Evangelism & Apologetics

Evangelism | by J.D. Payne

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Dr. J.D. Payne is the Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism and Director of the Center for North American Missions and Church Planting at SBTS. He was brand new when I was finishing up my Masters of Divinity in Missions and Evangelism. I took him for a church planting class knowing nothing about him.

I liked that he was doing some fresh thinking. He challenged my views of planting rather than just going through the motions. It's been a privilege to stay in touch here and there since I've left SBTS, and I jumped at the chance to get a look at his new book, Evangelism: A Biblical Response to Today's Questions.

I love books on evangelism, have read dozens, and frequently go back to reread or review notes and highlights in them. A huge encouragement to me. I find most every book on the subject helpful in some way, even when not good on every subject. J.D. Payne has added a completely helpful book of substance to my library with this volume. 

Some evangelism books give you a particular approach or model. Some are written in a certain era and are flavored with how the church views evangelism at that time and are dated. A few stand the test of time and become a resource for a long time. JI Packer's Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God is one of those. I believe Evangelism will be one of those. 

It has 33 short chapters answering basic questions about evangelism moving toward more complex questions. There's a fiction dialogue at the beginning of each chapter between Roberto and Mark, to set up the chapter. For someone in my church who hasn't done much evangelism, those dialogues will be quite helpful. 

The true greatness of JD's book is that it's a dialogue on evangelism. Even if you skip the Roberto and Mark discussion, it's treated as a progressive discussion where the next logical question is posed and answered. It's answered biblically and theologically, yet simply. That's a good word for this book. Simple. Or, straightforward, plain, without confusion or distraction. It's a non-flashy, to-the-point, solid book on evangelism. And I'm thankful for it.

Looking at my bookshelf with dozens of evangelistic books on it I realize that this may be the most helpful volume to give to a growing Christian in my church to lead them toward what a life of personal evangelism should be. And thankfully, as is so often absent, it has a couple of indexes in the back for easy reference.

I very much like this book and will recommend it to my church. I wish it dealt with a few things of particular interest to me (evangelistic preaching, open-air issues), but almost no books deal with those. That said, I know it will be a handy reference and refresher for me on a number of issues on evangelism in the years to come. If you are looking for something new and trendy, this book isn't it. Evangelism is as serious as the Gospel and as practical as a conversation. Pick up a copy.

The Ultimatum of God

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Charles Spurgeon Archives

In the first place preach, and in the second place preach, and in the third place preach.

Believe in preaching the love of Christ, believe in preaching the atoning sacrifice, believe in preaching the new birth, believe in preaching the whole council of God. The old hammer of the gospel will still break the rock in pieces; the ancient fire of Pentecost will still burn among the multitude. Try nothing new, but go on with preaching, and if we all preach with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, the results of preaching will astound us.

[...]

Have great hope yet, brothers, have great hope yet, despite yon shameless midnight streets, despite yon flaming gin-palaces at the corner of every street, despite the wickedness of the rich, despite the ignorance of the poor. Go on; go on; go on; in God's name go on, for if the preaching of the gospel does not save men, nothing will. If the Lord's own way of mercy fails, then hang the skies in mourning, and blot out the sun in everlasting midnight, for there remaineth nothing before our race but the blackness of darkness. Salvation by the sacrifice of Jesus is the ultimatum of God. Rejoice that it cannot fail. Let us believe without reserve, and then go straight ahead with the preaching of the Word.

The Soul Winner | Charles Spurgeon | p179

Preaching Has Great POWER

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Preachers, we talk big about the power of the Gospel and the power of preaching. But for most of us, our Gospel preaching is limited. It stays in our buildings at announced times to mostly our people. (I understand that one-on-one witnessing is a kind of preaching, but I'm talking to preachers and about our calling.)

My question is this: If preaching has power, God-designed and Spirit-delivered power, why are we not taking it everywhere, to the most people we can, with urgency? Why are we not preaching on the street corners, in public parks, in places of commerce and theater and government? It seems to me we believe Gospel preaching has power as long as it's in a pulpit, but out of the pulpit our language changes. Now the audience has power. Now they determine whether or not we preach to them. Their ears and wills and tastes and distastes become sovereign. Our the bad examples of bad public preachers tells us that approach isn't viable or helpful anymore.

We have excuses for it all from our demographics, city designs, lack of public dialogue, etc. And so the Gospel that comes with power is left in the sheath. We try to convince people to visit our church where it's taken out of the sheath. Where the power will be on display. Or we start emphasizing the power of other things, like our good examples and righteous living. 

But the truth is, the Gospel proclaimed is POWERFUL. It's like Ezekiel prophesying to the dry bones and then to the breath resulting in an army rising from the deadest of the dead. Preaching to bones is silly. Bones don't listen. Bones don't want your preaching. Bones aren't an attentive audience. But if the Gospel is preached, the worst audience and least conducive situations will be places of spiritual birth! Of salvation! Of army creation! The audience changes nothing about whether or not we preach. The audience only changes some of the bridges we use in preaching, like Paul in Acts 17.

How can we any longer fail to preach to everyone, everywhere? How can we have such a powerful Gospel and fail to unleash it? 

Let's make it public again.

Open-Air Preaching, Gospel Power, & Interruption

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I think we need to regain a healthy, biblical view of interruption.

Interruption can be good or bad. When I'm hurt and a doctor tells me I need to go to the emergency room, that's a good interruption. When I'm leading family worship and I get a recorded phone call from a politician, it's a bad interruption. Much open-air preaching is bad interruption. Sometimes very judgmental. Even cruel. Good open-air preaching, humble and loving preaching, would be the best interruption we could ever have. 

God has called us to the mission of good interruption. We don't need permission. We don't need to find an invitation to speak. We speak. We declare. We preach. We have been given the command to interrupt the world before they face the judgment of God. We are physicians crying out to a sick world to get life-saving medicine. We are ambassadors of another Kingdom warning that the current Kingdom will be destroyed and the only rescue is to join the Kingdom of the Good King. That's what the Gospel does. It forces the issue. It interrupts.

Praise God, the Gospel interrupts with power. The Bible tells us we have the power of the Gospel for salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit to be witnesses. We have the Word that is fire and a hammer that shatters the rock and won't return empty but accomplishes what God's purpose for it. We have a sword that separates joints from marrow, the sword of the Spirit. God doesn't give us an ineffective Word, but an effective one. It saves. 

If we have this power at our fingertips as preachers, and given God's permission to interrupt the lives of everyone around us, how can we not preach to everyone? How can we be content to confine our preaching to those who show up? 

(Check out all my posts & resources on open-air preaching)

Open-Air Preaching: Posts, Quotes, Resources

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Everything I've written and will write on open-air preaching I've consolidated for easy reference: Open-Air Preaching. It's available on the side-bar under "Compass." It includes open-air preaching posts, posts on relevant topics and open-air quotes, and a small, but hopefully growing list of resources beyond my blog. These are the resources I feel are worth recommending.

Open-Air Preaching & Revival

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Several weeks ago I had the privilege of sitting down with Richard Owen Roberts to discuss revival. He was interim at my church before I cam seven years ago and I've been able to sit with him from time to time and pick his brain. If you don't know, Mr. Roberts is a bookseller in Wheaton, IL, an author/editor, and a well-known expert and preacher on the issue of revival.

Toward the end of the conversation I asked him about open-air preaching. This was well before I wrote the five main posts on open-air preaching (as well as posting several quotes on Reformissionary and Twitter on the subject). I specifically asked for his thoughts about the role of open-air preaching and a desire for revival.

He first said that he thinks most open-air preaching is bad. His words were stronger than that, but I don't want to overstate. Then he said this (this isn't a direct quote, but close)...

