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What does the future hold for

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apologetics in the church, especially

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here in the US and English speaking world? Something

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Catholic Answers has been involved in for a long

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time, but we always have to keep our eye

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on the future. That's something I've been thinking about

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a lot. Welcome. Council Trent podcast

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is free for all Friday, Monday and Wednesdays.

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We talk apologetics and theology. Friday, this Friday,

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it's apologetics. It could be all sorts of

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different topics, but it's whatever I feel like

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talking about. And this has been really

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weighing on my heart recently. And

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it's motivating me to change up a little bit

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of what I'm doing, not drastically, but

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putting myself onto a different trajectory, something

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I'm concerned about when it comes to

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the future. I think it happens a

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lot for people as you get older, you

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start your young adult life really thinking a lot

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about your own future. Like what's my career going

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to be? Who's my spouse going to be? What's

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my vocation? What am I going to do with

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children? How am I going to make my place

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in the world? How am I going to provide?

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How am I going to build

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up my family in a culture that's

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increasingly opposed to Christian values, for example?

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So this is something that people do

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in the beginning of your adult life. You think a

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lot about your future, but as your

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adult life continues on and especially once

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you get to the point where you feel like you've answered a

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lot of those questions and you know what you want to do,

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you start thinking about other

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people's futures. You start thinking about your children's

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future, your grandchildren's future, and

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you start to transition to thinking, okay, what kind of

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legacy can I leave? What can I do

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in the world, do for the glory of God that

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will benefit the kingdom of God and the body of

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Christ and provide these

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spiritual rewards and benefits to others, maybe in

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future generations? What can I do to serve

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the body of Christ in the

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future? And a lot of that involves how can I serve the

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body right now? So that's what

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I want to talk about because we were having

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a discussion at Catholic Answers not too long ago.

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I was with the other apologists and senior staff.

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We were talking about what are we going to do in six months? What are we

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going to do in a year? What are we going to do in five years? And

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I raised the question, I said, what are we going to do though in?

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10 years or let's say 20 years,

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right? I would love to work at

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Catholic Answers for my entire life. I love being a Catholic

2:07

apologist. I love doing debates. I

2:10

love studying. I love writing books. I love equipping

2:12

other people. And I think that's going to become

2:14

more of what I want to do in

2:16

the future. I love helping people

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overcome intellectual obstacles so they can have

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a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and

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be a communion with Christ and

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His church. I love doing that. And so I'm grateful

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to work at Catholic Answers to be able

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to do that. And so I asked

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the staff in the leadership, what

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are we going to do? What are things

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going to look like in 20 years? So right

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now I can tell you this much. The current crop

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of leadership at Catholic Answers,

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our president, the board, the

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senior apologist, in

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20 years, they're going to be retired.

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They may be retired from ministry. They may

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be retired from this earth and go to

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their heavenly reward, which is a good thing.

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It's what we all want to do, right?

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So in 20 years, they're going to be there. In

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20 years, I will be

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where they are now, maybe approaching thinking, oh,

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wow, I might retire in five to 10

3:10

years. But I could imagine

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if I stay with Catholic Answers in 20 years, that

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I might hold one of these positions of leadership

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in the company. I'm not sure. Honestly,

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I would rather just do apologetics full time. I'd rather

3:21

just focus on all the stuff I like to do.

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But there comes a point where maybe you

3:27

need to lead others who will go

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on and carry that torch, so to speak. And

3:31

thinking about also among the apologists, the

3:34

youngest crop that we have now, we don't have a young

3:37

crop. Right now, the youngest people, I'm

3:39

about to turn 40. My colleague, Joe

3:41

Heshmeyer, is around the same age. Carlo

3:44

is around there. So we

3:47

are elder millennials.

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We're the elder millennials. We're definitely not in the

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Gen Z generation. Our children are part of the

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Gen alpha generation. Those are the people that were

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born after 2014, I think. So We're

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part of that generation. I'm just thinking, what is it gonna be like

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in the future? Because I was

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really blessed to have been brought into Catholic

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Answers. I started doing apologetics work really

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right after I got out of high school.

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I was doing pro-life speaking on college, well

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not on college campuses. During my time at Arizona

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State University, Scottsdale Community College, I

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was doing local pro-life talks. I

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would also do local apologetic talks at

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parishes. After college, I traveled

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the country, pro-life outreach

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at universities, Christian apologetic outreaches,

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did a debate with an atheist. I think he did

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two debates with atheists actually. So

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I started getting into that apologetic

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field and getting involved with producing

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some apologetics at the local level. But

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I started that around in

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my mid 20s actually. That's

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when I started doing that. And

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I remember once actually, I made a rap video.

