Sharing Your Faith w/ Lindsey Medenwaldt

[00:00:00] How many religions in the world if you had to guess would you say there are two you'd be

[00:00:18] wrong 42 you're getting warmer but you're way off it depends who you ask and there's

[00:00:24] no exact consensus on this but the numbers could range from 4200 depends who you're asking

[00:00:31] possibly up to 10,000 so to make it simpler though most researchers would say they fall

[00:00:38] under five categories or five main religions I should say Christianity Islam Judaism Hinduism

[00:00:47] and Buddhism however you could consider Buddhism maybe more of a philosophy a specific worldview

[00:00:54] than a religion but most religions and faiths of course believe that there's is the only

[00:01:01] one truth can there be one truth so many wonder about religion who aren't engaged in it is

[00:01:12] if you can't know for sure why engage in it at all doesn't matter who cares we'll find

[00:01:18] out when we die or many think well it could be cultural so all of these paths it doesn't

[00:01:26] matter which one you're on they all lead up the same mountain they all lead to the mountaintop

[00:01:32] which would be God whoever or whatever that is that's referred to in different terms could be

[00:01:39] universalism religious pluralism I refer to it as opyrism and Christians specifically are

[00:01:49] called to share their faith so how do we do that in a world that either doesn't care or

[00:01:54] is convinced their belief system is true and in a current cultural environment where there

[00:02:01] seems to be no absolutes truth really can be whatever you want truth to be we have with

[00:02:08] us Lindsay Medmult she is the director of ministry operations at mama bear apologetics and serves

[00:02:15] as a consulting editor for the Christian research journal her primary focus is on

[00:02:19] world religions and how we talk about other faith she has a new book entitled bridge building apologetics

[00:02:26] how to get along even when we disagree welcome Lindsay hi Ken so glad to be here hi thanks for

[00:02:34] being on uh let's talk about mama bear apologetic so I was on the website and I'm looking at over

[00:02:40] and I see this quote says mess with our kids and we will demolish your arguments

[00:02:47] so first of all what's what's apologetics what would be a defined definition of that and then

[00:02:52] and then what's mama bear apologetic I think the easiest way to think about apologetics is

[00:02:56] defending your faith it comes from the Greek word apologia which means to give a defense

[00:03:03] and in our case as Christians we're giving a defense for the hope within us

[00:03:08] whenever anyone asks which comes out of first Peter 315 and so mama bear apologetics is

[00:03:15] all about equipping moms so they can equip their kids so that whenever somebody asks us

[00:03:21] about the hope within us we can offer a defense for why Christianity is rational and true I love

[00:03:27] that for mom specifically so is that geared towards uh moms with kids or and or moms

[00:03:35] with their families kids and how to share faith with their lady friends or what's the focus

[00:03:42] any motherly role I think that it's really important for people to understand that

[00:03:47] it could be with kids in your neighborhood or teenagers at youth group any role where you have

[00:03:55] an influence over kids all the way through teen years but also we have grandparents who talk about

[00:04:03] helping their grandkids navigate faith questions and we've also talked about adult children

[00:04:09] kids are kids forever when you're a parent you think of your kids as your as your babies forever I

[00:04:15] didn't understand that until I became my mom I'm on myself and I was like oh I understand why my child

[00:04:22] is always going to be my baby even when they enter adulthood and so it could be really any

[00:04:28] motherly role but we also talk about adoptive families and different areas of life where

[00:04:35] we have an influence over kids there's an advantage to growing up in a Christian household and having

[00:04:42] Christian parents and being taught the bible stories and having the church culture and environment

[00:04:51] but I've been around long enough no and you probably do too that there's also the syndrome

[00:04:57] of the kids that grow up in church and then they kind of rebel against all of it

[00:05:04] and there's even a trend on social media that makes me sad is what I used to believe as a Christian

[00:05:13] and this is specifically what they're talking about I grew up in that environment I grew up

[00:05:17] with parents who did this or that and then they made me go to church and I did this and I

[00:05:21] used to believe this in youth group I even used to share my faith here's why I'm a Christian anymore

[00:05:26] I have my thoughts on that what would your thoughts on that be well I'm a pastor's kid

[00:05:32] and a missionary's kid so I feel like I had the the card stacked for me and also against me if we're

[00:05:38] talking about maybe the rebellious phase I did go through a period in college where I investigated

[00:05:45] other faiths and and sort of looked at other worldviews he mentioned at the top of the show