I can't imagine that we will ever see revival without seeing preaching in the open-air again.

I hope to return to talk to him more about the subject.

What is Preaching?

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The kerusso terms [kerysso, keryx, kerygma] represent a more dramatic form of communication, that of a herald, a proclamation.

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Preaching (kerussein) in the NT tends to be used most of for the proclamation of the gospel to a group for the first time, so it is associated with the most basic elements of the gospel. Jesus engaged in preaching, but the NT uses the term most often to refer to the apostolic proclamation, especially that of Paul. The apostles preached Christ to Jews in their synagogues (as Acts 9:20), to Samaritans (8:5), and to Gentiles in their cities (14:1-7).

[...]

We are accustomed to think of preaching as what takes place in our Sunday-morning sermons. But it is perhaps significant that the NT never uses kerusso terminology to refer to anything in the Christian worship service. 

The Doctrine of the Word of God | p 259 | John Frame -- In this section Dr. Frame is comparing preaching to teaching, kerysso to didasko. I mostly pulled, obviously, from the kerysso parts. For context, Dr. Frame says, "The didasko terms seem especially appropriate in a church context" because it broadly refers "to communication of ideas." He sees some overlap, but I felt the "preaching" part was particularly helpful in the open-air/public preaching discussion.

Robert Flockhart | Need for Hundreds of His Noble Order

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I must linger a moment over Robert Flockhart, of Edinburgh, who, though a lesser light, was a constant one, and a fit example to the bulk of Christ's street witnesses. Every evening, in all weathers and amid many persecutions, did this brave man continue to speak in the street for forty-three years. Think of that, and never be discouraged. When he was tottering to the grave the old soldier was still at his post. "Compassion to the souls of men drove me," said he, "to the streets and lanes of my native city, to plead with sinners and persuade them to come to Jesus. The love of Christ constrained me." Neither the hostility of the police, nor the insults of Papists, Unitarians, and the like could move him; he rebuked error in the plainest terms, and preached salvation by grace with all his might. So lately has he passed away that Edinburgh remembers him still. There is room for such in all our cities and towns, and need for hundreds of his noble order in this huge nation of London—can I call it less?

Lectures to My Students, page 251 | Charles Spurgeon

The Gospel in the Open-Air Again

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This is the first post in a series. Here’s a link to all my Open-Air Preaching posts.

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Something has been burning in my belly. I can't shake it. I have a picture in my head of movement of preachers that, I believe, will shake up the culture and change the face of American Christianity in a myriad of good ways. I have much more to say about it, but let me start simply.

John Bunyan Open-Air Preaching

What if evangelicals hit America with 200, or 500, or 1,000 theologically strong, gospel-centered pastors who start preaching in open-air and public places in their cities, beyond their Sunday morning worship services, at least once a week for the rest of 2011? What would happen? What if even more did it, or what if it was done more often (Whitefield preached an average of 20 times a week for 34 years)? This idea has been on my mind in some form since my first few weeks as a new Christian (almost exactly 17 years ago). It continued through seminary as I did many outdoor evangelism projects and wrote a paper in seminary on open-air preaching. I've discussed it over the past few years with Joe Thorn. In the last few weeks I believe God has pressed this idea into me. I'm compelled to put it out there knowing many will probably think I'm stupid or crazy, and I'm ok with that.

In my opinion and in no particular order, here are some things that will probably happen if a movement of solid preachers would take to the open-air in America...

1. The Gospel would spread, maybe in an unprecedented way, across our land. It would be heard by people who would never set foot in our churches. It would spread in other ways explained below.

2. Our pastors and our people would be forced to learn to explain the Gospel simply, answer objections, etc. This would spark more training in theology, evangelism, apologetics, etc, but this time with a sense of need rather than something we too often learn for our "personal growth" only.

