Check out this trip that Brett Kunkle took a group of 24 high schoolers on. He wanted to inoculate them against the sort of attack they would come under when they leave home and go to college. Here are some snippets of the itinerary…
Saturday the 18th: During the morning, Mark Thomas of the Atheists of the Silicon Valley met with our group and presented his arguments against theism and for atheism. In the afternoon Josiah Greene, from the Berkeley club SANE (Students for A Non-religious Ethos), did the same.
Monday the 20th: In the morning, students worked on apologetic presentations they were assigned, which they delivered to the group that evening. In between, David Fitzgerald of the San Francisco Atheists and Larry Hicok of the East Bay Atheists jointly presented their arguments against Christianity in particular and for atheism, followed by a lively time of Q & A.
Tuesday the 21st: In the morning we visited the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley where Reverend Bill Hamilton-Holway discussed the distinctive beliefs of Unitarian Universalists. Afterward, we spent some time doing surveys and engaging in conversations on the campus of U.C. Berkeley. We spent the afternoon at the home of Phillip E. Johnson as he discussed Intelligent Design with our students (for me, this was the highlight of the trip).
What a great way to prepare kids to face the hostile world of the college campus!
What a privilege to be on that trip! What I wouldn’t give to sit down with Phillip Johnson…
I have worked with students, and while I definitely agree that there is a great need to better prepare young believers to know what and why they believe and to defend their faith, I also think that there is a great need to prepare them to face dangers that are becoming more and more prevalent among Christians themselves. For one, there is much “Christian mysticism” not only within college [Christian] groups but also within church congregations. This manifests itself in statements such as “God told me…” and is “mystical” in that it assumes a direct, individual pipeline (subjective) of communication with God that is outside of Scripture (objective). Also, there is a need to prepare young Christians on their way to college to engage the culture but not embrace it. I have seen many students go off to college and allow themselves to be influenced by the culture around them rather than be shaped by biblical principles.
Guest, good comments. As a campus minister…I would be curious to hear your thoughts on “how” we accomplish such preparation.
If you found this interesting, then Part 2 is a must-read.