Takanini Community Church in Auckland are hosting a Towards Belief event with this blog’s Matt.
Towards Belief follows Australian pastor and host, Karl Faase as he travels to the UK, USA and Australia to interview more than thirty leading authors, speakers and academics as they seek to defuse the top belief blockers of our time. This 10-session DVD series responds to the questions of the seeker and clarifies the answer for the Christian.
Dr Matthew Flannagan, New Zealand theologian, apologist, author and teacher hosts the Towards Belief series for NZ churches, leadership teams, youth groups, study groups, small groups, and provides a Q&A opportunity as part of each session.
Why Towards Belief is important – Matt’s take:
In New Zealand today, there is a significant fall away rate of Christian youth upon attending University. A recent study by Fuller Theological Seminary in the US discovered that
one of the most significant factors in determining whether a person who comes to the Christian faith as a teenager endures years later is whether they have been able to adequately discuss their intellectual doubts and questions with Christian leaders.
Those who were able to explore such questions and gain some resolution were less likely to fall away whereas those who didn’t tended to leave the faith when confronted with questions at university.
In addition to this the rise of social media, and popular books by people like Richard Dawkins or even movies like the Da Vinci code has meant that skeptical attacks on the Christian faith have become more popularised and more accessible to audiences previously who would only have been confronted with such issues in higher education. In light of this it’s crucial that the Church be willing to address the standard questions people are raising.
The series introduction for pastors, youth leaders and key church staff involves free sessions involving Q&A and supper. Details are:
7pm, Thu 26th/Mon 30th November
Takanini Community Church
160 Great South Road, Takanini, Auckland
Register: in**@ta************.nz
There is lots more information about this event on the event organiser’s Towards Belief page, including information as to how to book a Towards Belief course for your New Zealand church, so check it out.
For more information in general about Towards Belief go here.
Tags: Apologetics · Events · Karl Faase · Takanini Community Church · Towards Belief2 Comments
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
In the U.S. such discussion is virtually non-existent except for tiny numbers of believers who have almost no interaction with atheists and sceptics generally, and for the most part don’t actually read any views other than their own.
Plus younger people have generally shelved both parents and church leaders as hopelessly corny, outdated, clueless, illogical—in fact, hardly worth engaging at all about much of anything.
The only reason youth does not really lash out about philosophical questions is that they have a vested interest in playing along with the gravy train as long as Mom and Pop Clueless are paying the bills.
Of interest?
CFP: Second Annual Theistic Ethics Workshop
Second Annual Theistic Ethics Workshop
Georgetown University
October 6-8, 2016
http://alexanderpruss.blogspot.co.nz/2016/01/cfp-second-annual-theistic-ethics.html