*Randy Douglass is Adjunct Professor of Religion at Charleston Southern University as well as a Bible teacher at Palmetto Christian Academy in Mount Pleasant, SC. He has a Doctor of Ministry degree and is currently working on the Doctor of Education degree at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. He is the coauthor of two books with Dr. Norman Geisler: Bringing Your Faith to Work: Answers for Break-Room Skeptics (Baker Books, 2005) and Integrity at Work: Finding Your Ethical Compass in a Post-Enron World (Baker Books, 2007)

Prosperity Gospel Comments by John Piper

Well worth the four minutes it will take to listen to it. I agree whole-heartedly. All I can say is: Amen!!!

PROVE IT!

Matthew 8:1-3, “When He had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.”

This scene intrigues me every time I read it. Now bear with me, as it leads into another area, but this is how the trail started for me and I hope you are able to follow along. I hear a lot of Christians today talk about the social agenda of the church and complaining about it, but at times I think what they think of as social justice and “doing” is much different then what Jesus and the apostles were doing. Many people are doing what I am about to describe below, but I think there is a big discrepancy lately in talk and action by some.

In the scene above Jesus could have just told the leper that he was healed and to go and present himself to the right people and to give the proper offering, but he doesn’t. He touches him. This is huge in so many ways. We see Jesus at other times just tell people they are healed and not touch them, so why is it such a big deal here? It is because this man would not have been

touched since he acquired the disease, except maybe by other lepers. He would have had to cry out that he was disease stricken if he was in public, and anyone touching him besides other diseased would be considered unclean. Jesus did not care, He reached out and touched this man.

I wonder if the man actually jerked back first out of fear or recoiled because he was conditioned not to allow a clean man to touch him. Once he felt the touch, he probably melted. Someone cared and loved him as a human and touched his diseased ridden skin. How incredible just for that to happen! Then Jesus goes onto heal him. I know the man was excited about being healed, but I will bet he never forgot the touch out of love from Jesus. How does this compare to today?

Today, especially at the holidays, is when everyone thinks of the poor, sick and widows. For some reason they barely exist in our sights the rest of the year. I read a lot of different materials and it amazes me how people try to rationalize actions or why they do or don’t do something based on the poor. If you have to rationalize it, then it is not out of love. If you feel guilty then do something about it. If you are worried about having extra food after Thanksgiving because you bought a huge turkey on sale then give the rest away. It is simple. Or prepare a complete meal for some one in need and give it to them. Why the mental gymnastics about feeling guilty for buying something cheap? Maybe that is God’s way of telling you to buy another one for a poor family. Shoes on sale and super cheap, buy one for yourself and another for a widow.

Two examples of this came to mind and I don’t think they will mind me using them as an example, as I did not ask them first, but they definitely demonstrated this. Both happened in India. I took Jeremie Bair with me one year to experience India and to help me out with teaching and also to help with some other areas that needed assistance. While there I had them take us downtown for Jeremie to get a feel for their city and also to buy a gift for his then girlfriend and now wife. As we walked into a small mall, Jeremie noticed a very poor (makes much of our poverty look wealthy) man sitting begging. Jeremie said hello to him and tried to talk to him for a moment and then we went in to eat at Subway, yes they have Subway there. Jeremie bought the same lunch he had for this man. He could have rationalized and said that he just needs a sandwich, but he saw this young man just as he saw himself and thought he would like the same thing as him and not less just because he has less money.

Jeremie did not rationalize that about the cost or the deal, but instead just bought him the same thing, treating him as an equal. He did not do mental gymnastics about how he would not be able to spend as much on his wife, but saw a need and the Spirit convicted him and he acted on it. Jeremie took the food out to him and talked again for a bit and they both were smiling at each other. Jeremie touched him in many ways. Did the man except Christ, no, but maybe the next Christian that does the same thing will have the opportunity. Jeremie just acted on love through a social action. I wonder if he even remembers doing it, because it was so selfless that it was humbling.

