Southern Baptist Convention’s domestic mission agency, The North American Mission Board (NAMB) intends to certify as many as 500 new apologetics instructors, charging them to defend the truth and credibility of the Christian faith. “Apologetics is an area that has been largely neglected in Southern Baptist life and the CAI (Certified Apologetics Instructor) program is a tool to help turn that around, “said Mike Licona, director of apologetics for NAMB.
Apologetics means a formal defense and comes from the Greek term apologia. It is being able to give supporting evidence that Christianity is indeed true and that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, as NAMB defined it. Christians are recognizing the increased need to bring apologetics into America’s churches in a culture where truth is relative and pews are being emptied. In today’s culture apologetics is more important than ever said, Dr. Mark A. Rathel, associate professor of theology and philosophy at the Baptist College of Florida. Rathel noted the college recently qualified as the first CAl. Movies such as “The Da Vinci Code” have done much to foster doubt about the reliability of the Bible, he noted. The best selling novel by Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, was adapted for the big screen in 2006 with a box office opening that made it second only to the opening of “Star Wars Episode III.” The book, which is fiction, is also controversial and has challenged historic Christianity and caused much confusion among believers with such details as Mary Magdalene being the wife of Jesus Christ and who was pregnant with his child. “Christianity is under so much attack today,” Rathel said, according to NAMB. “I feel this will be a way to answer questions for unbelievers and at the same time, give believers more confidence and make them better witnesses.” Dinesh D’Souza, New York Times best selling author said he would like to see apologetics come to center stage in churches across the country. He also said Christians need to become “bilingual” in which they are educated in both the bibilical language and a secular language the world can recognize – a language anchored in history, reason and experience. According Licona, NAMB is taking the burden off pastors who are already stretched in their pastoral ministry in an effort of certifying instructions. This CAl program takes Southern Baptists who already have the passion for teaching apologetics to the next level in knowledge and also in communication skills. Instructors will train Southern Baptist in the area of apologetics and interfaith evangelism. This course work is done under the auspices of Biola Unversity of La Mirada, California. The CAl credentials indicates that the recipient has a good knowledge of issues related to apologetics and interfaith evangelism. He is also an experienced and excellent communicator and a strong Christian character according to NAMB. The State Directors of Evangelism can place confidence in these individuals as being capable of meeting the need to train Southern Baptists in their state.
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