Restoring the Foundations

The United States Supreme Court has just ruled that same sex marriage is now legal in all 50 states.  Many Christians are upset and are planning a political backlash of some sort.  They are mostly upset because they see the Christian values they grew up with being overthrown and mocked. But politics is not the answer because political power has never changed a human heart.

Some people might respond “Our nation needs a revival!”  This is closer to the truth.  But is our nation ready for a revival?

God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus.  John was very successful. Even though his ministry never saved anyone.  John was the greatest pre-evangelist in the history of the world.

John was so successful that Jesus said “The fields are already ripe for harvest.”

Importance of Pre-evangelism

The fields are not ripe for harvest today.  Our nation is not ready for a revival.  Our nation is not even ready for the gospel seed to be planted.  Our culture, especially on the university campus, is mainly made up of the hard ground of Matthew 13. 

When Jesus told the Parable of the Soils, he said some of the seed fell on hard ground and the birds came and ate the seed.  Because the ground had never been plowed up, the seed never got into the soil.  We have to plow the ground.  We have to prove to the culture that the gospel message is reasonable and worth considering.

Let me change metaphors for a moment.  When Christians see the culture going downhill fast, they are tempted to become discouraged.  Sometimes Christians quote this verse:

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” – Psalm 11:3

This verse is not telling us to give up hope.  No. The only reasonable response is to begin restoring the foundations. Forget about the fact the walls have fallen down and same sex marriage is legal.  It does no good to attempt to prop the walls up if the foundation is destroyed.  We must focus on restoring the foundations.

What are the foundations? 

These are the foundational beliefs people hold.  What would the culture of the United States look like if it was prepared for a great revival and a massive number of new conversions to Christ?

First, we would see a widespread cultural belief in the existence of God (or at the very least, an acceptance that belief in the existence of God is rational).

Second, we would see a common acknowledgement that the Bible and modern science are compatible.  (This is one of my favorite subjects since so many scientists have come to believe in God because of scientific discoveries.)

Third, we would see that many unsaved people accept that the Bible is historically reliable and that the God of the Bible is moral.

Fourth, we’d see a common acceptance that the historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead is strong.

A Tested Method of Restoring Foundations

My booklet “Why Three Brilliant Atheists Became Christians” helps restore all four foundations. We know the booklet is effective because of focus group testing we did with students at major universities.  If you haven’t read about the focus groups we conducted in southern California, read this. 

The plan is simple.  We will be targeting the 20 million university students across the United States.  We will partner with local churches and with campus ministries like Cru, Intervarsity and Navigators to train university students to give away up to five million booklets each year.  That’s five million students being impacted by information that will make them more open to the gospel.

Think about this.  There are five million university graduates going into the workforce every year.  If we do this for ten years in a row, we will impact 50 million employees.  We will change the culture for a generation. 

We will be plowing the fields and planting seeds.  We may yet again see the fields ripe unto harvest. 

Will you join with me?  Please pray for God’s work on university campuses.  I believe we are about to see God do some amazing things!    

How to Reach the Next Generation for Christ – Part 2

One of the most important questions facing the church is “How do we reach the next generation for Christ?”

Part 1: We have to acknowledge the changing religious landscape and allow that knowledge to motivate us to action.

Evangelical churches are doing better than mainline and Catholic churches but even the evangelical churches are affected.  America’s religious landscape is beginning to look more and more like Europe. Let’s look at atheism in Europe.

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How high can atheism in America rise?

• Polls in the United Kingdom show that 30-40% of people do not believe in God but only 8% self-identify as confirmed atheist.
• In Sweden 23% do not believe in “any sort of spirit, God or life force.”
• In The Netherlands, 25% of people are atheists and 31% are agnostic.
• In France 33% are atheist and 14% agnostic.

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This is not the future we want for America. I’m not giving you these statistics to discourage you but to encourage you that we need to a new national effort to prepare the way for the gospel. God sent John the Baptist to prepare the way for Jesus and Jesus praised his effort saying “the fields are ripe for harvest.” The field is not ripe for harvest today and the soil is getting harder and harder to plant. So we need an army of believers to work together to prepare for revival.

The key issues are the next generation is deeply affected by the skepticism in our culture and the university. University students often believe Christianity is not intellectually viable and that science has disproven the Bible. We have to address this issue in order for faith in Christ to be reasonable. Other intellectual and moral doubts must also be addressed.

Part 2: We need a national effort to target the next generation to prepare the way for the gospel (pre-evangelism). What does this entail?

