The Bangor Statement

on Christian Apologetics and the Church

 

RECOGNIZING that many Americans today either disparage religious belief altogether or are confused about what to believe and are therefore indifferent to religion, and

RECOGNIZING that evangelical Christians and the Biblical worldview are more and more under siege in America’s increasingly secular culture, and

RECOGNIZING that in many cases those who profess Christian belief, young and old, are not always well-prepared or confident about articulating a rational basis for their faith, and

RECOGNIZING that as a result of all this there is a growing void and lack of a basis for meaning and hope and morality in our nation, and many who are spiritually lost, and

RECOGNIZING that there is much evidence that God has historically used apologetics as a key means of effectively addressing the concerns expressed above,

WE THEREFORE CALL ON pastors, church leaders, campus ministry leaders, para-localchurch organizations, and Christian believers everywhere, to be creative and resolved in placing a fresh emphasis and priority on equipping believers to practice and promote loving Christian apologetics in our time, beginning here in New England, and to do it all in a spirit of hopefulness and with dependence on the Word of God.

ADOPTED & SIGNED UNANIMOUSLY BY
45 participants from all six New England states meeting in a Think Tank session on Christian Apologetics, organized by the AIIA Institute as part of its Bulwark Coalition initiative, held on June 9-10, 2017, in Bangor, Maine.

 

Download the Bangor Statement PDF