The aroma of fresh, hot pizza wafts across a brightly lit classroom buzzing with teenagers. It’s a casual and fun vibe. Artur, a bald, bearded Armenian man sporting a gray polo and a captivating smile, adjusts his thin-rimmed glasses and calmly responds to the latest student inquiry. “Who do you think Jesus is?” he asks simply, mirroring Jesus’ question to Simon Peter. One or two students smile as if they already have an answer, and others are puzzled and surprised by the question, but they give it some thought. An open discussion – with an open Bible – ensues between Christian and non-Christian students alike, led by this kind man who understands the brilliance of a single thought-provoking question.
Artur Asaduriyan leans into apologetics on a daily basis as a means to disciple and lead young people to Jesus. There’s no pulpit and no microphone, but the steady beating drum of “Jesus loves you” and “I’m here for you” is a rhythm that resonates with so many teens dealing with hurting and heaviness.
Young Artur
Artur didn’t grow up going to church. As a young child, Artur was raised amidst a rich and beautiful culture that valued spiritual things, with 1,700 years of Christian history woven into the fabric of Armenia. But truth be told, Artur didn’t hear about Jesus until much later. “I didn’t hear anyone tell me that I’m a sinner and that Jesus loved me and died for me.”
When he was 11, Artur’s family moved to the United States. His junior high and high school years were spent, like many of his peers, “finding his way,” until an existential crisis as a junior in high school led him to start asking questions about life’s purpose. He began researching the revered texts of many different world religions. He chuckles, “This was before internet was much of a thing.”
A friend from high school invited Artur to a Harvest Crusade where Pastor Greg Laurie spoke about Jesus, what He did, and why. The crusade included a time of worship as well. “This was my first experience with Protestants. ‘This is weird and freaky,’ I thought. They gave me a New Testament Bible, and I went home and read the whole gospel of Matthew that very night. It was different. I didn’t understand much of it, but I did know it was different than all the other stuff I had been reading. I started going to church after that.” God continued to gently speak to Artur, and one day a couple months later, everything clicked. “Sometime in October 2003, the Gospel was made very clear to me, and I accepted Christ.” Artur had just turned 18 years old.
Life at LIFE
Two years after becoming a Christian, after a recommendation from his youth pastor Jack Hakimian ’03, Artur found himself in San Dimas, Ca. on the campus of Life Pacific College (now University), where his understanding of the text of the Bible would be carefully formed, and where his understanding of philosophy and apologetics in the Christian faith would be radically transformed.
Artur believed in the Bible, but he had so much to learn as a young Christian, and his time at LPU developed his knowledge in a way that shaped him from the inside out. “I already had a high view of scripture, but didn’t have the reasons for it,” Artur recalls. “My time at Life had a deep impact on [my ability to] systematically do biblical theology, [as I was] given the tools to study the Bible properly. I had a really good education because the people who taught me the Bible were very serious about studying the Bible.”
It wasn’t just his Bible classes that caused spiritual growth. In a college with biblical roots and ethos, every course becomes an opportunity to know God more. Artur’s professors challenged him to have fully developed thoughts that were backed by biblical text.
“Don’t think by quoting Plato that you’re going to impress me,” Prof. Charles Lee ’97 would say in Artur’s Roots of Modern and Postmodern Thought class, asking his students instead for original thoughts. His candor was provoking but disarming. “You’re going to feel like you’re drowning at first, and by the end [of the year] you’ll feel like you’re a little above the water.”
Other classes instrumental in Artur’s academic journey included Theology classes with Dr. Michael Salmeier ’95 and Dr. Jim W. Adams ’95, and Ethics with Dr. Terry Samples ’76. “At Life, I was introduced to all the information beyond theological conservatism ,” Artur explains, adding that he still holds those theological views, because of being “exposed to [other views] at Life properly.” Artur smiles and inserts a ‘deep cut’ Old Testament joke, “I’m not bothered by people who believe Isaiah had two writers.”
Back to His Roots
After graduating with a B.A. in Biblical Studies and a Minor in Education, Artur married his lovely wife Araz, whose childhood in Iran was very different from Artur’s – Araz was raised in a family who knew Jesus and even had grandparents and other extended family who were elders in their church for many years. Artur would go on to earn an M.A. in Philosophy from Talbot School of Theology at Biola University, studying under Dr. J.P. Moreland, the author of a textbook from Artur’s LPU Roots class – Love Your God With All Your Mind.