The other was Jayakumar who came home one day and we found out he had no shoes. He left with brand new shoes, so everyone was wondering why he had no shoes to wear. He was at the airport and started talking to a young man and found out he was a pastor in a remote village and was very poor and had no shoes, except some very old flip-flops. Without thinking, Jayakumar took off his shoes and gave them to this young pastor. He did not think that he was going to have to go the rest of the way home in no shoes, or attain the man’s address and promise to send him his shoes. He took off his shoes and gave them to him. No mental gymnastics needed. He saw a need for a fellow believer, knew he could provide, and did it. Of course, if you know Jayakumar, this is not shocking, and I could tell you story after story of this man doing this very thing to many strangers. He lives it. He doesn’t just sit around and philosophize about it and make excuses about how guilty he feels for buying extra food on sale, because he lives out what Jesus commands.

What if the church did this today like they did in Acts? What if every church that has over 3 million in an endowment put at least 1 million aside for helping the poor, widows and sick within their congregations and communities? How much would change? But we can’t do that, because those endowments are specific to buildings and carpet and stuff. Interesting, wonder what God will say about that when we stand before Him to give an account. “Well Father we had 10 million in our endowment, but it was just for building mortar.” Sounds silly, right? Maybe churches should set a policy like in the book of Acts where once you give it to the church, it is their responsibility to utilize it in a Biblical fashion. My uncle once said and I now believe it, “endowments are Satan’s best tool to keep money from being used within the church.”

Instead of all the talk, and I am just as guilty, instead why don’t we act? What are you doing to help the poor, needy or widowed, first within the church then outside? If you are poor and in need, where do you go first? There needs to be accountability and make sure people are not taking advantage of the system, but that also should not be an excuse to help those in need.

It is time to see if we are truly following what we like to talk about all the time and try to pat ourselves on the back about. Do you give till it hurts? Do you give even 3% of your income to the church to help? Because if those that call themselves Christians even gave 3% of their income to the church in the U.S. the church would have more money then they would know what to do with, and then what could be done? Amazing things I bet.

It is not just the money, but also the attitude. What is your attitude about the poor and widows? Do you truly love them? Prove it. Do you truly care? Prove it. Not to me or you, but to Jesus who set the example and commanded us to take care of those in need with love, not obligation.

Acts 4:32-35, “Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.”

RESURRECTION-THE FOUNDATION

“As I have said more than once, no other religion enjoys anything like the combination of a charismatic figure like Jesus and a first-class intellectual like St. Paul. If you’re wanting omnipotence to set up a religion, it seems to me that this is the one to beat.” – Anthony Flew

If someone were to ask you the foundation to our faith, what would you say? Of course many who are Christians would say, Jesus Christ, and that is right, but what about Him makes Him your foundation? Too many just say the name and have no idea what it is about Him that makes Jesus the foundation.

Jesus is not the foundation because He was a great moral teacher, because He did not leave that as a possibility. Jesus said He came to break apart families, which does not seem very “moral” as being just a good teacher (Matt. 10:34-39). Jesus said some who called Him Lord would not enter Heaven (Matt. 7:21), and there are many other examples, as He said He came to bring a sword. Jesus being a good moral teacher is not the foundation, though if He is God then we can account for Him being able to say what He did in the above verses, but if He was just a man then no, we can’t.

The foundation for our faith is that Christ rose from the dead, just as Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:13-15, “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. Yes, and we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ, whom He did not raise up—if in fact the dead do not rise.”

Rob Bell in his book, Velvet Elvis, says we should just think of this like a spring in a trampoline and if we take that spring out, then we can still jump on the trampoline and it does not hurt our faith, but this goes against this very verse. He says we should not have walls like bricks, but I say that is absolutely what we should have, just as Christ called Himself the cornerstone, we should have walls for our foundation and the resurrection is a very important one (27-28). If you take out the resurrection spring of the trampoline then it fails, just as if you pull the resurrection out of the Christian foundation it crumbles, as Jesus’ resurrection is key or we are still in our sins and also blaspheme God by saying it (1 Cor. 15:15). Mr. Bell holds to a false picture and sets up for false beliefs.

