7 Ways for Your Church to Engage

Looking to get apologetics into your church? (There’s a podcast about that.) To get started sometimes all it takes is an idea and the vision to make something happen, even if it is small. In Jonathan Morrow’s book Think Christianly (interview here) he lists 21 ways for your church to engage at the intersection of faith and culture. Are you ready to look at just seven of them and think about how you might be able to incorporate them into your own church?

  1. Briefly mention current events relevant to faith and culture and include a reference to an article or blog for further exploration.
  2. Sponsor a debate on the existence of God. Consider partnering with another church to sponsor a live event, or you can show a recent one on a DVD. This will provide opportunities for conversations to occur.
  3. Make it a goal that everyone in your church will know how to understand the gospel and effectively talk about it with others. If we don’t emphasize it and train people, it won’t happen. (Jonathan’s picks would be the books Becoming a Contagious Christian and Tactics.) In twelve weeks, you will have people who can confidently and competently engage people in spiritual conversations.
  4. Establish a church resource library. Stock it with the latest DVDs and books in order to equip families on their own schedule. Make a weekly display in a prominent place in your church that signals that you value engaging minds.
  5. Take a spiritual field trip to a local Mormon temple, Buddhist temple, or Muslim mosque. In the six weeks leading up to the trip, study together what Christians believe and why and how it differs from the theology of the particular religion you are going to visit. (for example, go through Know What You Believe by Paul Little or World Religions and Cults 101 by Bruce Bickel and Stan Jantz). After your tour, spend an hour debriefing about what people learned and answering further questions.
  6. As a church, read and study Nancy Pearcey’s Total Truth. This outstanding book will challenge people to love God with all of their lives, not just on Sunday mornings.
  7. Form groups that go through the Truth Project and TrueU. These are excellent DVD series that challenge and equip Christians to think about their faith and build a Christian worldview.
For the other 14 ways for your church to engage, pick up Jonathan Morrow’s book Think Christianly: Looking at the intersection of Faith and Culture.

(Adapted with permission)
Written by

Brian Auten is the founder emeritus of Apologetics315. He is also director of Reasonable Faith Belfast. Brian holds a Masters degree in Christian Apologetics and has interviewed over 150 Christian apologists. His background is in missions, media direction, graphic design, and administration. Brian started Apologetics315 in 2007 to be an apologetics hub to equip Christians to defend the faith.

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