In his book, On Guard, Dr. William Lane Craig states the following:
“When I speak in churches around the country, I often meet parents who say something like, “If only you’d been here two or three years ago! Our son (or daughter) had questions about the faith which no one could answer, and now he’s far from the Lord.” In fact, there seem to be more and more reports of Christians abandoning their faith. A Christian minister at Stanford University recently told me that 40 percent of Christian high school students in church youth groups will quit church involvement altogether after graduation. Forty percent! It’s not just that they lose their faith in a hostile university environment. Rather, many have already abandoned faith while still in the youth group but continue to go through the motions until they’re out from under their parents’ authority.
I think the church is really failing these kids. Rather than provide them training in the defense of Christianity’s truth, we focus on emotional worship experiences, felt needs, and entertainment. It’s no wonder they become sitting ducks for that teacher or professor who rationally takes aim at their faith. In high school and college, students are intellectually assaulted with every manner of non-Christian philosophy conjoined with an overwhelming relativism and skepticism. We’ve got to train our kids for war. How dare we send them unarmed into an intellectual war zone? Parents must do more than take their children to church and read them Bible stories. Moms and dads need to be trained in apologetics themselves and so be able to explain to their children simply from an early age and then with increasing depth why we believe as we do. Honestly, I find it hard to understand how Christian couples in our day and age can risk bringing children into the world without being trained in apologetics as part of the art of parenting.”
I could not agree more with Dr. Craig. In this regard, I want to share some of the resources I use with my family. I’m only able to share a few in order to keep this at a reasonable length. Check out my website Apologetics Hub for many of the other resources or send me a message for more information or with any questions.
My family gets together every night for around an hour and we go through resources such as the below. I try to keep things interesting and fun. Consistency is very important. We rarely miss a night. Where you focus your time shows what’s most important.
Bible Reading
I read from the Bible and then read what a commentary says about what I read. I am currently using the New Bible Commentary. This commentary was recommended to me by one of the world’s foremost New Testament theologians. For commentaries on the whole Bible, he recommended this one and Eerdmans' Commentary on the Bible. For commentaries on books of the New Testament he recommended the Tyndale Commentary Series on the NT.
Christian Doctrine & Apologetics: Books/Curriculums
Videos
My kid’s favorite thing to watch is the Q&As at the end of Dr. Frank Turek’s “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist” college seminars. It’s very educational and entertaining to watch Dr. Turek respond to all kinds of questions from Christians and non-Christians. I highly recommend going through all of these that you can find on Youtube.
Some great videos that cover Christian apologetics topics in an easy-to-understand and powerful way are the Reasonable Faith animated videos.
Books/Curriculums
I read from a Christian doctrine and apologetics curriculum. Normally we use Dr. William Lane Craig’s Defenders Sunday School curriculum.
Dr. Craig’s curriculum is quite advanced in some areas. For those new to studying Christian doctrine and apologetics I would start off with one of Dr. Frank Turek’s curriculums.
Check out Apologetics Hub for many age-appropriate book and curriculum options.
Courses
I highly recommend adults and teens get a Certificate in Apologetics from Biola University. You can use the code SMDCERTDISC to save $100. This is inexpensive and not difficult to do. You can work through the material at your leisure. I have done this and my 16 year old is doing it right now.
Online Christian Courses has a lot of excellent courses for all ages.
Personal Testimonies
Videos
We watch videos and read books that involve powerful personal testimonies. Some Youtube channels with these are 100 Huntley Street and The 700 Club.
Books
Some recent books we’ve gone through are the following:
Hiding in the Light: Why I Risked Everything to Leave Islam and Follow Jesus by Rifqa Bary
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity by Nabeel Qureshi
Fighting for Life: Becoming a Force for Change in a Wounded World by Lila Rose
Cultural Issues: Abortion/Same-Sex Marriage/Transgenderism
We watch videos and read books that cover current cultural issues that are important to understand from a Christian worldview, such as abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, transgenderism, etc.
Videos
Cross Examined
Reasonable Faith Video Podcasts
Books
See Apologetics Hub for age-appropriate recommendations.
Spiritual Disciplines/Formation
We read books and work on spiritual formation/developing spiritual disciplines. The most recent book we’ve gone through is the following:
Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun
Conferences
We try to attend several apologetics conferences each year. Check out Apologetics Hub for a list of upcoming conferences.