Christmas is always a joyous time, a time to be reminded of how blessed
we are. And now that we're preparing for a new year, I'd like to take a moment
and reflect on all God has accomplished through this ministry along with your
prayers and support.
Outreaches and Debates
One way Come Reason seeks to
share the Gospel is through different outreaches and debate opportunities,
particularly at college campuses. 2013 was a great year for outreach as we were
able to interact with students at four different college or university campuses
this year. I was invited to participate in open forums at both UC Irvine and
Riverside Community College. Open forums are where a panel of Christians take
questions on morality, biblical Christianity, and other issues from the
students. The latter event was covered in the college newspaper with a
great write up.
In May, Come Reason co-sponsored with Harvest's The Well
Club the second Great God Debate held at UC Riverside.
This year's debate focused on the question
of life's origin and pitted Dr. Fazale Rana against Dr. Michael Ruse. Over 1,000
students attended the event, which was webcast to countries around the world,
thanks to Biola University's
apologetics department.
Apologetics Missions Trips are another type of outreach we provide. These trips
are where we take a group of high school and college kids to locations that are
culturally non-Christian. This year, we visited Dearborn, Michigan for the
first time, which boasts the highest Muslim population in the U.S. and has the
largest mosque in North America.
The 22 students I took on that trip got to
interact with imams, Muslim apologists, speak with ex-Muslims as well as go out
on the streets at shopping centers and the University of Michigan Dearborn to
witness one on one with the Muslim population.
Conferences
Our Dare to
Defend apologetics conferences have been a staple of Come Reason since the
ministry's beginning. This year we held two such events, with the first at
The Well Church in Oak Valley. Pastor Ron Wood and his congregation graciously
hosted a three-day event covering the existence of God, the facts of the
resurrection, and other topics. We look forward to holding a similar event in
2014.
The highlight of our year was certainly the
outreach at the U.S. Army Garrison in Vicenza, Italy. Entitled “
A
Reason for Hope,” I was able to give four talks to the troops and their
families stationed at Caserma Ederle. I was able to talk about things like the
problem of evil to those who had just a few weeks prior returned from the war
zone in Afghanistan. Army Chaplain LTC Scott Hammond hosted the
event and we are especially thankful to Jeff and Kim Neill for their
organization and hospitality in letting us stay at their home.
Speaking and Teaching
Speaking and teaching opportunities continue to play an integral
role in the ministry. I continued teaching the
monthly
apologetics classes at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, CA. I was
also blessed to help teach Pastor Daniel Eichelberger's
Deepening Your Faith classes, which are more in-depth theology studies. We
covered topics on logic and argumentation, revelation and authority, the person
of Jesus, and historic Christian heresies. Other events included services at
Calvary Chapel San Diego and Calimesa, and radio interviews on stations in
Michigan and New Jersey. If you would like me to
visit your church, I would love to come out! Just let me know.
Internet Outreach
Our online ministries continue to grow. Over the past year, we've
had over 300,000 visitors to the
Come
Reason web site from nearly every nation around the world. I've been writing
nearly daily in the
Apologetics Notes blog, which now averages over 10,000 views monthly. The
podcast saw 485,000 hits this year and over 30,000 downloads of the weekly
teaching. Our
YouTube channel
also continues to expand as we add more teachings there, and
Facebook and
Twitter conversations have been
bristling. If you aren't following the ministry through one of these channels, I
encourage you to start!
Publishing
One new project that I'm excited about
is the upcoming release of
True Reason:
Confronting the Irrationality of the New Atheism by Kregel. I was blessed to
have contributed a chapter on the argument from reason, made famous by C.S.
Lewis. The book is due to be released on February 1.
Lastly, after several
delays, I was happy to see my debate against Richard Carrier
released on video. This was the first
Great God Debate, and as you can see it was a packed house with great
interaction by the audience. If you'd like a DVD of the deabate, comlete with
the Q&A and bonus features,
you can
get one with your contribution to the ministry.
I can tell you that God opened more doors this
year than ever before. It has made me deeply humbled to see how He continues to
work and excited to see what He has in store for 2014. It promises to be filled
with
even more ministry opportunities. I also wanted to say thank you to all
those who have prayed for this ministry or
contributed to its support. Without
you, it would be impossible to accomplish so much. He has truly blessed me
and I pray that in 2014 He will bless you as well.
Blessings,
Lenny Esposito
