Tripp Almon

The purpose would be to encourage students who have many life decisions ahead of them by taking look at how to make Godly decisions. Short version: God cares much more about who you are than what you do.  What you do flows from who you are (who God has made you to be). The common, yet fairly new paradigm, of having to discover or decipher God’s decisions he’s already made for you before you can move forward is often misleading, misguided, and constrictive. The Biblical method is liberating, and a much more personal experience (correctly defined) with God.

The culture has some responses and questions regarding the Christian claim that the person and work of Jesus is the only means of salvation.  

"That is narrow-minded." "Christians are so arrogant." "All religions are basically the same." "What about those who've never heard of Jesus?" "Are you telling me people go to hell just because they don't believe in Jesus?" 

In this session we will explore this exclusive claim of Christianity, discuss these objections, and more.

This talk is an attempt to enlighten and motivate students and parents to be aware and prepared for the battle going on in the unseen realm of ideas and to make sure they are prepared to survive and thrive when they leave their familiar Christian bubble (family, church, school) and step foot into the secular realm.

In a culture that is full of ideas coming at us from every direction in can be hard to know which way is up let alone make a stand for one's Christian convictions. This talk explores what a worldview is, the importance of having one that lines up with reality, and how to spot false ones. The audience will be encouraged to move forward in this seemingly daunting task by learning to look for patterns of ideas that will allow them to begin advancing the Christian worldview in their own lives as well as the culture around them.  This talk works great as a stand alone or can be used as a set up to a series of talks that delve further into specific and opposing worldviews.

These could be given as stand alone talks or in succession following the Intro to Worldview talk. The aim would be to help equip students to recognize worldview promoted in the culture and to know how to respond and engage with them in a winsome manner.

• Christian

• Secular

• Marxist

• Post Modern

• New Spiritual

What does the Bible have to say about generosity and giving? There is a lot of baggage Christians have from bad teaching or guilt driven calls to be generous. What does Jesus think of this? What does Biblical history have to say about Tithe? How does the Bible encourage us to be generous in light of the Gospel?

The doctrine of the Trinity can be quite confusing - some would even say illogical. How do we make sense of this important doctrine and what implications does it have on who we are, the God we serve, and our relationships?

Sometimes we get caught up trying to defend the beliefs that aren’t worth fighting over. How do we distinguish between essential, closed-handed, and open-handed issues?  This is an interactive/discussion oriented talk that will help develop critical thinking skills when it comes to the importance of “Christian” beliefs so we can be more effective in conversations. 

According to Paul, Christianity hinges on the Resurrection of Jesus. If he didn’t rise from the dead, our faith is in vain. If he did…it changes everything. Learn to argue for the validity of the Resurrection of Christ using the minimal facts that even the toughest critics of Christianity accept as historically accurate.

This talk addresses the argument that since evil exists then a God who is all powerful and all good does not exist. We interactively deal with this argument on an intellectual level by addressing a typically proposed syllogism. We finish by talking about how to deal with individuals who are making this claim. Often what sounds like an intellectual objection is often an emotional one. The attempt will be to deal with this issue at a head (intellectual), heart (relational), hands (practical) level.

The Good News is "of first importance" therefore we must make sure we understand it - for ourselves and to communicate it properly.  The Gospel has two equal and opposite enemies (legalism & relativism) and we must make sure we keep it “between the ditches” and not confuse the Gospel with the results of the Gospel.  This talk aims to help audiences understand the grace of God and help them to communicate the Gospel in a clear way that allows deeper understanding of our part in God’s story.

An introduction to thinking well about evolution and Intelligent Design. As it turns out the General Theory of Evolution is more Philosophical than Scientific. In this talk we wills see that macro-evolution depends on two pillars that don’t hold up - 1. Life from non-life 2. Change from simple to complex organisms.  Finally, we will quickly examine there lines of positive evidence that macro-evolution is not true and that intelligent design is a more reasonable conclusion.

Pornography has had a tremendous influence on our culture. What harm has it caused? Why is it a big deal? What should we do about it? How do we break addictions and support others who are seeking help?