Defending Your Faith

How can Christians defend without being defensive or go on the offense without simply being offensive? The answer is to understand the positive reasons for Christianity instead of taking the roll of a punching bag! This seminar will teach the basics of how believers can prove that Christianity is true and how to deal with objections in a winsome manner without having to memorize "the answer" to every possible criticism.

Evangelistic Apologetics

This seminar will benefit anyone who has ever struggled with presenting and defending the truth of the Christian faith. It will present the solid foundation upon which Christianity alone rests in a simple, friendly, and strategic manner. The seminars will also encourage evangelism by showing how to deal with hard questions effectively so that one's witness will not be stifled by fear of failure, nor ignored due to lack of intellectual integrity.

Faith and Philosophy

Paul says in Colossians 2:8 to "beware of philosophy." However, Paul himself was quite familiar with philosophy and utilized it in his evangelism (Acts 17 for example). The truth is that we all do philosophy whether we know it or not - the only question is whether or not we will do it well. Because our philosophy also affects our theology we dare not leave it unexamined. This seminar shows how philosophy and faith interact and what their proper relation should be.

Cultural Discernment: The Message Behind the Movies

Movies tell us a lot about our culture and provide us with a great way to engage that culture for Christ. But this will not happen if we do not watch movies actively - we need to understand how movies communicate world views and messages. This will allow us to properly critique a movie based on more than just its entertainment value, and will help arm kids and parents against the false world views being presented in Hollywood today . . . and to appreciate the truth when they see it.
NOTE: This seminar (aka Hollywood Evangelism / Apologetics) can also present the use of movies in evangelism and / or apologetics - but this would require a longer (or additional) presentation.

Cultural Discernment: The Message Behind the Music

Music moves the heart and its message can inspire in ways that mere words cannot. These effects make it clear that musical discernment is an important area of study. Unfortunately, the "Christian" take on music has often been characterized by unverifiable claims and poor reasoning. Scare tactics and sensationalism are often the name of the game when sober, careful research yields, I think, very different results.

How Not  to Study Your Bible

Do you know the most commonly misinterpreted verse in Christian counseling? Marriage counseling? Is it true that God would rather someone remain unsaved than to be lukewarm? Knowing how not to study your Bible can be just as important as knowing how! In this seminar we'll go over many of the common pitfalls in the standard three step process of Bible study (Observation, Interpretation, Application). The popular understanding of many verses will be exposed as faulty, and in so doing you will learn how to avoid the mistakes that caused them.

Knowing God's Will

The fact that the shelves of Christian bookstores are lined with books on this subject bears testimony to the fact that many are confused on the subject. Worse yet, it is rare to find two authors who agree on the solution! What I offer is a balanced, biblical view of God's will. We will dismiss the clichés and critique the popular view while digging into what the Bible consistently teaches on the subject (rather than relying on unusual examples for our model). You will be freed from unnecessary worry over the razors-edge path that many assume they must discover in order to make good decisions. NOTE: it is recommenced that this seminar be in at least a 3 hour format.

Cults and the Occult

What exactly is a cult? Is it the same as a sect or denomination? How do cults differ from the occult? How do we evangelize cultists? Should we even be talking to them? Should we be worried about loved ones in questionable groups? Can cults brainwash people? There are a lot of questions regarding these odd groups and this seminar will help.

Discovering The Attributes of God

The Bible has numerous verses describing God as having a body yet only one describing Him as being spirit. Why, then, is the orthodox understanding of God's nature one of sprit? Are these verses contradictory? This seminar is a condensed version of the most important thing I learned while in seminary: how to think and talk about God according to what we know from His revelation - including both Scripture and creation (Rom. 1:20).

Ethics and Morality

Drugs, Violence, Sex, Abortion, The Death Penalty, War, Homosexuality, Alcohol, Divorce* . . . The list of ethical decisions we need to be able to make from a biblical point of view is daunting! These seminars are designed to show how to find the biblical position on these issues as well as how to defend them in the public square without necessarily having to reference personal religious preferences in this post-Christian world. *NOTE: These sub-topics can be featured.

End Time Prophecy

Did you know the word "Antichrist" does not appear in either of the books of Revelation or Daniel? Did you know that there is no "seven year" time frame listed anywhere in Revelation? There are a lot of assumptions concerning prophecy, and most of them are overlooked because they are not recognized for what they are. This seminar will help put things in perspective by summarizing the history and significant features of various views, plus the key areas of Scripture for the study of the end times.

Eschatological Apologetics

The Bible's truthfulness and supernatural origin is often defended by pointing to its many fulfilled prophecies. This can, however, seem to backfire when skeptics point out the Bible's alleged failure to correctly predict certain events. This becomes especially problematic concerning failed end time speculations by Christians. This seminar deals with the proper use of eschatology in apologetics.