[00:05:50] that there are up to 10 000 religions it's totally true and we can't be expected to know or

[00:05:56] understand all of them and so one of the things that I hope parents will find hope in is that

[00:06:02] they can equip their kids in Christianity and give them solid truth to stand on so that when

[00:06:10] they face those other ideologies or even stumble across those trends on social media whether we're

[00:06:16] looking at evangelicals or what I used to believe hashtags that they can see the falsehood and

[00:06:23] the false narratives that might be proposed in those in those streams yeah I mean I'm a parent too and

[00:06:33] I struggle with those kind of hashtags and those kind of comments or even people telling me that

[00:06:38] sort of conversation and purpose the person I think of two things one is there's to me there's

[00:06:43] two different thoughts on that is one is there's always like you said a rebellious period

[00:06:50] or a time where they go exploring and they they're learning that they have their own mind

[00:06:55] their own thoughts and they've only been thinking what they've been told to think and and then

[00:07:00] they come back like a like a prodigal that comes back to the father then is the other that was

[00:07:07] if you left us you were never with us and that you can attend church and have Christian parents

[00:07:13] but never actually receive the faith for yourself and what you're looking back on is just the

[00:07:18] church structure and church rules and then you feel like it was almost cultish because you were

[00:07:24] mind controlled because you never found Christ in it and I think that's what scares me as a parent

[00:07:30] a little bit or even for the church is making sure people actually find Christ and not just how to

[00:07:38] be a Christian right I would say that Christianity is maybe not the only faith that suffers from

[00:07:44] that or has that fear we hear stories of people who come out of the latter-day saints for example

[00:07:51] or the Muslim faith and they'll say yeah I never really bought into that I never really believed

[00:07:56] I just kind of went through the motions because my family went through the motions so Christianity

[00:08:01] is certainly not immune to that we need to be cognizant of how we're teaching our kids

[00:08:08] how we're equipping ourselves so that when periods of doubt might enter our own lives

[00:08:12] that we can confront those with reality and truth that we've already learned and equipped ourselves

[00:08:17] with because we are going to face doubts there there really are instances where Christians who

[00:08:26] truly truly truly believed entered a period of doubt for whatever reason but if we've

[00:08:31] equipped ourselves before those doubts enter the picture it becomes a little bit easier for

[00:08:36] us to answer those questions in a logical and less emotional way yeah I find a majority of the

[00:08:44] doubts come when life troubles come and it's why this why God because they see God as if you're

[00:08:51] able to stop pain and tragedy why don't you do it when real Christianity is in this life

[00:08:58] you will have trouble but it so in your in your background you grew up in that kind of

[00:09:06] Christian household when was a point where you're like well I don't just believe this because I

[00:09:13] was told to believe it because it's my culture and routine or I've come to even an educational

[00:09:20] doctrinal understanding but where it became personal and no matter the doctrine issue

[00:09:26] you would like die on this hill that that Christ is the truth honestly so I became a Christian

[00:09:35] I don't have an exact age I think it was around five years old there was an altar call at kids

[00:09:41] church uh just what we did and um I loved Jesus and I just knew that I needed to follow Jesus

[00:09:48] but I didn't have that sort of come to Jesus moment where I needed to know more until I was

[00:09:56] in seminary so I was in my 30s and we got an assignment in my first ever apologetics class

[00:10:04] that we needed to have a conversation with a non-believer uh so any any sort of non-Christian

[00:10:10] I picked an atheist friend of mine and it was during that conversation that I realized

[00:10:16] that I didn't have answers for why I believed what I believed was true and I couldn't respond to some of

[00:10:21] her questions that she had we had a delightful conversation but at the end of it I was heartbroken

[00:10:28] because even though I was a Christian and I had real faith I wasn't able to defend it the way

[00:10:35] that scripture tells us to do so uh and so that was really my moment but yeah it was all the way

[00:10:42] in seminary that it took me to have that moment so what's the difference between so in apologetics

[00:10:49] you described it as uh you know a defense of the faith so how do you share the faith and

[00:10:54] defending it but not being defensive yeah so that's the art of conversation and I think

[00:11:02] in our culture we've lost the ability to have fruitful respectful dialogues so the second half

[00:11:09] of first Peter 315 is to defend the faith but to do so with gentleness and respect that means that

[00:11:16] we're listening well we're getting to know a person on their level why it is they believe what

[00:11:21] they believe what experiences have they had that brought them to the conclusions that they hold

