“All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” We’re quick to hear this verse quoted in times of trouble and uncertainty. But I’m not sure that it always…
The first time I shared my faith, the young woman seemingly listened, but when I asked if she wanted to pray, she paused, giggled, and then revealed that she only spoke in French. This was at a time…
How can a good God allow evil and suffering? It’s definitely a top question people ask. Outside of the philosophy classroom or debate stage, however, the question gets phrased in far more personal terms. Particularly in the teenage…
Apologetics in a student ministry context tends to locate itself between two ineffective ends of a spectrum. The first approach emphasizes a relational model, which rarely speaks authoritatively and hardly claims any truth. This tends to produce meandering…
I love apologetics. I love reading essays on the historical reliability of Scripture, the resurrection, etc. I enjoy the intellectual challenge of piecing together a detailed defense of the Christian faith and seeing the look on a person’s…
This is the second article in our series, “Five Apologetics Every Student Needs.” The dictionary definition of ‘apologetics’ is: “systematic argumentative discourse in defense (as in of a doctrine).” In the current world culture of skepticism and relativism,…
Twenty years ago, I worked at a Starbucks in Denver part-time while going to school. Free coffee. It was awesome. I was a seminary student studying to go into youth ministry, and all my co-workers knew it. Brock…
Answering students’ questions about God, life, Scripture and Christianity is like walking a tight rope. On one hand, students deserve clear, thoughtful, and simple but not simplistic answers. On the other hand, the questions often reveal deeper, unspoken,…
Part 1: (Re)Framing the Conversation Part 2: So, Where Does Evil Come From? Part 3: Humanity, God’s Solution to Evil Last week in Part 2 of this series, we saw that evil is best understood as the privation…
