Review: Accessible Apologetics Curriculum

Mikel Del Rosario, also known as "the Apologetics Guy," is an apologetics Speaker and Trainer based in Roseville, CA. A graduate of the M.A. Program in Christian Apologetics at Biola University, Mikel's aim is to make teaching and training others in apologetics less difficult and more practical. (Apologetics315 interviewed Mikel here.) This blog post will review his Accessible Apologetics Curriculum.

What is the curriculum?
This is a five-lesson course (the full outline PDF can be found here) that covers the following:
Lesson 1: Introduction to Apologetics
• What is Christian Apologetics? • Why Defend My Faith?
Lesson 2: Faith and Reason
• Do Faith and Reason Mix? • How Do I Know Christianity is True?
Lesson 3: Evidence for God
• Is God Real? • Why Does God Allow Evil?
Lesson 4: Fact or Fiction
• Did God Speak to Us? • Can I Trust My Bible?
Lesson 5: Dead or Alive
• Making History? • Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

In other words, this is exactly the kind of content that is going to be covered in an introductory apologetics course. This is the sort of content Reasonable Faith Belfast covered in 2010 -- so if you are teaching an introduction to apologetics for a small group, you will either get this course, or you will create it yourself!

What is in a lesson?
Each lesson contains a word doc with Before and After Ideas, a Leader PDF, a Student PDF, a PowerPoint handout PDF, and the PowerPoint file with all the slides. Mikel is offering Lesson 1 for FREE, which will give you a good idea of what to expect from each lesson.

The Before and After Ideas doc is helpful for those running a small group, as it contains templates for email communication about the lesson, sample Twitter, Facebook, and text messages, as well as sample church bulletin announcements. This is excellent stuff which not only helps you do the lesson, but to organize the group. See the lessons link for more info.

How is the content?
In a word, excellent. It's well-produced and sharp. All the graphics are uniform throughout the PowerPoint presentations and study materials. The presentation is simple and... accessible. The quality is good and the content itself is exactly what you would want to cover for an introduction to apologetics. As Mikel puts it on his blog:

Just imagine: No more wading through a bunch of heady material, trying to come up with a way to explain it all to regular people and make it practical at the same time. ... You’ll see this isn’t a bunch of blog posts thrown together in a PDF file. This is a carefully-crafted, 22-page document with over 4,000 words that will simplify your teaching and truly help you develop future defenders of the faith.

I have to agree with him on this.

Is this actually worth getting?
Yes. Keep in mind that I don't particularly enjoy buying curriculum. For some reason I feel like I'm not doing the work I should be doing, or that I'm going to get a cheap, repackaged product, or that it's just going to be tossed aside.

This is not what I felt like when reviewing all 5 lessons of Accessible Apologetics. The sheer amount of time saved is worth it. "Don't reinvent the wheel" comes to mind.

Who is going to love this?
Anyone who hasn't already created their own PowerPoint presentations, lesson plans, outlines, and study guides is going to save hours and hours with this. This provides a perfect framework and foundation for a small group study. This is appropriate for study groups of all ages and sizes.

Verdict
This curriculum is a winner. Download the first lesson to see what you are getting. If you are starting an apologetics small group, start here with your curriculum and grow from there.

See www.apologeticsguy.com/course for the whole course - or examine each lesson from this page.