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There was this guy, he did

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a video called Why I'm Christian

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but Not Religious or Why

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I Love Jesus, Not Religion, something like

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that. And it was on my

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birthday and I went home and I made a video response,

5:08

a rap video response to that. And

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I posted it online. And I

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remember Patrick Madrid even mentioned, said, hey, this kid might

5:18

have a future. And

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that was just something that I was

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really happy to do because I

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felt like I needed to do something. And

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I started making little videos and I went out there. I didn't have

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a lot to show. It was before getting

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into YouTube or anything like that. But

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I cared a lot about that. And so I was so grateful.

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I was hired at Catholic Answers when I was 28. And

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so the past 12 years, I

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really benefited from mentorship, especially from

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my older colleagues, Tim Staples, Jimmy

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Aiken has mentored me a lot. He and I are

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kindred spirits on a lot of theological issues. We

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have the same mindset in a lot of things.

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I remember when Jimmy interviewed me for the job, he said, you remind

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me of me just at a different point. on the timeline.

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It's a very Jimmy thing to say, by the way. I

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take that as a high compliment. So

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I've been grateful to have been mentored along this

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way. And so now, going

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forward in the future, what I'm trying

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to do now is I'm wondering what is the future going to

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be like? I've been trying to

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identify the Gen Z Catholic apologists. And

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the things that I've been looking for is, where

6:23

are the younger generation

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who, they're autodidacs, they

6:28

really enjoy reading and learning. They don't

6:30

just read the secondary sources. They

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want to read the opposition. They

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read academic works. They want to know

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backwards and forwards on these issues, not

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just the surface level talking points. Do

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they have charity? Do they have charity

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in dealing with opponents? Do they have

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charity when talking about the

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magisterium, for example? It's very popular. I've seen

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a lot of people have shown promise, but then

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I see how they talk about Pope Francis

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or the bishops. Very, very harsh.

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And I'm not saying they have to say everything

7:00

positive. You can have respectful criticism. I've offered respectful

7:02

criticism of Pope Francis and of others.

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But sometimes I worry they're just kind of

7:07

getting in it for clicks. And

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I want to find someone who is a real heart

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of evangelization, a mind for

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scholarship. Honestly, the biggest thing I

7:16

look for too is debates. Like, can I see them?

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The biggest thing that moved me up, I found a young Gen

7:21

Z person. I want to see them in a debate with someone else.

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And are they charitable and knowledgeable? And they can think on

7:26

their feet. And I've seen a

7:28

few like that. And

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it impresses me. And especially people, they're

7:32

not just interested in very narrow theological

7:35

topics, only for advanced thinkers. They care

7:37

a lot about the bread and butter,

7:39

basic apologetics, and making it understandable for

7:41

a wide variety of people. So

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that's kind of what I'm looking for. If

7:46

you know anyone like that, go to trendhorn.com.

7:49

Shoot me a message. Send me a link to what they're doing.

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I found a few, but I would really enjoy finding more

7:54

because that's the thing. I don't want to get to 50

7:56

or 60. And What? There's nobody else

7:58

out there doing this? or they're doing it. Than had

8:00

some Mentor shipped. Maybe prevent them

8:02

from falling off a cliff. Theological

8:04

clear for doing something drastic. Maybe

8:06

they shouldn't do some. That's.

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This episode is really about a Call Assist These

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young people are listening to this. If you feel

8:13

a call to this or bloom where your plants

8:16

it. Do. A blog, Tic toc

8:18

Youtube videos Just start making materials

8:20

and pray. Pray a lot while

8:22

you're doing that. As it

8:24

brings value, other people will share it. And

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it will begin to grow. And.

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You may find yourself may be doing apologetics work

8:31

part time. Offering. As a hobby

8:33

than com part time work. And. They

8:35

recently full time will will offer itself

8:37

in the future in your war more

8:40

different ways. I notice others descending. Interesting

8:42

when I was when I was a

8:44

young person, would I was young? So.

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I remember and like the early two thousand. Dollars.

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A whole generation of people that zen Exercise Reboot

8:51

were ten fifteen years older than me. There

8:54

was like assholes. stable of Jan actors

8:56

will go across the country and speak

8:58

and then disorders. Author: The still doing

9:00

it Right You got Jason Ever Paul

9:02

Cam There were a lot of these.