Muffasir, as Muslim, said this about the crucifixion, “Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified. It was the intention of his enemies to put him to death on the cross, but God saved him from their plot.” If he never died then He never resurrected. Sura 157-58 says, “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle to God’; -- But they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, And those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, For of a surety they killed him not: -- Nay, God raised him up unto himself; and God is exalted in power, wise.” If Jesus did not die then He did not defeat death for our sins and then we are stuck in them (1 Cor. 15:17). How do you witness to a person that believes this? You have to be able to show the reality of the death and the resurrection and not just talk about how God changed you, as they will tell you allah did that for them.

As Christians it is important that we preach and teach the resurrection of Christ, and be able to defend it, as 1 Peter 3:15 states and Jude 3. Actually, those two verses tell us to be able to give an answer for any question about the faith we have. A transformed life is not an answer, but an outcome. People need answers to their questions and they are not getting them today. Many youth I have talked with have not been taught in youth how to defend the resurrection, or even how to have real faith, not blind faith, in the resurrection. Faith based on evidence as seen all through out the Old and New Testament and defined in Hebrews 11:1.

Can you defend the resurrection? Can you tell someone how your faith is based on sure fire knowledge that Christ is not in the tomb? What if someone asked you to tell them about the resurrection and how someone could believe in it? What would you say? They will not care that God changed you, as this is a pluralistic and self-centered society and they want to know about themselves. You will get the answer, ‘that is good for you, but what about the resurrection and how it affects me? How can I be sure of the resurrection? Is there proof, evidence of this event that I was not present at?’

There are many ways to defend our faith, and we are called to do so. Anything else is a cop out to Christ and the faith. If you do not have the ability to defend the resurrection then you need to find information on it. Good books are More Then a Carpenter by Josh McDowell, Case for Christ by Lee Strobell, Resurrection by Hank Hanegraaff, and Dr. Norman Geisler & Gary Habermas’ many works on the resurrection.

“Christianity is a knowledge tradition, not a “mere belief” tradition, and in order to grow our God-confidence, one of the important tasks before us is to grow in our knowledge of God and his Word.” – J.P. Moreland & Klaus Issler

Verum Venatus Article

Indiana Gazette Article on Verum

Gaming event offered as party alternative: By BILL ZIMMERMAN, billz@indianagazette.net
Published: Monday, November 30, 2009 11:33 AM EST

When Alan Seymour set out to offer students a safe and fun alternative to the late-night party scene, he looked for an activity that could draw a diverse crowd.Seymour, of Indiana, thinks he found that unifier: video games.

In October, Seymour's nonprofit program, Verum Venatus, held its first gaming event in the University Square atrium, and on Friday and Saturday, gamers will come together again. For Seymour, who is a jock and who is in the band matters little when it's time to mash buttons.

``It transcends all those labels because everybody plays them,'' he said.Verum Venatus' mission statement is ``To give the 18- to 30-year-old population an alternative to alcohol and drugs by utilizing all technological avenues (gaming systems in particular), personal mentoring, tutoring and conversational evangelism.''

However, Seymour, a therapist who practices out of his home church, Calvary Evangelical Free Church in White Township, said college and high students who attend won't be ``hit over the head'' with religion.But if they want some mentoring on matters both spiritual and otherwise, it will be available.Seymour, 37, said he began thinking about Verum Venatus years ago, and recently found a partner, Kyle Bruno, who's in his early 20s and gave him a primer on gaming.

``I'm not in the gaming circle,'' he said. ``I'm just tying to give kids things do to.''Verum Venatus is Latin for Truth Game, and Seymour, who is also an ordained minister, said it's his style to ``tell it like it is'' and deliver the truth about mental, physical and spiritual health.

An Elderton High School graduate, he has a doctorate in biblical psychology from Pillsbury College and Seminary in St. Louis and said his training is ``kind of like combining theology with psychology.''Seymour, a father of three, said he's able to treat both Christians and non-Christians and has worked extensively with at-risk youth in Florida, where he and his wife opened their home to as many as eight teens at a time, and North Carolina, where he worked with gang members.

He moved back to the area a few years ago before heading to India, where he taught for a year at a seminary in Bangalore, and returned to Indiana in May.As he secures more funding and gauges public interest from the gaming events, Seymour plans to open Verum Venatus' own center in a vacant office space in the bottom of University Square.

He envisions students coming to play until about 11 p.m. on weekdays and later into the night on Fridays and Saturdays. The center would also have room for gatherings such as Bible studies as well as space to rent out for other events such as parties. He said it's too early to set an opening date, but that he's still looking for donations and volunteers. He has an eight-member board of directors in place and hopes to have 10 people guide the organization soon.

On Oct. 23, about 18 kids played a ``Halo 3'' tournament competing for prizes, including T-shirts and video games donated by Back Street Records. Rent-A-Center donated four big-screen TVs for the event, and a Nintendo Wii was set up for those wanting a more casual gaming experience. On Oct. 24, members of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Video Games Club stopped by and games were played outside of the tournament structure.

``Halo 3'' is rated M for gamers 17 or older, and Seymour said no one outside of the Entertainment Software Rating Board guidelines would be able to play games with that rating. He also said Verum Venatus would not offer any bloody games such as those from the popular ``Grand Theft Auto'' series.

His work with troubled youngsters helped influence Verum Venatus' behavioral guidelines, which include no swearing, no horseplay, no tobacco or alcohol and no skipping class to attend gaming events.``My philosophy is you have to set the bar high and kids will generally rise to it,'' he said.

If you go ...What: Verum Venatus gaming eventWhen: Registration for ``Halo 3'' double-elimination tournament begins at 4 p.m. Friday with play going from 6 to about 10 p.m.; tournament will continue Saturday afternoon. Cost is $10.

Where: University Square atrium, Grant StreetWeb site: http://www.verumvenatus.org/

Copyright © 2009 - Indiana Gazette

MAN UP!

Matt. 16:23, “But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

I think one of my biggest frustrations within the Christian faith today is with men who call themselves Christians and yet walk like little children; those men who are timid in their faith. They think in only social reforms, or a more feminized (no offense ladies) form of the Gospel. I gotta tell you, it is getting old and it is hurting the church. It is also one of the biggest complaints I hear from women nowadays. Where are all the strong Christian men? Men who are not afraid to stand up for the faith, not only in doing “good,” but in holding each other accountable. I was going to call this blog, “Where are all the men,” but instead I think “Man Up” fits better.

I have read Ghandi, and Christians try to use him all the time, saying that he almost became Christian and the reason he did not is because of Christians themselves, or that the only ones that do not see Jesus as non-violent are Christians. I have heard this from other new age Christians. Many emergent leaders, neo-orthodox, and liberal Christians are always talking about this and love to make Jesus a pacifist, but that is far from the truth. In Matthew 10:34-39 Jesus says, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” This does not sound non-violent. Why do we insist at only looking at certain verses and not all the verses, as these are certainly not pacifist verses. This is Jesus telling it like it is.

I went through the Epistles, Gospels and the letters to the churches in Revelation, and if I put up all the verses that are in your face, hard, judgmental, and holding men and women accountable in a very strict way, this blog would be over 10 pages just in verses. Jesus was by no means a person that let others walk all over Him without reason, or someone that just sat back and did nothing. He was in your face and very frank much of the time.

Just look at these examples:

Matthew 7:21, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

Matt. 10:14-15, “And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”

Matt. 11:23-24, “And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.”

John 4:17, “The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.” – doesn’t seem too nice to call out the sin of someone you just met.

Matt. 16:3, “Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”

John 3:18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:14-16, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, lest anyone should say that I had baptized in my own name. Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas.”

1 Cor. 4:18-21, “Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord wills, and I will know, not the word of those who are puffed up, but the power. For the kingdom of God is not in word but in power. What do you want? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?”

