ReGENERATION PROJECT 2019
One thing I am thankful for in this Thanksgiving season, the people at the Regeneration Project putting on this annual event. The purpose of this event is gathering a community of people who want to examine the tough questions and realities of the Christian faith. It is now more than ever important for Christians to know what and why they believe. As someone who has grown up in Church, I am constantly learning more and refining my purpose from events, sermons, and people I talk to. Attending this event has helped me find more clarity and comfort about life, meaning, morality, and purpose in today’s pluralistic society.
Key Note Speakers: Josh and Sean McDowell
The keynote speakers for this year were Josh and Sean McDowell. As a young adult, Josh believed that Christianity was worthless and a waste of time. However, when challenged to intellectually examine the claims of Christianity, he discovered the evidence for his faith and is using his story to tell the doubting world about Jesus Christ.
Sean McDowell has a passion for equipping young people, to make the case for the Christian faith. He connected with the audience through humor and stories while imparting hard evidence and logical support of a biblical worldview.
Both of them shared their personal stories dealing with doubt and the pursuit of meaning and truth helped shaped them. They addressed how people should be equipped to navigate a Christian lifestyle in society’s heavily favored pluralist worldview. Responding to “That may be your truth, but it’s not my truth” can be a difficult conversion to navigate, as it is easy for Christianity to come off as arrogant. Sean walks through a number of examples of the difference between subjective and objective statements and lays out the basics for many major world religions. He concludes that it is possible for all religions to be false, but all of them cant be true due to conflicting claims.
Josh McDowell’s story is so powerful and inspiring that I have shared a video of Josh sharing his own story: https://youtu.be/WhJ9HkaR8Gg . In short, God was able to use Josh’s quest to disprove Christianity as the way he came to believe in God and the Bible similar to a faith path as Lee Strobel.
Breakout Sessions: Megan Ryan and Jay Kim
Megan Ryan works with a lot of young people to show them how to live according to the Bible. She helps them navigate the Bible says and what culture says. God doesn’t provide cookie-cutter answers or provide exact formulas by which to live by; it takes a lot of time and discipline to remove the peer pressure off to what society encourages with our actions and relationship. The goal is to live using our actions and relationships as opportunities to connect with God and to reflect Him upon people.
Jay Kim highlights the predicament of the presence of pain and suffering while an all-powerful and all-loving God exists. Recently, one of the men in my bible study passed away earlier this year due to a form of pancreatic cancer, so I was personally ready to hear what Jay had to say. For me, it is important to remember we are waiting for the restoration of God’s original design of the New Heaven on Earth. Sin ruined the original plan, God intended this world to be good and free from pain and suffering. True love and freedom come with a choice.
Here is a link to a video and powerpoint slides he has made: http://jaykimthinks.com/why-pain-suffering
Here some of slides below!
Max Murphy 