New Frontiers for Ministry

Now, one of the definitions of the word evolution is this: “a process of change in a certain direction” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Certainly, Answers in Genesis has changed over the years as the ministry grows in a particular direction, to impact more and more people with the truth of God’s Word and the saving gospel. So, in that sense, I guess we could say the ministry of AiG continues to “evolve.”

Certainly, at AiG, we want to be balanced in how we approach a changing culture.

One of the definitions of balance from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is this: “a counterbalancing weight, force, or influence.” Certainly, at AiG, we want to be balanced in how we approach a changing culture. We want to be a force and thus an influence in the culture, balancing between dealing with cultural changes and maintaining the basics of the vision, mission, and foundational principles from God’s Word that don’t change.

All of this is not an easy task.

Many years ago, someone told me that the seven last words of the church were, “We’ve never done it this way before.”

We know technology changes. There are generational changes in the way people think. The culture changes. Change is inevitable. Churches/organizations change as they grow and as people outgrow skill sets or new skill sets are needed. So how do we as a ministry deal with such changes and yet maintain our balance regarding the mission of the ministry?

For a church or ministry organization, too much change can be detrimental. I’ve often used music to help people understand how I believe we should approach change. My philosophy of music in the church is that we should use the best of the old and the best of the new—though I find that many churches throw out all the old and only use the new.

Change needs to happen, but for the right reasons in the right direction and in a balanced way. That is always a struggle to achieve. People can have very different ideas (opinions) on what changes are needed.

As a Christian ministry, we know that:

• God’s Word doesn’t change, so any changes cannot in any way contradict God’s Word. Everything must be consistent with a biblical worldview based on God’s Word, going back to Genesis 1–11.
• Our Statement of Faith must also be adhered to for any changes being made. Our Statement of Faith has actually changed over the years as we have really had to “beef it up” in regard to gender, marriage, sanctity of life, and so on because of what is happening in the culture.
• Our Vision statement should always be adhered to. Our Vision statement hasn’t changed, but as a human-made document, obviously, we could change it in the future if the board ever believed that appropriate. Those changes would probably be addition rather than subtraction.

Now, given all the above, what sorts of changes are we making at Answers in Genesis? Let me give you some examples.

1. Because of the “identity” issue plaguing younger generations in our culture as ideas about gender fluidity permeate our once Christianized Western nations, we are building an identity exhibit at the Creation Museum based on the book Who Am I? by Martyn Iles.

2. We are now starting to produce books like Why Did God Make Me a Boy? and Why Did God Make Me a Girl? for children. The book Who Am I? was produced for teens and adults because increasing numbers of young people are struggling with identity issues.

3. Given the massive advancements in technology and the increasing use of AI (artificial intelligence) in so many areas, we believed it important to produce our own AI (we call it AI Genesis) that does not have the fallible assumptions the world builds into such technology but will be built from the ground up, based on God-honoring principles. This technology will enable us to disseminate information to generations worldwide, make our website fun to use and to locate information, and enhance various exhibits at our attractions—including innovative ways to provide more information and fun for children at the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter.

   AI Genesis will also enable us to greatly increase our translation ministry to take all our content to those who don’t have access to it because of the language barrier. I’m so excited about this for the future.

4. Even back in the ’70s when I first started speaking publicly on Genesis and the origins topic, I was predicting that the more people and the culture as a whole abandon God’s Word as the basis for morality, the more we will see abortion, gay “marriage,” and all sorts of sexual perversion permeating our nations. That is what we are seeing. So we now need to be intentionally dealing with the social issues of our day in ways we didn’t have to do before. Who would have ever thought we would have to understand what woke means and then understand terminology like nonbinary, intersex, cis-gender, cis-normative, misgender, transphobia, pansexual, heteronormative, and the list goes on! Do you know what pangender means? It’s a person whose gender identity is not limited to just one but may encompass all genders at once! And then there’s the pronoun issue like zir and hir and a host of others! I can’t keep up with it all.

5. Now, naturalistic evolution is still being taught as fact to generations of people, so we do have to continue to provide answers to this anti-God religion. And as new generations grow up, they still have many of the same questions about the Bible that need answering. We at AiG have answered many of these, but we also need to be ready with the answers when asked and continue to provide answers to questions we haven’t had before. It’s never ending.

So we have to maintain a balance of dealing with older topics (like creation, evolution, age of the earth, etc.) as these continue to permeate education and media, while also dealing with all the “evolving” cultural issues as people abandon Christian morality and build their thinking on man’s word.

This means we will also need to ensure such social issues are dealt with at our attractions too, maintaining a balance between answering attacks on God’s Word (particularly in Genesis), teaching the truths of Genesis 1–11 that are foundational to everything, and teaching people how to biblically approach the social issues that are causing catastrophic impacts on people and the culture as a whole.

None of this is an easy task. But God has brought talented people to AiG to enable us to do what we can to accomplish all this.

None of this is an easy task. But God has brought talented people to AiG to enable us to do what we can to accomplish all this.

If a church or ministry doesn’t change in the right way, it will stagnate or die. I so want AiG to be on the cutting edge in every area (technology, cultural relevance, etc.) so we do not just maintain our effectiveness but increase our impact and reach millions more with the truth.

As part of this change, we recognize we can’t (for many reasons) build Arks or Creation Museums in multiple states in the US or multiple countries. The AI project will now enable us to provide a virtual Ark and Creation Museum experience for people around the world. That’s something to really look forward to.

And as part of our going out to preach the gospel to as many as possible, we have embarked on two projects that will reach potentially millions more people. One of our ministry supporters challenged us (and agreed to be a part of this project) to use modern technology to take God’s Word and the gospel into major tourist areas in the US.

We will be opening two such major outreaches in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, and Branson, Missouri, in spring of 2025. These will be Disney-quality attractions featuring a virtual reality experience and a planetarium in Pigeon Forge, and a virtual reality experience and a special-effects theater program with projection mapping in Branson. Each of these areas receives around 12–13 million visitors per year. What an opportunity before us!

Our programs will be a fun and exciting way to proclaim the message of the Bible and the gospel and then also promote the Ark and Creation Museum. The technology will be cutting-edge. All the theming will definitely match the quality of Disney or Universal Studios.

So this is a big step for us to now take aspects of our exhibits out to major tourist areas. We want to engage people with a balance of fun while also boldly proclaiming God’s Word and the gospel—without compromise.

As you know, we have changed in many ways over the years, and now we are escalating changes in the areas mentioned above. They are not the only changes—there will be many more to come as we adapt to deliver the Bible’s unchanging message to impact people where they are today. After all, AiG is a dynamic ministry with a mission to reach the world with the truth of God’s Word and the gospel.

All of this takes a lot of time and resources. We need God’s people more than ever before to get behind us as we step out to do our bit to “go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

Will you help us? Your prayers and financial support are vital to AiG greatly increasing its reach through new technologies, particularly to the younger generations, far beyond what any one of us as individuals can accomplish.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken