Street Apologetics - answering people's big questions
It’s tempting to paint our world as totally postmodern – where all idea of truth has broken down. A place where people don’t ask questions because they don’t believe there can be an answer. But is this really true?
Are we, in fact, at a moment in history where we need to engage with questions, listen to where they come from and be prepared to give an honest answer and take the consequences?
The role of apologetics
Apologetics is an ugly word – and one most people will need to look up in the dictionary. Dare I say, that apologetics has been something of an ugly business in modern times – peopled by male intellectual heavyweights slugging it out over philosophical points. Apologetics – the gentle defence of the faith – seems to have been squeezed way away from our ordinary lives. But does it need to be?
I contend that apologetics is really bridge building – helping people to at least think again about Christianity and to explore if what they thought was true really is the truth. It is pre-evangelism and is anything that makes people more likely to accept the Gospel. So it includes our behaviour and example as well as our listening and our arguments.
Can we get apologetics to street level?
So our task has been to get apologetics into the office, into conversations in the pub, into conversations at the school gate. Our heart is to listen to people’s questions and build bridges into their worlds – using language they understand and gentleness in our approach.
We started by getting out and asking people what their big questions were. We came up with the five big ones. Do all roads lead to the same God? Why does God allow suffering? Can we trust the Bible? Doesn't religion lead to war? Didn't Science kill God?
We launched our blog where we encouraged regular members of the congregation to have a go at answering the many questions we received. You can find the blog on www.everynation.co.uk and then click yourbigquestions.
Our challenge? Could everyone in our congregation learn to listen to questions, respond with other questions in order to really understand the issue and then respond with something that makes it possible to consider Christianity.
We've set up a one and a half hour course we can run with any group in any church, plus we're training students at London universities.
Back at Wycliffe Hall
I was recently back at my old college Wycliffe Hall in Oxford talking to a group of students about to go into ministry. The theme was business, apologetics and faith.
A genuinely fascinating conversation followed. What questions do regular churchgoers have? How important is it that we equip them? Is it really possible to give solid answers in such a skeptical and fragmented world? Can we support people at work in their faith life and help them answer the questions their colleagues have?
I was fascinated by the genuine excitement at the prospect of question answering from the students at Wycliffe. Perhaps we need to take people's questions more seriously, but with the confidence that we can help.
Steve Morris is married with two children and runs a marketing agency.
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