[00:11:27] and then in in that dialogue we're then probably given the opportunity to share our own

[00:11:33] perspectives but it comes in a real conversation with genuine friendships we're much more likely to

[00:11:40] have respectful dialogue in those kinds of situations versus perhaps going online and trying to engage

[00:11:47] with someone uh in in the internet the sphere yeah then that gets nasty it can get so nasty

[00:11:56] I think I've seen it referred to as a dumpster fire more times than uh it's referred to as

[00:12:02] a healthy place to have healthy conversations yeah I even find uh I find offensive I think sometimes

[00:12:10] you know if I didn't believe this faith was true and was christian to the core I would be offended

[00:12:18] well meaning christians online with just their daily posts who feel they're doing ministry and I

[00:12:24] hate to judge their ministry but it's all judging and it's telling sinners they're going to hell

[00:12:29] it's telling other church members if you don't believe this way you're going to hell and that

[00:12:33] I think can you just show love you know um show the love of christ and what I find really appealing is

[00:12:41] I was in a um actually I was in a Wendy's yesterday and um and there is a older couple that came in

[00:12:51] like very fragile old it took him a long time to get to the door it took him a

[00:12:56] long time to get up to the counter uh he had a hard time ordering because he didn't understand the

[00:13:00] menu he couldn't see it that far that kind of elderly situation okay and as they were figuring

[00:13:06] out what they wanted which was the apple walnut salad or the cob and you know this lady who had

[00:13:12] already ordered who was half their age maybe had a teenage son a different ethnicity I just throw

[00:13:18] that in uh these were super Caucasian people if you can be super Caucasian and she was

[00:13:24] ethnic I found in their conversation was born in Egypt anyway she comes up it seems like two different

[00:13:29] worlds of people and just says can I um well actually she didn't ask she told the person

[00:13:35] I'm buying their lunch and they're like oh no miss you know you don't have to do that

[00:13:41] she goes no you're not going to stop me you remind me um I have some other couple I know

[00:13:46] that I love very much and I have to do this the long story short is it turned into God bless you

[00:13:54] no God bless you older lady saying begins to say beyond just like that cordial God bless you everybody

[00:14:01] says that this was her birthday and this happened to her two years in a row and this other lady's

[00:14:09] like wow I didn't know that my birthday I have two birthdays because in Egypt she goes down this

[00:14:13] whole they start to have this conversation they say how do you have two birthdays well my parents

[00:14:17] you can need you up you can pick whatever day you want and they picked a 30 because it was easy

[00:14:21] to remember it's not my real birthday so I have two and this weird conversation happened

[00:14:26] and before it was over they end up sitting together and having lunch and talking about

[00:14:30] how good God is and I thought you know for anybody in that restaurant like me if I

[00:14:38] didn't know what was happening there that would be a huge witness as opposed to in my Facebook feed

[00:14:45] somebody telling me how sinful I am and I think you know what if I was a sinner that's what sinners

[00:14:51] do don't focus on their sin just on the love of Christ and helping being kind yeah that Wendy's

[00:14:58] example is is such an easy example to see when we see it because we don't see it very often

[00:15:05] right and it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb unfortunately because we're not engaging with

[00:15:10] people that way I love that they asked each other about the circumstances of birthdays and and

[00:15:17] why not and really took the time to learn that's what I think Christians have forgotten to do

[00:15:24] is to truly get to know people on their level and it doesn't it's not rocket science right

[00:15:30] like we we could get to know our neighbors by asking them okay tell me about where you came from how

[00:15:34] did you land here we just recently moved and and so we've been learning a lot about our neighbors

[00:15:40] it's more natural when you're new in the neighborhood to learn those kinds of things but

[00:15:44] even if it's been a couple of years and you've been living in the same place but you haven't

[00:15:48] met your neighbors it's never too late to extend yourself to them and say I'd love to get to

[00:15:55] know you it's been a couple of years maybe it's been longer than a couple of years but we live right

[00:16:00] next door to each other let's take some time to get to know each other and I mean it's really that

[00:16:06] simple we don't have to step out of our comfort zone necessarily because in our neighborhood we

[00:16:12] should be in our comfort zone already and we see these people at the mailbox or we you know we

[00:16:18] see them walking down the street or we just see them driving to and from work every day

[00:16:24] and so it's not as complicated as I think we've made it we also don't have to share our faith in

[00:16:31] every single conversation part of the things that I advocate is having conversations that build on

