Texas Baptists urged to remain ‘UnApologetic’ about faith

SAN ANTONIO—Decades ago, most Americans generally understood they were separated from God by a chasm called sin and the only way they could cross that gap was through a relationship with Christ, said author and Christian apologist Mark Mittleberg.

Efforts to share the gospel simply meant helping people decide to embrace Christ, he said.

People no longer have that understanding, Mittleberg said. And that makes evangelism more difficult.

As people have become less connected to congregations, that common understanding of being disconnected from God—let alone that any gap between people and God can be filled by Christ—has waned significantly, Mittleberg said.

A common language and worldview no longer exist between an increasingly non-Christian populace and Christ-followers seeking to share the gospel, he said.

"People are moving farther from the cross," Mittleberg said during Texas Baptists' UnApologetics Conference at Grace Point Church in San Antonio.

Texas Baptists' evangelism team, San Antonio Baptist Association, Baptist University of the Americas, Wayland Baptist University and Grace Point Church produced the conference.

Not only have individuals moved farther from a relationship with Christ, they also have erected intellectual walls that make them resistant to evangelism efforts, Mittleberg added.

In order to bring people back to Christ, his followers must care for others as God cares about them, understand people no longer realize they are spiritually lost and commit to following Christ passionately in order to see life change in others, he said.

Christians also must be prepared to provide answers when they're needed, Mittleberg said.

Answers are exactly what author Lee Strobel said he needed. An atheist from an early age, Strobel attempted to put his journalistic skills to work investigating Christianity after his wife converted to the faith.

"I began to investigate whether it was historically credible that Jesus died and rose again," he said.

Throughout a nearly two-year-long investigation, Strobel became convinced the Bible was accurate. He noted multiple sources inside and outside the Bible during the time of Christ that confirmed the biblical narrative. Critical contemporaries of Christ confirmed portions of the biblical story. Eyewitnesses affirmed Scripture.

"I realized it would take more faith to maintain my atheism than to become a Christian," he said.

The investigation led Strobel to embrace the gospel. The decision changed his life, he said, turning from an immoral drunkard to become a better father and husband. He became a minister and now defends the faith he once tried to disprove.

"God changed my life," Strobel said. "He changed my wife. He changed my daughter. He changed my son. And now he's working in the lives of my grandchildren."

Evangelism in contemporary society requires Christians who are willing to invest in the lives of non-Christians, working through the struggles—spiritual or otherwise—that might be encountered, Mittleberg said.

"We need to learn to think like missionaries," Mittleberg said.

Thinking like missionaries means people need to be prepared to share the gospel at any time, Strobel said. Christians must look for opportunities to share their faith relationally.

"You just never know what might happen on your average and routine day," he said. "Someone might ambush you with an opportunity."