I would really appreciate it if you would be able to take a look and perhaps give some advice.
BuildingApologetics
There's two topics being addressed here:
Apologetics: which is using reasoning to systematically explain a belief system
Evangelics: which are deeds/words which spread/encourage others to adopt a belief system.
These two can go hand-and-hand (and it's great when they do), but they don't always have to. For example, we've all known a child which is a brilliant conduct of God's love and great evangelists, even though they don't have fancy systematic apologetic reasoning. On the flip side: we've all known a person who is a brilliant explainer of things, but simultaneously a giant egotistical jerk who doesn't show Christ's love at all.
Tips for apologetics:
- Reflect inward / to scripture / to God and learn why for yourself what and why you believe what you do. You need to understand things first, before you can explain it to other people.
- Once you understand what/why you believe what you do, just give explaining a go. Even it's just writing an email to yourself at first. Are you going to be perfect at first? No way! But practicing will really help you develop your skill set.
- All the explaining in the world doesn't do any good if the person on the other end isn't understanding you. So also while you're practicing your explaining skills, also practicing your listening skills, so you can answer any questions the other person has or rejoice in any perspectives they might have.
- You're in college, right? (Or recently so). Then you're probably really familiar with the teaching model "I'm the bearer of all knowledge, sit down quietly while I lecture you. Next week they'll be a quiz wherein you can show me how well you can recite my words" teaching model works--- or rather how it dismally fails. Folks skip classes, sleep through classes, play on their phones through classes, and otherwise do everything BUT listen (and then of course cram for the test the night before and forget everything the day after). Rather, the best teaching happens when you engage individuals, listen to them, learn who they are individually, and care individually. That's how Christ cared: for every last individual sheep.
-Following with the above: in a word where there are FAQ's, it's natural to get very practiced answers-- which is not a bad thing. However, beware of getting stuck in a rut or being completely scripted. Good listening skills should help prevent this.
- You can only engage in apologetics wherein you explain what you believe. You cannot engage in apologetics wherein you explain what another person believes what they do.
(To be continued....)