3. A *buzz* would grow among our neighbors. Suddenly it would be hard to miss seeing and/or hearing the Gospel where we live and in the places we go. People will stumble across it sooner or later, and probably more than once, and it will shake people up. Instead of being the odd guy down at the outdoor mall, it will be respected, calm, thoughtful, theological, loving people doing it. It will open a conversation as to "why" this is suddenly everywhere.

4. Persecution of one form or another (or all forms) would naturally increase. We are mostly left alone in our buildings, but when we preach with biblical power in the open-air the Devil will not be pleased.

5. The stereotype would change of open-air preaching and open-air preachers as the "turn or burn" and "sandwich board" folks would be drowned out by good, biblical, evangelistic preaching. It would come across as more normal because good preachers are doing it, yet it would still shake things up.

6. The media would take notice and start asking us what's going on, and we'd get free airtime to talk about Jesus. It would spark a growing public conversation about things on our agenda instead of merely getting asked to chime in when we fit in with the world's agenda. 

7. Dozens, hundreds of doors for personal evangelism would open up in every place public preaching is done because some of our people will attend and strike up conversations with those who stop to listen. In other words, we create a clear pathway for immediate personal evangelism. The preachers cast nets to draw them in, our people cast hooks, and together we work out our different roles in evangelism.

8. We would begin to pray with a new fervency, boldness, and deep need like in the end of Acts 4.. We would find ourselves relying on God in ways we've ignored because we take few risks. Our prayer meetings would, without question, see less "pray for aunt Sally's leg" and see more prayer for salvation, for strength, for the words to speak, for courage and boldness, for the many different issues that will result from the preaching, and so on.

9. Our churches would immediately start to see more visitors. The seeker kind. The skeptic kind. The curious kind. This would come because of the people who want to hear more from the preacher and the people who have connected personally with Christians during public preaching. They will come because this is the preacher who doesn't play well with others, and this time not because they spew judgments but because they won't stay away in their safe, warm buildings.

10. Christians will be separated from "Christians." Dead churches and denominations, the ones that don't have nor preach the Gospel, will start to look clearly different from evangelical ones. Our preaching will force the issue because people of various "Christian" groups will hear and react differently. Christians without Christ will be challenged to leave their Gospel-less churches and denominations. It will create a challenge to the peaceful, live-and-let-live relationship happening among all groups called "Christian" in our cities and it will reopen a necessary discussion on issues of Gospel, truth, theology, heresy, etc... and all in a much more public way.

I'm sure you can imagine that doors would open for a hundred other things. We don't know all that would happen as this has essentially been left untried. I don't believe there is even a need to discuss whether or not this is biblical. If anything preaching only in our buildings is what needs to be biblically challenged. Spurgeon wrote on page 254 of Lectures to My Students...

No sort of defense is needed for preaching out of doors; but it would need very potent arguments to prove that a man had done his duty who has never preached beyond the walls of his meeting-house. A defense is required rather for services within buildings than for worship outside of them. 

I believe that if in the next couple of months hundreds of preachers in America would embrace this, and public preaching started happening all over the place, especially with the spring and summer months coming as the perfect opportunity, that we would see amazing things happen by the hand of our good and gracious God. I believe we would see mighty works by the Holy Spirit. I believe it would be amazing, but we would have to do it in order to see it.

A lot of questions remain, I know. A lot of doubts. You may be skeptical that it can work. You may be wondering where you could even do it in your particular community. You may have fears of doing it and desire to stay in the comfort of your pulpit. I hear you, but I think there are good answers and motivations for all of this. More soon.

My prayer as this goes up is that God will stir in us by His Spirit a movement of preachers who preach the Gospel publicly, beyond the walls of our buildings. I'm praying first for myself, then for many of my friends and pastoral acquaintances by name, and then for a number of well-known pastors who I think God has put in places of influence for their theological strength and solid preaching of the Gospel. I believe we need older, mature pastors to lead us in something like this. God help us to preach the Gospel boldly and publicly.

