Thinking Out Loud with Alan Shlemon - Eight Tips to Become a Professional Apologist

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

Alan offers eight tips to help someone who is interested in pursuing part-time or full-time apologetics ministry.

If you or someone you know has ever considered working in part-time or full-time apologetics, I'd like to offer you eight tips that might help towards that goal. That's what I want to cover in this episode of my podcast, Thinking Out Loud with Alan Schleman. Now, I'm often asked how someone can start a career, either in part-time or full-time apologetics ministry. Now, that question actually is very encouraging for me to hear, and that's because the church needs more people who can train other believers in apologetics. Now, what makes it challenging is that it takes time to study and to develop your skills before you can make a living out of it. Now, of course, if you just want to merely use apologetics for everyday conversations, well, of course, and you can just start today, right?

Grab an apologetics book or maybe go to an apologetics website like str.org or others. Perhaps maybe even attend a lecture about apologetics. So these are all easy ways to get apologetics into your mind and into your soul. And really learning to do that is a very practical step that's within really anyone's reach. If, however, you want to pursue a career in apologetics, well, let me offer you eight suggestions that will put you on the right path.

Here's the first one. You need to develop your writing skill. You see, writing is essential for apologetics. In fact, as you improve, writing will force you to organize your thoughts and to help you to think clearly. And so what you want to do is focus on making complex ideas accessible to your audience. And I would say this is a necessity, especially when you're teaching about complex scientific, philosophical, or theological matters. And trust me, your readers will thank you for doing that hard work. Now, your writing doesn't need to be a book-length treatment or even a long essay. My suggestion is just to start with short blog-length pieces that convey a message or just make a point.

And you can always, of course, just make them longer. Now, one of the benefits of writing is that it's leveraged work. So in other words, whatever you write can be read by other people while you're sleeping. So in other words, you do the work once, but then it continues to train others long after you've finished. By the way, my suggestion, if you wanted to get a book on how to write well, my suggestion would be William Zinsser's book. It's called On Writing Well, and it's just a classic guide to writing nonfiction. And in fact, here at Stantor Reason, it is required reading if you're going to be involved in any kind of apologetics content creation. Okay, so here's a second tip, second suggestion for you. You need to develop your speaking skill. Now, like writing, public speaking is crucial to apologetics.

And what makes it challenging, though, is that you have to organize your thoughts and also deliver them verbally in front of an audience in a clear and memorable way. So my suggestion is start now to practice that right and develop your craft slowly over time. Now, not every apologist needs to be a platform speaker. Now, not every apologist needs to be a platform speaker. I understand that. But there will be times when you still will need to speak in front of a group. And so therefore, if you're not even planning to present in front of large crowds, the skill of public speaking will still be valuable.

If, however, you plan on teaching apologetics through public presentations, well, then, of course, mastering the craft of speaking is going to be a non-negotiable. Now, there's a lot of different ways to develop your skill. It'd be ideal if you could find a speaker who you know, who excels at public speaking, and then just attend their presentation and pay attention and take notes to what they do and how they speak. Now, if you want formal training, I'd suggest taking a course on public speaking. For example, Frank Turek offers what's called Cross-Examined Instructor Academy or CIA. There's another organization called Score Speaker Academy and score, by the way, is spelled S-C-O-R-R-E. So Score Speaker Academy. So those are just two formal organizations that you can go to and spend a couple of days practicing the art and mastering the art of public speaking.

Well, maybe not mastering it, but at least improving your skills by getting feedback from other people. And that leads me to the third tip. That is you need to solicit critical feedback. third tip. That is, you need to solicit critical feedback. Now, anyone can write and speak, but few people do it well. And if you want to improve at teaching apologetics, you need to ask others to give you constructive assessment of your work. Now, getting that can be difficult because Christians tend to avoid giving negative feedback to other believers. You know, they'll just simply tell you, oh, you're just doing a great job. But don't settle for false encouragement. Find seasoned writers and speakers and ask them to give you constructive feedback. Invite them to read your articles or maybe listen to your podcast or watch your presentations. Now, if they're not available

in person, well, then my suggestion is try to record your event and then send them the video. And then just ask them to note what you do well and what areas are needed for improvement. By the way, my suggestion is to think of this as a lifelong practice, not something that you just do only when you start. Now, keep in mind, if it isn't already obvious, that soliciting feedback is going to require humility, right? It'll be painful as well. And you need to be willing to accept that there are many things that you don't do very well.

