CENTERblog

Ravi Zacharias Benefit Lecture
By: Ally Landis - South Anchorage High School

The evening started out with some praise and worship music featuring the ChangePoint church band and Grace Christian School choir. The music was powerful and upbeat but it drowned out the choir on almost all of the songs and it was hard to enjoy the music with people around you talking and trying to find their seats. Since the doors opened at six thirty and the actual program didn’t start until seven, people would wander in and stop and talk with friends. I would have preferred for people to have been seated so one could enjoy the music without having to listen to people talking at the same time. But after three or four songs it quieted down and the theatre was full of people standing, some with their arms up and singing along to the songs. It was a powerful moment and there is just something cool about seeing that many people all come together and lift their hands up in praise.

The main part of the program was a lecture by Dr. Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologetic speaker who has a Masters of Divinity from Trinity International University and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. Zacharias has written several books, has a weekly radio program “Let My People Think.” He started his international ministry in 1984 and has spoken all over the world to members of parliaments, the military, senators, congressman, delegates, and governors as well as at multiple universities.

Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell introduced Ravi Zacharias as a “passionate lover of truth” and the audience responded with a sounding ovation. The first thing Zacharias did was ask the active and retired military men and women to stand and be recognized. What an incredible way to start. It seems that we don’t ever honor our military men and women as much as we should and it was good to see them recognized.

His lecture followed, which was hard to swallow at times. He was a very eloquent speaker but I had to concentrate hard to try and understand all he was saying. Luckily for those of us with short attention spans, he cracked jokes throughout to keep his points from becoming too long. My favorite thing to hear him talk about was his stories. His anecdotes were inspirational and held the audiences’ attention, whether it was his own personal story such as when he almost committed suicide or when he talked about others whose lives had been changed dramatically by Jesus Christ.

The last part of the program was a question and answer session. Audience members were invited to come up to one of the four microphones to ask questions. This was a way for the audience to get some of their own questions answered, but many did not keep their questions succinct and to the point and the answers tended to be long and drawn out. I sometimes had trouble deciding whether or not the question was answered. But it allowed for Zacharias to speak about his ideas and beliefs and help people who were struggling with their questions. It was interesting, but there should have been a time limit of sorts since many people did not get a chance to ask their questions.

Ravi Zacharias Benefit Lecture
March 5, 2009 at 7:00 P.M.
Alaska Center for the Performing Arts, Atwood Concert Hall