Apologetics Night

Each week CSF Berks gathers together on Thursday evenings for worship and fellowship. This is also the time when I have the opportunity to teach. Our theme for this semester is "answering tough questions about our faith." I am not good at titles, so if I mention the theme throughout the semester it might change each time. But basically, the fancy term is "apologetics."

Last evening I started with questions regarding God, specifically how can Christians believe in ONE God who is also THREE persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). It was a lot of fun! It seemed like many students were very interested and learned some new things. Through my preparation I was struck again by how practical this doctrine is: the Trinity shows that God is inherently relational; the foundation of who God is has always been a dynamic relationship of love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing is that this relational God invites us into relationship.

The next two weeks I am going to talk about the Bible, specifically focusing on the New Testament. One of the biggest questions I had growing up was, where did the Bible come from? Why is this book different from other books? So we'll be talking about other gospels that are not found in the Bible (should they be?), how was the New Testament put together, and how has the Bible been passed down and translated through the centuries. Fun stuff!

Beyond that, I'm not sure. We'll probably get into the problem of suffering, hell, and world religions. But I am open to ideas and I am looking forward to discussions with students about questions they have. So we'll see where we end up!