[00:16:38] one another because that's what friendship does we don't get to know a person generally I mean

[00:16:44] the Wendy's situation I'm not sure they exchange numbers or anything but it might be a one-off

[00:16:50] like that but generally if we're getting to know people over time faith conversations or conversations

[00:16:56] about deeply held beliefs become much more natural to bring up rather than here I have this track

[00:17:03] let me give it to you which certainly has its time in place right like I'm a missionary kid I

[00:17:07] understand that in some instances it's truly knocking on the door and let me tell you about

[00:17:12] Jesus but in most circumstances that won't be effective they'll shrug you off or

[00:17:18] they'll ignore you or there are other things they'll slam the door in your face right

[00:17:23] so I think friendship and relationship is definitely the way to go as far as building bridges and

[00:17:28] being able to talk about your faith yeah I mean I guess I say I grew up in church but I was kind of

[00:17:36] a youth group outcast I wasn't and part of it was it's sad looking back now I was an outsider

[00:17:43] because I had non-Christian friends that were close to me so there's this so what you're saying

[00:17:49] sounds simple but in some people's minds how they grew up it's not because you're supposed to

[00:17:55] buy things from Christian only Christian companies have Christian friends only live in a

[00:18:00] Christian neighborhood and your youth group and your church friends are your only thing

[00:18:05] as opposed to a place to get discipled so you can go be in the world but that becomes

[00:18:12] your world yes yeah we become we get into a Christian bubble and there are phases in our life

[00:18:19] where that becomes really important and necessary in whatever circumstances we're in I'm not saying

[00:18:25] that a Christian bubble is a terrible thing to have I think there are times and places for

[00:18:30] that but we should be able to step outside of that bubble and speak with an atheist or a Muslim

[00:18:37] or a Hindu and and not have this weird awkward feeling about it but our culture even though I mean

[00:18:46] in the United States where we're called the melting pot and we see a lot of different cultures

[00:18:51] represented we tend to stick with with our own groups whatever those groups might be

[00:18:58] oh you go to that church so you hang out with those people from that church

[00:19:02] oh you your kids go to that school so your friends friends of friends must go to that school too

[00:19:10] and I think instead we need to think about the opportunities of getting to know

[00:19:14] all of our neighbors whatever they might look like or whatever they might believe but you're

[00:19:20] right I think I would like to think it's so simple I have atheist friends and non-theist

[00:19:26] friends and non-Christian friends and I think that it's easier than we've given it credit for but I do

[00:19:34] recognize that there's that difficulty of okay when is it appropriate for me to leave the nest

[00:19:42] and and share my faith with confidence and and when would it be better for me to maybe stick back

[00:19:48] and learn some more and and that's going to be a different answer for everybody

[00:19:53] yeah and I think a majority of people you hear testimonies of that came from a different faith

[00:19:59] that are difficult to transition from like Islam or Judaism it was usually it wasn't

[00:20:04] because you left a track on their door or you approached them at sat next to them on a bus

[00:20:09] and cornered them it was because a friend or a roommate at college maybe someone they got stuck

[00:20:15] with but someone they built a relationship with seemed really convinced something was true

[00:20:22] and cared enough to have uh undefensive conversations yeah I mean we see this in the example of like

[00:20:32] David Wood and Nabil Qureshi right Nabil Qureshi was a Muslim and David Wood was a Christian

[00:20:38] and David Wood had all of these great conversations with Nabil recognized that there

[00:20:44] would be a cost potentially for Nabil to become a Christian because he came from a very devout Muslim

[00:20:50] family and and yet David persisted and he continued to have this real rich relationship

[00:20:58] with Nabil kind of going over those boundaries which would be you know David is this big bulky

[00:21:06] Caucasian man and Nabil is this like he was this um uh he had a he was a person of color

[00:21:14] and he was very soft spoken and gentle and and if you look at them from the outside feel

[00:21:19] like they could they're not friends but they had this rich beautiful relationship

[00:21:24] where David was unapologetic about his Christian faith and he continued to answer Nabil's questions

[00:21:30] with patience and with kindness and eventually Nabil became a Christian and uh he he has

[00:21:37] he had a beautiful testimony um of becoming a Christian because of that relationship but yeah it

[00:21:43] wasn't a track left at his door that is for sure and there's nothing wrong with you I mean there's

[00:21:48] time and place for everything you know and I'm not just like reminiscing on my past or complaining