Faces Set Like Flints

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It was as blessed day when Methodists and others began to proclaim Jesus in the open air; then were the gates of hell shaken, and the captives of the devil set free by hundreds and by thousands.

Once recommenced, the fruitful agency of field-preaching was not allowed to cease. Amid jeering crowds and showers of rotten eggs and filth, the immediate followers of the two great Methodists [Whitefield & Wesley] continued to storm village after village and town after town. Very varied were their adventures, but their success was generally great. One smiles often when reading incidents in their labours. A string of packhorses is so driven as to break up a congregation, and a fire-engine is brought out and played over the throng to achieve the same purpose. Hand-bells, old kettles, marrow-bones and cleavers, trumpets, drums, and entire bands of music were engaged to drown the preachers' voices. In one case the parish bull was let loose, and in others dogs were set to fight. The preachers needed to have faces set like flints, and so indeed they had. John Furz says: "As soon as I began to preach, a man came straight forward, and presented a gun at my face; swearing that he would blow my brains out, if I spake another word. However, I continued speaking, and he continued swearing, sometimes putting the muzzle of the gun to my mouth, sometimes against my ear. While we were singing the last hymn, he got behind me, fired the gun, and burn off part of my hair." After this, my brethren, we ought never to speak of petty interruptions and annoyances. The proximity of a blunderbuss in the hands of a son of Belial is not very conducive to collected through and clear utterance, but the experience of Furz was probably no worse than that of John Nelson, who coolly says, "But when I was in the middle of my discourse, one at the outside of the congregation threw a stone, which cut me on the head : however, that made the people give greater attention, especially when they saw the blood running down my face; so that all was quiet till I had done, and was singing a hymn."

Lectures to My Students | Charles Spurgeon

10 Commandments For Reluctant Evangelists

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Some helpful stuff for "reluctant evangelists," or any Christian! Here are 5 of them, but go read all "10 Commandments for Reluctant Evangelists." Would you change any? Add some? Delete some?

1. Shut the lid on your computer.
2. Get out among people. When Jesus saw the crowds he was moved with compassion.
3. Set aside a regular time/s each week to share the gospel. Don’t come home until you do.
7. Be accountable to someone to stay on track.
8. Spend time with people who share their faith and make disciples. Learn from them and catch their heart.

Know Your City - Remember the Poor

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74154689_917e181dd5 When I moved to Woodstock I made an effort to get to know the city that I've come to love and serve. I still do. My basic approach is to keep up on local news through our papers and such, to spend time enjoying my city (eat the food, sit in the café, go to a concert or a high school football game), talk to businessmen and women, shop locally, read on city and county and region demographics, ask people questions about what good in the city and where the needs are, and so on.

I've come to see this isn't enough.

A couple of weeks ago a new video game store opened in town. My boys wanted to check it out. As we were there my daughter and I popped in to the Dollar General store. As I opened the door to enter I felt uncomfortable. I was uncomfortable because I realized most of my friends probably wouldn't be caught dead in there. And neither would I. That's where "poor people" shop. 

I have a real fear that missional pastors and churches aren't doing much better than the institutional, traditional church. That approaches to knowing our city like mine are missing a key element, remembering the poor. 

  • Luke 4 - Jesus quotes Isaiah and fulfills these words, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor."
  • Galatians 2:10 - Paul is told to "remember the poor," likely a reference to poor Christians in Jerusalem.
  • James 2:2 - James warns against giving the better seats to the rich and letting the poor sit on the floor.

One of the most convicting to me...

  • Luke 14:12-14 - When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

If we're being honest I think we have to admit that when we go to take the gospel to a city we too often take it among the rich (or richer). 

I mentioned the local farmers market and Paul in the marketplace in a recent post. They aren't the same. I love our local farmers market, but it's not where those with less money can shop. It's for those with more. The marketplace of Paul's day was for everyone. In our day we are, more or less, financially segregated. Let's remedy the fact that we usually live along the lines of our financial status and really get to know our city.

