An URGENT Warning to Christian Parents
Summary
TLDRThe speaker emphasizes the need to shift from merely teaching to actively training young people in faith, drawing a parallel to physical training for athletes. They argue that testing students' understanding and readiness is crucial, as is equipping them with the tools and knowledge to defend their beliefs. The speaker shares personal anecdotes and strategies, including 'Ricochet apologetics' and the importance of inoculating students with truth to prepare them for intellectual challenges they will face, especially in secular environments like universities.
Takeaways
- 📚 The speaker emphasizes the need to shift from merely teaching to actively training young people, as teaching alone has not been effective in preparing them for future challenges.
- 👥 The speaker suggests that young people will eventually take the place of the current generation in roles like attending church, and thus it is crucial to prepare them now for these future responsibilities.
- 🛡 The difference between teaching and training is illustrated, with teaching being about imparting knowledge and training being about preparing for upcoming battles or challenges, much like athletes or fighters do.
- 💡 The importance of testing young people is highlighted to identify their current level of understanding and readiness, which is a crucial first step in the training process.
- 🚨 The speaker uses the analogy of police training to emphasize that testing and field experience are vital for equipping individuals with the skills needed to handle real-life situations.
- 🤔 The necessity of challenging students' beliefs early on is underscored, using the example of role-playing as an atheist to expose students to opposing viewpoints and stimulate critical thinking.
- 🛠 The need to require more from students than just attendance is stressed, arguing that they are capable of handling more complex and demanding material.
- 🛡️ The concept of 'inoculation' is introduced, where students are exposed to objections and challenges to their beliefs in a controlled environment to prepare them for encountering these outside the church.
- 🛠️ The importance of equipping students with the tools and knowledge to defend their faith is discussed, drawing a parallel to how police officers are given tools and training for their duties.
- 📚 The speaker advocates for including philosophy and logic in religious education to help students understand and articulate the reasons behind their beliefs.
- 🎯 The final takeaway is the need for a structured approach to youth ministry that includes testing, requiring more, equipping with tools, and preparing students to answer tough questions about their faith.
Q & A
What is the main issue discussed in the transcript regarding youth education in religious contexts?
-The main issue discussed is the ineffectiveness of traditional teaching methods in preparing young people for future challenges, emphasizing the need to shift from teaching to training as a more effective approach.
What is the difference between teaching and training as presented in the transcript?
-Teaching is described as imparting knowledge, while training is equated with preparing for an upcoming battle or challenge, requiring active engagement and practical application of skills.
Why does the speaker mention Royce Gracie and his dojo?
-Royce Gracie is mentioned as an example of someone who trains for a specific purpose—winning fights. His dojo serves as a metaphor for the kind of focused, results-oriented preparation young people should receive.
What is the acronym 'YOU' in the context of the transcript?
-The acronym 'YOU' is not explicitly defined in the transcript, but it seems to be part of a model for youth ministry or religious education, with 'YOU' possibly standing for a set of principles or steps to be followed.
What role do tests play in the training model proposed by the speaker?
-Tests are crucial in the training model as they serve to identify the current level of understanding and skills of the students, providing a baseline to measure progress and a motivation to improve.
Why does the speaker advocate for higher expectations from students in religious education?
-The speaker believes that students are capable of handling more than what is typically required of them in religious education. By setting higher expectations, students are challenged to engage more deeply with the material and prepare better for future challenges.
What is the concept of 'Ricochet apologetics' mentioned in the transcript?
-'Ricochet apologetics' refers to the unintentional learning that occurs when younger students are exposed to more advanced discussions, in this case, the speaker's college-level teachings on Christianity, which his younger children picked up from being around older students.
How does the speaker suggest equipping students with the tools to defend their faith?
-The speaker suggests equipping students by providing them with the truth and the positive case for Christianity, including evidences and responses to atheistic objections, much like providing police officers with tools and training.
What is the importance of 'inoculation' in the context of preparing young people for challenges to their faith?
-Inoculation in this context means exposing students to objections and challenges to their faith in a controlled and supervised environment, so they become 'inoculated' and better prepared to handle such challenges when they encounter them outside.
Why does the speaker emphasize the need to teach students philosophy and logic as part of their religious education?
-The speaker emphasizes the importance of teaching philosophy and logic to equip students with the ability to critically analyze and defend their beliefs, as well as to understand and respond to secular viewpoints and objections.
What is the speaker's view on the role of challenges and tests in motivating students to learn and prepare?
