OBU to Host Annual Student Apologetics Conference March 1
January 15, 2025
Registration is underway for OBU’s annual youth apologetics conference, Generation Why. Students, youth groups, college ministry groups and others around the state and region are invited to attend the conference on March 1, 2025. The event will take place on the OBU campus in Shawnee.
Last year’s conference, “Biblical Apologetics,” included about 900 attendees. This year’s conference focuses on “Apologetics and Evangelism.”
Generation Why, also known as GenWhy, enlightens and equips students to recognize the importance of reasonable faith in a post-Christian age.
For most of the 20th century, people identified themselves according to their faith. But then everything changed. This conference looks at what it means to be a Christian in the post-Christian age.
The conference is designed for middle school, high school and college students to prepare them to recognize and know their faith more deeply and to defend it more effectively.
Students will learn about the rational foundations that show how the Christian faith is true while gaining practical tools to tell others about that truth.
GenWhy will begin at 9 a.m. and conclude at 4 p.m. The day will include a time of worship and an array of breakout sessions.
The registration cost is $10 per person, $60 per group for groups with six to 14 people, and $70 per group for groups of 15 or more. Groups registered after February 1 must register at the individual rate.
Featured speakers are Dr. Paul Gould, professor of philosophy of religion at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Mary Jo Sharp, author, founder and director of Confident Christianity Apologetics Ministry.
Gould is the founder and president of the Two Tasks Institute and a past (2019-2020) Visiting Fellow at the Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has a master’s in philosophy of religion and ethics from Talbot School of Theology and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Purdue University.
Sharp, a former atheist who now follows Jesus, has navigated two distinct American cultures: the post-Christian ethos of the Pacific Northwest and the evangelical landscape of the Bible Belt. Her introduction to apologetics came during her personal quest for answers. Sharp is the founder and director of Confident Christianity Apologetics Ministry. She previously taught apologetics at Houston Christian University, where she was instrumental in establishing their apologetics program.
The Generation Why 2025 conference is facilitated through OBU’s Hobbs School of Theology and Ministry. Registration for the conference can be found on the Generation Why? conference website. For questions, please contact amber.meek@okbu.edu.