Cash Prizes For Senior & Junior Division 1ST, 2ND, & 3RD Place Winners

These special oratorical contests for THEA members, sponsored by THEA and CCT are named in honor of a Home School Grandmother who is now in heaven, who loved to study and to share her Christian faith, who also was skilled in and loved public speaking. Her family contributed the prize money which will be awarded to the first, second and third place winners in both the Senior Division and Junior Division on Rally Day, April 8^th.

The first place winners of each Division will also win the privilege to present their Speech on the platform in the War Memorial Auditorium on Rally Day. The Senior Division is for students age 12 by January 1, 2008 and older. The Junior Division is for students ages 8 through 11.

This year the two divisions will each participate in a different event; the Junior Division students will compete in an Apologetics Worldview Speech Competition and the Senior Division will compete in Mars Hill Speech Competition.   

JUNIOR DIVISION: A Worldview Apologetics Oratory Competition

The Junior Division Contest will be a Worldview Apologetics Speech Competition. Worldview Apologetics Speech competition deals with issues of faith. The goal of Worldview Apologetics is to motivate students to study their Christian faith and be prepared to articulate a defense of what they believe. Junior Division students will prepare a 3-minute maximum speech on one of the topics from the CCT web site. Listed on the CCT web site are the topics from which students in the Junior Divisions will choose one topic to address in this competition.

The questions for the apologetics event will be the same ones used for the December tournament.

a. How do you know Jesus rose from the dead?
b. How do you know the Bible is true?
c. What are some big ways that Christianity is different from other religions?
d. What makes you think God created everything?

Worldview Apologetics

The Worldview Apologetics Speech Event is intended to train students to live out 1 Peter 3:15: " Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;"  

Students choose from a list of possible questions regarding their faith - questions that commonly come up in discussing God with unbelievers. Participants will study these and prepare their answers.

This category of speech falls under the classification of Original Oratory. NFL gives this explanation about Original Oratory. As an orator you will be expected to research and speak intelligently, with a degree of originality, in an interesting manner, and with some profit to your audience, about the topic you have chosen. An orator is judged on the effectiveness of development and presentation. A Worldview Apologetics Speech can have as its goal to strengthen the audience's understanding of and, even, devotion to a particular aspect of the Christian worldview and faith.

Judges will evaluate the competitor based on the soundness of their defense, the biblical and logical support they bring to it, the sincerity and passion which they demonstrate, and their ability to put it into everyday conversational language which can be easily understood. No event better epitomizes our hopes for training true ambassadors for Christ.

SENIOR DIVISION: A Mars Hill Oratory Competition

To compete in this Contest, Senior Division students will prepare an 8-minute maximum Mars Hill Speech.

Mars Hill Speech Event

This event is named after the address that the Apostle Paul gave to the Greeks on Mars Hill (recorded in Acts 17: 16-34). Paul found himself in the midst of a culture which did not understand the God whom he proclaimed, let alone the specific teachings of Christ. In addressing them, Paul found a point of connection with his audience by first referring to their own religion and poetry. He then used this point of contact to transition into a discussion of Christ.

The Mars Hill speech event is intended to train speakers to similarly engage their culture with the purpose of penetrating it with the truth of Christ. To be salt and light in this way will require that speakers first know something about the culture in which they live---perhaps its movies, songs, creeds, core beliefs, etc. They would then need to the wisdom and skill to use this knowledge as a point of contact to introduce the hearer to the truth of Christ.

A caution is needed here. Psalm 101.3 tells us, "I will set nothing worthless before my eyes." We are not in the least encouraging our students to put before their eyes or ears things which are worthless or worse. However, much can be learned about one's culture by a little attention to reviews of movies, books, and music without immersing oneself in it. That is the kind of purposeful observation we are speaking of here. (For example, one can read a review about the Harry Potter books and understand the impact they have on the culture without reading the books or movie reviews can be found on numerous web sites, among the best is the internet movie data base, www.imdb.com.)

In short, this event is an 8 minute prepared speech using one or more propositions expressed by our culture (in song, movie, commercials, print or other media) as a point of contact from which some truth of the gospel is drawn.

More on the Judging Criteria

The criteria judges will use in evaluating the Apologetics and Mars Hill Speeches include an analysis of the content of the Speech. Questions covering the content include; did the student adhere to the topic, supporting assertions with outside evidence, properly citing sources, and most importantly, did the student provide a biblical basis for their position?

The judges will also evaluate the Apologetics speeches by whether their defense is logical and well-reasoned. This is not primarily a devotional speech, but a well-reasoned, logical defense of a Biblical position.

Organization and Analysis evaluation includes these criteria; did the student relate a clear thesis statement? Did the student demonstrate a thorough, working knowledge of their topic, of Scripture and other sources; did the student appropriately use analysis and reasoning, presenting a logical, well-reasoned flow of ideas.

Failure to address the topic is, of course, a major flaw in the Sara Lee Harris Worldview Oratory Contest can result in disqualification of the Speech.

The Awards schedule for the Sara Lee Harris Worldview Oratory Contest is:

Senior Division:

1st place-$500

2nd place-$200

3rd place-$125

Junior Division:

1st place-$100

2nd place-$50

3rd place-$25

How to Participate in the Sara Lee Harris Worldview Oratory Contest

To enter the Sara Lee Harris Worldview Oratory Contest, the students' family must be a member of THEA. Students must mail to THEA a $5.00 registration fee (checks made out to THEA) with a typed copy of their speech to: SLH Oratory Contest, c/o Claiborne Thornton. PO Box 681652, Franklin, TN., 37068. The mailing must be post-marked by Monday, March 10, 2008.

This year we are not requiring audio copies of your speeches. We may return to that next year. So mail a printed copy of your speech to the address above. Be sure to have it post-marked by Monday, March 10^th!

To join THEA and be eligible to compete, please go to the Organizations tab and select the area of the state in which you live and contact your local chapter of THEA to join. Find them listed at www.tnhea.org.

Opportunities for coaching in Worldview Apologetics and Mars Hill Speech

Middle TN: Every other Friday night, the next being Friday, Feb. 22nd, from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m., home school & MTSU graduate, Matthew Bullington teaches youth about these events, coaching them in identifying worldviews and analyzing our culture from a Biblical perspective. For more information, contact Matthew at: matthew.bullington@yahoo.com.

Numerous Tutorials throughout Middle TN have Worldview classes. See www.chettn.org.  Laurie Mingus teaches a Biblical Worldview class in her home. Contact her at : homeschool_news@yahoo.com.

West TN: For information on  a Junior & Senior Speech Club in the Jackson, TN., area, contact Judith Ann Cartwright at cartwrightsfarm@aol.com.
 
East TN: For information on training for Worldview Apologetics and Mars Hill in East TN, contact Pam Cooper at cooper7@gmail.com. Cory Bennett also teaches classes on Christian Worldview for homeschool students. Contact Cory at corygb@charter.net.