Relational Apologetics: Interview with Lindsey Medenwaldt

welcome back to another episode of Christian Natural Health today I am very excited to have Lindsay medenwaldt with

us Lindsay is the director of ministry operations at Mama Bear apologetics and serves as a Consulting editor for the

Christian research Journal she holds a masters in apologetics and ethics from Denver Seminary a JD from St Mary's

School of Law and a master's degree in public administration from Midwestern State University her primary apologetics

focus is on world religions and how we talk to people of other faiths welcome thanks so much for joining us hi I'm so

excited to be here Lauren I'm excited because I did some research on like your podcast and stuff and uh I'm I'm excited

that I get a slot yeah absolutely so glad to have you so uh before we kind of

launch into the Apologetics angle give us kind of a brief you know 30,000 foot

overview of some of the major religions of the world I realize that's a big ask

but it just if you could sort of say here's the ones that are most common and

most popular or whatever and then also how they differentiate themselves from

Christian beliefs so do your best with that question I know it's a b I've given

entire lecture series on this very question um I often will tackle one

religion for an entire lecture so it is going to be a major like overview um I'm

happy to share with you a worldviews chart if you want to give it to your listen that I've developed uh that kind of

gives the different uh things of of a lot of the religions in the world yeah

um but here's the overview Okay Okay so we've got Christianity it's a major

religion regardless of what people might say or people might think um it is a it

is a major world view um then we've got uh I would say Islam is is a big one as

well uh we've got Judaism um so those three religions are

the abrahamic religions uh those are the ones that um you'll you'll think about

when you hear the words abrahamic religions uh then we've got some other religions uh some of them are primarily

found in the United States or started in the United States so two that I'm thinking of are the latterday Saints

sometimes you'll hear them referred to as Mormons um and then Jehovah's Witnesses uh they they are also around

there's about eight million or so Jehovah's Witnesses worldwide um you've

got um I'm trying to think atheists who uh don't believe in God um and then

there are the Eastern World Views so there's Hinduism uh Buddhism Sikhism um

and many other isms and then I would throw in the New Age movement as a a

large worldview um it's not so much a religion as something that is

incorporated into other worldviews or taken from other religions so a lot of

New Age movement things are brought forward from Eastern philosophy um but we'll find Christians

are incorporating some some new age things into their own um religion into

Christianity and thinking that they can be aligned but in reality that's not true

um so that's kind of like n the religions uh what sets them apart a lot

of times it's Jesus um in fact I would say 100% of the time it's Jesus and who

is Jesus uh and so if if we're looking at the different worldviews and we're trying to figure out um how they how

they're different or how they're alike um I would say that the majority of them have the Golden Rule sure yeah that's a

good way to find uh some commonality among the worldviews most worldw use

subscribe even atheists subscribe to do unto others as as you would want them to do unto you um and and so that's kind of

brings us together uh most religions except for atheists perhap believe in

God or some sort of um big spirit I guess is the way to to describe that uh

not all religions believe in a trinity uh so they don't believe in the father Son and Holy Ghost being um uh three in

one God um but uh that that's sort of the the general overview Jesus is is the

main uh thing that would set people or set religions apart right who is Jesus

is Jesus who he said he is um what does that mean when we're looking at scripture um most religions have their

own religious texts uh that they subscribe to uh some will use the Bible

plus something else so I'm thinking latter Saints for example will use the Bible the King James version um as well

as the Book of Mormon um and a couple of other uh books as well uh Jehovah's

Witnesses will use the King James version of the Bible as well as including the um watch uh Watchtower

organizations um uh papers and things right they'll use that sort of not as

the Bible right but as uh insight into who they are and what they believe sure

uh so that's really the 30,000 foot view I guess that great that does doeses enough

