Throughout The Berkeley Mission, it became clear that not just any youth group would be ready for this kind of trip -- and not just any youth pastor either. After the first couple of atheist presentations some of our students were a little shaken. Of course, afterward we debriefed the students, pointed out the atheist's fallacies, and walked them through the arguments. But we weren't working with blank slates. Teaching students how to think Christianly and training them in apologetics is just a regular part of Rock Hills' ministry to students. Look at some of the teaching series they do with their high school students:
Not your typical youth group messages, to be sure! (You can check out a list of their past teaching series here -- click on the links at the top of the page, as well) Thus, these students had a strong foundation that enabled us to expose them to serious secular thought. The students heard the atheist's arguments from us first.
Not only did the students need to have some foundational training but the youth pastor and I had to be on the same page. If we weren't, I can imagine just a bit of discord as he saw a few of his students struggling with some of the challenges that we purposely put before them. But Jim Wallace (at the bottom of the page) is a youth pastor who is serious about preparing students for the challenges that await them at a secular university or workplace. He understands that it is better for students to be exposed to secular thought while they are still with us, rather than have their faith blasted for the first time by a college professor at a secular university living 2,000 miles away from us.
Since we shared the same vision we were able to work effectively as a team and by the end of the trip, students were sharing how their confidence in Christ had actually grown. As one of the initially "shaken" students shared:
"Berkeley was one of the most amazing experiences I have had in my walk with the Lord. It truly made me analyze my own faith in Jesus and the Bible. I learned that Christianity is the one true religion, not just for me but for the entire world. This experience opened my eyes to other beliefs out in the world and gave me even more assurance that what I believe is true. It was cool to see that all other worldviews break down compare to the TRUTH that we have as followers of Christ. This trip grew me closer to the ultimate supreme being of the universe..."
At least if any of the students DO eventually abandon Christianity, they're not likely to turn into one of those people who say Christians fear knowledge, avoid opposing ideas, shelter themselves, willfully remain in ignorance, etc.
Posted by: Sam | March 06, 2006 at 04:35 PM