Defending the Faith at the Dinner Table

Cold case homicide detective turned Christian apologist J. Warner Wallace is often told by those attending his events that they will buy his books and give them to an unbelieving son or daughter.  His response is always, “They won’t read it.  You need to read it and talk to them about it.”  He is dead on.

Too many parents treat youth ministry as a one-stop cure all for their kids.  They seem to think that an hour a week will prepare their teens or tweens for the other 167—it normally won’t.  

We are seeing more than 70% of kids raised in church leave the faith once they hit a college campus. Churches can help reverse this trend by better preparing young people for universities that are thoroughly secular by training them in apologetics but discipleship really needs to be done at home. 

Parents these days need to be well trained in apologetics so that they, in turn, can train their sons and daughters.  I encourage every family to turn dinner time into discipleship time.  Parents should prepare a week’s worth of discussions answering common objections to the faith.  Sound difficult? It really isn’t!

We are blessed to live in a time when apologetic resources are abundant and largely free!  You can subscribe to podcasts like Cold-Case Christianity, Reasonable Faith, Stand to Reason, etc. You can read blogs by apologists like J. Warner Wallace, William Lane Craig, Natasha Crain, etc.  You can also throw around a few bucks to be professionally trained at places like Dr. Frank Turek’s Cross Examined Instructor’s Academy or via Biola University (I did both and found them to be well worth the time and the cash!).    

Of course there are books a plenty to peruse as well.  I heartily recommend every parent have I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, The Big Book of Bible Difficulties, Talking to Your Kids about God, Tactics and The Case for a Creator.

It will take some time and maybe a little bit of money but you may be shocked at how easy it is to torpedo most of the arguments proffered by atheists.  But be sure that your dinner discipleship doesn’t turn into a lecture but a training opportunity.  The difference lies in asking your kids questions and getting them to defend the faith with you as the parent being well trained enough to know if they have arrived at the correct response. By challenging your kids to become defenders of the faith, you may well save their faith in the long run!