I recently taught on apologetics at a university. My goal was to show how to make our message persuasive, yet gracious. After the event, I stopped at a local coffee shop for a dose of caffeine before the long drive home.  

The barista served up my coffee, then asked about my day. I told her I gave a talk about how Christians can share biblical truth in a more friendly, relational, and winsome manner. “Oh! You need to speak at my university,” she insisted. “We’re sick of ‘evangelistic alley.’ It’s a walkway in the center of campus where Christians hold signs and yell at students. Some of them shout that God is going to judge fags. There’s no discussion with them. They just want to be heard. You should teach them."

Though my heart sunk, I realized the barista was on to something. The Christians of “evangelistic alley” were settling for a short-term goal – declaring that homosexuality was sin that should be “repented” of – while squandering their long-term opportunities.  Stopping sin can be worthwhile, but it isn’t the only goal. It certainly shouldn’t be pursued at the expense of making a more critical, long-term impact.

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Tired of finding yourself intimidated and defensive in conversations about matters of faith?  Want to increase your confidence and skill as you discuss your beliefs with family, friends, and coworkers?  Greg Koukl, founder and president of Stand to Reason, offers practical strategies to help you maneuver comfortably and graciously in any conversation about your Christian convictions.

Greg will be taking your questions during this Livestream event.  At the conclusion of the live event, ConversantLife will be giving away—for 24 hours only—an electronic version of Greg’s newest book, Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions (Zondervan).

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One of the most stereotypes of intelligent design (ID) is that it is an evangelical Christian movement intent upon forcing religion into the classroom. The release of Seeking God in Science: An Atheist Defends Intelligent Design (Bradley Monton, Broadview Press, 2009) officially puts this claim to rest. Defenders of ID do include evangelical Christians, but also Muslims, Hindus, agnostics, and now even atheists! University of Colorado philosophy professor Bradley Monton is ultimately not persuaded by the arguments of ID (which is why he’s an atheist), but he says that they do have some force, and they make him less certain of his atheism.

For those of you who have followed the ID movement, this should come as quite the surprise. Yes, an atheist actually defends the integrity and merits of ID! Monton argues that criticisms of ID—whether from atheists or theistic evolutionists—are largely unfounded, misplaced, and erroneous.

Those of you interested in apologetics and Intelligent Design may want to know that William Dembski and I just released a new resource on ID. Check it out here:

www.rose-publishing.com/productdetails.cfm?PC=1729.  

As you can see, the graphics of the pamphlet are amazing. We've taken some of the information in our book UNDERSTANDING INTELLIGENT DESIGN as well as some more recent findings and written a short/concise pamphlet with Rose Publishing tackling the following issues:

1. What is ID?
2. How does ID Differ from Creationism and Evolution?
3. Why is Design Important?
4. Is Darwinism Scientific Fact?
5. Is ID Science?
6. What is Irreducible Complexity?

The apologist’s profession had a noble beginning, defined from the Greek as “speaking in defense.” These heroes of the faith storm into the halls of the damned, defending the faith by picking fights in Berkeley. Yes, they get a lot of press. They are often sought after for their opinions, as the Christian faith encounters new and unsavory elements of the unsaved.

But what does it take to be a Christian apologist these days? It seems like they are popping up all over the place, writing blogs and books. They become authoritative by using that old name, “apologist,” but what do they actually need to know to take that hallowed title? For all those aspiring storm troopers of the faith, I give you:

The three top things to remember if you are a Christian apologist!

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