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#apologetics

I heard a preacher over the weekend answering questions about the LGBT community and how to reach them and love them. He, himself, lives in Boystown in Chicago. When asked on how to respond to the harsh, bigotrous, anti-Christian persecution on Facebook, which comes to anyone that stands by the Gospel, he responded with a ridiculing laugh and said that we should know better than to do this on Facebook.

A man, who lives in Boystown, going where the people are and reaching out to a community in need of Jesus laughed at people that were going to and reaching out to a community in need of Jesus online. I agreed and nodded my head with most of what he said before this statement, but then this laugh stabbed through me, a backhand across the face. Where there is an open hostility towards Christianity, a people that live in mockery of God, a people seeking meaning, us Christians ought not go?

The irony apparently is lost on him.

As an introvert, the whole approaching-those-I-don’t-know thing is very difficult. Not because I’m shy— I’m not—, but because our culture is built around extroverts. To get to any sort of real conversation, one must jump through the hoops of small talk, formalities, and fakery to seem pleasant enough to be real with. Our churches, too, seem geared towards extroverts. “Turn around and introduce yourself to someone you don’t know.” “James, I don’t know you, but do you mind opening us in prayer?” “Join us Saturday for our ice cream social.” None of those seem even remotely enjoyable to me. And I’m not alone.

But where the one-on-one interaction in person is difficult, the Internet opens many of us up to be more bold, more social, more sharing. Where an extrovert shines going to Boystown, the introvert shines going on Facebook. Both locations need Jesus. Both places are hostile towards Christianity and God. Both are seeking purpose and meaning. So why is my mission field wrong?

It is no secret to those close to me that I love apologetics and see the lack of apologetics teaching in the American church as a major weakness today. But apologetics without the Gospel is just arguing. We aren’t in it to win fights, but to win souls.

The true Gospel and true Sword of the Word are inherently confrontational and corrective.

And if there’s anything that this world and the modern American mindset hates, it is… confrontation and correction.

The plastic, world-friendly, harmless counterfeit sword is marked not by it’s ability to properly confront and correct, but by its aversion to the same.

The Rubber Sword of Toothless Truth, Stand Up For The Truth

I have long said that the biggest problem in the American church is a lack of apologetics teaching, largely stemming from the seeker-friendly movement that touched much of evangelism. The last church I belonged to fell into this badly, where they didn’t want to offend or confront false teachers within the body, even if the false teachers were leaders of small groups.