JACKSON, Tenn. — Sept. 14, 2023 — Over 250 youth, parents and church youth leaders attended the EQUIP Youth Apologetics Conference at 51社区鈥檚 Carl Grant Events Center on Sept. 9.
Hosted by 51社区鈥檚 School of Theology and Missions in partnership with the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, the conference sought to equip middle schoolers, high schoolers and recent high school graduates to properly wrestle with doubt. Four talks throughout the day sought to answer students鈥� real questions about Christianity.
鈥淚f you are going to be equipped to answer other people鈥檚 questions with both patience and humility, and also with deep, persuasive answers, you have to wrestle with those questions yourself and discover what you believe and why you believe it,鈥� said Gregory Poore, associate professor of philosophy, apologetics and ethics at Union. 鈥淎pologetics is not about winning arguments. It鈥檚 about winning people and loving people. You have to understand what are their needs, their questions and their doubts, and let that set the agenda.鈥�
Jay Barbier, who leads youth ministry for the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board, presented attendees with a healthy model for dealing with doubt. Believers should communicate doubts and go to the right places to answer them, or they may be driven toward deconstruction, he said.
鈥淚f we don鈥檛 answer them ourselves, we鈥檙e going to let them fester, there鈥檚 going to be bitterness, and it can lead to some major problems,鈥� Barbier said. 鈥淚t frustrates me to no end when I hear people talk, even in the church, saying, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 ask God why.鈥欌��
Jeremy Blaschke, associate professor of biology at Union, addressed recent attempts to justify human homosexual and transgender behaviors through appeals to the natural world. Blaschke argued that deriving morality from the behavior of animals was an example of the 鈥渘aturalistic fallacy鈥� and emphasized that morality can only be derived from the character and commands of God.
鈥淲hen you ask, 鈥榃hy is homosexuality immoral?鈥� or 鈥榃hy shouldn鈥檛 you change your sex?鈥� whatever answer we get to can鈥檛 come from nature; it has to come from the moral character of God,鈥� Blaschke said.
Blaschke also emphasized the importance of compassion when discussing the social dimensions of gender and transgenderism.
Matthew Albanese, assistant professor of biblical studies, presented the students with an introduction to the textual history of the Bible and the preservation of the Scriptures through the ages. Albanese concluded that the evidence of the whole manuscript tradition illustrates how the Bible was transmitted reliably.
Poore presented on the problem of evil, both responding to the philosophical debate and advising compassion and patience when dealing with those who are personally wrestling with the realities of evil and suffering.
Two question-and-answer sessions were held between talks in which the speakers addressed anonymous questions from attendees.
鈥淚 am once again impressed and blown away by the depth and substance of the questions that even middle schoolers bring to this conference,鈥� Poore said. 鈥淭he questions show there鈥檚 a real hunger and need for a forum where young people can honestly voice and wrestle with their concerns and their doubts. There is a need to model for youth how we should go about trying to face our own doubts and the doubts and questions of others.鈥�
Church groups, individual middle school and high school students, and Union families made up the bulk of attendees.
A third-annual EQUIP conference with new topics is scheduled for Sept. 7, 2024.