[00:21:54] it's more for the benefit of people listening who might think or experience the same things you

[00:21:59] know experiences that we had so like when I was in youth group another reason I didn't hang out

[00:22:03] with them that much besides I felt judged was uh you know they would go to the local

[00:22:09] Taco Bell and just witness the people and not that that's a bad thing I don't prefer that if

[00:22:16] I was eating Taco Bell I would feel put upon and it's not my way but in the church I felt like

[00:22:24] that's what you do and it'd be mixed with like if you don't stand up for Christ then he won't

[00:22:30] stand up for you like it put a shame on you and I thought man I'm just I don't know something's

[00:22:36] wrong with me but long term I look back I mean there's things I could have always done better

[00:22:42] but that's been never my way and I had the majority of my best friends I had like one

[00:22:48] Christian friend the other ones had never been before or never thought about or something else

[00:22:54] still my but still friends through life even not as close but decades later

[00:23:00] um when one of them loses a spouse to cancer whose door do they knock on

[00:23:07] and then even decades after that one that I'd prayed for for years but actually in your

[00:23:12] mind you're like this one's never happening you know it is a a Christian doing ministry online now

[00:23:19] not that that has to do with me particularly but it doesn't not have to do with me I could

[00:23:25] have shunned them off by making Christianity something they couldn't stomach by just preaching

[00:23:29] at them and not being their friend as opposed to a relationship yeah yeah I think I think you're

[00:23:37] nailing it like I'm having so many flashbacks to my own childhood in my own teenage life of

[00:23:44] you know I remember sitting on a school bus and reading my bible and having a person next to

[00:23:50] me seeing me read my bible I wasn't trying to prophylatize necessarily or convert anybody I just

[00:23:57] really liked reading my bible in my teen years and eventually that led to conversations about faith

[00:24:04] I went to a Catholic high school and I went I think maybe everybody in my age that was a

[00:24:09] Christ follower sort of went through a left behind phase where we were reading those books

[00:24:15] voraciously it kind of tells you about my background to my faith background but

[00:24:19] um I would take those to my my high school and read those and I went to a Catholic high school

[00:24:25] and that would prompt conversations about well what do you think about the rapture and

[00:24:30] and we would have real conversations about maybe some of the the differences between what I believed

[00:24:36] and maybe what some of my Catholic friends believe but yeah I've had some experiences too where

[00:24:42] friends from the past with with whom I never really openly shared my faith or didn't um try

[00:24:48] to convince them that it was true would reach out to me later and say hey I'm going through this

[00:24:53] really rough time could you please pray for me um or do you have any advice um or I just realized

[00:25:00] that I want to have more faith in my family how can I do that what are some steps I can take

[00:25:05] or how can I find a church that fits my family uh and so you know these are these are people

[00:25:10] that have reached out to me in just a lot of couple of years um but friendships that I've had

[00:25:15] for for decades at this point that weren't um only about I want you to become a Christian

[00:25:23] um I think I think you're illustrating uh the concept of planting seeds not weeds

[00:25:29] and in not all of us are going to be a closer for the faith we're not always going to be the

[00:25:34] ones who pray that ultimate prayer with our friends who who say you know I'm a sinner and

[00:25:39] I need Jesus but we're planting those seeds in our actions in our words and all the

[00:25:44] things that we do throughout our life they're watching us um and um seeing how we live our lives

[00:25:49] and do we really have this hope that we say we have um and and will we stick with them uh

[00:25:57] throughout all of the things that they go through um and those seeds might bear fruit uh we might see

[00:26:04] it or we might not um but as with your friend who uh you didn't really you prayed but maybe

[00:26:11] then it's not probably not going to happen we I think we all have sort of those friends at some

[00:26:16] point but we should never lose hope because we never know um when those seeds will bear fruit and

[00:26:22] and the Holy Spirit will call people to himself. Yeah with apologetics uh you know a lot of people

[00:26:28] don't until now you know really know that word or if they do those are like Christian

[00:26:34] intellectuals that like to go down these uh rabbit trails and argue about things

[00:26:40] in my view see if you agree is there's two things that are super important according to

[00:26:45] scripture one is like we're if I thought of where do people start it would be scripture says to

[00:26:52] you were talking about the hope you have that we should always have an answer ready for the hope

[00:26:58] that we have in Christ right so if someone says why you don't have to go down all these

[00:27:03] theological and apologetic arguments you just say why what's your hope and give a

