Please Convince Me is my absolute favorite podcast. The host, J. Warner Wallace, is a cold case homicide detective. He has a real job! And he talks about Christian things like you might expect a detective to talk – everything is logic, case-making and evidence. Very cool.

Why Being Respected Is Better Than Being Liked

The MP3 file is here.

The most interesting segment starts at 8 minutes and ends at 21 minutes in.

Topics

• humans have an innate desire to be liked and to fit in with their peers
• there are times when our desire to do what is right will conflict with the desire to be liked and to fit in
• 1 Peter talks about how Christian living in the world will often have these conflicts
• Christians have a different standard and that creates conflicts with the surrounding culture
• at times like this, it is important for us to be RESPECTED rather than LIKED
• being a Christian conflicts with the goal of being popular
• two ways for us to proceed: 1) agree with others, 2) be who you are and let others agree with you
• James also says that there is a conflict between being friends with the world and friends with God
• you cannot have both friendship with the world and friendship with God
• even non-believers understand that there is a conflict between morality and the hedonistic culture\
• courage is needed in order to resist the pressure to embrace the beliefs of others in order to be liked
• courage is needed in order to point others to the truth so that they change to match what is true
• politicians often change their positions in order to appeal to the culture
• politicians seem to shy away from trying to argue through why others should accept their positions
• we should seek to influence others by explaining why others should accept what we believe
• we should have the courage to make the case for what we believe
• even if people do not accept our beliefs, they will still respect the way we can make the case
• they will respect our courage in being willing to prepare a case and make the case in public
• they will respect that we have not formed our beliefs based on feelings
• we need to get better at knowing more stuff and communicating that knowledge better
• wanting to be popular is too easy
• we should take the harder path and desire to be respected instead of liked

Other topics from listeners:

• the interpretation of “thou shalt not kill” in the Bible
• can a person still be a Christian if they are not doing works, like tithing or serving in the church?
• theistic evolution and the presumption of naturalism in science

And here’s another good podcast – it’s on the same topic as the PCM post I linked before.

Stop Teaching Young Christians About Their Faith

The MP3 is here.

Topics:

• our nation is becoming more and more secular
• secularism makes it harder for us to defend our faith and values in public and influence the culture
• why is secularism happening? it’s because young people are walking away from the faith
• young Christians are leaving the faith in high school and college
• this is where the real battleground is – and that’s where apologists need to focus
• we need to be focused especially on junior high school and high school, and to a lesser degree college
• it’s good that we have lots scholars working physics, philosophy and biology
• but what we really need is ordinary Christians to get serious about apologetics and work on young people
• some people believe that there is no great youth exodus problem: are they right to doubt the statistics
• it’s undeniable that young people are inarticulate about their faith – that much is certain
• what young people in church actually believ is not Christianity, but moralistic therapeutic deism
• young people: life is about feeling good, being liked, and nice people of all religions are saved
• young people think that there is so little substance to Christianity that it can’t even be discussed
• the focus among young people today is not on true beliefs, but on being kinds to others
• even in churches, there is higher respect for helping others than on having knowledge and evidence
• instead of focusing on the worldview that grounds good works, the focus is on good works
• young people have learned to minimize discussions about specifics of theology
• teachers and college professors are hostile to public expressions of evangelical Christianity
• television is also hostile and much less Christian than it used to be
• even if young people come back to the church, they come back for the wrong reasons
• the adults come back for tradition and comfort but they don’t really believe Christianity is true
• they want to pick and choose what they believe based on what they like, like going to a buffet
• they return to church when they have kids so that their kids will absorb values – but not truth
• that’s what we have sitting in the pews: people who think Christianity is false, but “useful”
• and that’s why so many christians are so liberal on social values (abortion, same-sex marriage)
• they don’t really accept the Bible as authoritative, they pick and choose what they like and don’t like
• if Christianity is taught as “useful” then they will dump it when they find something more “useful”
• people who leave the church are exposed to Christianity, but it doesn’t stick
• young people lose their faith before college, and then when they escape the nest, they act it out
• the disconnecting from the faith occurs in high school, but it only becomes public after they leave home
• young people are becoming more focused on redefining “the good life” with consumption and materialism
• the typical experience of young adults involves alcohol use, drug use, and recreational sex
• young people actually want more than niceness – they want real answers to serious questions
• young people have doubts and questions, but no one in the church or home is equipped to answer them
• adults have to be involved in the education of young people
• parents who are engaged in teaching their children Christian truths see much better retention rates
• we need to stop teaching people (one-way preaching) and start training them (two-way interactive)
• when you give a young person a definite goal – a fight with a date certain – then they will be engaged
• when people know that they will fail unless they can perform, then they will be more engaged in learning
• church needs to be in the business of scheduling battles, and then training young people for the battles
• there is no sense of urgency, risk and purpose in young people, so the teaching is not effective

I’m absolutely sure you will love these podcasts. Give them a listen! I’m pretty sure that he will put me in jail if you don’t listen to them. So, um… please do!