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 on evangelism, but very few on how to use apologetics in
evangelism. After I graduated from seminary and became involved in ministry
for a few years I gained a greater sense that God was calling me to play a part in
building a bridge between apologetics and evangelism. I felt burdened to help Christians
to make the most of the training that they received from Christian apologists like my father and others.
My convictions were further strengthened 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 witnessing to others. As a result of these concerns and other factors,
God led me to start Meekness and Truth™ Ministries. Over the next few years we developed a model for
pre-evangelism that combined both evangelism and “lite” apologetics.
This work was further strengthen when we combined our efforts with Glenn McGorty
(See his web-site DIALOGROADMAP for more info) and the pre-evangelism model he was
working on for our home church, Hill Country Bible Church, Northwest in Austin,
Texas. Since then our model has been modified several time by suggestions from Christian
leaders and college ministry workers all throughout the U.S. Our model is now 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. 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, missionary organizations, and seminaries, and developing materials that
can be used to help church and lay Christians more effective teach these concepts
and or materials in the churches in the West.
I realized that without 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 we would see more and more Christians lose their confidence in 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 deep conviction is that if the church sees apologetics
primarily as a tool for argument and debate, we will likely have difficulty
reaching this current generation 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).
In recent years God has convicted
me that this kind of training needs to be taught not only in the West,
but also in the East. For the tsunami of Postmodernism has blown from the West to
the East and is having a big impact all over our globe.
Our vision at Meekness and Truth Ministries is to play a part in re-equipping 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 Christians
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 many
Christians are turned off by apologetic approaches to witnessing
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.
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 “Equip Others To Reach
Many.”
Your co-worker in Christ,
Dr. David Geisler
President, Meekness and Truth™ Ministries, Inc.
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