[00:27:09] that answer to that yes where you start right that's it yeah um I think I think we forget that

[00:27:16] that's where we start or we or we are we here an apologist speak and I'm speaking as an

[00:27:22] apologist we hear an apologist speaker like oh I'm never going to learn all of those things

[00:27:27] how would I even begin well the good news is you don't really have to all I'm asking you to do

[00:27:33] is know why you believe what you believe um and that might require you to go down some

[00:27:38] rabbit holes and figure out some answers but yeah no I think I think we've we've forgotten that

[00:27:44] that's a very personal answer that we should be able to give and if you don't have an answer for

[00:27:50] that other than I just kind of need to think of what my elevator speech is then you need to

[00:27:55] examine your own salvation because if maybe you don't have the hope in you then you

[00:27:59] kind of just start there and then move on the second part I was thinking of is once that's in place as

[00:28:05] far as like apologetics and Bible study Bible studies and all kinds of topics they're important

[00:28:12] you know parenting and marriage and all these different things however I've taught on and off

[00:28:18] the scripture for decades and um I've never gotten past with any group no matter how long

[00:28:25] I've done it I'll say I'm going to start with what Paul calls the elementary teachings of the faith

[00:28:30] we're called a no sound doctrine and there's like five I shouldn't even mention I know if I know

[00:28:35] I've taught my head but he basically says the elementary truths of the faith are you know and

[00:28:40] he'll say salvation or baptisms and the resurrection of the dead he names off these

[00:28:44] five principles of what the faith are and every time I started to teach those one by one

[00:28:50] I hate to say most Christians I don't have a poll on it from my experience even people that

[00:28:56] have attended church their whole life and attend a Bible study may not have a good foundation

[00:29:01] on what Paul calls the elementary truths and then we move on from there yeah so to me I've never

[00:29:08] gotten past that um some of those I call it one time I called it when I was doing a teaching

[00:29:14] I called it um I think k4 elementary k4 I made it was elementary school it's called like k4

[00:29:21] or something I don't know but I mean the elementary basics and it covers most of scripture and it

[00:29:29] falls into apologetics apologetics isn't something out there for a hobby you it's sound doctrine

[00:29:36] you know yeah yeah um you know we need to contend for the faith as Jude describes in the way

[00:29:43] that we can do that is you know another way to describe that is standing firm in our faith

[00:29:49] and it's kind of how Paul described it but we can't do that if we don't actually know the

[00:29:54] foundations of our faith um it's not just a quick prayer and you're done although you know

[00:30:01] salvation is easy and it's free and you need only believe that Jesus is your savior

[00:30:06] but there's more to a Christian life than than that it is enriched through reading the word of God

[00:30:14] it's enriched through having conversations and prayer an act of prayer life with God

[00:30:19] and and and you know the Bible tells us to pray without ceasing and are we doing that that's a

[00:30:24] really simple step for us to take is just begin to add prayer more regularly into our lives

[00:30:30] but you know in our culture we see people wanting to go to battle in in in our culture and wanting to

[00:30:37] to fight worldviews that they disagree with but when push comes to shove so many of them can't

[00:30:43] quite tell you why they disagree with it or why that worldview is wrong and then when you push

[00:30:48] them even further they're unable to tell you why their worldview is correct or why they should

[00:30:55] they should be trusted and so if we could start with the fundamentals of reading scripture

[00:31:01] and understanding the truth of the word of God it will be easier for us to not only spot the

[00:31:08] falsehoods in our culture but then to have an answer for why we disagree with those things

[00:31:13] in our culture and we don't have to be jerks about it we don't have to go on the internet and

[00:31:18] say everybody's stupid who believes this worldview rather we can have conversations with people

[00:31:24] in our own lives our own circles already without having to engage on the internet with anybody

[00:31:30] nobody has to engage on the internet with anybody if you don't want to you can stay off social media

[00:31:37] and and not engage but i'm i'm asking people to have conversations with the people they already

[00:31:44] know start with your kids start with your spouse have times around the dinner table where

[00:31:50] you say have you thought about why you're grateful these days start start with gratitude

[00:31:57] why are we grateful who are we grateful to and build faith conversations within your own home

[00:32:03] so that when you're outside the walls of your home it becomes a lot more natural to do so yeah

[00:32:10] getting back to basics it sounds so trite to say well you know get in scripture and pray

[00:32:16] statistically it's not it's not happening um no i'm i'm having on the show soon there's a new