1 Cor. 5:6-7, “Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.”

Gal. 1:6, “I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,”

Gal. 1:10, “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.”

Gal. 2:11, “Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed;”

Titus 1:10, “there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.”

This is just a smattering of verses, as there are many, many, many more that could be listed. Don’t get me wrong, I am not negating the love that Jesus showed, or at least the love that many like to talk about, all the emotional, feeling based emotions. Love sometimes meaning saying the hard things so people learn and grow in Christ, and not because we are worried about what people may think of you. It is not man you will stand before, but God.

I am not going to spend too much time on talking about what all the verses already say, as it says it, but men better start standing up and taking point in the Christian faith. It is time to Man Up within the church and start holding one another accountable and not be afraid to debate and call out those that are teaching heresy, poor theology and doing things that are not on par with Scripture, especially from the pulpit. There is a difference between talking to a non-Christian about issues and Christians. 1 Cor. 5:13-15, “For what have I to do with judging those also who are outside? Do you not judge those who are inside? But those who are outside God judges. Therefore put away from yourselves the evil person.”

I think the men of the faith need to start making a stand. Enough with groups and gatherings, as those are well and good in and of themselves, but we also need men to be outside and being the men Jesus, Peter, Paul and all the other apostles were. They did not cower because of feelings, or because someone might be mad, but when a Christian was teaching, preaching or acting foolishly, they called them out.

John 2:14-17, “And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

If you see a Christian man watching shows like Family Guy, Girls Next Door, or many others, then they need to be told they are sinning, as those shows denounce the name of Christ all the time and to give it your time is to participate. If a Christian man is teaching Emergent Church teachings (Rob Bell & Brian McClaren), Word of Faith Teaching (Benny Hinn & Kenneth Copeland), Liberal teachings (Bishop Spong & Clark Pinnock) or any other heretical movements then they need pulled off the pulpit, out of Sunday schools or Bible studies, unless they are teaching why these movements are wrong and heretical, and they should not be allowed back in those positions until they understand clearly the errors. If a Christian man is not loving his wife like the church, or is not treating women in general as they should, then they need told. Who cares if they are mad at you? Would you rather have God or man mad at you for those He put in your path? Just like I said, it is for Christian men to hold other Christian men accountable that God has put in your path. The time has come to Man Up and be strong for Christ. John 5:22-23, “For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.” Read Matthew 23:13-39 and then read the letters to the churches in Revelation, almost every church is called out on some sin or another.

John 7:24, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

Blastoff Network--Cool Applications.

Well, it's finally here! After 3.5 long years of waiting, I am privileged to introduce you to --> The Blastoff Network.Check it out --> http://my.blastoffnetwork.com/aleris"




It will change the way people use the internet." ~ Google

Blastoff is the next big evolution on the internet." ~ Time Magazine

So what is it? Think Facebook meets Amazon meets YouTube -- all in one! It launched a week ago!Just like when Gmail came out, you must be invited to join the network.

So here's your invitation- http://my.blastoffnetwork.com/alerisYou are now one of the first in the world to know. Yes, you're welcome. And I hope you enjoy it!-- Alan

PS: You can raise a lot of money for an organization or a charity or maybe just for you! And it's

Why Ask Why? Read The Word

Romans 10:17, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Through this time in my life it would not shock anyone if I went through a time of asking “Why me?” The problem is up to this point I have been counseling and teaching, and many times about sin, discipline, and struggles even the righteous go through in their walks with God. I kept saying to those I taught and those in discussion, instead of saying “Why me?,” shouldn’t we be saying, “Why not me?” Seriously, I start to wonder where we came up with the right to ask such questions as we go through trials, tribulations and whatever God deems necessary at the time.

Now, don’t get me wrong, as I fail at this all the time. I would love to have the answers as to why God sees it necessary to have me go through my current struggle, as it not only impacts me, it impacts my family and friends as well. I see and watch my wife go through hurt and shock. I watch my mother try to be strong, though I can see the hurt in her eyes. My father tries not to cry on the phone, and even friends have no idea what to say. What can be said? I may not remember anyway in a few years if the doctors are correct. Of course, like my senior pastor, Gino, has said many times, they have all been wrong before.

