STROur mission statement at STR starts by saying,
Stand to Reason trains Christians to think more clearly about their faith and to make an even-handed, incisive, yet gracious defense for classical Christianity and classical Christian values in the public square.
Training is much more than just teaching. In fact, there are three important parts to training: teaching, sending out, and debriefing. After spending a long time teaching his disciples, Jesus sent them out and then debriefed what happened with his disciples in Luke 9:1–10 and Luke 10:1–24.
And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. And He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to perform healing. And He said to them, “Take nothing for your journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not even have two tunics apiece. Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that city. And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” Departing, they began going throughout the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere…. When the apostles returned, they gave an account to Him of all that they had done. Taking them with Him, He withdrew by Himself to a city called Bethsaida. (Luke 9:1-6, 10)
The apostle Paul also employed this strategy with his protégé Timothy. Timothy was sent by Paul to the Ephesian church to put good elders into leadership. Paul tells Timothy the following:
The things you have heard from me…entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2)
Make every effort to come to me soon. (2 Timothy 4:9)
Make every effort to come before winter. (2 Timothy 4:21)
STR Outpost meetings take care of the regular teaching portion of training Christians. We need to know why we believe what we believe and how to defend it. But if we stop with teaching, we are not truly training Christians.
Engagement is the second step in training Christians. Through STR Outpost Engagement we will send our people out, after they have been taught, to engage in conversation with non-Christians. After their engagement with others, we will debrief what happened and strategize for more engagements in the future.