Friday, May 30, 2014

Ryan Bowman Q&A Audio



Tonight we had the pleasure to spend some time with prospective Pastor Ryan Bowman, at a youth pizza party and Q&A Session. Many good questions were asked, and this was an opportunity for the youth to get to know the man who may soon be leading our church, and for him to get to know the youth group at FBCE. Check out the audio from the Q&A Session below!






Monday, May 12, 2014

Final 11th/12th Grade DGroup Recap

We wrapped up our study of “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist” this week. Mr. Crews and Mr. Budde did a great job presenting the material. Hats off to you guys and gals for attending and hanging in there with this important material. We briefly discussed the problem of evil and the moral argument last night and showed how most atheists borrow from a Christian worldview.

Additionally, we introduced some conversational tactics for using when you get in a discussion about faith. Especially when someone else makes a claim against Christianity. The information is taken from an excellent book and study called “Tactics in Defending the Faith” by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason (www.str.org) We highly recommend this material, the website and his weekly podcasts. We provided the youth with a Tactics Quick Reference Guide card to help them navigate these sorts of conversations.

Basically, remember:
1)      Gather information by asking, “What do you mean by that?”
2)      Shift the burden of proof by asking, “How did you come to that conclusion?”
3)      Lead the person to some important insight: “Have you ever considered…?”

We discussed continuing the “apologetics” discussion through the summer with a weekly movie night. There was interest and I promised I would publish the names of the DVDs here. We can pick an order and the best night to meet together to view, have food and discuss. We even have the option of screening some of these on an outdoor screen. Let me know what night works best for everyone Here are the titles:
1)      Metamorphosis—The beauty & design of butterflies (explores intelligent design)
2)      Unlocking the Mystery of Life—The Scientific Case for Intelligent design
3)      The Privileged Planet—The Search for Purpose in the Universe
4)      Darwin’s Dilemma—The Mystery of the Cambrian Fossil Record
5)      The Case for Faith—A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity
6)      The Case for Christ—A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus
7)      The Case for a Creator—A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence That Points Toward God

(Wed. nights will not work for me as I will be teaching a Wed. night Bible study for women called “The Thinking Series” which explores apologetics topics. I would like to invite the 11th and 12thgrade young women, and their moms and friends if they are interested, to join me; details to come.) http://www.apologeticscanada.com/conference-2014/thinking-series-2014/

For those of you heading off to college in the fall, be sure to let me know where you will be attending. I can let you know if there is a Ratio Christi Chapter on your campus and if not, we can talk about how to get one started. You can also visit this link to find out where we have chapters.http://ratiochristi.org/chapters

It was a pleasure working with you all. Check the blog even during the summer as I will post apologetics related info I think you should know as needed. Also, be sure to share your resource guides with your family and don’t forget to take them to college.
(If you did not attend D Groups on 5/4 and receive your resource guide, let me know and I will get one to you!)