Justice like I said I'm happy to send you uh a worldview chart I developed during the pandemic when we were all

quarantined I spent that time to come up with a chart because I couldn't find one that I really liked that I thought was

helpful um so I'm happy to share that with you and you can pass that along to your listeners as well sure I would love

that that sounds great so and then kind of piggybacking off of that so

apologetics can you define that for our listeners if they maybe don't know what it is yes um so apologetics is h a word

that comes from the Greek word apologia uh which means to give a defense so the

biggest question that I get about apologetics is why are you apologizing

for your faith why are you apologizing for being a Christian you shouldn't be apologizing I want to clear the air now

those are two separate words yes uh they sound the same but they are not the same and we are not apologizing for our faith

uh the word comes from first Peter 3:15 um which uh says to always be

prepared to give a defense for the hope within you but to do so with gentleness and respect uh the way that I like to

describe it to people is think of yourself as a lawyer um not a mean dirty

lawyer but a lawyer who is seeking to um win the case for their client and what

are some Basics that they would do well they would know their client well right they would understand the case at hand

they would present evidence on behalf of their client and they might even call some expert Witnesses and that's sort of

what apologetics is what we're doing is we're encouraging people as scripture does to know our client well in this

case it's Christianity God Jesus um the you know that that's what we're

defending here um The Gospel is the the hope within us so we're also defending the gospel um and then we're presenting

evidence to show that the Bible is true that Jesus is who he say he is um and

that um we can believe the gospel narrative based on a variety of factors

whether that's history or archaeology um Beauty there's apologetics from beauty we can look at

all things and and it sort of who does it point back to what does it um where

does it come from and and in our case as Christians we we believe that it all points back to um a Creator personal god

um and that history and archaeology have shown that Jesus was not only a real

person but he died and he was resurrected physically three days later

um and that he is who he says he is yeah awesome so um everything that you talked

about leading up to there is a personal creator are there any other world religions that would agree up to that

point that there's a personal Creator yeah yeah I mean it nobody really has

this personal god idea um I would say perhaps you know the latterday Saints

and the Jehovah's Witnesses would obviously believe that um yeah

uh not really uh you could argue I guess that Allah is a personal Creator God but

the the problem with that is um Allah is not exactly God when you

look closer um it's it's the definitions don't exactly line up in the way that we

would necessarily Define it as Christians and obviously Jewish people believe in a a personal Creator God yes

absolutely yeah and you also said that one of the things that brings all of the religions you listed together is this

idea of the golden rule so is it fair to say that everybody has basically the same idea of morality like I mean

there's there's tweaks but is it kind of true in general yeah so there's this uh apologetic um an argument for Morality

um and and basically uh are you Christlike is the morality Factor

pointing to God um for a lot of people that's convincing um that you can't have

objective morals without god um and and so uh I would say one thing that I've

scen that's somewhat problematic is that Christians will say that atheists can't be good people but I know plenty of

atheists who are great humans yeah I I want to make sure that people aren't

assuming that uh because you don't believe in God that you can't be moral

because that hasn't been my personal experience in the atheists that I know right and I'm sure that if we were to

take a look in reality and look at the atheists we know um most of them are

living moral lies so I I would say I don't hesitate to say that we're all

we've all got a moral code that we live by Christians would say we have that moral code because of of our creator

because of God and being made in His image right and that's one of the the main arguments that I found really

convincing in CS Lewis is Mere Christianity this idea that if there's a moral code who made it it's obviously

from outside of you know the the material world and so that tells us that

there is something outside the material world and yeah and a lot of people have found that to be so convincing that they

will convert to Christianity because that is the thing that sort of leads them there um what they'll see as well

is the behavior of the Christians they know confirming that yeah so um it's not

to say that people are staring at your life and saying okay if they're good

then maybe true but I will say that people do observe right they're

taking maybe not actual notes but they are seeing how you behave right right do

you do you treat waiters and waitresses with respect are you cutting people off in traffic

intentionally um are you um yelling at people in the pickup line at school like

those kinds of things sure maybe don't point to Christianity way that we would

like them to point to Christianity yeah so I mean don't think that somebody's watching you all the time but do keep in

mind that we are supposed to exhibit this Christlike attitude in the way that

we treat others and the way that we speak to others even online might I add

um that is a big place where people watch Christians interact with each other and with other people yeah and and

