The
Birth of a Vision!
Growing up as the son of Christian apologist, Dr. Norm Geisler, I
had an understanding of apologetic issues at a very early age, but
did not feel compelled to follow directly in my father’s footsteps.
Then, I read J.P. Moreland's book "Love Your God With All Your
Mind." I felt convicted that something had to be done to change this
sad state of affairs in the church which can be summarized in one of
his key questions: “…how is it possible for a person to be an active
member of an evangelical church for twenty or thirty years and still
know next to nothing about the history and theology of the Christian
religion, the methods and tools required for serious Bible study,
and the skills and information necessary to preach and defend
Christianity in a post-Christian, neopagan culture?” (p. 188)
I was also disheartened that there were so few Christian
ministries attempting to re-equip the body of Christ to speak to
this generation using a more balanced apologetic approach in one’s
witness to others. As a result of these concerns and other factors,
God led me to start Meekness and Truth™ Ministries.
Consequently, over the next few years we developed a model for
pre-evangelism that combined both evangelism and “lite” apologetics.
This model is called "Conversational Evangelism."
With the help of national college leaders we began to distribute
our pre-evangelism curriculum to campus ministry leaders all across
the U.S. on college campuses. I then began to realize the urgency
for the church to be trained in pre-evangelism as well. Tackling
this issue by attempting to train college ministry workers alone
would not solve the root of the problem that J.P. Moreland addressed
in his book. This lead us to increase our focus on training in
churches and seminaries, and developing materials that can be use to
help lay Christians more effective teach these concepts and or
materials in the churches in the West. In recent years God has
convicted me that this kind of training needs to be taught not only
in churches in the West, but also in the East; for the tsunami of
Postmodernism has blown from the West to the East and having a big
impact all over our globe.
Our vision at Meekness and Truth Ministries is to re-equip the
body of Christ in using pre-evangelism tools to supplement and
strengthen our collective witness in a post-Christian world. We also
desire to be a catalyst to lay people all across our globe to
rethink how they are doing evangelism in this new millennium.
In developing these resources our desire is to play a part in
building a more complementary understanding of apologetics that will
help to create more open doors for evangelism. The fact is that most
Christians are turned off by apologetics because it seems too modern
and too confrontational for the kind of postmodern world we live in.
And, in many cases, this perception is correct! However, the
pre-evangelism model we have developed teaches how one can use a
less direct approach (while still using apologetics!) in one's
witness to others and still remain sensitive to postmodern concerns.
Our deep conviction is that if the church sees apologetics
primarily as a tool for argument and debate, we may have difficulty
reaching this current generation of youth who evaluate their world
through experience. Additionally, if we don’t discover a way to use
apologetics more practically in evangelism, we are in danger of
seeing the very foundation for our Christian faith slip away by the
blurring of Christianity’s distinctiveness among competing religious
beliefs in a increasingly pluralistic world (1 Cor. 15:14,19).
If you find our materials helpful, please pass them on to your
friends in Christ and keep our ministry in your prayers.
Collectively, we can make a difference for the cause of Christ
around our globe!
Your co-worker in Christ,
Dr. Dave Geisler
President, Meekness and Truth™ Ministries, Inc. |
