The Birth of a Vision!

Growing up as the son of the apologists, Dr. Norm Geisler, I was fortunate to have an understanding of apologetic issues at a very early age. As a young teenager I was deeply concerned about being a witness for Christ. Consequently it always bothered me early on that someone could go into any Christian bookstore and see many good books on apologetics and many good books on evangelism, but very few on how to use apologetics in evangelism. As I graduated from seminary and was involved in ministry for a few years I got a greater sense that God was calling me to play a part in building a bridge between the two to help Christians to make the most of the apologetic training that Christians received from men like my father and other apologists. My convictions were further strengthen when I read J.P. Moreland's book "Love Your God With All Your Mind." I felt convicted that something had to be done to change this sad state of affairs in the church which can be summarized in one of his key questions: “…how is it possible for a person to be an active member of an evangelical church for twenty or thirty years and still know next to nothing about the history and theology of the Christian religion, the methods and tools required for serious Bible study, and the skills and information necessary to preach and defend Christianity in a post-Christian, neopagan culture?”  (p. 188)

I was also disheartened that there were so few Christian ministries attempting to re-equip the body of Christ to speak to this generation using a more balanced apologetic approach in one’s witness to others. As a result of these concerns and other factors, God led me to start Meekness and Truth Ministries. Consequently over the next few years we developed a model for pre-evangelism that combined both evangelism and “lite” apologetics. This model is called "Conversational Evangelism."

With the help of national college leaders we began to distribute our pre-evangelism curriculum to campus ministry leaders all across the U.S. on college campuses. I then began to realize the urgency for the church to be trained in pre-evangelism as well. I realized over a period of time that by tackling this issue by attempting to train college ministry workers alone would not solve the root of the problem that J.P. Moreland’s book highlighted and which I learned from my father early in life. This lead our ministry to increase our focus on training in churches and seminaries, and developing materials that can be use to help church and lay Christians more effective teach these concepts and or materials in the churches in the West. In recent years God has convicted me that this kind of training needs to be taught not only in churches in the West, but also in the East; for the tsunami of Postmodernism has blown from the West to the East and having a big impact all over our globe. Furthermore I discovered that more and more Christians were not so eager to learn how to better defend their faith a Christians (something that was taught to me at a very early age). In the last few years it has become clear to me that God wants our ministry to play a part to help Christians both in the East and West to learn how to use all the good apologetic materials my father and others have developed to help others be more effective in their witness to others. I realized that if someone did not develop an apologetic/evangelistic approach that was both transferable and comprehensive and that would appeal to the everyday Christian, that more and more Christians would see little value in using any kind of apologetic approach in their witness to others. As a result more and more Christians would lose the very foundation for their Christian faith and would lack the tools necessary to have a greater impact on those living in this new generation.

Our vision at Meekness and Truth™ Ministries is to re-equip the body of Christ in using pre-evangelism tools to supplement and strengthen our collective witness in a post-Christian world. We also desire to be a catalyst to lay people all across our globe to rethink how they are doing evangelism in this new millennium.

In developing these resources our desire is to play a part in building a more complementary understanding of apologetics that will help to create more open doors for evangelism. The fact is that most Christians are turned off by apologetics because it seems too modern and too confrontational for the kind of postmodern world we live in. And, in many cases, there is a least a sliver of truth in this perception! However, the pre-evangelism model we have developed teaches how one can use a less direct approach (while still using apologetics!) in one's witness to others and still remain sensitive to postmodern concerns.

Our deep conviction is that if the church sees apologetics primarily as a tool for argument and debate, we may have difficulty reaching this current generation of youth who evaluate their world through experience. Additionally, if we don’t discover a way to use apologetics more practically in evangelism, we are in danger of seeing the very foundation for our Christian faith slip away by the blurring of Christianity’s distinctiveness among competing religious beliefs in an increasingly pluralistic world (1 Cor. 15:14,19).

If you find our materials helpful, please pass them on to your friends in Christ and keep our ministry in your prayers. Collectively, we can make a difference for the cause of Christ around our globe!

Your co-worker in Christ,
Dr. Dave Geisler
President, Meekness and Truth™ Ministries, Inc.