Around Town: Wes Huff, homelessness centre homeless, Nigel Biggar

Wesley Huff has had an exciting start to the year. An appearance on the Joe Rogan Experience early this year gave the Canadian apologist a platform previously undreamed of.

He will be in the area next week, as a keynote speaker at the Apologetics Canada Conference, March 7 – 8 at Northview Community Church in Abbotsford.

Christianity Today writer Kate Shellnutt described the rather astonishing chain of events:

Apologist Wesley Huff’s modest YouTube following of around 1,200 surged to 450,000 this month. Hundreds have reached out to say they have picked up a Bible, started going to church or professed faith because of something he said.

His parachurch organization, Apologetics Canada, is fielding record levels of interest.

It’s a spotlight the 33-year-old Canadian PhD student never expected.

But on January 7, Huff became the first biblical scholar to join the ranks of over a thousand celebrities, fitness gurus, philosophers, scientists, authors, activists, conspiracy theorists and skeptics who have appeared on the most popular podcast in the world, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Huff landed an invite to the show after a viral debate on YouTube with a former Rogan guest got the host’s attention. . . . Huff presented historical evidence for the accuracy of the Scripture and asked the host what he thinks of Jesus.

Christian listeners celebrated his episode as a sign that Rogan’s skepticism has been shifting toward openness to faith. Since the show has 33.5 million followers across Spotify and YouTube, some commentators suggest Huff’s interview could represent “the single widest-reaching broadcast of the gospel message in history.”

Huff has since had several more opportunities to speak, including with Russell Brand.

Writing in First Things (A New Evangelical Harvest), James R. Wood pointed to Huff’s interview with Joe Rogan as consistent with a “vibe shift” in American culture.

Accompanying that shift are “signs that the soil of society is prime to receive the word of God”; many high profile secularists and atheists (Rogan, Paul Kingsnorth, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Russell Brand . . .) are responding in varying degrees to gospel presentations.

Wood offers plenty of context and nuance, but still states:

Amidst the digressionary journey that is a Joe Rogan episode, Huff employs logic with the assumption that reality can be known – that we can have confidence about events in the past. And Rogan ate it up.

Of course, Apologetics Canada (which is based in Abbotsford), and the upcoming conference, are not about Wes Huff. Along with confidence in the face of many challenges, he has displayed humility in the face of his newfound popularity.

And he points to the work of his team, as in this article by Doug Lett in the January/February 2025 issue of Faith Today. He agreed that younger people, particularly, are drawn to the truth claims – the truth – of Christianity:

Andrew Bennett, program director for faith communities at Cardus, says this shows the growing cohort of younger Canadians are taking their Christian faith more seriously, while the “mushy middle” is slowly hollowing out. . . .

Huff says they are seeing much the same thing in the work of Apologetics Canada, and demand has grown since his Rogan appearance. But regardless of trends or online hits, Huff says for him the ultimate question is whether his faith is based on facts. 

“If it merely worked, but it wasn’t true, I actually think I would have an obligation to not believe it, because a convenient lie is still a lie,” says Huff.

Speaking to the work he and others do at Apologetics Canada, Huff concludes, “We want to be a resource to help skeptics believe and believers clear up their skepticism.” 

Apologetics Canada itself is on a roll. Their leaders had 132 speaking engagements across Canada last year, and their YouTube channel just went over 100,000 subscribers – admittedly, as fellow Apologetics Canada representative Troy Lydiate points out – with a little help from Huff.

Speaking with host Andrew Marcus on the locally produced INDOUBT Show January 27, Apologetics Canada founder and president Andy Steiger said:

The ministry that we do across Canada has been blowing up for for a while . . . The number of people that we have met over this year – that have come to faith through the ministry, come back to the faith – was honestly amazing and we were just praising God.

It was this interesting mix of praising the Lord with how amazing everything’s been going, but also how busy it had been and how busy we were –  and then, in the midst of that busyness, Wes does this podcast. . . . 

Their upcoming conference is close to selling out. (As of now, the worship centre is full, but on-site livestream registration – with access to breakout sessions and exhibitors is still available.)

The theme of the conference is ‘Theology of Technology.’ Other conference speakers include:

• Andy Steiger: From Code to Consciousness – Can Artificial Intelligence be Human?
• Gretchen Huizinga, Research Fellow, AI and Faith: From Ethical to Righteous – Can Artificial Intelligence be Good?
• Ruslan KD, YouTuber, Recording Artist: From Pixels to Purpose – Stewardship of Digital Platforms
• Sebastian Vaduva, Social Entrepreneur: Surviving the Culture Wars – What the Church Must Learn from Europe’s Failures

Go here for more background on the keynote speakers and information on other speakers and breakout groups.