so we need to be mindful of the way that we're treating people online as well for

sure for sure so kind of along those lines um if most religions already have

this idea of do un to others the way that you would have them do unto unto you why is it that that argument of a

god outside of the world that could have put a morality code into us why does

that point them specifically to Christianity why I mean wouldn't the other religions also argue will our God

would do the same thing or no I think it's the um illustr of Jesus actually

doing it right so um we have God who recognizes our need for salvation um and

our need for grace and the only way that we can do that is by having somebody

stand in our place because we can't possibly achieve that on our own um and

Christianity is a grace-based religion which means that um once we've accepted

Jesus as our Lord and savior and we're committed to a transformed life through him him uh we don't have to do anything

to earn our way into heaven uh and that you know having God come to Earth you

know Jesus fully God fully human willing to be executed on a cross um and you

know die this really brutal death to Bear our sins um and our pain and all

the other yucky things that we experience here on Earth I think that is what sets Christianity apart because

we're not just saying okay God created us with this moral code no he actually realized that we have this moral code

and yet we need to be saved because we're we're we're fallen in sinful

creatures we can't quite we can't measure it right we can't measure up but Jesus has then come to Earth as fully

God and fully human and stood in the gap for us and there is no other saving God

that has done no other example of that in in any other religion where God has

literally stood in a gap sure um for example like Isam um Allah can still

even if you live the most moral life he could still say nope you're you're not

getting into heaven yeah and so this this idea of uh accepting Jesus as your

savior um to for Redemption for for salvation um is is very different

different than what we see in other worldviews got it okay so it's like the morality only gets you so far everybody

recognizes yes I should behave this way but everybody also recognizes at the same time we don't we don't and so then

at that point all the rules aren't going to take you there that's why Christianity got it okay very very cool

so um when it comes to apologetics and and making having these conversations

with people it's very easy I think for many and and this true for debate in general of any kind whether it's

politics religion whatever for people to get really focused on being right um

so how do we make sure because this is about love and this is about showing

Jesus and he is love and all of that how do we make sure that that is Paramount

in our minds as opposed to winning the argument yeah everyone wants to be right

that's the reality I mean if if we think about it like we're not going to say things that we think are false of course

um the way that we live is based on things that we think we're doing right of course but we also have to say we're

probably not doing everything right sure uh there are probably more efficient ways to do things than what we've

decided uh there are probably better ways of thinking than than than we think

um so so that doesn't necessarily that's not a bad spot on Christians because if

you look at other worldviews they all believe they're right and think they're right too so when you're entering into a

conversation with somebody who disagrees with you on any point whether it's religion or the kind of car you should

drive or the kind of coffee shop you could should go to right those are some those are some silly things but if you

disagree on those things we should be able to come to a dialogue where we're

we're gentle and respectful just like Jesus was because he he obviously engaged with people with whom he

disagreed um so we should be able to come to that conversation and have a dialogue what does the dialogue look

like it looks a lot like this right yeah you are asking me questions I'm

answering um we are going kind of back and forth we're listening well to one another I'm striving to answer your

questions as you ask them rather answering rather than answering the question that I want to answer sure uh

that's another thing don't go into a convers saying these are all the things

I'm going to say all of my points and I'm G to convince them that I'm correct right we get really excited if we know

things or if we know that we know um and we want to tell people right but what

happens in fruitful dialogue what sort of sets it apart is that we're willing to listen to the other side and and

learn their perspectives and really approach it with Wonder um why do you

believe what you believe is true um and and in those kinds of conversations in

that in that kind of situation we are much more likely to get that question asked back to us yes right so we asked

that question and they said well why do you believe what you believe right okay and now now I have an option exactly

first Peter 3:15 where you are are ready to give a defense for the hope within

you whenever anyone asks boom there's your opportunity absolutely does it happen in every conversation no and that

would be kind of weird true like sometimes we're just going to talk about the concert or the

