Rusty Benson
AFA Journal associate editor
July-August 2013 – “Mr. McFarland,” the letter began, “twice on my drive home from your event, I had to pull my car over because I was crying so much.”
So began a message to Alex McFarland not long after a Truth for a New Generation conference. McFarland organizes and sponsors the annual conference on apologetics (see below) and Christian worldview.
The writer explained that she had pulled her car over on the drive home to “wipe from my eyes tears of joy. You see, Mr. McFarland, I came to your conference an atheist. But I left as a Christian believer.”
For a number of years TNG has brought together speakers like Josh McDowell, Lee Strobel, Eric Metaxas, Gary Habermas, Erwin Lutzer and others. Originally intended to equip youth and college students to defend their Christian faith, the gathering now attracts pastors and adult church leaders, as well as laymen, who want to learn how to introduce apologetics to their congregations.
The TNG conference features keynote messages as well as dozens of electives that appeal to all age groups and learning levels. The 2013 gathering will focus on equipping the American church to rise to the challenge of 1 Peter 3:15 to always be prepared “to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect ….”
Not only does such training deepen the faith of believers, but in many cases, as with the woman who wrote the message to McFarland, God has used the TNG conference in the salvation of unbelievers.
McFarland said the lady who sent him the message above was a medical student in the U.S. who had grown up in another country. Largely skeptical regarding the subject of God, a fellow student had given her a registration to the apologetics event. In her emotional letter, she told McFarland: “If you had organized the event to change the life of even one individual, that person was me.”
The presentation that so arrested her attention was Lee Strobel’s “Case For A Creator.” Strobel, a former award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune, had been an atheist. Yet, when the Yale-educated journalist turned his fact-checking attention toward Christianity, he was surprised to find himself persuaded that the evidence affirms that the biblical message is true.
McFarland said the testimony from the med student echoes correspondence he has received from many others, and it proves the effectiveness of passionate speakers, who themselves have investigated the veracity of the Christian faith.
In association with the Chuck Colson Center for Worldview, this year’s event will offer a special session McFarland is calling “A National Briefing On Religious Freedom.” The briefing will be moderated by Fox News anchor Lauren Green and feature scholars Timothy George of Beeson Divinity School and Jennifer Marshall of Heritage Foundation. The focus of the discussion will be the rising threats to religious liberties in America.
McFarland says that as dozens of belief systems compete for the hearts and minds of Americans, it is vital that the church be prepared to present, explain and defend the historic Christian faith. 
Alex McFarland co-hosts Exploring the Word on American Family Radio. Truth For A New Generation is hosted in partnership with AFA. For complete info: www.truthforanewgeneration.com or 888-705-0980.
2013 Truth for a New Generation • September 27-28 • Charlotte, NC