Homelessness centre homeless

The good news is that The Neighbourhood Church is redeveloping and will be able to carry on even more good works in the Edmonds area of Burnaby.

The (short-term) bad news is that they will no longer be able to house the Outreach Resource Centre run by the Society to End Homelessness in Burnaby while that redevelopment is carrying on.

Tim Dutcher-Walls, a retired Lutheran and Anglican priest, and board member of the Society to End Homelessness in Burnaby, wrote this open letter, hoping for a solution to their problem:

We are grateful for the long-standing partnership with The Neighbourhood Church in Burnaby, which has been an essential supporter of our work over the years.

As the church is scheduled for redevelopment, The Society to End Homelessness in Burnaby is now seeking a new temporary location to continue running our vital community programs.

The ideal new space would need to have the following features:

• • In Southeast quad / Edmonds Kingsway District;
  • A kitchen;
  • An outdoor faucet for our mobile showers;
  • A large central room for setting up tables and chairs for service providers;
  • Storage space for our pods;
  • Sufficient electrical capacity to support commercial refrigerators for our pantry, which provides essential groceries to clients.

Finding a space that meets these needs will be challenging, so we’re reaching out to our network for help. If you, or anyone you know, is aware of a location in Burnaby that might be available for rent and meets these requirements, please have a word with me or contact our new Executive Director, Caitlin McKay

In 2024, nearly 9,000 people visited our outreach programs, and we anticipate that demand will grow, especially during this period of economic uncertainty.

With a new location, we can continue offering critical services such as hot meals, primary health care, outreach support, hot showers, clothing and even a tax clinic to those in need.

Thank you for any help you can provide, so we can continue to serve our neighbours who need compassion and assistance during tough times.

Caitlin McKay added by email:

We are incredibly grateful to The Neighbourhood Church for being a supportive partner over the years. But now, like many of our clients, we find ourselves in the difficult position of searching for a new space in a rental market that is facing skyrocketing prices and limited availability.

Contact Tim Dutcher-Walls ([email protected]) or Caitlin McKay ([email protected]) if you can help out or have any suggestions.

Regent College on Nigel Biggar

Last week I wrote that ‘Colonialism will not be revisited by Regent College,’ pointing out that the school had cancelled a planned talk by Oxford scholar (and Regent grad) Nigel Biggar.

He had been scheduled to address this issue: ‘Colonialism Revisited: Did the British Empire Promote Human Welfare?’

The situation had just been covered in First Things and The Catholic Register, and in the last week has received more coverage, including from The National Post.

A number of people, including Biggar, have voiced their displeasure with the decision to cancel the event. Others have supported it.

The Regent College Board of Governors posted a statement February 24:

The Board of Governors of Regent College regrets the handling of the Nigel Biggar lecture and its eventual cancellation. Like many institutions, Regent is trying to find its way forward in a complex landscape of sometimes painful and contested issues.

We affirm with gratitude President Greenman’s pastoral concern related to this subject matter.

We affirm the role of healthy, vigorous and sometimes controversial conversation, especially in academic settings. Not everyone will be happy with every speaker or event hosted at places like Regent College.

Regent is committed to hosting difficult and important conversations in the future and undertaking a process to improve how we do that.

We are confident that Regent, and parts of our community like the Houston Centre, contribute to these healthy discussions. Regent is and can be that place.

Biggar will address the Free Speech Union of Canada at a members only event in Vancouver March 7.

February 27 note: I have just learned that a church in Langley will host Biggar March 4:

Join us for an insightful evening featuring the distinguished scholar, Nigel Biggar, who will be speaking on a topic related to his book:Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning.

Professor Biggar was recently scheduled to speak at Regent College on the topic of “Did the British Empire Promote Human Welfare?” A few weeks before the scheduled date, this invitation was rescinded by the College due to the controversial nature of the topic.

We believe Professor Biggar’s perspective ought to have a public hearing and that controversial topics such as this ought to be openly addressed, debated and assessed. We welcome you to join us!

Go here to register.

Events & Jobs

Events are listed below, but there is also an Events page and a Jobs page on the Church for Vancouver site.