And that's okay. We all start at the beginning, right? And if you can learn to accept critical feedback, by the way, even when it's not charitably offered man you're bound to improve and by the way we at standard reason we routinely solicit feedback from each other from each of the other speakers and even our president greg cokel still asks us to comment on his presentations after he finishes so So therefore, make it a regular habit and just get used to it, okay?

It'll do you a whole bunch of good. All right, here's a fourth tip. Bloom where you're planted. In other words, find where God has you right now and then look for ways to serve there. And in many cases, that might just be your local church, but that's good, right? Churches need apologetics. And most likely the pastor and other staff are probably overwhelmed with other tasks

anyways. So find a way to teach Christians where you are now. And that might be a Bible study, a small group, maybe a youth group, or perhaps even a campus fellowship. Now, Stand to Reason offers the opportunity to start an outpost, an STR outpost, at your church or at your school. And this, by the way, is a great way to take a leadership role without starting an entire organization on your own. It also helps you to learn good apologetics content because you're responsible for leading these discussions. Now, other ideas might include starting a podcast, maybe guest writing for a website, or leading a book club.

As you are faithful in these small things, God will open up bigger opportunities, which will give you more avenues to develop your skills. And in time, you might get the chance to start part-time or full-time apologetics work on your own, or you might even get invited to join the team of an existing organization. All right, here's a fifth tip. Engage non-Christians. Now, one of the primary roles of apologetics is to respond to challenges

that are raised by skeptics and atheists and people, of course, of other religious traditions. Therefore, it's essential for you to routinely talk to or to engage people who disagree with your convictions. And this will allow you to practice your skills, refine your ideas, and of course, learn precisely what other people believe. Now, there are many ways to do this depending on your kind of sort of current life situation. So if you're at a secular university, well, man, there's a lot of clubs that are run by skeptics, Muslims, you know, there's PETA, the people for the ethical treatment of animals, there's LGBT individuals, and many more people who you can talk to. And so what you can do is

develop healthy conversation with a friend or a family member, perhaps if they're, you know, you're not at a university. Perhaps depending on your work environment, you could engage coworkers, you know, perhaps at lunch or at work, right? But at the very least, you need to engage ideas you don't agree with. And perhaps that could be just as simple as reading books written by atheists or reading material by people who hold views that you intend to engage. Now, as a last resort, you could dialogue with non-Christians online, although I sometimes tend to discourage people that for many reasons, one of which I'll address in the next point. So the sixth tip I have for you is to build conversational character.

Now, an essential but often overlooked trait among apologists is good character. Now, I'm not talking about being a moral or a faithful person, although obviously those are very important. What I'm talking about here is something very specific, and that is conversational character and social tact. You see, apologists must be kind and gracious and winsome. After all, the most famous apologetics passage, 1 Peter 3.15, notice it commands us to make a defense that says, but with gentleness and respect. And sadly, I often see apologists acting in ways that are unbecoming of a representative of Jesus.

Okay. Remember in 2 Corinthians 5.20, we're called to be ambassadors for Christ as though God were making his appeal through us. And many Christians, unfortunately, who are unbecoming of a representative of Jesus, they behave in rude, crass, and harsh ways. And online conversations that start out friendly, and sometimes even start out quite inviting, quickly devolve into snark and condescension. And that's why I'm often very leery and skeptical of suggesting online engagement with non-believers. And many internet skeptics are rude themselves,

and it takes a lot of composure and self-control for you to respond every time with grace, love, and kindness. Well, how do you build conversational character, though? Well, honestly, I think it's extremely difficult, and you can't do it without God's help. And so, therefore, I encourage you to immerse yourself in the character of Jesus and emulate him. You see, in his earthly ministry, John 1.14 tells us that Jesus was full of truth and grace. And when he

