My Philosophy of Apologetics Ministry || John Pesebre

By philosophy here I mean a formulated set of belief concerning a specialized ministry in campuses. This specialized ministry is mentoring students in apologetics. The foundation or basis for this philosophy is the Word of God.

The Bible, God and the Christian’s Salvation

The 66 books of the Old and New Testaments contain the totality of God’s revealed inscripturated, inspired, inerrant and infallible Word. This revelation is a direct act of God and not merely a record of the acts of God. It does not become the Word of God contingent upon a person’s obedience to it, but it IS the Word of God independent from the responses of men.

As such it is the ultimate authority of truth because of the direct action of the God of truth.

In the Bible God reveals that He is a Trinity, creator, and a covenant-making & -keeping God who effectually calls and completely draws His people to Himself through the redeeming and atoning work of the Son of God incarnated as the Lord Jesus Christ from all of human history.

God is also all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing, etc -- the Highest Conceivable Being of whom there is no shadow of falsehood, ill and incapacity. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.

Man having rendered sinful by the sin of Adam, continues to be in a covenant relationship with God as covenant-breakers. Even after justification, the Christian still possesses the ravages of sin in his life. This is the reason why the child of God enters into a continual sanctifying work to lead the believer in conformity with the image of Christ. There are many ways that a believer is sanctified, but among them is learning from the ministry of teaching elders who appropriate the Word of God’s usefulness in teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,

Ministry

My teaching ministry focuses on the necessity of preparing Christian, college students to make a defense to anyone who asks them the reasons for the hope that is in them.

The Mandate

The mandate and charter verse for this ministry is 1 Peter 3:15.  It is a function of believers to provide defense for the truth that they assent to and apply as the marching orders of their lives. This does not come easy so the ministry of Christian elders is to train younger Christians on this Christian duty. This apologetics ministry is not borne out of mere human necessity but from a direct mandate from God for every believer. The elder or teacher then ministers for the perfecting of the saints in this area.

The Need

In the Philippines, 74% of the Christians students attending college experience doubt to their faith on a weekly and monthly basis based on survey I conducted of more than 500 respondents. 82% of them indicated that they would want a campus ministry that specifically focuses on mentoring them on apologetics.

The Response

College students who benefitted from the apologetics ministry I am heading have been hearty in their approbation of the ministry’s impact on their lives. They have become a good source of feedback and affirmation for the ministry to continue.

The Gift

I have been in the Christian teaching ministry for almost 20 years now beginning as a pastor of a small church in Marikina and at the same time tenured as Academic Dean and faculty of our denomination, Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines. Because the school did not have an adequate teaching roster, I became familiar with a broad range of seminary subjects. Integration to the sciences, arts, mathematics, etc occurs not only because of my previous college education but also of a growing and undying interest in science and the arts. I firmly believe that growing interest, the fulfilment, and the humble experience I had teaching and pastoring churches are good evidences for the gift God has bestowed upon me.

The Ministry Goal

It is my prayer that these Christians, college students will learn how to handle the difficult questions and challenges not only posed to them by their academic secular community but also their own doubts and the doubts of their brothers and sisters in their particular church communities.

It is also my prayer that these students would be an integral instrument of God in the evangelistic and discipleship ministry in their campus as they serve under the many Christian organizations in it.

Method

The formal strategy comes in the form of weekly meetings in campus. Here they are mentored in an apologetics track called the 4H which I personally developed for Filipino Christians. The 4H apologetics method is a 4-step process of Hear, Help, Heal and Honor. Each on of these four contains two questions that will facilitate the study and/or conversation of the believers about a particular doubt.

Hear. Hear is anchored in creating intellectual virtues where the Christian will listen to the question intently and try put how he/she understands the provenance of this proposal and the problem it is trying to address in Christianity. The goal is to create an environment conducive to rationality and production of beliefs.

Help. Heal sets itself up in confronting the objection by affirming the Christian commitment this doubt is trying to address and then engage in a refutation of the objection.

Heal. Heal shifts to a theological discussion on the nature of God but will start off by discussing the wrong idea of God that the objection is trying to create. Once that idol is identified, the Christian then will move to presenting the counterpart Biblical teaching about God that the objection is trying to diminish. This is the point where it is necessary that the Christian opens Scripture.

Honor. the conversation to a typical inductive Bible study, meditation and action point.

The informal strategy comes in the form of simple inquiry from students and our frequent follow up. It is also important to note that we send out weekly 4H apologetics lessons to them as supplement to their training.