My ministry journey began with a defining moment in high school as a freshman on the debate team. I, along with several other Christians on the team, attempted to convert one of our atheist teammates. We failed miserably because we didn’t have any answers to the questions and objections that he raised.

I was humiliated but beyond that, I began to seriously question Christianity. I began to look for answers and discovered some of the greatest Christian apologists of our time – Geisler, Craig, Turek, Copan, Lennox, Koukl, and more. As a debater, I needed to know both sides so I spent my free time late into the nights watching debates and videos and reading books by the top atheists of our day like Dawkins, Hitchens, and Hawking. At debate tournaments on the bus and sitting in the cafeteria I asked other teens why they believed (or did not believe) in God. I asked the strongest Christian kids I knew, and was shocked because literally none of them had a good answer. Not one! 

I had locked myself away with my doubts, and when I finally emerged my junior year I had a new faith that was my own. I had found that the TRUTH, LOGIC, and SCIENCE are on the side of Christianity. I was also distraught because I was a Christian all my life but I had barely survived with my faith intact. I understood why 2/3rds of youth were leaving the faith. I was depressed and upset and told my parents, “Someone needs to DO something to keep these kids from going to hell.” They responded by saying, “Yes. What are YOU going to do?  As I continued to learn, I jumped into discussions with non-believers and let’s say that the early results did NOT go as planned. My friends and I got publicly crushed by some well-armed atheists. 

My junior year I finally put two and two together. I knew that I had to do something about my generation and I knew that apologetics saved my eternal destiny. I decided that I needed to share the truth and proof with others. My senior year, I finished and published a book I titled, Why Do You Believe? In it, I identified the 3 basic types of non-Christian people I had encountered: the intellectual atheist, the hateful atheist, and the agnostic. I addressed some of the most common tough questions/arguments and how to respond to each of the different types of atheists. Shortly thereafter I wrote a study guide and an answer manual. 
I released my materials online and was shocked at some of the feedback. Dozens of Christian parents were buying my books for their questioning teens and they were thanking me. Their stories brought tears to my eyes. There were families using it to train their kids to answer the tough questions. In my book the goal was to take even the most complex philosophical arguments from the best apologists and teach them to teens as simple, mic-drop responses that they could use to defend their faith. I stripped out all doctrine to make the truths in my book available to all denominations. 

Everything changed when a call from a youth leader led to a six-week class for several youth groups. A number of teens and adults, including several pastors came and sat through my sessions. After the second training, unbeknownst to me, one of the girls decided to pick an argument with one of the smartest and biggest atheists at her high school. The next week she came back and told me she had easily beaten him. He was literally speechless. The next week I found out two of the kids decided to prove the reality of God on the whiteboard to their entire public school study hall. They didn’t need a theology degree – they just needed to be armed with the truth and tactics.

Since then, I have done apologetics activations for, youth, young adults, parents and families. Person after person has told me that their life has been changed. The secret is in the training; it is more than just learning. I don’t just tell people why the God of the Bible is true, we walk through it together and they prove it themselves. We train and practice with role playing, and it works. 

Before I work with young people I ask them to rank their level of confidence in their ability to defend their faith, then I ask them at the end. Teens have told me that they know they are now rock solid with a significantly higher level of confidence. Applying head knowledge to gain experience in a safe environment is a key to their successful transformation.
I have earned Bachelor’s degrees in Business and Philosophy and am halfway through a Master’s degree in seminary in Biblical Studies and Apologetics with the eventual goal of teaching at the college level with a PhD.
 

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