The Templeton Committee met for the first time on October 21, 2015. Pastor Michael Tavella had received a $5000 grant from the John Templeton Foundation through the auspices of Earl Whipple, a staff member of the organization and a member of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. The grant will be used to develop a manual for churches and individual Christians on how we should conduct ourselves when in conversation with atheists and others who do not attend Church (the “nones”), either one on one or in a public forum. The biblical basis for the project is I Peter 3: 15b-16. The proposal includes field testing the manual in church adult classes and then holding at least one public forum in which Christians and non-Christians dialogue with one another. These conversations will constitute a Christian defense of the faith (ἀπολογία, apologia, English-apology) and a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
