Should Scripture Influence Our Teens?
https://youtu.be/vqJCNHdBK-c
Moral Relativists Don’t Walk Into Traffic
Apologetics, Apologetics Speakers, Atheism, Christian Answers, Christian Apologetics, Youth Apologetics
Moral Relativism By Brace E. Barber Apologetics Speakers August 3, 2016 Note: While editing this article I realized that the term Moral Relativism might not be well defined for some people. Moral Relativism simply means that there is no universal standard for right or wrong, good or evil. What is good for you might not be good for someone else, and no one can say that one way is better than the other. Now to start the article... Moral relativism is certainly the result of being too smart by half. If you are just a normal person like me, you don't walk into traffic because you will die. Somehow those cars look real, and you've seen the driver's-ed videos. However, if you seek to be a secular intellectual then…
Christian Truth
Christian Truth How Scientists Have Armed Christians with Evidence By Brace E. Barber Apologetics Speakers July 28, 2016 Christianity's Truth Mission Christianity was sorely damaged by its own search for the truth starting in the Renaissance. It is as if Christian leaders commissioned the digging of a well and then drown in the flood that their work caused. This water that was the focus of their theology ended up nourishing everything that they detested. The Renaissance of the 15th through 17th centuries brought about a renewed focus on reason instead of faith. Scholars began to explore evidence for their beliefs and they put a premium on conclusions that were empirically provable. Over time, science played an ever increasing role in shaping the core beliefs of society. The Renaissance created the…
Clawing at Our Doors for our Sons and Daughters
Clawing at Our Doors for our Sons and Daughters How the Church is Following Lot's Lead By Brace E. Barber Christian Apologetics Speaker July 25, 2016 Do What You Like With Them The story of Lot offering his virgin daughters to the sex-crazed crowd of men to "do what you like with them," is highly disturbing to me. (Gen 19:8 NIV) As a father of three, including my little girl, I can't imagine facing a situation where I would offer her to be ravaged in this way. I can only think of protecting her at my own expense, no matter the situation. What would it be like to have a mob of men wildly beating on your door in the middle of the night threatening you and your guests?…
2 Christian Youth-Leadership Imperatives
2 Christian Youth-Leadership Imperatives Flourish or Flounder. Neither is Easy By Brace E. Barber July 20, 2016 Christian Apologetics Speaker There is one major content change and one major process change that will separate failing youth groups from flourishing youth groups over the next five years. The differences between the two will not even be close. Failing groups will lose members and atrophy while the others will grow in members and confidence. Those that grow will be lead by bold men and women who are confident in what they know and prepared to take on the world. Strong Christian Youth-Leadership is critical and it's called for. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (NIV) 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the…
Will Your Child Leave Christianity?
Will Your Child Leave Christianity? A Strategy to Solidify Their Faith By Brace E. Barber July 19, 2016 Christian Apologetics Speaker The first Thanksgiving back home after leaving for college is really a special time. It rarely makes the front pages of life events, but when a young adult heads away from home to college, it is often the first time back home after being away. Mine was really a once-in-a-lifetime event. I left El Cajon, California outside of San Diego, on my way to the complete opposite corner of America at West Point, New York. As it happened, the Army-Navy Game was being played in Pasadena, California that year. It was the first and last time that the game was played there, and it required a huge movement of troops all…
Poorly Painted Christians
Poorly Painted Christians By Brace E. Barber July 15, 2016 Christian Apologetics Speaker Bringing our youth up in the Church is much like painting a wall. We apply layer after layer of beautiful Christian-theology paint onto the plain wall of our youth groups every week. We do big roller strokes on the younger ones and carefully applied edging to the older kids ready for more precise knowledge. As they grow, we admire the rich colors that are developing and attempt to cover some of the lighter areas with more coats. It is a lot of work conducted by countless teachers and lead by Pastors following the latest philosophies of becoming relevant to the new generation. And after 18 years of painting, we send the kids into the world. Unfortunately, when…
Apologetics: The Path to Christian Revival
By Brace E. Barber, Christian Apologetics Speaker July 12, 2016 Christian Churches today are suffering through the loss of approximately 75% of their youth after they leave high school. As hard as the church tries to be relevant to their lives they are failing to make the critical connection that keeps the kids in the faith. What is missing? If we can identify why our youth are abandoning Christianity, we can begin to solve the problem, and if we can solve the problem, we will begin to grow the Church again and eventually turn our country and the world around again. The past generation of Church Youth education has focused on relationship and relevance. Churches have youth pastors on staff, music directors and worship leaders for that body of students. The…
Have Christians Given Up?
By Brace E. Barber July 11, 2016 Christian Apologetics Speaker The plane arrived in the early evening on cold day exactly seven days before the Championship. The players stepped off of the plane as the favorite to win the big game. Somehow their faces weren’t those of champions, they were downcast and distant. The look wasn’t that of determination. The players almost looked scared. After a week of game-preparation, the unimaginable happened. The players from both teams met in the middle of the field for the coin toss. Our team towered over the other boys in a way that made people wince at the tromping that they would give the opposing team. But instead of flipping the coin, the umpire waved his hands above his head and made the announcement…
Atheism’s Evidential Bankruptcy
Atheist Beliefs and Absence of Evidence By Brace E. Barber Christian Apologetics Speaker Our Assumptions About Atheist Beliefs are Wrong The bankruptcy of the atheist position is critical for Christians to grasp. If we as Christians know that those with counter ideas have no evidence to back up their positions, then it encourages us to find the evidence that supports our position. We've assumed for too long that atheists have a lock on scientific evidence to back atheist beliefs, when the truth is that their lock is rusting on an old fence and they've lost the key. However, just because they don't have evidence to support their beliefs doesn't mean that it's going to support God. We need to look at all of the evidence and see where it leads.…