[00:32:24] book by frank barna that goes over you know barna institute research and one of his guys are coming

[00:32:28] on and i haven't read it all yet but it's hard to look at like even among those who say they're

[00:32:35] christian only four percent would say they have a pure biblical worldview and feel like they have

[00:32:40] a pretty good grasp of what the bible said four percent not of the world of christians yeah there are

[00:32:46] others who will say christians who will say that jesus was only a teacher or a good moral leader i mean

[00:32:52] these are these are self-professed christians we see it's a hard number to nail down but roughly

[00:32:59] a third of christians say that they believe in reincarnation or tarot card readings or

[00:33:08] going to a psychic or astrology they'll they'll consistently read their astrological predictions

[00:33:15] and believe that those are true when in reality that all is is anti-biblical those are things

[00:33:22] we're not supposed to engage with and yet we see christians falling into the traps of the new age

[00:33:28] movement for example and incorporating that into their christian faith because they don't spot the

[00:33:35] falsehood they don't realize that what they believe is false and so we need people willing to step out

[00:33:44] in faith and say yeah that's not christian and sometimes it is the church who can educate us on

[00:33:51] those things other times it's books that have been written i read a lot on the new age i have to

[00:33:57] know quite a bit about that particular area but in order to spot those falsehoods you have to

[00:34:02] know truth and that's why i always tell people to start with the bible you have to know the bible

[00:34:07] and you know you could start with the gospel of mark if you wanted to and and get the basics there

[00:34:14] if you like more reading you could go to the gospel of luke and get more detail

[00:34:18] read acts read about the early church and and the early christians and the things that they

[00:34:24] did to share their faith and you know talk about being persecuted talk about being made fun of

[00:34:31] we can learn a lot from their situations and and and the way that they engaged with people

[00:34:37] because they held the gospel truth deep in their hearts they lived it every day and they weren't

[00:34:43] going to just toss it away in the face of challenge because they they believed it to be

[00:34:49] true in the core of their beings and i encourage us to learn from that from those examples and

[00:34:56] and be able to apply it in our own lives yeah we don't have an excuse i mean

[00:35:04] this is about a month ago i talked to somebody who you know they go to church and they're christian

[00:35:10] and they actually lead in a worship team and such but would say um i haven't read the bible

[00:35:17] but i get what i need by the sermons on sundays which are like tips for living basically

[00:35:24] in that particular church but i'm thinking that's who would be led astray by all those other things

[00:35:29] you talked about because there isn't a firm foundation and the book 66 books in a volume

[00:35:37] can seem like a lot but yeah if you look historically and you actually think that you believe that

[00:35:42] these are god's words to humanity on all the truth that needs to be revealed to us

[00:35:49] and when you read even if you think something's boring it has it came from divinity for a purpose

[00:35:59] and it lasted thousands of years by tons of different authors and so many people died just

[00:36:05] to translate it and we take it so for granted and we'll let just some guy give us a few verses once

[00:36:12] a week um and not hit the depth to understand to be able to like if you can read the book of

[00:36:19] Hebrews and know exactly what it's talking about you're in a good place as far as doctrine goes

[00:36:25] and i think about jesus saying you know that you know all the old testament prophets and

[00:36:30] remoses and it was all about me and if you can't explain that you're not deep enough

[00:36:36] right um and that was one of the first sermons he gave to a couple guys it must be pretty

[00:36:40] important right to learn who he is and what it means to humanity

[00:36:50] it's just getting into church and not being the church because a true church would be disciples

[00:36:55] and then learning everything that man said and who he was and and what it means to your life

[00:37:00] yeah we can't be disciples or make disciples if we don't know it

[00:37:05] um if i mean it's as basic as being able to share the gospel um and and so many christians

[00:37:11] are unable to do that they can't they can't say that you know jesus came to earth fully god fully

[00:37:18] human um that he uh lived among us and then he died and was crucified and then um three days

[00:37:25] later he physically rose from the dead and then he ascended to heaven and um they can't even

[00:37:30] say that they can't say by grace we're saved um it's not by works works are a natural outpouring

[00:37:35] of our faith we shouldn't have a situation where we're not engaging in works but we don't earn

[00:37:40] our salvation through works but if we can't recognize those things would other people come to

[00:37:46] our door as missionaries and begin to tell us things from their worldview we might buy into it

[00:37:52] because we can't spot the falsehood and it sounds right maybe they're using similar words

[00:37:57] maybe they use the word salvation um and we just assume oh salvation for them means salvation for

