Tom Pittman's WebLog

2012 October 3 -- Getting Men into the Church through Apologetics

Last Saturday the Dallas-area Watermark church hosted a conference on Apologetics. The speakers were good, and they promised to make the videos available on their website (delayed, so as to honor the fees paid by attendees).

One short video clip was awesome. I have for a decade or more been explaining the problem of evil in terms of "God doesn't want robots" and there it was in the video! I had never seen it explained that way before, but obviously I wasn't the only one to come up with that defense. Besides, the video is far more concise and well-done than my puny efforts. You can watch the video on YouTube, or (if your internet connection like mine is too slow to view streaming video) you can download a .mp4 file for offline viewing. Trying to locate these links, I was searching for the "problem of evil" and learned that personal freedom does not answer all the objections, but it's a good start, and the rest are not hard (ask me if you care).

Incidental to the content of this conference was the demographics. Watermark seats maybe 3000, more than 3/4 full, and there were very few women! The regular church service the next morning was also at least as many men as women. This is very unusual in American churches (I explain why in my postings on Relationshipism, which is a largely female value). Apologetics is about Truth, which is a Thinker value. Men are predominantly Thinkers, so when you teach apologetics and Truth and Justice, you attract men. This is the Christianity that Jesus and Paul taught. It is taught at Watermark. It should be taught everywhere.

Listen up, pastors!

(See 2015 reconsideration)
 

Links:

The arguments (For and) Against Relationshipism
The Counterfeit Religion of Relationships, comparing Relationshipism to 1+2C
Relationships, concluding that people mean "affirmation" by that word
Relationshipism, defining the term (2008 October 31 blog post)
God of Truth, a draft of what might eventually become a book
Men Are from Mars, a list of specific Thinker/Feeler differences
The bottom of my home page, a challenge to do something about it
Getting Men into the Church through Apologetics, what one church is doing about it (you are here)
Thinker/Feeler Distinction (October 27 blog post)
Complete Blog index
Index of Essays