Why You Need to Know About the Jude 3 Project

2 Peter 3:15 makes it clear the calling we have as Christians to defend our faith. It warns us to always be ready. It infers our responsibility to understand the validity of the word of God and God himself. In 2022, we are constantly faced with the reality of navigating how our faith informs culture. How do we navigate real world issues like politics and abortion and gun reform within the context of our faith. And through this, how do we understand and communicate the validity of our faith to speak on such issues. Enter the Jude 3 project.

The organization was founded and launched by Lisa Fields in 2014. A Christian apologist herself, she recounts wrestling with the validity of her faith in college. From that struggle birthed a passion to teach others how to deal with those same hurdles in the Christian’s journey. Today, with over 33k subscribers on YouTube and Instagram, and 15k followers on Twitter, their impact is far reaching. With a clear mission to “help the Christian community know what they believe and why they believe”, the Jude 3 project’s distinct emphasis on black Christians emphasizes the needs this community has in facing the intellectual struggles that come with the embodiment of our faith within a cultural context. A media platform in itself, the Jude 3 project accomplishes this goal through lectures, seminars, training workshops, blogs, videos and podcasts.

Courses

Among the many online courses offered by the Jude 3 Project are masterclasses in the rich history of the Christian religion. Laced up and down through these courses are the influences and the influence of African ancestry/culture on Christianity. Dr. Charlie Dates provides a phenomenal lecture on the Contributions of the Black Church. Pastor Watson Jones teaches an important lecture on The Black Presence in the Bible. For the black Christian, these are worth checking out.

Jude 3 Project Podcasts

These days it feels like everyone and their mama has a podcast. But this one is good. I promise! If you’re an audiophile, you will love the Jude 3 Project podcast series. Packed with intellectual prose and nuggets of wisdom from some of the best bible teachers and influencers of this generation, like Jerome Gay and Jackie Hill Perry, this is my go-to content from the platform.

Conference

The questions this platform seeks to answer and clarify for the Christian inspire hard conversations. And in a culture, where there seems to be so many truths, having meaningful conversations around these topics can be very difficult. The Jude 3 Project’s Courageous Conversations conference is an annual gathering  that endorses and exemplifies what it means to have difficult conversations about some of the hardest questions to answer. Held annually since 2018 the conference brings together black voices with progressive and conservative worldviews to discuss issues relevant to the black church. During its 2022 forum conversations where had about questions like Is there a God? Should we trust the bible? Is Christianity the white man’s religion? Does Christianity oppress women? And so many more. This conference is definitely on my bucket list.

As healthy, growing believers, we have a responsibility to defend the validity of our faith. The Jude 3 Project provides a platform where difficult, uncomfortable but healthy conversations can take place. Check out their stuff!