Do I even need to give the verse? I mean, we get it. 1 Peter 3:15. Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope within you (paraphrased). But sometimes I wonder if apologetics in youth ministry is less about students sharing and and less about them knowing. Sometimes I wonder if incorporating apologetics into our discipleship strategy with students is more about them owning.
Quick story time. Last weekend my wife and I took our kids to the local summer carnival. We bought ride tickets for the four children who were at the carnival with us (our oldest, at 15, had made plans with friends), but we didn’t purchase ride tickets for ourselves. First of all, carnival tickets are approximately $6 billion per ticket, and secondly, my wife and I knew most of those carnival rides would just make us feel sick.
Yep. Confirmed. We’re old now.
But one thing I noticed the next day as I told high school students at church about our weekend: I had a hard time truly connecting with other students who had been to the carnival about the carnival because whenever we talked about rides, I wasn’t sharing MY experience with it. I was sharing the experience of my kids. And no matter how enthusiastic I tried to be about joining in the carnival conversation, my additions to the conversation lacked a certain umph. A certain credibility. A certain ownership.
The biggest reason we need to incorporate apologetics in youth ministry is because it leads students toward a holistic ownership of their faith.
We see this value of ownership play out in the very core message of the gospel, too. Part of the reason the gospel is so powerful is because Jesus didn’t zap down from heaven, sprinkle some blood on the Ark of the Covenant, and then peace out. He came down as a baby and lived the entirety of the human experience. And yet despite being fully human, Jesus still lived a life fully centralized around the gospel. He is our Great High Priest who gets it because He’s lived it. So this gospel message of freedom in the midst of the human experience isn’t something Jesus peddled. It’s something He owned.
Understanding and embracing their personal experiences with God is important.
Growing in holiness and Christlikeness is important.
Walking in the lifestyle Jesus has called us to walk in is important.
But when a student learns evidence for Noah’s flood, the teleological argument for creationism, or why the only reasonable explanation for what happened in 1st century Jewish and Roman culture is that Jesus rose from the dead, it molds a personal, subjective faith into a bonafide assurance.
Apologetics In Our Curriculum
Here at G Shades, we try to work apologetics into our curriculum scope and sequence every few years. And several years ago, we created a phenomenal series on apologetics called Resonant. This takes a Christocentric approach to apologetics, calling students’ attention to several of the ways we as human beings instinctively lean toward the very values Christ values—almost as if we were created through Him, by Him, and for Him (Colossians 1:16-17).
If you’re plugging a curriculum hole in the schedule, or just want to try G Shades out beyond the free series, I would highly encourage you to check out Resonant. It’s great stuff.