movie or whatever's going on in life it's not going to lead to a conversation

about faith or philosophy or religion um and that's okay um one of the things

that I think people have forgotten is that relationship and friendship so

important um in in doing what we do as Christ followers um can we be a real

friend um and if we can then we might get the opportunity to have those kinds of

conversations yeah absolutely so and I think back to what you were talking about in terms of the dialogue there's a

humility in that I think the fact that you care about what the other person is saying and you're kind of forgetting

yourself and you're putting yourself in more of a dialogue as opposed to you're just thinking of the next thing you're

going to say next and people can tell when you're doing that yes that tends to turn everybody off if that's the case so

so yeah I can certainly see how that would be true so in that context in that

dialogue if there's somebody that is coming from a particular worldview if they don't ask the question back do you

volunteer what you think or do you wait to be asked yeah it's going to be situational um if you know them if if

it's this if there's a deeper relationship there maybe they're your neighbor um and you've spoken frequently

before um then certainly you can say do you want to know why I believe what I

believe uh and and if they say no you should respect that right like we see an

illustration of the Rich Young Ruler where Jesus is telling him the answers to his questions and then he walks away

the richling ruler is like okay peace out see you later and Jesus let him go

but he still loved him deeply right so that that's what scripture says and so this idea of we're gonna we're going to

share information and they can walk away they can say yeah that's not for me you okay I'm still going to love you uh I'll

still see you at the mailbox we'll still be out in the garden together our kids will be at the playground together and we'll still have this great relationship

um it's when we get super defensive that things get a little testy and it's not

just Christians I'm talking about all World Views right we get really defensive about what we believe and and

sometimes that's rightfully so we want to defend the god gospel because as Christians we believe it's true and and

I I've I've studied I truly believe that the gospel is true and that the gospel

message is reliable and that scripture is reliable um and once you've done that

that passion can can lead to um not

approaching it with gentleness and respect I guess is the best way to say that to doing the opposite of that because we're so passionate um and so

part of that gentleness and respect is if they don't want to talk about it let him you shouldn't talk about it right um

and they'll know where you stand uh they'll they'll like I said they're still watching they see you leave every

Sunday morning to go meet with other believers and worship God they see you

hosting a Bible study or having people over and being hospitable um and they know like that's how you live this is

what you believe and that might lead later to questions when you don't expect

them um I've had friends call me in periods of grief where they've said I

know I haven't talked to you in like eight years but you're the person that I thought maybe would pray with me um and

so that's like what we're what we're talking about here this genuine relationship that even when you've had a

separation for years right uh they know that you believe in something powerful

and tangible and and uh when they need it they may come they come yeah so um

everything that you're describing in terms of like being willing to explain what you believe it does kind of sound

like it requires something of a mature faith in order to have the confidence to

have those dialogues what about for somebody that's a new believer like or are the boundaries any different is

there any or is it all kind of the same more or less yeah so you go wherever your level is um I have found new

Believers to be like so excited and they they want to absorb

everything right we we see this sometimes play out when celebrities become Christians they start you know

vlogging about it and they're like oh my gosh did you guys know this about the Bible and did you know this about Jesus and I'm so excited um and I think we can

kind of tap back into our own relationship with Jesus and where we began and and how excited we were the

thing that I want people to remember is that scripture calls you to be able to give a defense for the hope within you

so if you can answer why you have hope in Jesus why you believe the gospel is

true what is that hope that's what you're called to do um and unfortunately

a lot of Christians are unable to answer that question um and and you know I had

a moment in seminary where I was engaging with an atheist friend of mine

and I couldn't really answer the question now I became a Christian when I was around five years old so I should

have at that point been able to give a direct answer to that question but I couldn't H and that was a moment

for me where I realized I need to do something about that right and for for

different people that's going to be different things I had the benefit of going to Seminary not everybody's going to go to college or seminary and I

totally understand that but there are resources available to equip yourself in

in in many areas um whether that's engaging in a Bible study at your church

or tapping into a Bible study or a book club Christian Book Club online and going through a book together um there

are uh things that you can access even Christian radio uh you can listen to podcasts like yours like there are a

variety of things that you can do to begin to equip yourself so that you can think through that question okay what is

the hope within me I encourage people to ultimately begin with scripture um start

