The God-given ability to focus on problems and solve them creatively positions us as uniquely for evangelism as it does for research. Read more…
Following Jesus at the University: Our Four Ministry Commitments in Context, InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries
InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) encourages students and faculty to live out GFM’s Four Commitments for ministry: Spiritual Formation; Community; Evangelism and Service; and Integration of Faith, Learning, and Practice.Read more…
What is the “Good News” of Jesus Christ? Part 6
Evangelism is that set of activities that aims to help non-followers of the Lord Jesus Christ become his followers for the first time and for lifelong discipleship.Read more…
What is the “Good News” of Jesus Christ? Part 1
This morning we want to find out what the Apostle Paul really meant by “the Gospel,” and indeed, how he presented Jesus who is the content of the Gospel. And I’ll say something too about how we might better think about evangelism.Read more…
Book Review: Beyond Awkward, by Beau Crosetto
Talking about faith with others often feels awkward and is why most of us don’t do it. This book explores how to press through that awkwardness to important and life-changing conversations.Read more…
Loving our Atheist Neighbors with Truth and Love: Rick Mattson at Urbana
How should Christians approach conversations about faith with atheists? At the Urbana Student Missions Conference, Rick Mattson examined common atheist arguments and argued for a holistic Christian response that includes intellect, care-giving, and friendship.Read more…
Loving Your Atheist Neighbor, Part 4 (Urbana Preview)
Everything we say about the faith is potentially dismissible. At first this may seem a liability, but I think just the opposite. Read more…
Love Your Atheist Neighbor, Part 3 (Urbana Preview)
The next question that needs to be addressed, then, is How does one find God? This moves us into positive case-making for Christian faith.Read more…
Loving Your Atheist Neighbor, Part 2 (Urbana preview)
“Science is rational and based on reason. Faith is just the opposite. It’s basically irrational. So unless God proves himself to me scientifically, I’ll never believe in him.” How would you respond?Read more…
Loving Your Atheist Neighbor, Part 1 (Urbana preview)
At the upcoming Urbana Mission Convention, I will be presenting a seminar called “Love Your Atheist Neighbor.” But who is my atheist neighbor? you ask.Read more…
Engaging the whole university for Christ
Are we going to treat the campus as a whole as our mission field? What if Christ really, truly engaged the whole university? This is a great, bold and magnificent vision. May we be worthy of it. — Terence C.Read more…
Nature as a Christian Apologetic: Intelligent Design Revisited
Introduction This is the second of a two-part series addressing the question of whether nature can be used as a Christian apologetic. Natural theology is a discipline that systematically explores the proposed link between God and nature. The traditional approachRead more…
Getting started with “How Faith Is Like Skydiving” (Excerpt)
Many books on apologetics do well with the arguments, but have little on how to present them. Faith Is Like Skydiving combines reason with rhetoric, clarity with intellectual depth. It provides a vast array of arguments and a host of imagesRead more…
Nature as a Christian Apologetic: The Open Secret
Introduction In previous blogs, we’ve seen that God reveals himself to man through nature and through scripture and we’ve been addressing questions about how man’s interpretations of these revelations can be reconciled. In the next two blogs we are goingRead more…
Faith Is Like Skydiving: Interview with Rick Mattson
When Faith Is Like Skydiving: And Other Memorable Images for Dialogue with Seekers and Skeptics came in the mail from InterVarsity Press (IVP) I just had to drop my colleague Rick Mattson[1] an email to enable us to learn more about his new publication.Read more…
Book Review: Teaching in a Distant Classroom
Teaching in a Distant Classroom: Crossing Borders for Global Transformation was a pleasant surprise that I ended up liking far more than I expected. Michael H. Romanowski and Teri McCarthy have both taught in a variety of countries around the world. One ofRead more…
Engaging the University
Ready to get serious about Engaging the University? Then let’s return to Vinoth Ramachandra, who serves on the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES) Senior Leadership Team as Secretary for Dialogue & Social Engagement. Engaging the University: Vinoth Ramachandra from IFES World. What does EngagingRead more…
A Dialogical Campus Ministry
“I’m still waiting to read a scientific paper that gives a biological explanation of the emergence of biological science among us human beings, also a naturalist account of what motivates people to become evolutionary psychologists and why others are impressedRead more…
A Mission to the University: Part 2 of Engaging the University
Part 2 of Vinoth Ramachandra‘s Engaging the University (21:22) is packed. After exploring the broad topics of funding’s push toward instrumentalism, the fragmentation of campus academic life by global communication, and the lack of “any coherent master narrative for a central point of reference .Read more…
A Mission to the University: Part 1 of Engaging the University
“Dr. Ramachandra is a theologian and an activist whose work engages with the context of his native Sri Lanka, a country whose long conflict has often been drawn along ethnic and religious lines, and his familiarity with student networks in AsiaRead more…
A Mission to the University
Do Christ followers have a mission in, to, and alongside the university? Yes. Is the university a global mission worth significant investment of time, resources, and energy? Yes. How do we embrace, engage, and give voice to the university mission?Read more…
Bielo: Bible Study as “Backstage” for Witnessing
This week, the chapter I’m covering from James S. Bielo’s Words Upon the Word: An Ethonography of Evangelical Bible Study is all about “witnessing.” More on what that means in a moment. First, however, I’d like to mention an unexpectedRead more…
Finding Calcutta: An “Advent”-ure
Have you found yourself on an Advent-ure as we’ve considered Finding Calcutta? Do you find yourself longing for and waiting upon the coming of the Lord in your life, your neighborhood, your discipline, your campus, your nation, the creation?Read more…
Finding Calcutta: Jesus’ Call to Us – “Follow Me.”
How do we identify and describe the various aspects of our Christian calling? What is the difference between the Christian understanding of calling to the popular secular use of the term?Read more…