Today as you may be thinking about getting Anchored to teach the "whys" to the children in your church, I want to share with you a few quotes about the very real need for apologetics.
- Apologetics has never been more important than it is now. People throughout our culture, including many of our friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers, are becoming increasingly secular. They’re moving farther and farther from Christian teachings and morality. The Bible mandates that we must be ready to give an answer to everyone who asks (1 Pet. 3:15), so this is not an optional activity for Christians or the church. We must confront the errors of our culture and present in their place the truth and gospel of Christ. So I hope Lee [Strobel] is right about it being a “golden age of apologetics” – and there are many signs that he is – but much more needs to be done. —Mark Mittelberg (from, Apologist on Movement to Bring Apologetics Back to Church)
- I want to see churches start their own apologetics ministries because it is our scriptural mandate to “always be prepared to give an answer.” Yet there often is very little preparation going on! When challenges to faith come, people struggle to find substantive answers. This may cause some believers to resort to a sort of “believe it anyway” mentality; for others it causes them to abandon the faith altogether. Research by the Barna Group has shown that a majority of young people walk away from the faith around the time they go to college or university. They simply have not been equipped to deal with the secular challenges that come against their faith. —Brian Auten (from, The State of Apologetics w/Lee Strobel)
- It’s time that the Church recognize that asking good questions and doing some good critical thinking is not antithetical to faith. In fact, I would argue that it is the very basis for faith, properly understood…We must remember that “all truth is God’s truth” and we should not shy away from it. If what we have is true, we should not be afraid to think about it, investigate it and question it. If it’s true, what do we have to fear? —Daniel Carrington (from, Should Christians be Anti-Intellectual?)
- Biblically, faith is a power or skill to act in accordance with the nature of the kingdom of God, a trust in what we have reason to believe is true. Understood in this way, we see that faith is built on reason. We should have good reasons for thinking that Christianity is true before we dedicate ourselves completely to it. —J.P. Moreland
- Every pastor, youth pastor, and every parent is in competition with the Internet and the information it is spreading. Most young people don’t get their news from CNN or CBS, they get it from bloggers. There are about 181 million bloggers vying for the attention of your children. The unlimited amount of online information that people have access to has caused an increase in skepticism that will only continue to become more pervasive. If you don’t believe me, go around and talk to young people in colleges and in junior high. Go and make ‘truth statements’ and you’ll hear them say, ‘How do you know that’s true?’ There’s so much out there. [For] every kid, even Christians, the age of the Internet is wearing down their convictions because they think tomorrow they’ll find something else. —Josh McDowell
- I was a non-Christian until the age of thirty-five. I was often frustrated by the few Christians I knew on the police department because they weren’t able to respond evidentially to my skeptical (and often sarcastic) objections. I thought, “How can these folks who seem to have such high regard for evidence in their professional life, believe something about God for which they have no evidence at all?” I was similar to other atheists I knew at the time. I didn’t think there was any good evidence to support the claims of Christianity. The more I learned about the nature of evidence generally, and the more I learned about the evidence for Christianity specifically, the more convinced I became that the claims of the Gospels were true. —J Warner Wallace
- While the Church seems to be satisfied with undemanding Sunday experiences, young people want so much more: They want answers. They are willing and ready to roll up their sleeves and prepare themselves. They want their own doubts answered and they want to respond to the skeptics in their lives. Sadly, the Church doesn’t seem to recognize this yet, and it definitely seems ill-equipped to meet the challenge…It’s time for the Church to raise up a generation of young people who are equipped with a Biblical worldview and can articulate this worldview with strength and conviction. —J Warner Wallace (from the essay, Students Love Answers More Than the Church Loves Answers)
These are just a few of the excellent quotes on why we need to teach the "whys" - you will find more at this link. Yes, we absolutely need to teach the "whats" - what the Bible says and therefore what we believe - but we also absolutely need to teach the "whys" - why we are able to believe what we believe.
Check out sample lessons at this link and order it at this link. Plan now to use Anchored with the children in your church - and equip the parents and grandparents to use it in their homes with the children they love. When you do this, you will have children who are able to hold on to their faith throughout their lives and who have a confident faith.
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