Diversity Symposium Shares Contextualizing Apologetics with Students

The Center for Multicultural Enrichment and the Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement hosted more than 250 students in the Science Hall auditorium to hear from well-educated speakers about diversity Feb. 1.

These organizations held the Diversity Symposium to talk about contextualizing apologetics and discuss Christianity with contextualization. The goal of the night for the Center for Apologetics and Cultural Engagement was to connect theology of the church and apply it to everyday issues.

Liberty senior Peter Gammell hoped to gain a broader perspective of the diversity issues faced in our country today. He wanted to learn a practical way of how we as Christians live in a diverse culture.

“The amount of work you put into understanding other cultures shows how much you really want to engage the culture,” Founder of the national Jude 3 Project Lisa Fields said.

Jude 3 Project’s mission is to help the Christian community understand what they believe and why they believe it. The organization has a strong emphasis on helping those of African descent in the United States.

Fields opened by stating that she came to love apologetics by accident. Fields’ father was a pastor, and she had been around the Bible her whole life. One day in college, she came across a textbook that would change her view on diversity forever.

“My professor said, ‘I’m going to change everything you know about Jesus,’” Fields said. “It stretched and challenged me.”

Fields then realized that, in the area of apologetics, there were not many African-Americans. She wanted to change that. Contextualization to Fields is a method in which Christians share the biblical methods to various people groups.

“I think the biggest thing is to spend time with the people you want to engage,” Fields said. “Spend time not just trying to convert them, but spend time trying to get to know them and love them, and then find ways that you can engage them with the Gospel that bests suits them as a person.”

Fields spent time at the symposium discussing key areas in which students can contextualize. The first is to spend time with the audience you are trying to engage. According to Fields, Christians do not push themselves to know different people groups in a personal way.

“It is just ignorance,” Fields said. “It shows the lack of interaction.”

She said effective communication and apologetics across the board requires us to be students first and not teachers.

“Generalizations are the silent killers of effective communication,” Fields said.

Understanding the culture of the people Christians are trying to reach was the second key take away from Fields’ speech. She said what may not be effective in one area may be effective in another area, and to do this you have to know your history.

“This is so important because one of the major questions we get is, ‘Is Christianity a white man’s religion?’” Fields said.

Professor of Missiology at Covenant Seminary and Director of the City Ministry Initiative Vince Bantu added in the symposium the notion that Christianity is a “white man’s religion” has always been false.

“We know God is drawing all people to himself,” Bantu said.

A better cultural and historical understanding helps Christians not misuse the Bible, which can leave a lasting damage to God’s people, according to Fields.

“We should make sure we are reading widely,” Fields said. “The diversity on your shelf will help you to become more effective.”

Bantu agreed, adding that we, as a society, are more familiar with Greek and Latin text than other texts that have made a large difference as well.

Bantu shared that people are different and those people have different priorities and cultures.

“Diversity in Genesis 11 is when God pushes humanity out,” Bantu said. “Diversity was always a part of God’s plan.”

Each culture has its own perspective, so the blending of cultures together is why diversity is important, one student remarked. Another student added that diversity helps us to understand and experience God better.

Bantu discussed how the Apostle Paul in the Bible talked about how God gives believers reconciliation.

Bantu shared the breadth of Christianity from the Saint George’s Church in Ethiopia to Ephrem the Syrian to the Tang Monument, which was the earliest Christian tradition in China. Ethiopia is a predominately Christian country and has been Christian longer than other countries, such as France. The first written text in Ethiopian was the Bible, according to Bantu.

“Christianity is intrinsically linked to your identity,” Bantu said.

Bantu discussed the three important aspects of diversity: demographics, behavior and thinking. Diversity is represented at every level from administrative to faculty and all the way down to students. We have to embrace different ways in which we are doing things, according to Bantu.

He compared how every person talks and acts differently when watching a sports game on television. He said that if we only view the sports game from one camera angle, we are only getting one view. Instead, if we engage with the diverse perspectives of others, we become more diverse and rich.

Bantu said the principles of Christianity are that people should embrace their cultures and challenge their cultures.

“People will test you,” Fields said. “And I think patience and humility will go a long way.”

Students can check out books on diversity at the Center4ME that include a wide variety of views and authors.