In his graduate program, Artur found himself better prepared than many of his peers. “All the interpretive work I learned to do [at Life] led to that processing and thinking, and made my life a lot easier, where I saw some of my friends at graduate school confused about theological perspectives they should take.” Artur muses, “Often Christians will do philosophy disconnected from the Bible.” The flaw is clear to Artur: “They’re developing thoughts without being able to think about the Biblical text.”
After earning his graduate degree, Artur felt called to begin an apologetics ministry, which he named Apologia Center. But rather than use apologetics to debate and argue, his passion is to use apologetics as a tool to connect people to biblical truth and lead them to Jesus. This was an all-in journey for his family, who relocated to Armenia in 2019: Artur, together with his wife Araz, and their three children, the youngest of whom was 10 months old at the time. Araz, an equal partner in the ministry, and committed to following Jesus wherever He may lead, is fluent in 3 languages (Farsi, Armenian, and English). Artur recalls with a smile that year in Armenia, “At almost every church, Araz was called upon to go to the translation table to help translate into Farsi for Iranians that were in Armenia.”
A Journey to Younger Life
The 1.5 years the Asaduriyan family spent in Armenia was fruitful, but Artur didn’t hear the Lord say to stay stationed there. “We moved there to do missions, work with churches, train up leaders,” he explains. Now that leaders were trained and deployed, the next step was to develop content in Armenian and English – videos, reels, materials for study. Artur and Araz moved their family back to the United States, where the next chapter of Artur’s pastoral journey began.
“When we got back from Armenia,” Artur recalls, “I didn’t look for work right away, because we wanted to get the ministry rolling.” An opportunity came to work at Younglife – an organization made up of men and women whose role is to go into the community where kids are at, live life with them, and connect them to Jesus. This was a chance for Artur to revive Younglife’s Glendale, Ca. chapter, which had a long history but had been dormant for 20 years. “When this came my way, I said, ‘I don’t know anything about Younglife, but I have two questions – is it discipleship and evangelism? Do I get to interact with nonbelieving kids and then disciple them?’” The answer was yes, and that sealed the deal. “I do apologetics because it’s a tool for evangelism; here’s a way to evangelize people that are asking serious questions. A highlight [for me in this role] is being on a high school campus, and building relationships with teens who are asking questions and wanting to know more about the Bible. A student once asked me, ‘Is God ok with war?’ He was going to join the armed forces. We had a 5-hour conversation. One kid got into some trouble, and he called me and asked me to pray with him. That’s what the ministry is about. All the other details – camp, food, going to campus – are the ‘way we do it.’ But it really comes down to interacting, and hoping they become believers and followers of Jesus. And if they do, then we disciple them.”
Artur explains the simple but effective format of his Younglife meetings. “We have a weekly meeting and then a weekly Bible study. For the meetings, a lot of different kinds of kids come. And every single time they come they have fun, and they hear about the gospel and ‘What does it look like to follow Jesus?’” The local high school where Artur’s team established a presence has 1,400 students – more than 10% of whom have come through the Younglife group at some point this past academic year. Artur regularly sees 40-50 students attend every week.
So impactful is Artur’s work at Younglife that a local Foursquare church, Christian Assembly, took note, and started investing in Younglife Glendale. Artur’s team has vision to expand their program to all eight schools in the Glendale area, an area where one of the oldest chapters of Younglife in the country died off in 2003, inactive until Artur came on the team in 2023. With so many connections made and so much growth on the horizon, Artur remains yet humble and grounded; his biggest wins aren’t in the numbers. It’s more than a job for Artur. “This is special for me; I started to have the existential crisis in high school. I really wish someone had been there when I had these questions about life and its meaning, and there was no one there. This is part of what motivates me to be on campus.”
Wielding the Multitool
With a growing family (he and Araz now have four kids), a thriving ministry, and a bustling occupation as a Younglife Acting Area Director, Artur is fully engaged in a calling that has brought him full circle – helping people like ‘high-school-junior Artur’ to know Jesus. His foundational biblical education at LPU was a catalyst for this epic journey he continues, as he daily wields the complex tool of apologetics like a master craftsman handles a multitool.
His last statement to us is profound: “All of it started at LPU for me.”
Artur and Araz Asaduriyan live in Southern California with their four beautiful children (ages ranging 10 years to 8 months old): Avetis (“gospel”), Nairi (“people of the valley/river”), Vahagn (“dragon-slayer”), and Areni (“strong mountain”). Artur serves as a teaching elder at Anchor Church in Sun Valley, CA. Check out Artur’s vibrant apologetics ministry, Apologia Center! https://www.apologiacenter.com/