When the doctor first told me that I might have early onset Alzheimer’s or Frontal Lobe Dimentia, I did not know what to say. I walked to the parking garage trying not to break down in front of anyone. As you read I lost control of my emotions and cried, but what I did not tell you was that I asked why. I called my wife and asked, why would God take away the one thing that I used the most in my life, the one thing many times I of course took to much pride in, which is my mind. God has gifted me over the years in my studies and application of them and now I am looking at losing that, and I asked why.

But, did I have the right, was it “natural” or was it sin. For me God was showing me in one way something I held way too high, which was my intellect, so in part it was sin. If I completely belong to God, then He has control even over that, and I think we try to hold onto this aspect too much at times, whether it is intellect, looks, or whatever. We tend to have this “one” thing that we do not want God to touch, but if we are His, then He can touch what He wants.

Romans 9:15-16 says, “For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” If God is in complete control, and He chooses/allows this course for my life then that is what it is; God’s. Not mine, my wife’s or any other family member, but His. If He heals me through His mercy, or takes me home, I will follow, because He is in control. This earth is going away and a new one is coming. We all are going to leave this planet one day, either through death or rapture. We all have to carry our cross till that time, some have different ones to bear. But the one thing we cannot do, is try to tell God He is wrong, or waste too much time in the “Why,” but move forward and continue on until He takes us all home.

For me, God has shown me through Romans that it is not my place to ask why, but to serve Him. If He heals, praise Him, if He allows dementia, praise Him. Reminds me of a song: Praise Him in the morning; Praise Him in the noon time; Praise Him, Praise Him, Praise Him when the sun goes down down down!!!! That is my goal. To Praise Him!!!

Romans 9:18-20, “Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?” But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

JUST ANOTHER DAY!

Philippians 1:21, “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

As many of you know who read this, I had to return from India due to medical issues and have been going through tests to figure out what is wrong. It has been an interesting journey to say the least. Many of you also know that I was going for more testing, though many do not know what kind, and I am still going to keep you in the dark on that one for now.

I was in a good mood, as church was great, as the church I am attending, Calvary Evangelical Free, is an awesome church and the pastor really preaches to challenge and help us grow as believers. This past Sunday was a great sermon on how to live it out daily in our lives. Then I had the pleasure of being part of a great discussion with an awesome bunch of college students and young adults. Sunday was a blessed day, and typically is one of my favorite days because of the above mentioned.

On the way down to my next round of testing in Pittsburgh, I was listening to a sermon that was talking about Philippians and how our joy is not based on circumstance, but on Christ the object, and happiness is based on circumstance. The pastor was talking about complaining in our circumstances, and then comparing them to Paul’s situation he was in while writing Philippians. Paul was in jail and soon would die while writing this great letter. It would turn out to be quite an interesting sermon to listen to for what I was about to hear shortly.

Going into my appointment I had these two sermons in my head: living out my faith intellectually, as well as testimonial, as I believe one can’t really have a testimony without knowing who Jesus Christ is anyway. Anyone can just be nice, but I digress. Either way, I had heard two great sermons that were about to challenge me in so many ways that I did not realize.

After my testing, I asked the doctor what he thought, as I already knew I was crazy, I was looking for more substantial answers. What he told me was something I was not expecting, as the main two he mentioned would ultimately take my life and though there is medicine to shorten it, it still would not stop the ultimate end, death. Not what I expected to hear!! A literal shock to my system.

I made it down to my car and called my wife right away, and as soon as I heard her beautiful voice, I lost control of my emotions and cried for quite a while. How could this be the cause? If true, I may not see my youngest graduate high school. Again, it is not absolute yet, but they are testing for them. It makes you think of those things. After I gained composure, I left and put on some worship music, as I needed comfort from the One true source, Jesus Christ. I listened to Casting Crowns and just let myself think upon God.