was reviled, he did not revile in return, but entrusted himself to the Father. This is 1 Peter 2.21-23. So therefore, be, as it says, kind-hearted, not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead. That's, by the way, 1 Peter 3, 8 through 9. So pray, asking God to help transform you to be more like his son. Now, at Standard Reason, we often look for practical ways to flesh out this principle. And that's why we've developed the Ambassador's Creed, which you can look up on our website. We have a list about what it says and what it is. And in this Ambassador's Creed, we try to emphasize the importance of traits like humility and patience and fairness and attractiveness, right? And I'm talking about attractiveness in conduct, of course, right? And so I recommend you find the Ambassador's Creed on our website, read it today, and then reread it every quarter to keep those values and characteristics in mind.

a method to help you win arguments. Rather, your motivation for exemplifying a gracious character should be to represent Christ, even if it doesn't result in the conversational outcome that you want. All right, let me give you the seventh tip. Consider getting an apologetics certificate or degree. Now, depending on how confident you are that you're going to be involved in part-time or full-time apologetics ministry, it would benefit you to study it formally. Now, there's a whole bunch of options around the United States where you can study apologetics either in person or online. For example, Biola University has a program, Liberty University, Colorado Christian University, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southern Evangelical Seminary, Houston Christian University, Dallas Theological Seminary, Palm Beach Atlantic University, Lancaster Bible College. And probably there's more, but those are just sort of some of the ones that kind of come to mind right now. more, but those are just sort of some of the ones that kind of come to mind right now. And so getting a certificate or a degree from one of these institutions will not only bolster your knowledge

and confidence in apologetics, but it'll also add credibility to your resume. And finally, the eighth tip I have for you is to build a platform. Now, as you study and develop the skills necessary to get involved in apologetics ministry, it'll be important to build your brand. So having an online presence is an important factor in reaching more people with your writing and speaking. Although your apologetics work might not be global worthy now,

it's important to lay a foundation for the future when you will want to point a greater number of people to your podcast articles and presentations. And so maybe, you know, determine the major platforms and get accounts with the same username at all of them. I use at Alan Schliemann account as an account name for myself at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, so on and so forth. Okay. And so that way people will associate your personal name or your ministry name with the kind of work that you'll eventually be doing. Now at Stand to Reason, we try to leverage our work online. So for example, I'll write an article. Of course, I'll post it at Stand to Reason's website. But then later on, I might produce a podcast that's on the same content, the same topic, and then post that of a podcast on social media later. Perhaps then I'll take that original article that I written, maybe take an excerpt from the article and then post it as an Instagram quote.

OK, so you get the idea. But eventually you want to leverage a website and social media to your advantage. So these eight steps, I think, are a good just overview of to kind of figure out how to get started on your path to becoming an apologist. figure out how to get started on your path to becoming an apologist, right? Now, again, it would be ideal for you to find a seasoned apologist who can mentor you through this process. And I think you can gain excellent insight from someone who's already taken the journey and is where you want to be right now. Well, let me close with two final thoughts. And first is that none of this advice about how to potentially develop a full-time or part-time apologetics ministry, none of this is intended to replace studying God's Word and, of course, nurturing your relationship with Christ, right? Those two things must be a priority because without them, nothing I've said here really matters, right? Those two things must be a priority because without them, nothing I've said here

really matters, right? And then second of all, just remember what the role of apologetics is. Although it's a fun and powerful tool and a very practical tool that helps you with evangelism, don't let it overshadow what's ultimately important. Remember, apologetics is not an end in itself. It's a means to an end. The end is the gospel, which is the message of reconciliation that God offers through his son. Apologetics is simply a tool that helps people to, or helps you to remove obstacles that hold people back from the gospel. All right. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you've enjoyed this episode or find these practical tips,

productive and practical, I encourage you to share this episode with a friend. And also don't forget to subscribe to my podcast so that you don't miss an episode when it's released. And thank you for listening. I look forward to thinking out loud with you next time. Thank you.