Youth Ministry and the Kalam Cosmological Argument

This past Thursday, during our discipleship program for our youth, I was presented with a golden opportunity to take a survey on how well the guys of the group (the girls were separate) could handle some apologetic discussion.

The focus on the discipleship groups (dubbed Revolutionary Guys/Revolutionary Girls) has been on basic Christian practice: Bible study, prayer, worship, ect. Right now we are really focusing in on Bible study, and how to read it and make sense of what it says. Each week, we give them a packet that contains 3 sets of verses, and each verse has three questions to it: "What is the passage saying", "Why is this important", and "How do I apply the meaning of this passage to my life"? This particular packet had an oddball in it: Genesis 1:1. How does one apply Genesis 1:1 to his or her life in a relevant way? 

Enter the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

You might be thinking, "How in the world is the Kalam Argument a working answer to applying a passage to your life"? Genesis 1:1 is a very important verse within Christan theology. It is the verse that describes the beginning of the universe, and the beginning of all life, which is an important function of the Christian worldview: how did we get here? Aside from the fact it answers the very foundational philosophical question "Why is there something rather than nothing* at all?", Genesis 1:1 provides very key information for any Christian; therefore, to apply it to one's life, take the time to understand why it is so important**! The pursuit of knowledge and higher education, if you will.

As I expected, the majority of the guys could not figure out a way to apply the passage and make it relevant to their lives. I then grabbed a whiteboard and an easel, set it up in front of them, and wrote out the Kalam argument. The particular form that I wrote out goes like this: 

1. Whatever begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist [Genesis 1:1]
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

Then, I launched into a very broad explanation of the argument, from the relation of cause/effect, the Big Bang, and a few other areas. And this is the part that shocked me: they actually understood it! In fact, one of my guys asked the very typical question in response to it: "If everything needs a cause, then who made God?" Underlining the words "begins to exist", we then moved into a discussion about God's transcendent nature. Of course, these are high school and junior high school kids, so I had to make sure I wasn't burying them in the specifics of the argument. But at the very least, an encouraging sign came: they were interested in it. For an apologist and a youth minister, it was a wonderful moment.

If there is one area that I greatly desire reform in, it would easily be the emphasis of apologetics amongst youth groups. Granted, my time with this youth group is almost done, but if I ever do become the youth minister of another church, apologetics will be a primary pillar. Not just apologetics in the sense of "If someone says X, you say Y", but critical thinking, logic, and fostering a healthy understanding of philosophy and science. While this particular event was hardly anything progressive in terms of making apologetics a foundation of this current group (I confess, it is not as much of a focus as I would like), it was an encouraging sign to say the least. Kids these days are pretty smart. Now, I wonder what other apologetic angles I can sneak in before my time here is done....

*Nothing: Non-existance. Not a vacuum, but literal non-existance of anything at all.

**: I am not saying that this is the only way to apply Genesis 1:1 to one's life. I mainly saw an open door to discuss the origin of the universe and took advantage of it. In fact, my youngest brother gave a very good answer to the question when he said "Because God created us, we can be confident that He will take care of us". I could have run with that, but I decided not to because of the fact that we discuss that statement pretty regularly anyway, and I was looking for a way to be creative.