-The speaker believes that challenges and tests are essential motivators for learning. They create a sense of urgency and necessity, compelling students to take their education seriously and to prepare for real-world applications.
Outlines
📚 The Shift from Teaching to Training
The speaker emphasizes the need to transition from merely teaching to actively training young people in the church. They argue that teaching has not been effective in preparing youth for future challenges, as evidenced by the lack of change over the past century. The speaker illustrates the difference between teaching, which is about imparting knowledge, and training, which is about preparing for an upcoming challenge or battle. Using the example of a dojo and Royce Gracie's training for the Ultimate Fighting Championships, the speaker urges the congregation to adopt a training model that includes testing youth to identify their current abilities and preparing them for the future.
🛡️ Equipping Youth with the Tools for Spiritual Battle
The speaker discusses the importance of testing and challenging youth to understand their current level of understanding and readiness. They use the analogy of police training and the need for officers to be prepared for real-life scenarios. The speaker then moves on to the importance of requiring more from students, arguing that they are capable of handling more than what is typically asked of them in religious education. The speaker shares personal experiences as a youth pastor and how they raised the bar for their students, resulting in a deeper understanding and retention of religious teachings. They stress the need to equip students with the truth and the tools to defend their faith, similar to how police officers are armed and trained for their duties.
🧬 Inoculating Youth Against Secular Influences
The speaker advocates for the inoculation theory in religious education, which involves exposing students to philosophical and secular ideas early on, under controlled and supervised conditions. This approach is likened to a medical inoculation, where exposure to a small amount of a virus helps build immunity. The speaker argues that instead of isolating students from objections and criticisms of faith, they should be equipped with the knowledge and tools to understand and respond to these challenges. They emphasize the importance of teaching students philosophy and logic from a Christian perspective, as well as being aware of and prepared to address popular atheist texts and arguments. The goal is to prepare students to make a positive case for Christianity and to be able to defend their beliefs against scrutiny.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Teaching vs. Training
💡Next Generation
💡Youth Ministry
💡Inoculation
💡Evidences for Christianity
💡Atheism
💡Role Playing
💡Fundamentals of Faith
💡Secular Slant
💡Ricochet Apologetics
💡Affirmative Defense
Highlights
The need to prepare young people for future challenges by training them, not just teaching them.
Teaching vs. training - Teaching is about imparting knowledge, while training prepares for an upcoming battle.
The importance of testing young people to assess their abilities and readiness for challenges.
The analogy of police training to emphasize the necessity of equipping young people with the right tools and skills.
The concept of 'Ricochet apologetics' where teaching aimed at one group can also benefit others.
The importance of setting high expectations and requirements for young people in religious education.
The need to equip young people with the truth and tools to defend their faith against objections and challenges.
The idea of 'inoculation' in religious education, exposing students to objections early to prepare them for future encounters.
The importance of not isolating students from secular philosophy and instead teaching them to engage with it critically.
The role of testing in motivating students to improve and prepare for future challenges.
The need for youth ministry to move beyond just games and fun activities to include serious study and preparation.
The potential impact of role-playing as an atheist to challenge and strengthen students' faith.
The importance of providing students with a solid justification for their faith to help them stand firm in the face of scrutiny.
The four-step process of teaching truth, God's existence, trustworthiness of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus to young people.
The testimony of a young adult who found youth group too soft and unprepared for the challenges of college and secular ideas.
The call to action for religious educators to equip and arm students with the knowledge and skills to defend their faith effectively.