in the gospels go to Mark read Mark then read it again right it's not going to take you very long um and it it will

help you kind of Define what the gospel message is and and where your hope comes

from as a Christian um and then you can Branch out from there and and really

begin to learn anything that you want to learn about scripture or the Bible um

there there really no limits well and as you kind of went in your initial uh

definition of apologetics so you were talking about understanding scripture itself and what the the argument is but

also the science and the archaeology and the history and all the rest of that um and also there was a a book I read a

little while ago that was by Jason Lyall that was called the ultimate proof of creation and it was basically all about

worldview and how if you use logic in order to go back to foundational worldview that's what you can you can

show people inconsistencies and those kinds of things so it's almost like the world is your oyster you can go any of

those directions in order to say how does this relate back to the arguments of scripture essentially right and and

keep in mind that not everybody is going to argue right um apologists sort of have this um ah dark spot on our history

where we um maybe engaged a lot in arguments or uh we've been accused of

wanting to argue people into the faith uh there was a season of debates right where Christians and atheists would

debate one another and sometimes th those got heated on both sides sure I

think we're entering a new age in apologetics not new ages according to

like new age mement think we're entering this uh newer realm of apologetics where

we are um willing to engage with people in an actual conversation one-on-one

without debate without really like going in guns blazing or having questions

beforehand and preparing our answers and getting ready for whatever they say like we're more willing to just talk just

talk and and and do life together and I I think I'm seeing that Trend more and

more um there are still some who who aren't and that's totally fine um one of

the things that uh one of my mentors has told me is there are different type of

apologists different types of apologists and some are going to be much more direct in their approach um and then

others are not others are others are not going to be as direct they're going to be more about building relationships and

and having those conversations as they come up naturally rather than forcing the conversation and this is why it's so

important that we know who we're talking with because the direct approach approach might work for that person

right yeah and uh you know that's that's the kind of missional mindset you know I'm a missionary kid and this idea of

like going to a house with a track and saying do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior for some people

that works um they they right there right for other people they're like uh

no and they'll close the door they don't want anything to do with you um and it becomes more of are you caring for the

people around you yeah um do you do you support your neighbors in ways that that

they need you to support them um rather than judging them for their long uh

grasp have you volunteered to mow their lawn for example maybe they're going through something in life that you don't

know about that they just grass is not their priority yeah and um

maybe they just need a neighbor to say I will mow your lawn for you and let me just do that for you um and so I think

that approach uh is it sounds really simplistic I know Lauren it sounds so

simplistic but I've been able to talk with people about my faith really

organically um and it it doesn't it's nothing that it's not because I say well

what do you do for Living Well I I work in Christian Ministry it's not only because of that because often I don't

lead with that right um I'll say I write or um I teach at a local College like

those are the kinds of things that I'll say and oh okay and eventually maybe that will lead that way but um I think

it's um interesting that we've we sort of set this standard and we think we can't meet it um I never went to

Seminary or I never went to college or I don't have a Bible degree right the Bible doesn't say we need those things

abut those are not requirements for sharing your faith um all you have to know is why you have hope right

absolutely and so this sort of leads into the book you wrote the uh bridge building I see it behind you you want to

grab it it is I know yeah yeah so tell us why you wrote that book was that

essentially I assume it's basically what you've been saying is feeling like that there needs to be a more relational approach yeah so ever since College um I

mean really since I was as a child and seeing my parents engage with people of

all World Views um as missionaries and uh you know sort of the the idea of you

know we shouldn't put this barrier up or or necessarily live in a Christian bubble um there there is a time and a

place for a Christian bubble um and I'm not saying that people have to always live outside the bubble there's a a nice

thing about being in a Christian bubble right um it can be uplifting it can really help encourage you during times

of L or pain or whatever but um when we step outside of that bubble we get much

bigger opportunities to engage with people who disagree with us and I I call them opportunities I think it's lovely

to engage with people who aren't exactly like us yeah um and and so I think this idea was really born maybe in college I

started meeting uh Latter-Day Saints for example um I took a course in college an