[00:38:03] is the same that i think that salvation uh means in christianity but it might not be and we need to

[00:38:09] be able to spot that and say what do you mean by salvation when you say salvation what do you mean

[00:38:15] by jesus he's an almost every religion who is jesus yeah do you believe he is god uh do you

[00:38:22] believe he is the savior of the world do you believe he is the way the truth in the life

[00:38:26] and that no person can get to the father except through him are these the things that you believe

[00:38:31] and if they don't then they probably don't have a christian worldview but if you can't say that

[00:38:37] if you can't spot that uh we we have some work to do and i think as a church we recognize that

[00:38:43] i think we know we have some work to do we see this in the youth exodus of the last decade or

[00:38:47] so where where kids are leaving the faith as young as 13 um even younger than that probably

[00:38:54] and and saying i that's the faith of my parents it's not the faith of me um we we see it in culture

[00:39:00] with the my true phenomena where we're supposed to just affirm everybody's truth as true when in

[00:39:07] reality if christianity is true that means that there are worldviews that are not true and we shouldn't

[00:39:13] just couch out to the culture and say oh yep your truth is your truth and that's good with me

[00:39:18] it must be true because they can't all be true at the same time uh it's impossible it's a fallacy

[00:39:26] and so i think that we we need to be certain of our own faith before we try to make people

[00:39:32] certain of our faith for sure and people want to be leaving the church if they were actually finding

[00:39:40] god there and if they don't find god there where are they going to find them other than we

[00:39:44] are the church out in the community as far as the community of the the church being and gathering

[00:39:50] you might leave it if there's just religion there or tradition from your parents or you don't really

[00:39:56] care how john wessley used to do church or john calvin used to do church or whatever

[00:40:01] is fine if you do those but that may not hold people there but if you can actually find god

[00:40:08] at these places and experience christ you will be there your friends will be there you'll

[00:40:13] make sure your family is there your kids are going to be there or if it's just entertainment

[00:40:19] it's sure hard to keep up uh with the aroist tour and all this stuff you're just not going to do it

[00:40:27] it almost needs just to get back to well it's what always has happened it goes kind of in a cycle

[00:40:33] that it runs dry and then somebody starts praying in a community starts praying and then

[00:40:41] the real thing begins to happen on a street or in a community and then it's organic and real

[00:40:48] and then eventually 100 years later it becomes dry again those same because they turn that into a

[00:40:54] religion so where um where can people find your book and how do they find i really love your

[00:41:06] your mama bear apologetics yeah so they can find mama bear at mama bear apologetics calm

[00:41:15] that's m a m a that's how we saw mama and then they can find me at lindsay medan walt

[00:41:21] dot com which i know is a mouthful i'm sorry the name that i married into and i love it

[00:41:27] but it's lindsay medan walt dot com and they can buy my book anywhere if they can't afford it

[00:41:33] i encourage people to go to their library and ask for it um to be wow i don't hear

[00:41:38] i don't say your authors say that very much go to the library if you can't afford well you know

[00:41:43] i i know that accessibility is an issue sometimes in our culture and i want people to be able to

[00:41:49] get the content and um sometimes it's not in their bandwidth to be able to purchase a book

[00:41:55] and so i definitely recommend your local library uh and and why not get more christian books

[00:42:01] in our local libraries so that other people in our community can access them and share a little

[00:42:06] more before we go on what is on your website because i think the materials there are great

[00:42:12] and who they're for yeah on on the mama bear website yes okay so mama bear apologetics we have

[00:42:19] a podcast uh that goes out every two weeks we've got a blog that goes out on the opposite

[00:42:25] weeks uh and then we've also got a couple of things that people can find we've got a resource guide if

[00:42:31] they want to know what resources we recommend we have a busy mom's guide to apologetics so that

[00:42:38] would be the uh apologetics 101 document that we would encourage moms who are like okay i keep

[00:42:45] hearing this word apologetics it seems like maybe i should learn a little bit more about that

[00:42:51] this is the guide that they want to get uh it will give them the basics of of what apologetics is and

[00:42:56] why we believe that moms in particular should be equipped in that way but we've also got some audio

[00:43:04] apologetics blogs where um we read articles because we know that sometimes moms don't have

[00:43:10] time to sit and read a blog and so we've read it to you and you can just pop it in your

[00:43:14] earbuds and listen to it that way very good thanks thank you lindsay yeah thanks for having me ken