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In this episode John and Gregg resume their discussion from last episode of the article on apologetics in the Biola University Magazine: “Young people are indeed leaving the church,” by Craig Hazen and Larry Barnett.

During this conversation John contrasts the above article with another, entitled “How becoming more secular brought me closer to Jesus,” by Allison Lynch. John does so in part to investigate a hunch that he had from last episode. Namely, that while the Biola article contends that much (if not all) of the difficulties that cause young people to leave the church are due to unanswered doubts, that this is not the case.

In other words, John contends that Barnett and Hazen’s approach is entirely partial and that it will not be effective where the issues forcing people from the church are experiential, and not intellectual, such as the situation that Allison Lynch presents.

Lynch’s article chronicles her evangelical past and, ultimately, her break from evangelicalism.
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In this episode John and Gregg discuss an article from the Fall 2016 Biola University Magazine entitled, “Young People are Indeed leaving the Church.”

John summarizes the article as stating that the reason why young people are leaving the church is because they have “doubts,” and if these doubts can be sufficiently addressed then young people–essentially millenials–will have better relationships with God (and essentially will stay in church).

The article argues that Christian apologetics is the answer to the lack of church participation among millenials, yet John finds this line of reasoning questionable on several levels. First, the importance of Christian apologetics appears to be exaggerated by the way that the article presents it as a “command”:
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In this episode John and Gregg discuss what “core values” are and how they apply to Christianity.

Gregg explains that he created a questionnaire for his church group when he understood that several participants were having a very hard time engaging with the material on self-deceit. One of those questions was: “What is satisfying to you about your Christian life (in other words, what value is your Christian life to you in your day-to-day life)?”

Gregg’s spouse, Susan, offered that Christianity is satisfying to her because it aligns with her core values. From Gregg’s perspective this answer was very different in the sense that the other responses were more oriented to answering “What makes you feel good about being a Christian?” Yet this essentially were all oriented toward how they were able to help others (rather than being satisfying to themselves).

John notes that clarity about one’s core values is both helpful for self-understanding and allows us to have a better sense of our priorities (in how we live out our various core values), such that when one lives in alignment with one’s core values life is, generally speaking, noticeably better. John sees this as “being in alignment with the best version of oneself.”
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In this episode John and Gregg talk further about Gregg’s Sunday morning “Discussion Group.”

John wonders: How is the “back and forth” within the group affecting Gregg? Gregg notes that he is learning to pay attention to how some participants habitually “detract” from or even contradict his perspectives without actually engaging with the material, and to plan in advance for these types of responses.

Gregg also explains how, in past, he saw the church as a culture of trust (relative to Christianity / Christian beliefs) where he is more accustomed to working in cultures that are suspicious of Christianity / Christian beliefs.
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In this episode John and Gregg return to the topic of Gregg’s Sunday morning discussion group.

Gregg explains that last week, instead of pursuing the course of study (on self-deceit), he presented the group with 10-question Questionnaire to help them assess their expectations, energy and commitment level to the discussion group. Could it be that this study is not for everyone?

John finds Gregg’s approach surprising because, as John notes, at church, it’s “all for you” in the sense that people are accustomed to “everything being applicable for everyone all the time.” In other words, there would never be the idea that a Bible study would not be useful or appropriate for all?

However, Gregg explains that he framed the matter differently to the participants: he presented self-deceit as a “crucial” area of study such that, whether one is able or willing to study it right now, no Christian can be mature without becoming understanding how one deceives oneself (and becoming skilled at implementing counter-practices that reveal and diffuse self-deceit).
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