Equipping Ambassadors

The key thing to remember is that everyone has faith, even atheists/skeptics, and an important role as Christians is to help them see that so they can doubt their doubts and equitably compare their faith to faith in Christ (otherwise they are comparing faith to assumed certainty, which has the inevitable outcome of certainty > than faith). There is no view that does not involve faith (similar to the biblical idea that we all worship something). Many operate under the assumption that Christians or religious people have faith but they don’t or don’t know. Skeptics/atheists/agnostics think that their default system is held with some sort of faithless certitude. Philosophically speaking, you can’t even prove, without circularity, that we’re not a brain in a vat plugged into the matrix. Therefore, all our beliefs involve reasoned faith. Once that is realized, it’s easier to see how Christianity can make more sense, or be more worthy of our faith, than skepticism/atheism/agnosticism.

These initial resources are courtesy of our InterVarsity Campus Minister, Mickey Sanchez. If you have resources on these topics you’ve found helpful, please let us know as we’d like to list it here for other to benefit from as well. Feel free to contact Mickey Sanchez with questions about any of these resources or if you would like some advice or coaching on being an ambassador in your current context. This is Mickey’s favorite subject, he has a great deal of experience reaching our secular / post-Christian culture, and he loves equipping others to reach their world. If you have any success using any of these resources we’d love to hear your story, so please share it with us by emailing gcf@u.northwestern.edu.

These resources are currently broken up into Evangelism (training for how to talk to non-Christians) and Apologetics (how to address questions/doubts non-Christians have). Many apologetic resources also count as evangelistic training for Christians as it helps them engage with their friends intellectually, but we will keep them separate here to distinguish those that focus solely the practice of walking with our friends as the go from skeptic to believer and those that are more about engaging with intellectual doubt. Also, the books below aim at an audience similar to GCF.

If you would like suggestions on books that might be simpler (e.g. More than a Carpenter, Case for Christ) or more academic for non-Christians who have already read quite a lot (e.g. The Resurrection of the Son of God, Warrented Christian Belief) please reach out to Mickey Sanchez.

Evangelism

Websites:

Books

Apologetics

Websites

Books

  • Making Sense of God: Finding God in the Modern World by Tim Keller

    • Why should I care? We can’t expect someone to explore Jesus if they don’t care or think Christianity is irrelevant at best or harmful at worst. Excellent first book for someone who trusts a Christian (Threshold 1) but perhaps isn’t curious yet (Threshold 2) or is curious but not open to change (Threshold 3). If they won’t read it, recommend the 2019 Questioning Christianity video series which distills the book into 7 lectures. Incredibly helpful for Christians to familiarize themselves with the content of this book.

  • The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller

    • What is this gospel you want me to explore? If someone is curious about Christianity (Threshold 2) or open to change (Threshold 3), this is a helpful book to further clarify what the gospel is that they would be exploring. If a non-Christian has the wrong image of the gospel in their minds, e.g. Christianity just another form of works based religion, then they will have muted interest in exploring what they think they already know and think of as judgmental. This book shows how the gospel is different from both irreligion (non-belief), AND, more importantly, religion (being moral to get God’s blessing and judging others). Also helps the non-Christian hit Threshold 4 (seeking vs. meandering) so they focus on the gospel/Jesus and not various non-essential issues. Incredibly helpful for Christians to read this and be able to articulate the difference between the gospel and religion to their friends.

  • Encounters with Jesus: Unexpected Answers to Life's Biggest Questions by Tim Keller

    • What was Jesus like? A great follow-up to Prodigal God in that it keeps the focus on Jesus while expanding the portrait of who he is. Sort of a Bible study on Jesus through key passages in the gospels. InterVarsity has historically called this a GiG - Group Investigating God - where you help a friend learn more about Jesus through the gospels.

  • King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus by Tim Keller

    • Who is this Jesus, exactly? Another potential follow-up Bible study GiG type of book that focuses on Jesus, but this time specifically on the book of Mark. Ideally these books would continue to help a non-Christian get a clear picture of who Jesus is vs. the caricature they may have. As they see Jesus’ beauty they might start to ask, with greater interest, the question of “How can we know any of this is true?”, which leads to the next book…

  • The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller

    • But is Christianity true? Great for someone who is in threshold 2 (Curious) and above who may ask at some point, “…but how do I know this is true?” Great survey of objections to faith and some positive reasons to believe in an irenic spirit that starts by reminding someone with doubt to be fair and doubt their doubts as well.

  • Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics by William Lane Craig

    • Deeper dive into the positive reasons to believe in Jesus. Good balance of philosophical reasoning and historical argument. Without philosophical reasoning, historical argument is hampered by modern intuition that scientific advancement has shown miracles are highly improbable/impossible, which is a not properly a scientific claim but a philosophical one. At the same time, without historical evidence, philosophical reasoning doesn’t get you all the way to Jesus’ resurrection.

  • Walking with God through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller

    • The problem of evil, or why/how a good God could allow pain and suffering, is a big challenge for many non-Christians (and Christians). This book is a logical AND pastoral attempt to walk through this sensitive question in a winsome and compelling way. The end result is the realization that 1) the existence of pain/suffering is a bigger problem if there is no God, and 2) Jesus’ sacrifice shows us that God does care and is not indifferent or uninvolved, but that he’s doing something beyond anything we would have imagined.

  • Questioning Christianity Suggested Reading List

    • Lots of great recommended books for anyone who wants to go further

More resources forthcoming…please suggest your favorites and why you found them helpful.