We're back
And all I can say is WOW!!!
Davina and I had the best time and it was excellent. A fantastic presentation by Ravi and the two members from his staff. Ravi spoke first on the topic of "Defending the Faith in the 21st Century". He really focused in on how peoples apologetic has to be not just spoken, but lived and how our worship needs to be authentic.
A gentlemen by the name of L.T. Jeyachandran (he is head of the Ravi Zacharias International Ministry branch in Asia) spoke on the topic of "Trinitarian Answers to the New Age Movement" - again another great talk with some really nice insights. Pretty appropriate since we are beginning to talk on this theme in my Sunday morning class this coming week - I'll be using some of his talking points.
Finally, Stuart McAllister spoke on "Apologetics Then and Now". He made a very compelling argument from the Gospels and Acts on how both Jesus and Paul used current cultural activities and stories to make a spiritual Christian point. He tied that in to current day on how we can use movies, popular literature, music and the arts to find creative ways to teach the Gospel be looking at their overall themes that they speak to.
The main theme of the night was "Engaging Today's Culture". It was a really fun, inspiring and instructive evening. After they each spoke, then they all went back to the stage and did a panel Q&A. Ravi was brilliant as usual. The entire evening lasted about 4 hours - maybe a few minutes more - but it went by so quickly.
Shawn
Davina and I had the best time and it was excellent. A fantastic presentation by Ravi and the two members from his staff. Ravi spoke first on the topic of "Defending the Faith in the 21st Century". He really focused in on how peoples apologetic has to be not just spoken, but lived and how our worship needs to be authentic.
A gentlemen by the name of L.T. Jeyachandran (he is head of the Ravi Zacharias International Ministry branch in Asia) spoke on the topic of "Trinitarian Answers to the New Age Movement" - again another great talk with some really nice insights. Pretty appropriate since we are beginning to talk on this theme in my Sunday morning class this coming week - I'll be using some of his talking points.
Finally, Stuart McAllister spoke on "Apologetics Then and Now". He made a very compelling argument from the Gospels and Acts on how both Jesus and Paul used current cultural activities and stories to make a spiritual Christian point. He tied that in to current day on how we can use movies, popular literature, music and the arts to find creative ways to teach the Gospel be looking at their overall themes that they speak to.
The main theme of the night was "Engaging Today's Culture". It was a really fun, inspiring and instructive evening. After they each spoke, then they all went back to the stage and did a panel Q&A. Ravi was brilliant as usual. The entire evening lasted about 4 hours - maybe a few minutes more - but it went by so quickly.
Shawn
posted by Shawn White | 2/23/2006 08:50:00 PM
2 Comments:
Glad you and Davina had a good time and that you got home safely. I look forward to hearing more about the things you heard and learned.
Thanks - I have much respect for Ravi and his approach to evangelism. It's a very irenic type of apologetic - yet at the same time he is not afraid to stand his ground and present the Gospel in a very uncompromising fashion - yet, "with gentleness and respect."
As I had mentioned this morning - if you like C.S. Lewis (and I'm a huge lover of Lewis) then Ravi is definitely in his class of brilliance in my opinion. He has been called the modern-day Lewis. He has a very interesting back-story as well.
He was born in India and grew up Hindi. When he was in his teens he was so despondent with his home life and school that he attempted suicide. While he was laying in a hospital bed, a Christian Youth organization visited him (they made rounds to the hospitals) and gave him a Bible. He started reading it but really didn't know what it meant.
When he was 20, his family moved to Canada - I believe it was there (or it could have been just before they moved while still living in India) that he accepted Christ. While studying business management, he grew increasingly more interested in Theology and eventually that's what he ended up pursuing his degree in. He also received a Masters of Divinty later on during his education. He's been given a couple of honorary Docterates I believe and does guest lecturing at Oxford University in England.
He started Ravi Zacharias International Ministeries and runs this global ministry in the defense of the Gospel. He's written several books and you can listen to his radio broadcasts online from his archives. He's a great speaker in my opinion and his books are just wonderful. If either you or Stephen would like to borrow any of them at some time, you are more than welcome - I think I have everything he has written so far.
Anyway - enough about Ravi. :)
Shawn
Post a Comment
<< Home