9:05

Jen X, Their. Do Next To Me. I

9:07

mean, I was. well as a teen, These people were

9:09

like thirty thirty two. And they

9:11

were just criss crossing the country, going

9:13

and doing talks and is the words

9:16

you're doing. Ah, other kinds of a

9:18

vandals a sin online. But.

9:20

I've noticed more so, especially finding those

9:22

speakers that's harder to come by amongst

9:24

Nz. To have you will

9:26

address is known for go around doing tossing a

9:28

lot of agencies more comfortable making sure tic toc

9:30

videos. Like they. Never.

9:33

Really grew up with or developed skill

9:35

for giving an hour long talk and

9:37

conference. Where. Do you seminar for example

9:39

having to engage in those in person or actions

9:42

as a safer to do your you tube channel

9:44

your tic toc videos are you to post whatever

9:46

might be but we need more that we wanted

9:48

to be good online but also can. Go.

9:50

Into a public debate can go into an

9:52

hour long talk and engage people in person.

9:55

So. nuts one thing

9:57

that i've that i've noticed spots You

10:00

really want to find the others who could do debates, who

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can write, you can write well, you can speak, you can

10:04

do debates. One thing I am willing to compromise on though

10:07

is you don't need to be a jack of all trades. I

10:09

worry some people think that in order to do apologetics, they

10:12

might look at myself or Jimmy Aiken and say,

10:14

wow, Trent and Jimmy speak on this and

10:16

speak on that. And I've written and done

10:18

debates on a wide variety of subjects. And

10:21

so they will say, well, I can't do that many subjects and I don't want

10:23

to be an apologist. It's really, really, really

10:25

rare to find someone who has a wide field

10:27

of knowledge to engage in that way. I

10:30

would love to find people who are competent

10:32

in the narrow field. Like maybe they just

10:35

do abortion and transgender ideology and contemporary moral

10:37

issues. They just do Catholic apologetics

10:39

or Christian apologetics, but they have the chops for

10:41

it and they're willing to grow and

10:44

they're willing to get better. So that's

10:46

the call. That's all I have today. I didn't

10:48

have a lot to share, but that's just one

10:50

on my mind and heart. I think about the future a

10:52

lot. And I would love to find

10:55

people, especially in their late 20s, like mid to

10:57

late 20s, early 30s

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who want to do this and

11:03

want to seek mentorship, want to grow, want to

11:05

be given those opportunities. And I

11:07

wouldn't mind finding the people who show promise. I

11:10

can't shepherd everybody, right? I can spend my whole

11:12

time mentoring every single person who comes to me.

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I don't have the resources, the time to do

11:16

that. But for those who show promise,

11:18

I mean, I can give nudges to people. I can give them

11:20

helpful tips. And for people who really show

11:22

promise, they just get out there and they do it. And they'll

11:24

take a few lumps along the way. They'll make mistakes, they'll learn

11:26

from it. But if they're willing to learn and to

11:29

grow, I'd love to see

11:31

what comes from them so that 20 years from

11:33

now, they are

11:36

the person in their late 30s, early 40s who

11:40

is going around in their flying car from city to

11:42

city. No, there's not

11:44

gonna be flying cars. Maybe we'll have full electric cars

11:46

by then. Nah, I hope we still have gas

11:48

cars, right? If you listened to Free For All last week, you

11:50

know, I talked about that. But they'll be

11:53

in the position where I'm at now. Their star will

11:55

be rising, my star will be setting. I

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wanna hang out with my grandkids.

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and write the occasional book here and there.

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But I don't want the future to sneak up

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on me. I want one day to wake up, hey,

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like I do in the old version of voice, I'm gonna be like, hey, I'm 65. So

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I'll be like, I'm 65, I don't send anything

12:13

like that. No, you don't. I don't

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want it to sneak up on me and realize I wanna

12:18

retire and haven't planned through to

12:20

encourage the next generation to carry the

12:22

mantle. There's always gonna be a next

12:24

generation until Christ returns. And each

12:26

current generation needs to think of those people

12:28

and prepare them to carry the mantle forward

12:31

and just offer what I've learned, both from

12:33

what's worked and what hasn't worked as well.

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So yeah, so I hope that was helpful for you all. Thank

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you guys for listening to my wistful

12:40

thoughts about this. Pray that God

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will raise up apologists, evangelists, among

12:45

the younger generations to build up Christ's kingdom and

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his church. Thank you all and I hope you

12:49

have a very blessed weekend.