Transcripts
problem I think we have to get to a
place where we can provide answers for
our young people and prepare them
because those young people will also be
our age not too long from now they'll be
just like us sitting in the church we
prepare them now you won't have to worry
about it later and you'll also be able
to prepare the Next Generation because
you were prepared so when people ask me
how do you solve this problem I always
say the same thing and I've been writing
about it for years on the
website stop
teaching my gosh it's not that just stop
teaching teaching is not working the
church has been teaching for 100 years
here in America and apparently it's not
working we've got great teachers in the
church but we've got to stop teaching
young people it's doing us no
good we've got to start
training and training is different than
teaching training is very I want to
illustrate the difference between
teaching and training so you can catch
it okay so let's divide this in half
teaching is just about imparting
knowledge you know blah blah blah blah
blah blah this is this this is this w w
w got it we've all been in front of good
teachers but we're like you know I'm
trying to stay awake I hope that's not
you guys this
morning okay now the other issue of
course is training is different than
this training is preparing for a battle
that's about to
come boxers
train Fighters train athletes train why
because there's a game on Sunday why
because there's a fight in 8 weeks you
will train if you know a challenge is
coming if you told all of your students
that they don't have to take a test
you're all in algebra class trust me
you're all going to get a don't don't
worry about it there's no tests in this
class just just listen to me while I
teach you algebra how many people in
that class do you think are actually
going to learn algebra okay
zero no test coming no point in training
no point in paying
attention here's a guy who lives in our
city or did at least one he's got a dojo
there his name is Royce Gracie I don't
know if you know him or not but he won
four see four of the first five Ultimate
Fighting
Championships my son has been to his
dojo I remember the first time he went
to this Dojo he came home and he had a
huge lump on his head my son's a police
officer I said oh my gosh you just and
he would go he get beat up again and
when he would come home he would have
this bumps and cuts on his face and I
used to say why do you continue to go he
says because it takes him a little bit
longer each time to make me look this
way and as far as cops go sometimes all
fights are going to go to the ground at
some point and you just may have to hang
on long enough for your backup to get
there so how long you can hang on is
important this guy you think this guy
trains yeah why does he train because
he's got a fight coming it turns out the
fight that's coming is what turns
teaching into training because now
you're taking it very seriously and this
guy takes his work very seriously so I
want to share with you a paradigm that I
think would change the way we do youth
ministry and change the way we even
think about our own religious education
it's a train model and it's not that
hard to grasp of course it's a acronym
because we are all pastors at heart and
we like
acronyms it's you do these five things
and I think everything changes the first
thing we have to do is we have to test
young people you got to find out where
they're at everyone gets a
test this is the Crest Bar in my city
it's a biker bar and I guarantee you
there's a fight here every night and if
you're a trainee a rookie who's got a
field training officer you're going to
buy that call because every fight call
is going to send a training car because
that training car is going to get there
and the training officer is going to do
this to see if you as the rookie can
handle a bar
fight because you got to test Everybody
by the way if you can't handle a bar
fight we're going to fire you cuz we
don't want to get killed later on every
night when this turns into a nightmare
we're going to send a training card to
see if the officer can pass the
test now what it's not like we're trying
to be mean we're trying to if nothing
else if he fails the first test he'll
start getting ready he'll go back and
he'll train he'll be at that Dojo
getting beat up tomorrow because he
wants to pass the test the next time
tests are incredibly important for
officers they're also incredibly
important for students when I first get
asked to work with youth groups let me
tell you what I do I asked the the
pastor to introduce me as the local
professor of philosophy at whatever big
university is close by and I will come
in and role play as an atheist I don't
want the students to know who I am
because in that hour my goal is to
deconvert everyone in the room and you
would be amazed at how fast it happens
because as I start pushing these buttons
as an atheist the students cannot really
respond
and all the joy you might have when you
first show up it turns into Expressions
that are not so good because at the end
of this we literally have students who
when I finally reveal that I'm actually
a Christian they'll come up and they'll
say thank God I I was starting to wonder
if this any this was
true wow you mean to tell me after all
that we've done as parents in 30 minutes
in a in a role playing scenario I could
shake you that bad oh yeah we've seen it
over and over again my son who's 26 he's
an excellent role player when he does it
it's really powerful cuz he's closer to
their age it's very powerful you have to
test students the same way you why do I
start this way I start this way because
now they know their need did that feel
good no would you like to be in a
situation where you could do better yes
well the next six weeks we're going to
train you to do
better that's what we do but they won't
even pay attention if I don't show them
how bad the situation is to begin with
so I test my students before I start the
second thing I have to do of course is
you have to be ready to require
something more than we typically require
of our students hey I was a youth pastor
in a mediumsized church that was
actually affiliated with the church
plant that Troy
did he's been a part of a church that
was a sister Church of my of my church
in
California and I can tell you when I was
first a youth pastor I I had a certain
view of youth ministry okay and I did
not require a lot from my students I was
happy if they just showed up have a good
time here want to come back and bring
your friends for me youth ministry as I
was trying to think it out and plan it
