Training

We’re not just concerned with doing evangelism and apologetics, but also in training and equipping Christians to be able to talk to their sceptical friends and colleagues about their faith. Many Christians today find the idea of evangelism frightening or intimidating — it takes a lot of courage to speak up about what we believe — to our friends, at work, at school or university. It’s much easier to keep quiet. Very often, fear comes from a lack of confidence: what do I say? What if I’m asked a difficult question? What if I look stupid?

RZIM Canada regularly works with churches, university groups, seminaries and organisations to provide apologetics training to help address these kind of fears and enable Christians to feel better equipped for personal evangelism. From addressing some of the key questions and objections often levelled at Christianity, to looking in depth at other worldviews such as secularism or Islam, we aim to help Christians understand where our questioners are coming from and how to present an intelligent response and to do so with gentleness and respect.

If you’re interested in RZIM working with your church or organisation, we’d love to hear from you. We offer a number of programmes and possibilities, including our popular “Staying in the Conversation” events, one or two days pre-packaged programmes that can easily be tailored to your particular needs. Contact us for more information.

Wider Training Possibilities

Around the world, RZIM offers a number of training programmes for Christians who want to explore evangelism and apologetics in more detail. These include:

The Wheaton Summer Institute and Oxford Summer School
These are one week summer schools held every year at Wheaton College, Illinois and in Oxford, UK. Taught by members of RZIM’s global team, both offer wonderful opportunities to learn from some of the world’s leading apologists. Every year each summer school takes a different theme; in 2011, the Wheaton Summer Institute will be entitled “Mending the Breach: Reuniting the Heart and Mind in Apologetics” and will run from 26 June – 1 July 2011. The title of the Oxford Summer School is “Affluenza: Money and Power” and will run from 17-22 July 2011.

The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA)
 An exciting partnership between RZIM and Wycliffe Hall, the OCCA offers both one-year and eight-week courses in apologetics, with the former now accredited by Oxford University.

For those with a passion to make Christ known, studying at the OCCA is a life transforming experience, combining effective evangelism with academic rigour. The OCCA brings together cutting-edge theologians and world class evangelists in a centre of excellence. All OCCA students are provided with an unparalleled opportunity to be stretched, envisioned and equipped.

The OCCA provides a unique opportunity to receive outstanding apologetics teaching and evangelistic training, offering a high staff to student ratio to ensure that each student’s learning and development is individually supported. The teaching faculty comprises some of the world’s leading apologists and the students are provided with an unparalleled opportunity to be stretched, envisioned and equipped.

Further Resources

RZIM offers a wide variety of apologetics resources — books, CDs and DVDs — written by members of our global team. Some are designed for individual use, other resources are ideal for church small group use. For details of our current catalogue, please contact the office.