independent study about uh World Views and world religion it's really when I started to to like dig deep I didn't

call didn't know it was apologetics didn't know that word um but I was just studying world religions that's kind of

what I thought um comparative worldviews and things like that and then as I became an adult and uh I realized my

world was full of different types of humans that I just um friendships that

had naturally occurred over time of people who aren't Christians and I like

oh you it's nothing something I like sought out to do like let me change the world I'm gonna people are doing this

everywhere um but I think sometimes we've over complicated this whole idea

um oh I I can't talk to my neighbor about that or I can't I can't make a friend that way or how would I even

bring it up and and for me bridge building is about standing firm in your truth like not your truth but the truth

um standing firm in truth and then having genuine friendships and those two

things together bridge building right um and then you throw in apologetics because when bridges are built then

you're able to share and defend the gospel uh and so I think that's that's

kind of how it was born um I think we should know how to disagree well um

because ultimately even between Christians we have disagreements about things about how we should live our

lives or how we should I'm Name It We we disagree uh and so I just I wanted to

create a space in in in a book form of people knowing that they can have

friends who aren't Christians right but also how to do that and then to share

their faith confidently how can we even do that yeah yeah so um there's an it's

not really an argument but a concept that I've heard before that when somebody doesn't really know yet very

deeply like their Roots aren't going down deep that it's important for them to be grounded not just in the word but

possibly in in a Christian bubble um not to say you have no contact with the outside world but because those outside

influences rather than you influencing them they might influence you if you're not quite at the point where you really

understand the depth of what you believe and then it's almost like by way of analogy the Israelites leaving Egypt and

then going through the Wilderness before they go into the promised land and they start trying to conquer the giants that

are there that there's a process that God maybe takes you through or maybe another example would be Paul when he

converts and he goes out into the Wilderness Holy Spirit to teach him for a while before he comes back and like

gets launched into his ministry so I assume this is just like holy spirit will tell you but is there a way for to

say where are you and how do you know like you're strong enough to start seeking this out and engaging in these

conversations and they're not going to to your your your feet are planted on the rock as oppos to maybe this is a

little bit more of a danger zone for you any any advice there yeah this is why

the first chapter of my book is all about prayer because um we need to be in

constant conversation with god uh about everything right um but when it comes to

engaging with people about our faith the core of Who We Are by the way we need to

have discernment and wisdom um we need to be able to know when the direct approach is appropriate and when we're

going to go slow when is that appropriate uh and so prayer is vital as

far as um engaging with other worldviews and the danger that that might pose I

acknowledge that uh I study world religions I spend a lot of time I've written about witchcraft I've um written

about astrology and the new age and all sorts of things and um you start to feel

um spiritually heavy when you engage with those things I don't know how to

explain it other than that um and uh I I was experiencing that when

I first started to research the New Age movement and reached out to um Doug Roti

who is a philosopher um and he was my apolog one of my apologetics professors

in seminary and he recommended that I pray Psalm 91 whenever I'm engaging with

people or whenever I'm approaching a new world view or researching um things

because I'm not going to not research things I really believe that's where God has called me in this life so how can I

protect myself or or ask for protection the other thing is in Ephesians we learn

about the armor of God and putting that on every day that's very very important

and then finally I I talk about guard rails in my book and the and the chapter on boundaries and having people who be

will be willing to pray for you when you're engaging with other people or engaging with with other worldviews

learning about other worldviews people who will set aside time for you every day and pray uh and that becomes really

important your prayer life and having some someone else pray for you can really be transformative in the way that

you experience um your relationship with God but also in the way that you um will

find yourself in situations where you're meeting more people from other worldview

those Divine appointments um well will begin to trickle in you're like oh I met I met somebody else there was one summer

where I think I met maybe eight or nine Latter-Day Saints and I was like what is

happening and so that was you know it was an opportunity for me to be like well I guess I need to learn about that

worldview a little bit more um and so see who God has placed in your life and

don't try to become an expert on every other world view I mean I think I rattled off eight at the beginning of

this podcast but there are some people predict or say that there are up to 10,000 different world religions and you

you can't know them all right like there there's there's no way and so start with