So it's important to know your city in terms of the flow of commerce and places to eat and politics and news, etc. But I think we need to do better to know our city by also hanging with and living among those with less. A few ideas...

<>You probably shop at stores that are nice and clean and big and has a big selection and has fashion you like. Find out where people with less money shop for groceries, clothes, etc. Where do single moms shop? Where do most people with food stamps shop? Now, shop there for the next couple of months.

<>You hang at the café in order to meet your neighbors. Good. Now realize how many people in your city can't afford it. Or realize how many won't get their coffee there because they don't "fit in." Where do they hang? What do they do instead? Can you hang there? If not, why not? Is it pride? Fear?

<>A lot of people don't have or can't afford a washer/dryer. Spend the next month doing laundry for your family at a laundromat. Don't just go to the cleanest & newest one. Go to the one nearest to public housing. Go when traffic is high and get to know those neighbors.

What do you think?

Review: Why Be Catholic? DVD

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Wbc1 I believe Tim Staples is one of the best known Catholic apologists in the English speaking world. As with many (most?) Catholic apologists, Staples is a former Protestant (Assemblies of God). I came across the Catholic Answers radio show/podcast recently where Staples is a regular guest. Of the RC apologists I've heard he has been a favorite, despite my many disagreements with his positions. For me, he certainly is the most interesting to listen to.

When I heard of his new 90 minute DVD called "Why Be Catholic?" I wanted to see it. I emailed the Catholic.com people (who put on the radio show) and asked for a review copy. They graciously sent one my way even after I told them I would likely disagree. I want to express my appreciation to them for this opportunity. 

Tim_staples_catholic_scripture_study1  I'll give a brief overview of Staples' presentation, highlighting the stuff that stuck out to me, and then give my response.

At just under 90 minutes, Staples presentation is in two main parts (broken into seven on the DVD). Part 1 (about 65 minutes, first six parts on DVD): Staples gives his case for God and Christianity in general. Part 2 (about 25 minutes, seventh part on DVD): Staples makes a case for Catholicism in particular.

Part 1

Staples begins sharing his previous anti-Catholic bias and desire to convert Catholics. He would read books by Protestants on Catholicism, such as works by Dr. Walter Martin or Jimmy Swaggert. But he later realized by trying to refute Catholicism that it's the true Church and the instrument of God with the answers for what ails people. 

In Part 1 Staples goes on to demonstrate that God exists..."the first step toward Rome." He briefly mentions lots of scientific and theological people and ideas: entropy, thermodynamics, Carl Sagan, Einstein, singularity, relativity, energy, unmoved mover, Thomas Aquinas' 5 proofs for the existence of God, mortal soul, using reason, natural religion, etc. 

Staples sounds rather evangelical in first half. You can see his Protestant background at work. His explanation would be mostly acceptable to a widely Christian audience. I'm not thrilled with his presentation of these things and would do it very differently. But there isn't a ton of stuff to disagree with here. And to be honest, this section isn't why I wanted to watch this DVD.

Part 2 

Staples focuses down on the authority of Jesus given to the church. He calls it "the elephant in the room." This is what Protestants are missing. One text he mentions is Matthew 18:15-18, which he says every Catholic should memorize. His emphasis is that it says you "tell it to the church" not "tell it to the Bible" when it comes to discipline. 

He mentions the selection of Hebrews for the canon, with its authorship problem. Since there is no divinely inspired table of contents, Jesus left us the Church. Otherwise, why would Hebrews be in the canon?

Peter, as expected, was a central theme. Jesus said to Peter, you are the rock...not you are the pebble. There's a word for pebble and Jesus doesn't use it for Peter. The apostles in union with Peter are the voice of God on the earth.

Acts 15 and The Jerusalem Council is also discussed by Staples, emphasizing the silence of the assembly after Peter speaks as evidence for the authority he holds. 