• Prayer for university students and faculty
• New cooperative strategy on a national scale (we can’t only do the things that aren’t working)
• Use proven tools and methods to show that belief in God and the Bible is compatible with science and reasonable in our modern age
• Show that Christianity is also a force for good in the world
• Display a loving and cooperative community of believers

Factbridge has developed (and is developing) pre-evangelistic campaigns for the university campus. This will include but is not limited to:

• Training churches how to be a good partner with campus ministries like Cru, Intervarsity and Navigators (these ministries do a great job but could do so much more if they had additional volunteers and resources)
• Training Christian students how to conduct surveys and give away booklets like “Why Three Brilliant Atheists Became Christians”
• Bringing apologetic speakers to the university, speakers like William Lane Craig, Hugh Ross, Ravi Zacharias, Frank Turek and Josh McDowell

Our goal is to create a buzz on campus about the intellectual rigor and evidence for the Christian faith so students and faculty are more open to the gospel. We want to distribute thousands of booklets equal to 25% of the student population. We want to do this year after year (while rotating the four booklets we will be distributing). We want pastors and churches to be involved in this important effort. We want university students to feel valued and loved. We want to embolden Christian professors on campus so they speak out regarding the evidence for Christ more often.

Because America has almost 20 million full-time undergraduate and graduate students, we want to distribute about five million booklets every year on university campuses.

We’re looking for volunteers to join with us in this national effort. We’re looking for pastors who want to reach a university campus near their church. We’re looking for active laymen who will volunteer even if the pastor is too busy to get involved.

If you’re excited about reaching the next generation for Christ and you are interested in partnering with Factbridge, please send me a personal email letting me know.  We will begin our planning for the next school year very soon.  I’m very excited about what God is doing and want you to be part of this great journey!

How To Reach the Next Generation For Christ – Part 1

How do we reach the next generation for Christ?
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First, we must squarely face the changing religious landscape.

Multiple research reports on the shrinking of Christianity and the rise of the unchurched have been reported in the media.  The most recent, the Religious Landscape Study on America, was released on May 12, 2015 by the Pew Research Center.

An energetic debate erupted over the meaning of this report.  The mainstream media (Washington Post, NY Times, USA Today, NBC News) initially reported that Christianity was falling fast.  These reports gave people the idea Christianity was dying.

Atheist groups (Secular Coalition of America, Secular Policy Institute and bloggers) celebrated the news like a public relations coup.  Perhaps they thought they could accelerate the trend by hyping up the news.

Speaking at Beckman High School in Irvine, CA

Today I had the awesome opportunity to speak to the Power of Prayer club at Beckman High School.  I started by asking them to complete the same survey I use with university students. Then I spoke to them on “Loving the Lord with Your Mind” using the command in Mark 12:30 – “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.”

Sharing Christ with Three Atheists

Today I was on the Cal State University at Long Beach campus and shared Christ with three atheists and gave away several booklets.

Here are their survey answers and the highlights of our conversation.

To see the Survey questions, click the Survey page.

Legend- Y=Yes, LY=Leans Yes, NoO=No Opinion, LN=Leans No, N=No

Undergraduate Art History Major

I will call this student Sandra. She is an atheist but I think she is open to facts and ideas about Christ. Here are her answers:

Sharing Christ with a Post-Modern Christian

Yesterday I arrived on campus at CSULB late in the afternoon and only had time to survey one student. Here are her survey answers and the highlights of our conversation.

To see the Survey questions, click the Survey page.

Legend- Y=Yes, LY=Leans Yes, NoO=No Opinion, LN=Leans No, N=No

Undergraduate with Undeclared Major

I will call this young lady Mindy. She is a post-modern Christian. I’m trying to learn how to talk to Christians who are not convinced absolute truth can be known.

Sharing Christ with Two Professors and Two Students

Universities often have presentations and panel discussions in the evenings that are not part of standard coursework. Sometimes students can get extra credit for attending these talks. I thought it might be interesting to approach professors in the philosophy and religion departments to see if I might participate in an upcoming event.

Sharing Christ with a Philosophy Professor

Me: Hi! My name is Ron Cram and I’m a local business owner. I wanted to introduce myself and something I’ve been working on. Do you have a minute?

Sharing Christ with an Atheist and a Muslim

Today I was on the Cal State University at Long Beach campus and shared Christ with two people and gave away two booklets.

Here are their survey answers and the highlights of our conversation.

To see the Survey questions, click the Survey page.

Legend- Y=Yes, LY=Leans Yes, NoO=No Opinion, LN=Leans No, N=No

Undergraduate History Major

I will call this young man Bill.  He’s a strong atheist who says he likes to keep an open mind but seems to have an extremely closed mind about Christianity.

Sharing Christ at Cal State Fullerton

Today I surveyed two students and shared Christ with four.  That’s not the way the math usually works, but it was a particularly blessed day.

Here are the answers given and the highlights of our discussions with those students.

To see the Survey questions, click the Survey page.

Planting Seeds on a Tuesday

Yesterday Mike Pizzolato of Pizzolato Video Services and I went onto the university campus to survey students in the hope that some students would allow us to video record our discussion.  We explained that we wanted to make a training video to teach others how to conduct the survey.

Only one student agreed to be video recorded.  Open-air conditions are sometimes difficult because of background noise and other factors. I hope to post the video here if the quality is good.

We surveyed five students and gave away four booklets.  Here are the answers given and the highlights of our discussions for three of those students.

To see the Survey questions, click the Survey page.