Christianity know that as well as you need to know know the hope within you um

and then if you notice that you have a lot of people in your life who happen to

be Muslim take some time to get to know the basics about Islam right but then

when you have conversations you can say you know I've been studying Islam and I read this yeah do you find that to be

true and ask them do you believe this is this something you actually believe or

why do you believe this is true um and and show some Grace there right because

um just like Christians may not know everything about Christianity it's true of other

worldviews Muslims aren't going to know everything about Islam latterday Saints aren't going to know all the answers at

your doorstep most of those missionaries that come to your door like 18 years old

they're not going to know think about where you were at 18 sure yeah so instead just have those really gentle

conversations about like asking good questions um a good example of that is

um Francis Schaefer talked about you know when he has an hour with an unbeliever he'll spend 55 minutes

listening to the unbeliever and then five minutes sharing his thoughts um and

so if we could really change the way we think about having these kinds of conversations I

think they get less scary yeah because let's face it people like to talk about themselves and so ask good questions um

it will lead to answers that maybe we don't even expect sure um and that could

lead to a really great dialogue yeah absolutely so what have I not asked you

that you want to make sure you leave with our audience yeah I mean I think one of the

the things that people have is this fear of going into conversations or what if they get something wrong yeah I want I

want people to know that just be natural be who you are um you know what you know

and you don't know what you don't know and so if somebody asks you a question that you don't know the answer to you

can say I don't know but guess what I'm gonna find out and let me get back to

you and then really follow through go find out that answer and then give them

a call and say or text or however you communicate and and let them know hey I found that answer can we meet um and

have a cup of coffee and I can share with you what I discovered um and so please don't be afraid to say you don't

know I say I don't know all the time it it's just the reality we don't know all

the things we can't right uh and and the other thing is if you don't know try to

have um I'm going to use an old school term I use it in my book too and I actually had to Define it because my

editor was like oo people are younger than that a Rolodex so this idea of a Rolodex which

is where people used to keep like a Circ circular thing with business cards yeah

and if they had a question if they were looking for a plumber for example they would know okay I need to go and outlook

for a plumber there not a phone book it's a rodex your personal stash of people you trust on particular things

and we should do the same thing when it comes to Christianity who do we trust to defend the gospel who do we DET who

which apologist can we tap into on the subject of sexuality or on the subject

of um the resurrection uh have people in your pocket that you can refer others to

um so that you say you know what I don't know that answer directly but I did read a book by this guy or I read this book

by this G who wrote this amazing summary I can't exactly say it the same way that

they did I highly recommend you read the book um you can either lend it to them or whatever it is but that's that's kind

of where I I think I would like people to land is you don't have to be an expert in everything and it's okay to

say I don't know yeah absolutely we can Outsource some of that stuff as long as

long as there's references and ways to get there so where can people go to get

your book and to learn more about you yeah so you can get your book uh my book not your book but my book anywhere books

are sold okay and uh so like Amazon or I

it's sold at Target and Barnes & Noble and and whatnot um I also recommend if if your listeners can't afford to buy

the book or maybe I've heard some people I can't I don't have the space for one more book okay so there's an audible

version or there's an ebook version or request it at your library because what a great way to make it accessible to the

rest of your community um I think that libraries need more Christian books in them and so often we forget that we can

request books to be in libraries and so if you can't afford it Go request it at

your library and check it be the first one to check it out yeah that's a great idea I've actually just rediscovered the

library because you know Amazon beautiful yeah see and and you don't you

know not everybody wants to use Amazon so what are the Alternatives um and then as far as contacting me you can find me

at lindsy medal. comom um my I'm on all the socials under El meden Walt uh and

so you can find me there too I'm happy to respond questions or be contacted I'll answer um yeah so I'm just yeah

that's how you find me fantastic I will link to all of that in the show notes and thank you so much Lindsay this has been really fun in in talking to you

thanks Lauren thanks so much for having me absolutely

- Generated with https://kome.ai

‍