Wholesalers and Retailers
Ratio Christi is a different type of ministry. Many current ministries in apologetics and worldview fit into one broad category. They are ministries that provide speakers, books, CD’s, DVD’s, curriculum, blogs, training, and tons of materials and conversations in worldview or apologetics. For the sake of an analogy let's call them “wholesalers.” They provide large volumes of Christ centered and crucial content. Ratio Christi appreciates and is seeking to build partnerships with each of these ministries. We thank God for the vision and foundational work of people like Norm Geisler, Alvin Plantinga, David Noebel, Ravi Zacharias, Josh McDowell, Gary Habermas, and so many others that provided Christian worldview and apologetics necessary scholarship and the roots of a popular movement. Because of these visionaries, there are hundreds of graduates with Master’s degrees in apologetics. The big problem is that these trained apologists have very little hope of finding work in Christian ministry. Many of these graduates have been wondering why God would call them to do all this work with very little hope of getting a position in full-time Christian ministry.
Yet, for many and biblical reasons the popularity of apologetics continues to grow. This is evident in the Christian publishing industry. Many of today’s top selling books deal with worldview/apologetics topics and it is a fast growing category for publishers. But the questions still persist; how do we get this movement to the grassroots? How do we get “boots on the ground?” How do we make this a movement that brings good solid apologetics training into the local church?
Ratio Christi seeks to provide an answer. We are a ministry in this movement that is completely focused on placing apologists at the local level. By partnering with seminaries and organizations that provide us with trained apologists, we are opening apologetics clubs at universities. We are setting up “retail” locations for apologetics training and distribution. And each of these apologist use the services that the wholesale ministries offer. Ratio Christi provides venues and grass roots implementers for the content of other ministries. By doing this we are engaging in the battle for the mind of Christians and skeptics alike as we unashamedly defend the veracity of God, the Bible, and Christ’s resurrection.
But the work of our local apologists does not stop at the university. Many of our local apologists are becoming a resource for local churches. We call them “community apologists” and they seek to do the full-time work of an evangelist by equipping believers to win their families and friends to Christ. Their job is to grow the local churches by providing sound training to Christians so they can become confident and effective witnesses of the truth.
This is a new age for the church—the age of the apologists—and Ratio Christi is excited about our role in this movement to deploy apologetics training to local communities all across the country.
Join us!
