Blundering Apologetics

Three of the biggest growth moments in my budding faith were challenges to my ability to communicate what I believed. When we try to articulate that which we hold so dear inside of us, we often find out that we haven't really worked out what that really means to us and why.

1. Shortly after I asked God to help me get my life back together and began giving Him control (slowly but surely), I was asked to teach the high school Sunday school class in the new congregation I began attending. What a stretch, as I wasn't much more spiritually or physically mature than they were. I began studying and preparing, and realized quickly how little I remembered or learned as a kid growing up in the church. Needless to say, I began growing out of necessity.

2. I began an email debate with an "agnostic/atheist" buddy from college. I read a book on World Religions and poured through my Bible, and began trying in a very loving, caring way to articulate why I was a Christian. I know that if I was to read all of those emails again, I would probably cringe at some of my theology, but nonetheless, it helped move me further in my journey by articulating my faith. I don't know what the effect was on my friend. I hope more positive than negative.

3. The encounter that God used to really challenge me and lead toward my call into the ministry took place in a bar after a long day of partying with a friend in Colorado. He knew I went to church regularly, taught Sunday school and played Jesus in a passion play every year. We drunkenly argued about Christianity, and looking back, I know I was probably not very sensitive or calm. But one thing he said stung me like a barbed arrow, right into my heart... "You know, I know a lot of Christians, and none of them are any different than anyone else I know. So what is the point?" That comment still rings in my ears with conviction, as I realized at that moment how tainted my witness was because of my lifestyle and lack of living what I said I believed. That encounter, along with many others, have changed my life for good.

Our apologetics may not always be so "purty" (east texas slang) all the time, but God can take any attempt, whether we blunder or make mistakes, and bring about some good. As my wife says... "God can use an oops, but He can't use a nothing!"

A good read on the subject is: Humble Apologetics by John G. Stackhouse Jr.