I asked why. Who wouldn’t, right? He actually answered in a whisper, or bringing to mind different things, but either way God just brought to mind a few things.

He brought to mind all the things He has allowed to be done through me and my wife. He told me how I was used to work with nearly a hundred at-risk youth, and even to the point of some living with us. He spoke to me how I was allowed to work in the church and mentor and disciple many men and women of God. He sent me to India many times, and even for a year to teach church planters who will go into communities where the Bible has yet to be taught. Where churches do not exist yet, and will someday, because God allowed me to be part of His plan. How Awesome is that? Then He even allows me to counsel those that are hurting and help to heal their relationship with Jesus and those they love.

I have been blessed. What can I complain about, as God has used me in huge ways. Ways that I never thought I could be used, or even dreamed of, or could imagine. My mother told me from a young age that God was going to use me in great ways by God. He showed me today that He has done that already. Maybe there is more yet, but if not, I know that what my mother said has already come true.

God has been so gracious to me and has allowed me to be part of His plan in so many ways. If the diagnosis is the worst earthly diagnosis, I can live it out and continue to be the witness of His Grace, Truth and Love. I pray they are wrong, as they have been many times before, but as stated above, “to live is Christ, and die is gain.”

Philippians 2:14-16, “Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.”

Not Just Anyone!

2 Timothy 4:3-4, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”

If you walked into a Neurosurgeon’s office and on the wall you saw that her degree was a Master’s in Computer Science, what would you do? But what if they told you they did a lot of reading on medical stuff about the brain and they have gained a lot of knowledge and stayed at a Motel 6 last night as well. Would that make it better? Probably not, right? You would be out of there in no time flat, because they have not been trained properly for what they are doing.

What if you walk into a church and the Senior Pastor has an education degree, or a political science degree, but no Biblical training whatsoever? What would you do then? They tell you they also read a lot and study hard, and maybe even they have stayed at a Motel 6. What would you do? Would you stay if the sermons were entertaining and sounded great? Why would you run from the Neurosurgeon who holds temporary life in your hand and not the other who holds eternal truths in his hands? One just messes with your brain, while the other messes with your eternal soul and what is taught from Scripture.

Sometimes I wonder how seriously we take the men who are preaching from the pulpit and what they have been taught. What are their credentials for being able to stand up there and teach the church as a whole the Word of God? How many of you have asked your pastors what they believe about the Bible, and whether or not it is inerrant? How many have asked their Christian leaders to defend the faith they propagate? I am even talking about youth leaders training up a new generation. This should not be a training ground for pastors, as the youth can be molded much easier and slid into heresy much quicker by their leader than many adults.

Lately, I have been talking with many students, both college and high school, and it is amazing to me what they say about their youth groups as a whole in our churches. There are kids who do not understand the resurrection, yet claim to be Christians. How is that possible when that is part of salvation; that He died and resurrected for us to be saved? They tell me when they ask the tough questions they do not get answers, but redirection, why? They are told to just live it out and be an example, but how can they do that if they do not believe it, nor have faith that it is true because their questions go unanswered and ignored by leadership.

My charge to you teenagers and college students is challenge your leaders with the tough questions about the resurrection, the validity of Scripture, atonement, and Jesus Christ and all that it pertains to and if they cannot give you answers then find a church that can. I can suggest one if you want, just contact me, but if all you are being taught is “fluff” and playing games then run, and run fast and find a Biblical solid church. Don’t sell your faith short, nor let anyone make you believe your questions don’t have answers, because Christianity is an intellectual faith and there are answers.

Please if your pastors, youth pastors, elders, or leaders cannot, do not, or will not give you answers regarding the questions above then move to a church that will give you those answers, as they are out there. It is our responsibility to ask the tough questions and make sure that our leaders are accountable and that they are qualified to be teaching what they are teaching.

You would not let a Verizon salesman operate on your baby, so why would you let an untrained Pastor, Youth Pastor or Leader tell you about eternal truth. A perfect example is Brian McClaren and the heresy he has now taught at his church and written in his books, and those not trained to ask questions have fallen into his snare.