My Take

I was disappointed with this DVD and honestly expected it to be much better. I figured it to be a new, helpful resource for someone like me who is studying to understand what Catholics believe. I eagerly watched to deal with Staples' best arguments presented in a compelling way. It didn't happen.

I'm not trying to represent this as inferior as if all Catholic arguments are always inferior and I'm just smugly looking down upon them. I know people do that, and I assume Staples is used to some Protestant apologists dealing with him that way. I think Staples is very enjoyable and compelling on the Catholic Answers Live radio show/podcast. That's why I wanted to see this. He has helped me understand the teachings and practices of Catholicism better than almost anyone. Yet, this just isn't worth recommending.

In Part 2 I was eager to engage his arguments, but they were passed over too quickly or stated too simplistically. I've heard Staples be much more clear on some of these passages. As a thoughtful Protestant who is learning about Catholicism, he did nothing compelling to me in this section. And I wanted that!

The silence after Peter speaks in Acts 15 is anything but a slam dunk. In my reading it seems the silence comes while listening to Paul and Barnabas. Protestants don't argue that Peter wasn't a central leader, or THE central leader. Protestants don't diminish the role of Peter in Scripture, Catholics elevate it out of Scripture. To make "rock" into "Pope" is a leap that Staples runs over rather than convinces adequately. Staples doesn't dig deep in what "take it to the church" means in Matthew 18. I think his biblical arguments here Staples deals with too little and with too many gaping holes. 

Let me make a few points to close.

1. Why Be Catholic? was an insider talking to insiders. It was filled with insider jargon and jokes. Though the DVD seems to be marketed toward non-Christians & non-Catholics, I don't think it will work well. I assume it will work best for the almost-convinced who desire to be convinced and hear from a very confident sounding Staples who has a lot of basic knowledge of apologetics to speak from. They get those sorts of callers on the show a lot, so maybe that's what they want.

2. Why Be Catholic? was mostly superficial. I know you can only do so much in 90 minutes. But I'm surprised by how little Staples did in 90 minutes. Specifically I'm surprised by how little he deals with issues of Catholicism on a DVD titled Why Be Catholic? Almost no mention of any common objections & concerns with Catholic teaching (Mary, Saints, church abuses, rosary, apocrypha, etc). I'm sure Staples has reasons for that, but it would have been nice to explain these most recognizable, central barriers to people coming to Catholicism.

As I said before, Why Be Catholic? has plenty that I would agree with. Mostly evidential arguments for basic Christian apologetics. But only scratched the surface of Catholic issues.

3. Why Be Catholic? was annoying. No joke. Not trying to rub it in to those "crazy Catholics." It was Staples' delivery. You know how a preacher will ask for the "Amen?" as they speak in order to keep the attention of the listeners at a point on which they already agree? I counted Staples asking for the "Amen?" 113 times, and I probably missed some. 113 times in less than 90 minutes is annoying. This doesn't diminish his message, but I guarantee it won't help. If he was a young guy with little experience, I would just let it go. Staples is a premiere Catholic apologist, and as an educated Protestant pastor I had to keep rewinding because his overuse of "Amen?" distracted me from the points he was making. 

One other annoying thing is Staples' default mode for humor or speaking in the place of others is a twangy, southerner, poor-grasp-of-English guy. Lots of "ain't" and double-negatives. I know we all do annoying things in public speaking, but Staples was surprisingly annoying.

If you want to know more about Catholicism, read Scott Hahn, listen to guys like Staples on Catholic Answers Live where he is far more appealing, or read the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Better yet, visit your local Catholic church and get their literature or sit through Mass. Talk to Catholics. Unfortunately, as much as I want to respond to Catholic.com positively after their generosity in giving m e this DVD, I don't recommend it at all. 

Buy It - Visit Catholic.com - My post: Learning About Catholicism