Debate Seen as Dynamic Training for Religious Life

From http://gracerant.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/debate-and-me/

Today began the state high school debate tournament in Coppell. Debate is, I believe, one of the single most important activities that I participated in as a high school student. I believe it prepared me for my vocation as a pastor. Here are some reasons why:

It forced me to evaluate both sides of a proposition. You don’t get to choose the topic, and when the topic is chosen, you don’t get to choose which side you debate. You debate the topic and you debate both sides. Because of this, even if I strongly believed one side over the other, it required me to evaluate the arguments regardless of my affinity for them emotionally. In ministry there are always different perspectives being presented. If I were to rush to judgment to one side or the other without considering as many perspectives as possible, then I might make a poor decision. When the gospel is at stake, we should do all we can to determine if a decision will help grow the kingdom and make us more like Jesus.

It helped me think on my feet. In debate, no matter how much I prepared, there was always an argument that I encountered that I didn’t know how to directly respond to it. Yet, I didn’t have a chance to go and research the argument and then come back into the round and debate it. At best, you got 5 minutes of preparation time. At most tournaments you had 3 minutes. There are moments in ministry that require quick responses to situations that you aren’t prepared for, and when those situations arise, I know that staying calm and collected will allow for better, quicker decision making then being paralyzed or made frantic by something new.

Debate is as much about arguments as it is about persuasion and speaking skills. There were many rounds that I won not because I had the better arguments, but that I articulated them more clearly in the round. If we had written out the arguments side by side, then the judge might have come to a different conclusion. Oratory skills are important in debate to get the message across effectively to whoever is judging the round. When the gospel is at stake, I believe the way the message is presented can ultimately determine whether or not someone will listen and potentially be transformed by it. As a pastor who preaches, I can give the most compelling argument ever, but if I say it in an uninterested way, or worse yet, in a way that is rhetorically offensive, then the message has much less of a chance of being heard. I believe so much in the message of the gospel, that I want to be able to communicate it in as many ways as possible so that as many people as possible might also be transformed by the message.

There are other reasons too, but I think that does it for now. I now volunteer (although not near as much as I wish I could) with a local high school’s debate team. The activity gave so much to me that it is only right that I give something back too.