Just a Note for Lay Leaders: Make sure you are under the leadership of some type of church and person above, as they will help you as you teach Bible Studies and Sunday Schools, but you are also responsible for what you teach, so make sure you are preparing to the best of your ability.

Here are some areas to make sure your leaders (not lay leaders necessarily) can answer:
1. The resurrection
2. The substitutionary atonement
3. Jesus Christ’s death
4. The role of the church and its importance within the body
5. The role of discipline
6. Be able to give the reason why they believe in Jesus Christ themselves
7. What is faith and how it fits within our walk with Christ
8. Their belief about Scripture, whether or not it is inerrant

If they cannot answer these questions or answer them in a fashion that does not line up with Scripture then you need to find another church home. To stay is to sit under sin and is wrong.

Zechariah 7:11-12, “But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders, and stopped their ears so that they could not hear. Yes, they made their hearts like flint, refusing to hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Thus great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.”

Verum Venatus Website Is Up!!

The Verum Venatus (Truth Game) website is up. Please check it out. We will be adding more information and products in the week ahead. All the proceeds will go to support gaming events, and outreach events through out the collegiate and young career (18-30) community. www.verumvenatus.org

The Cult of Personality

1 Corinthians 4:15-16, “For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Therefore I urge you, imitate me.”

What do you label yourself, or do you? Are you a Methodist, Presbyterian, or Evangelical? Are you a Thomist, Calvinist, or Arminian? Maybe you instead go to the church you went to since you were a child and that is the church you will go to till you die, but have you looked at what you are following?

Some say we should wrap our arms around all these differences and enjoy them, but the problem is that many of those differences are the difference between sin and purity. Should you be part of a denomination that allows out right sin in the pastors’ lives, even if your particular church does not support it? Aren’t you still giving your acceptance by being part of the denomination, regardless of what your particular church is doing at that time?

We all follow something and many times someone, even though many would try to say they are just following Jesus, but they get their interpretation from a personality who has written a book about the Scriptures. Is this wrong? Should we make sure that we do not get anything from anyone at all or align ourselves with a particular person or church?

I believe we can follow someone or a personality in the right way for the right reasons. In many places it is called mentoring, discipleship and accountability. The goal though is to follow those people and churches that follow what the Word of God says. Follow those that are following Christ and will teach you to do the same, just as Paul was saying to the Corinthians. He was telling them to follow him because he followed Jesus and if they wanted to know how to follow Christ then they could watch him and know.

How many of us could say that? How many of us have those people in our lives? If you do, then who cares if people criticize you for following them, as long as they are following Christ and teaching His inerrant Word of God. You need to align yourself to a church and people who love Jesus and long to follow Him both in His doctrinal requirements and social requirements found in Scripture. Those that become upset are just jealous or upset because they do not have the courage, don’t want to rock the boat, or want to rationalize the sin in their lives or the churches. So, instead of looking at what they are doing or what the church is doing they try to make you feel guilty for moving to a Biblical church or following someone who you trust to lead you in a Biblical fashion.

It should not shock us, as those who are in sin always want to keep others down with them and try to keep those who are seeing the truth blinded through guilt. We are to follow Christ, and in doing that we should be aligning ourselves with those people and churches that are sound in their doctrine, because if they are sound in their doctrine then they will be doing the social aspects naturally.

Take a look at who you have chosen to follow and what church you have chosen to sit under. Why have you chosen so? Is it because you have been going to that church all your lives and will continue to do so, even if the church moves away from the Word of God? Do you attend because of the person preaching, even if they do not teach the entire Gospel or change its meaning and context? Or have you chosen your church because they are following the Biblical Standards set before them and the person standing in the pulpit is preaching all the truths in Scripture regardless of how it might offend the congregation?

The end result I guess is whom are you trying to please: God or man? If God, then we need to continually look at what our church believes and who we are following, and who they are following.

Mark 8:34, “Summoning the crowd along with His disciples, He said to them, “If anyone wants to be My follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”