I Will Go Ministries

Answer: Everything.

Acts 2:42-47 – They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

I’d like to share two significant ways our chapter embraces the Acts 2:42-47 church.

Every December we make a reservation at Buca di Beppo and head to the restaurant in Austin for our annual Christmas party and gift exchange. We usually have between 20-30 students attending and the family style dining is a huge hit as we all share plates of Italian food. The gift exchange part of the evening is often pretty raucous as well as funny. It’s a great way to celebrate the end of the fall semester and build community beyond the regular weekly meetings.

During our 2021 Summer Apologetics Retreat, the tradition to end our retreat was to have a night out at a waterfront restaurant in Port Aransas, TX. After dinner, while a few of the students were sitting on the dock overlooking the water, a student dropped her smartphone in the water when another student accidently bumped her arm. On the way back to our lodging, we asked another student to figure out the replacement cost of a refurbished phone. Before lights out we gathered in the living room, and I asked if any student had the approximate $500 to help the student replace her phone. Of course, no one did so I put a small container out and asked the students to contribute what they could to help, intending to make up the difference myself. I didn’t have to. Seventeen students came up with $481 to help purchase a refurbished phone for the one that was accidently lost. Someone had a need, and our Acts 2:42 College Prep students met that need and learned a powerful scriptural principle in the process.

To learn more about Ratio Christi College Prep and how you can help middle school and high school students grow in their faith and learn how to defend it, click <here>.

Introducing Jorden Berryman – Recipient of the Ratio Christi Legatus Christi Award

Jorden Berryman joined our newly formed College Prep chapter over four years ago as one of our original students and a high school freshman. Since then she has been a strong advocate of our chapter and within the last two years has been a strong contributor to the success and visibility of our chapter. She has taught apologetics content such as understanding textual variants and artifacts in the Bible, the reliability of the Bible, the teleological argument for the existence of God, the evidence for the Resurrection, and a presentation of the student’s McDonald Observatory trip and how it demonstrated the existence and glory of God. She has taught 6^th grade students, middle school and high school students, adult apologetics students, youth groups at other churches, and is one of the youngest speakers to ever address a chapter of Reasons to Believe, the scientific apologetics organization founded by Hugh Ross. As my teaching assistant, she has crafted four presentations, The Genesis Flood, Transgenderism: Facts and What the Bible Says About It, Art as an Apologetic, and Correcting Your Christian Friends, the latter intended for high school students. She manages our social media and coordinates our field trips and special events. This month she begins her studies at Liberty University, with a focus on Christian ministries and beginning in the fall semester she will be responsible for teaching middle school students every week. – Dan Britton, RCCP Texas Hill Country Chapter Director –

• When did you come to Christ as Lord and Savior, and how did that come about?

I grew up in the church and accepted Christ at a young age but as I got older I began to think that maybe I don’t know who Christ is; that is until I started going to the apologetics group at Hill Country Fellowship. In my freshman year of high school, I based my worth on my popularity or how many boys liked me. But when I started going to the apologetics group, I learned that in God’s eyes I’m worth so much more.

• If you were in a high school church youth group, how much did you learn there about the Christian faith and reasons to believe?

I started going to a Wednesday night youth group and at first, I had gotten a lot out of it but eventually it became repetitive. I wanted to know more about God, and I had so many unanswered questions. So, when I heard about an apologetics group that met on Monday nights I was intrigued. When I started going, I immediately had some of my major questions getting answered. Without apologetics my faith would not be half as strong as it is now.

• How did you become interested in apologetics, and how did you get involved with Ratio Christi?

Originally, I started going to Monday night apologetics because that is where all my friends were, but when my questions started getting answered, I wanted to be there all the time. One day my apologetics pastor, Dan Britton, asked the Monday night group if any of us were interested in going to a Reasons to Believe chapter in Austin Texas. As a high school sophomore who didn’t have a license, I had no plans, so I agreed to go. I learned so much that I went to almost every Reasons to Believe chapter meeting after that.

• What impact has the Ratio Christi College Prep ministry had on your walk with God and your personal ministry?

If I had not started going to the Ratio Christi chapter in Burnet, I don’t think I’d still be a Christian, because there are so many questions that the typical Sunday service could not provide answers to for me. Ratio Christi has given me evidence that can’t be denied.

• What is this RC chapter like? (how many usually attend, is it loose discussions or pre-planned topics, do outsiders often attend, do you engage secular thinkers, etc.)? 

Currently, on a typical Monday meeting about 10 youths attend (we have had up to 30 prior to COVID-19). We typically have a lesson handout or watch a video from Summit Ministries. These discussions are planned months in advance and are typically well thought out for what the students need at the time. We often look at both sides of an argument to see which side has more evidence; spoiler alert, it’s never really the secular worldview.

• What were some of your favorite areas of involvement with your local RCCP chapter?

I love that pastor Dan is so passionate about his students, past and present, and how much he wants to give them an “unfair advantage.” He puts his heart and soul into making sure the students are educated and can defend their faith. I also love teaching the middle schoolers that go to Wednesday night apologetics. They have some tough questions like I did at their age, questions that they deeply want answered.

• What does the your Legatus Christi award mean to you? 

The Legatus Christi award is going to help me further my career as an apologist. Before I had very little credibility as an apologist because of my age but now, I feel confident enough to pursue apologetics as a career with even more conviction.

• How do you envision taking the apologetics you have learned through Ratio Christi into your future endeavors?

I want to attend Liberty University, so, the apologetics I have learned will give me an edge on graduating. After I graduate, I want to continue teaching apologetics to youth and adults. I also want to carry apologetics with me to help answer questions that people may have or debunk doubts that are festering.

• What are your short and long-term career/ministry/mission plans?

