Reminder: students must register as league members before they’re eligible to compete.
Equipping Leaders For Christ
Christian School Speech & Debate
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Reminder: students must register as league members before they’re eligible to compete.
Founded in 2008, the Logos Forensic Association (LFA) is the only competitive speech and debate league designed exclusively for private Christian schools.
Unlike other high school debate leagues, the LFA is more than just an extracurricular or academic activity. The goal of the LFA is to train and equip the next generation of Christians who will represent Christ in every field.
Besides helping private Christian schools establish speech and debate teams to reap the benefits of forensics, the LFA is concerned first and foremost about instilling biblical worldview.
After all, the skills imparted through speech and debate are of no eternal value unless they’re used to build Christ’s Kingdom. Which is why the LFA focuses on training tomorrow’s leaders to be articulate, knowledgeable, and persuasive advocates for Christ and liberty.
The importance of rhetoric to proper education has been recognized as far back as Socrates. Since then, many educational institutions have provided training in logic, speech, and debate.
Competitive debate between schools emerged in the United States in 1815 on the college circuit. Over the years, debate has spread to colleges and high schools worldwide.
Today, various leagues allow students at almost any college or high school the opportunity to participate in speech and debate (also known as forensics). Leagues have even been created exclusively for homeschooling families. Within private Christian schools, however, this activity is rare.
The Logos Forensic Association (LFA) was created to fill this void in private schools while at the same time sharpening Christian character.
Every student should have the opportunity to learn logic and rhetoric, learn to defend their beliefs, and develop the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively. Speech and debate is the most important activity in developing these vital skills while also training students to be leaders for Christ in future generations.
In 1727, Benjamin Franklin started his Junto debating societies — and organized academic debate has been instrumental in shaping American ideas, philosophy, and policy ever since.
Dozens of modern studies have documented it is high school and college debate that produces society’s future leaders. This fact cannot be overstated. No other activity comes close to producing as many educators, politicians, and CEOs as debate. In fact, the debate activity is so effective at drawing (or creating) future leaders that former high school debaters have dominated legislatures and made a significant showing in corporate boardrooms.
Unfortunately, for over the past 100 years, high school debate has been training our nation’s leaders and framing their attitudes toward government, economics, and society in a particularly negative fashion. This powerful training has often been used to inculcate students in philosophies of atheism, socialism, and relativism.
It is not the debate activity itself, nor is it necessarily the debate topics, which produce bad ideology. The power of debate to shape a student’s worldview lies in the league environment and coaches who bring their philosophy to the debate training.
One can look at the nature of the debate training happening in America and, from this, predict the direction of the nation. When this debate training instills the foundations of absolute truth, individual responsibility, and biblical teaching, the nation later reflects these values and prospers. However, when this debate training promotes the opposite, our nation turns to relativism and begins to crumble.
There are a number of debate leagues throughout America for both public and homeschool students, but Christian schools and students have been almost entirely absent from the debate activity for most of the twentieth century — and those very few who did participate in debate were forced to do so in an environment that did not promote sound philosophies or biblical truth.
However, the LFA is bringing a biblical and principled perspective back to the world of academic debate by exclusively serving private Christian schools and their students. By coupling sound philosophy and biblical truth with academic debate, private Christian schools are better able to train their students to change the world for Christ!
As a league, the LFA gives students opportunities to compete in forensics by:
Additionally, the LFA provides the framework for competing schools and students. This includes, but is not limited to:
We believe…
…that the Holy Scriptures, comprised of the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, are fully inspired by God and are therefore infallible in the original writings and completely trustworthy in all areas in which they speak.
…that there is only one eternal, almighty and perfect God. Within the Being of this one true God exist three eternally distinct and coequal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three Persons, also referred to as the Trinity, are the one true God.
…that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, who took upon Himself human flesh through the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary. He who is true God became true man, uniting two natures in one person forever. Christ lived a perfect, sinless life, died on the cross as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, rose bodily from the dead, and ascended into Heaven where He now serves as our High Priest, our only Mediator.
…that the Holy Spirit is the eternal Third Person of the Triune God, the Regenerator and Sanctifier of the redeemed, the Bestower of spiritual fruit and gifts, and the abiding Advocate who empowers believers for godly living and service.
…that Adam was directly created without sin and in the image of God and did not evolve from preexisting forms of life. Through the fall of Adam that image of God in humanity has been defiled, although not eradicated. Every human being is radically corrupt and estranged from God. Human beings are condemned by God because of their descent into sin through their relationship to Adam. The desperate need of humanity is forgiveness of sins and consequent restoration of fellowship with God; yet humans remain totally unable to atone for and restore themselves.
…that Jesus’ death on the cross provided a substitutiary atonement for the sins of humanity. We believe that man is justified (saved) by grace through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ without any mixture of works. …in the existence of Satan and that hell is a place of eternal conscious punishment for him, his host, and all unbelievers.
…that the Christian church is composed of all persons who through saving faith in Jesus Christ have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. Corporately and individually, its members strive to worship, serve, and glorify God through prayer and praise, diligent study and application of the Scriptures, evangelism, sanctified living, good works, and observance of the rites of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The mission of the church is the discipleship of all nations – not only the saving of souls but also the bringing of the gospel to bear on every aspect of life and thought.
In addition to the league statement of faith, the league also uses other doctrinal subscriptions to clarify particular theological issues. Just like the league statement of faith, these additional statements are mandatory for membership in the LFA.
Regarding Biblical sexuality, the league has signed the “Nashville Statement”, which is authored by The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood in partnership with The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
You can read the statement in full by downloading a PDF version or by visiting the Nashville Statement website.
Mary Winther has degrees in political science and education. She has a rich background in the study of forensics. Mary was herself a speech & debate competitor in both high school and in college. She has coached high school debate for over 20 years. In addition to working directly with students, she has also been teaching debate coaches for the past two decades. Mary is also on the Stoa debate committee and on the IPS Board of Directors.
Diana has a background in Marketing, Public Relations and HR. She also has 14 years of experience as a Bank Officer and has over 20 years of service to the church. She is currently enrolled at Colorado Christian University finishing her Bachelor's Degree in Biblical Studies.
After attending City College of San Francisco and San Jose State University, where he studied business administration and aviation, JP began his successful 20+ year career as an insurance agent and broker in the Central Valley. In addition, he has also served as a Marketing Coordinator for the Travel & Leisure group and an Ambassador for Wyndham Destinations. JP and his wife, Darlene, spend their free time volunteering at their church, mentoring blended families and traveling.