Our primary focus at TilledSoil.org is to advance the state of Christian education in churches – especially in relation to Christian apologetics. We propose doing this by training and supporting interested individuals and church leaders, who can then foster growth of their own.
What might training (equipping) look like?
- A day-long seminar, possibly two days.
- Hosting a Q&A event (sometimes on a topic, but it could be in general; it might be interesting to invite the community or skeptical friends.).
- Training for pastors/elders/teachers.
- Bringing interested church-groups to larger conferences (ex: see Apologetics Canada).
- Running a series of sessions on a topic (for a study series, sermons, home group, etc.).
- Helping some apologetics-minded individuals at a church get an apologetics group started.
How might such a typical training course or seminar be offered?
- 3 hour introduction to Christian apologetics + briefly touching on a couple of topics – one core, one current-cultural (to demonstrate apologetics in action)
- 3 hour topical (on various core and cultural apologetics issues; 1 or 2 topics)
- 3 hour brief intro to apologetics + 1 topic in more depth
- 7 hour (day) full overview (see topics below)
- 9 hour (night/next day) full overview with extra time for Q&A, role-playing, etc. (see topics below)
What would a list of topics which might be covered look like?
Foundation:
- What is Apologetics?
- Why study apologetics?
- What has Apologetics looked like throughout history?
- Epistemology (how we know what we know)
- Why believe something?
- Worldviews
- Anti-intellectualism or intellectually challenged?
- Definitions (ex: ‘faith’ vs trust/confidence) – faith, tolerance, truth, evolution, etc.
- Relativism
General/Traditional:
- God
- The ‘problem’ of Evil
- Revelation / The Bible
- Jesus
- Christ’s Resurrection
- Heaven / Hell
- Morality
- Miracles
- Science – what is it?
- Scientism
Hot Topics / current cultural:
- Islam / Crusades / Imperialism (more broadly, war/pacifism)
- Other Religions (or sects such as Mormonism)
- Origins of the universe & life
- Evolution
- Status of Women (in society, historically, as well as in the church)
- Sexuality
- Bio-Ethics (abortion, stem-cells, etc.)
- Slavery
- Environmentalism
- The ‘New’ Atheists
Please contact us and we can likely help to customize something which fits your needs.
(Note: We are sensitive to the fact that pastors or leaders might object to certain topics being covered within particular groups, or might want to know what viewpoints we present on a topic and how we present them. We are happy to discuss this prior to any engagement to reach an agreement, or to decline participating if we feel we cannot.)