Short term, I want to attend Liberty University and teach along the way. Long term, I want to continue teaching apologetics but I’m not quite sure how.

• Would you consider coming back to work with your RC chapter, starting one at another school, or working with RC in any other capacity?

I would love to work at the Burnet RCCP chapter, and maybe sometime in the future start a new chapter in a town that has a need for it.

• What would you say to other students who might be considering getting involved in Ratio Christi, whether they be skeptics, seekers, or believers?

I would encourage them to get involved. At the very least, they would learn some of the truth claims and evidences of the Christian faith. As believers, they would grow stronger in their own faith and as skeptics or seekers, gain a clearer understanding of the Christian faith.

There is one significant reason to purchase and study this book; our student’s future. I’m a full-time pastor and apologist at our local church and for the better part of six years, I’ve been equipping students (and adults) to grow stronger in their faith and learn how to defend it. I’ve also read more books on this particular subject than I care to remember. With the publication of So the Next Generation Shall Know, I could probably replace all of them with this one volume.

I’ve not read anything that so succinctly identifies the crisis of faith confronting our young people today and charts a way to have a meaningful, successful solution to the problem.

To enumerate the many highpoints of this book would take quite a few pages. It’s easy to say, “here is a problem”; it’s quite another thing to say, “here is a solution.” Thankfully, Sean and Jim do both with crystal clarity. I’ll share two highpoints that I found very informative.

The first is a section on “Ten Strategies for Connecting with Generation Z.” They state that one does not need to do all ten, but you should seriously consider doing as many as possible. First on my list would be to “mentor a young person.” This is not to establish a formal mentoring process, but to grow in relationship with a young person. As Sean writes in this section, bringing students to special events goes a long way toward establishing a lasting relationship.

Second on my list is Chapter Six – Love Trains: Resisting the Desire to Entertain Rather than Train. Jim’s insight in this chapter confirms what we’ve all expected; pizza, games and superficial messages are not getting it done for our youth. This might draw them in, but it will not grow them in a way that will equip them to remain strong in their faith post high school.

I have been teaching students outside of their regular Wednesday night youth service now for four years. I’ve done much of what Sean and Jim outline in this book and will be doing more, based on what I’ve read here.

In short; if you care at all about this next generation, purchase this book now. It will not only change student’s lives, it will change yours!

Quite a bit has happened since I penned my last blog almost two years ago. Without diminishing the importance of those that blog regularly and faithfully, my ministry tends to be a street-level, on-the-ground type of ministry that does not allow a lot of time for writing blogs. Perhaps I should consider changing that.

As I’ve embarked on a new season in seeking a doctorate in theology and apologetics, what writing I do engage in has been largely academic and the creation of lessons for my upcoming third edition of Discipleship: Equipping and Apologetics curriculum which expands from the current 32 lessons to 48. I expect it to be published mid-summer. Editing is complete, minus a few minor updates (do they ever stop?) and packaging/publishing has been largely sorted out.

In January, I moved from paid, part-time status as the Pastor of Equipping and Apologetics at my church, Hill Country Fellowship, to full-time. With that, I now teach classes an average of five times per week with some weeks seeing more. So, what has two years since my last blog seen in the area of equipping and apologetics within my ministry?

Students: Still the heart of why I do what I do, little has changed in this arena in the way of class offerings. We still study basic apologetics, worldview and Scripture. What has changed significantly is many of my students have been studying with me for two years, some for three. Also, these students are now teaching others.

During our VBS last year (“Camp HCF”), I had four students teach a 30-minute lesson to over 70 six graders. Ella taught an introduction to apologetics and the reliability of the Bible, Jorden taught them the difference between Biblical artifacts vs. evidence, Jonathan taught on several archaeological finds that confirmed certain biblical accounts and Kylie taught on how the fine-tuning of the universe points to our Creator. By the way, none of these students were old enough to drive yet.

In two years, we’ve taken multiple field trips; Dunham Bible Museum, Probe Ministries, Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, reTHINK Student Apologetics Conference, Reasons to Believe chapter meetings, and more recently, the McDonald Observatory in West Texas this past December.

Two other students, Kylie and Jorden, created a one-hour presentation on their McDonald Observatory Field Experience and presented it to the entire youth group on a Wednesday night, as well as multiple small-group meetings and the church’s adult apologetics class. They are also scheduled to present their  session to Hugh Ross’s Reasons to Believe Austin chapter in July. We think this will be the first time this scientific apologetics organization will be addressed by high school students.

We continue our affiliation with Ratio Christi College Prep, a high school apologetics organization through Ratio Christi (www.ratiochristi.org). 

Adults: In addition to the basic apologetics sessions offered on Sunday mornings, we have submitted the paperwork to become a Reasonable Faith chapter under William Lane Craig. This group meets on Thursday evenings every week and while at times studies content similar to Sunday morning classes, we often study deeper subjects, driven by events happening in culture. In this regard, these evening sessions are more focused toward worldview issues.

4-1-2 is our church’s primary means of increasing knowledge of core doctrinal beliefs. The name is from Ephesians 4:12 which reads “for the equipping of the saints.” Other pastors and I share during this two-hour session (which includes a 30-minute dinner break). The six sessions are 1.) The Church, 2.) The Word, 3.) The Great Commandments, 4.) The Great Commission, 5.) Culture Shift and 6.) You Lost Me. Each session is intended to help those in attendance grow deeper in their knowledge of their faith and the worldview issues that can either shape them or destroy them. These sessions are offered every two months.

Suffice to say, the four “I’s” of my earlier blogs have played out and apologetics is now instilled as part of our church culture. I’m blessed beyond measure that I’m at a church whose leadership understands the importance of the words found in 1 Peter 3:15: “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,” In today’s culture, we can do no less.