We have some really great news here at Confident Christianity! At the 2008 Southern Baptists of Texas Empower Evangelism Conference, Mary Jo will be recognized as one of the first people – and the first woman – to complete the North American Mission Board Certified Apologetics Instructor training. This is quite an honor to be presented with the certificate at the conference. Mary Jo will be at the North American Mission Board Evangelism booth, promoting all departments of evangelism at NAMB. Also, she will specifically handle any questions regarding the Certified Apologetics Instructor program which is open to SBC ministers and lay people interested in apologetics. The conference is February 4-6 at First Baptist Church of Euless, Texas. For more information click here.
To learn more about the NAMB Certified Apologetics Instructor program click here.
Special thanks to all of those who have aided MJ in this process!
I suppose if you were to close your eyes and imagine a Christian apologist, a young woman would not be the first picture to pop up. In choosing a job where my main concern is defending, clarifying and preaching the truth I’ve found that I will not always feel “at home.” As a woman it would be easier to settle down and let my husband shoulder the work of defending the faith. It would certainly fit the status quo better and then I might have time to be a full-time mother. But the fires of California this week offer a good picture of how I see my job of “defending the faith.” Just as all hands are needed to defend us against the fire’s destruction, so are all hands needed to defend us from the false ideas ravaging the souls of the American people.
The truth of the matter is every human is an apologist, for we all hold ideas that we believe are true. And we defend them, sometimes well, sometimes shabbily, even if they’re not worthy of a defense. The question is, “What do we count worth defending?”
For the last three years my husband and I have worked as a husband-wife team, running our fledgling non-profit Soulation. We weave spiritual formation with apologetics in order to defend truth. Our goal is to demonstrate a man and woman who both want to walk into becoming more “appropriately human.” We speak, we write and we work together. Dale’s book, Living with Questions, was released by Youth Specialties in August 2007. He spoke last Sunday at the National Youth Specialties Conference where 3000 copies of his book were given to the attendants. My three year apologetic work on femininity, Ruby Slippers: How the Soul of a Woman Brings Her Home (April, 2007), has been out for 6 months. Wednesday evenings you’ll find us typing on our laptops taking questions on Soulation’s online chat forum (Ask LIVE! http://www.soulation.org/).
Our annual board meeting is approaching where we’ll re-evaluate how much time we need to settle our souls down into a rhythm of receiving from our God the insight and strength to share with others. For in all the hubbub of promoting our books and taking invitations we’ve realized that the most crucial thing is to remain attentive to the tugging Spirit of God to “grow here,” or “study there,” or “confess this,” or “rewrite that.” The number of books sold or the size of our events is not as significant as the growth in our own souls. For that is the message of Jesus. It’s the most important thing I can defend and it is the foundational reason for why I am an apologist. It is worth breaking stereotypes, it is worth being misunderstood, it is worth getting my hands dirty, it is worth seeing fires extinguished and truth free to grow.