out was all funny games okay youth
ministry looked a lot like this pizza
video
games good stuff important stuff but
that was all we were doing
really our students can handle so much
more I mean think about what we ask of
our students as parents we got them in
AP courses they're getting ready for
college oh my gosh the bar is super high
in other areas of their life and you as
a parent have no problem with the bar
being high there but when it comes to
Religious Education eh show up we're
happy that's what's got to
change and you might think well how much
can kids handle I wanted to show you
this is my family when I first started
as a youth pastor I have my daughters uh
and my sons my sons came along first and
then we adopted two girls out of foster
care this is Annie and Mia so we have a
kind of a range of Ages here and my boys
were in their you know
Junior High years 12 and 10 when my
girls were still in elementary
school well I they wouldn't stay with
their uh Affinity groups you know they
wouldn't go to Sunday school they wanted
to sit with their parents in the youth
room with all the high
schoolers so I I would let them come and
they would sit on the laps of all the
high school students and just hang out
with the high school students and I was
teaching the high school students at a
college level because I wanted them to
grab the evidences for Christianity I
made a case every week for Christianity
and I responded to all the atheist
objections to Christianity but I was
doing at a pretty high level these kids
while they were hanging out with us
caught all of
it I didn't was I'm not targeting these
you'd be amazed at what young people
will they'll raise up if we'll set the
bar High they'll they'll jump that high
bar so all my sons and daughters they
caught all of this stuff I call it
Ricochet apologetics right I wasn't
aiming at them it bounced off the other
students and they caught it so now that
they're older and here they are as
adults are close to adults they are all
pretty solid at least they know now look
if they're going to want I always say
this if your students want to chase
stupid stuff in college that's on them
if they're chasing the stupid stuff on
College because we didn't prepare them
that's on
me I've prepared them doesn't mean
they're going to stay because there's
that third circle right that's the
problem but we want to require more of
our students
third thing you got to give him
something you got to equip him with
something you got to give him a tool
give them the truth arm them with the
case so they know what the positive case
is for
Christianity we got to do that you
wouldn't give police officers no weapons
or no tools to go out and ask them to do
their job as a matter of fact we give
them a bunch of tools and not only we
give them a bunch of tools we give them
a bunch of training on how to use the
tools we do two things we give them
tools and the training to use the tools
that's how you arm police
officers well think about it we have
students how are we equipping them how
are we arming our students what are we
doing with these folks I suggest we've
got to inoculate them before they leave
here don't isolate your students from
the truth don't isolate your students
from all the objections instead you know
a flu inoculation is what you give them
a little bit of the flu and then later
on when they're exposed to all the flu
theyve already been inoculated because
they saw early they got it early under
your supervision what we're doing with
inoculation theory in the church is
we're trying to give our young people
the truth early don't be afraid of
philosophy this passage sometimes
Christians will look and say we don't
want to get involved in secular
philosophy see to it that no one takes
you captive through philosophy and empty
deception according to the tradition of
man according to the elementary
principles of this world rather than
according to Christ this is not an
admonition for us to avoid teaching our
students philosophy it's an admonition
to teach teach them philosophy according
to
Christ and not get caught up in the
philosophy and tradition of men so I'm
going to teach my students philosophy
and logic and all the evidences for why
Christianity is true and why atheism
can't be true and when we're done
they'll be inoculated and I'm going to
begin in my Care by making sure they're
aware of every atheist text that's
popular in the
culture I'm going to assign this as
reading because I'm going to be talking
about it for the next for for
for four years you're with me all I did
was talk about these kinds of texts I'm
not going to stop there but I want them
I want them to hear the objections from
me before they hear them from a
professor does that make
sense and then of course they're fully
inoculated of course I've got to solve
the problems I raise so of course I'm
going to do that in scripture and I'm
also going to supplement that with all
kinds of great texts that are out there
that you guys should be on your
bookshelf if these works are not on your
bookshelf you're not going to be able to
make a case for what you believe either
of course the best text you can buy is
this one right
there which you can get out in the hall
after no never mind okay but my point is
we want to be able to prepare our
students to make an affirmative defense
for what it is they believe and when we
do that I think we end up in a better
place because we prepared our students
so someone like Gabriel here who said
this I thought was pretty powerful I was
in several youth groups in high school
and unfortunately found that youth group
was too soft we played a lot of games
had a lot of fun Retreats but rarely
learned about the fundamentals of faith
and why we believe what we believe and
what it is that we do believe now that
I'm in college my faith is under
constant scrutiny always being tested by
scientific Concepts in the secular slant
of most universities I wish I had been
equipped with a more solid justification
for my faith knowing how to answer the
tough questions how to respond to
arguments how to stand firm in what
feels like a storm against my
spirituality we have to help our
students we have to equip them we have
to arm them that's why yesterday when we
did our conference what do we talk about
we began at the bottom with truth then
we take a step up from that we want to
talk about God's existence why should we
trust the Bible and then why do we think
Jesus actually rose from the dead that
four-step process is what I want to
teach young people so they can defend it
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