Does The Church Need More Doubt?
The Appeal of Simplicity
I have to confess, the older I get the more I like “easy.” When I was younger, I thrived on complexity. It served a purpose in helping me learn and grow. I loved complex problems and challenges. As I have aged and moved through my life, I guess I have become more practical and tend toward simpler solutions.
How then does this apply to faith? Confession: I would prefer a simple settled faith. Maybe something along the lines of, “If this…then that” kind of faith. If I have the right beliefs and doctrine and stick to my spiritual disciplines then everything should fall into place for me.
We all know life is not like this…though we admit we all want a life like this. Because in this existence, I am in control. But EVERY Christian will eventually hit a wall in their faith pilgrimage. When, despite your obedience and commitment, things stop making sense. When things don’t seem to fit nicely into our beliefs.
When Certainty Fails Us
I have worked in the technology field for decades writing computer code and automating processes. 100% of my work is based on certainty. If something breaks then I need to find out why and fix it. I need to find THE reason why things are not working as they should be.
I’d like to import this type of thinking and troubleshooting-fix it mentality into my faith. But when I sit and contemplate what that would mean it’s scary. Because that would mean that God is simply a problem to be solved and ultimately an idol created in my image.
My struggles remind me that I am NOT in control. That God is not a product of my image and He sometimes leads me places I'd never go on my own. I’m sure you've experienced this in your own life. You are faithful in your devotion to God and you know He loves you but your struggles seem to challenge those beliefs. If He loves me then why did he not heal my family member? Why is the prodigal still lost? Or when will this breakthrough come through for me?
The Problem with Pretending
As a person who makes a living in having “answers” and solving problems, I still struggle and grow in my faith. I’ve seen stories of others who struggle in their faith and end up walking away from their lifelong beliefs. My wife and I have discussed this and while we are “settled” in our faith, we still struggle. In other words, neither of us would ever walk away from Jesus based on doubts, but we do still have fears. Those nagging questions of “What if this terrible thing happens…” or “Why did God do (or not) what I fervently prayed for and seems ‘good’?” Those are genuine FEARS, that do not doubt God but honestly affirm that He is sovereign and I am not.
Honestly, I do not want to walk though the shadow of death and I do fear evil (Psalm 23)! As a seminary graduate and pastor (not to mention husband and father) I feel pressure to “have it together,” or at least appear to have it together. And church can sometimes feel like the breakroom at the office on Monday morning – where people engage in superficial small talk and appear to have all had a fantastic weekend.
You come to church, smile, and shake hands. It is rare to hear people admit their struggles. Maybe we’re afraid to seem weak or to let others down if we admit we do not have it all together after-all. Maybe we fear being judged for having a lack of faith or maybe we just close off others and do not let them into our mess.
I fear that for many in church, faith is about pretending everything is fine. Church for many has become "attendance" rather than participation in the “Body of Christ.” Paul is clear that The Church IS the “Body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:12). We are members of that body and are called to “build up the church.” How can we do that if we’re merely going through the motions and are satisfied with simply “attending” a church service as if it were a weekly event?
I have heard the saying that when you point a finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you. For me, this rings loudly as I have contributed to this type of church culture in my life. Playing church, going through the motions in a feeble attempt to control my life and take things as I want them. Show up, sing along, listen, and leave. It’s much easier to pretend everything is OK all the time than it is to be vulnerable.
What Real Community Looks Like
When I read the Bible I see raw, honest faith-struggles. Paul says that we are to be real and gut-wrenchingly honest. He says in Galatians 6:2, that we are not just dump our burdens on others but share them in a way that others can help us carry them and shoulder the load. When was the last time you truly trusted someone and let them into your life? Does our church promote these kinds of close relationships rather than keeping each other at arm’s length?
Paul says something striking in 2 Corinthians 2 14:18, not only that we are part of the “Body of Christ”, but that God Himself has arranged that body just as He wants – according to His purposes. Do you see yourself as part of a God-ordained “Body of Christ?” If we each saw ourselves this way how would that change the “attendence-only” model of church?
If we take the bible seriously, then the church is not a place where we come-and-go, but a place where we participate in ‘The Body of Christ.’
Here are some questions to consider:
- Do you believe that The Church is the primary instrument that Christ uses to advance His kingdom on earth? (Ephesians 3:10)
- Do you believe Christ is the Head of the Church? (Ephesian 5:23)
These two questions shape our view of church, our role in church, and how we see others. It’s possible to be committed to the Church but not to Christ, but you cannot be committed to Christ and not the Church.
If we really believe Jesus is the Head of the Church and that the church is His instrument of working in the world then we cannot treat it like a spiritual pit-stop.
I have spoken a bit about my childhood and my experiences that drove me into being an introvert. Suffice it to say, people were not nice to me growing up so I learned to keep them at a distance and to look out for myself. I know the temptation to keep things at a surface-level. It’s safe and seems to keep the church running like a well oiled machine. But the Church is not an organization that exists for its own benefit. The Church is not like a secular organization, it is God’s will here on earth. And part of that will is deep burden-bearing fellowship. A type of fellowship that ministers not merely from strengths but weaknesses. When we hide behind superficiality and plastic theology, we rob others of seeing grace work in life.
The Folly of Faith Formulas
Most of us want a formula for most things in life from weight loss to career success. Our faith is no exception. We want steps that lead to an outcome. Faith that is clear, understandable, and guaranteed. Believe the right things, pray the right prayers, be obedient (to the best of your ability) and life falls into place. This is what I call “plastic theology.” Coffee mug Christianity, bumper sticker faith.
The Book of Job blows the doors off formula-based-faith. From the first verse of the book, Job is described as upright and blameless (Job 1:1). That’s an important detail we need to know. Job 1:3 says that he was the greatest man in all the land. This is a man who feared God and shunned evil, yet he is plunged into suffering for no earthly reason.
A formulaic faith would immediately seek a reason for such seemingly unjust suffering. But that’s not the point of Job’s story. We make a mistake to read the Book of Job and look for a nice, neat answer to his suffering. In the end, it’s still a mystery to Job – he never gets an answer. But what he gets is something that only comes through suffering. Job shows us a new way to suffer and a new way to think about faith.
Suffering is not merely punishment for sin or a way to grow our faith; sometimes it’s a way to get more of God. And that's what Job got – I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you (Job 42:5). This is a “third way” of suffering: not punishment, not a lesson to learn, but a means to a deeper intimacy with God. Job shows us a new vision of the God we think we know. That’s the “payoff” to use a crass term.
I know this is a tough idea to swallow, but it’s deeply biblical. We must reshape how we see not only suffering, but also faith. Our faith is not a strategy or a guarantee of earthly rewards. Job’s story teaches us that our chief concern is not the circumstances of life but our dealings with God himself.
Life will always break faith built on shaky formulas that attempt to endlessly “figure out” God. This kind of faith only survives in a garden of blessings and will not hold up in the parched and dry valley of the shadow of death. When we’re in the valley we want answers. Our modern, Western culture embraces answers and has taught us to do the same. Science is one one of the biggest struggles we have in our culture. Science, and especially technology, embraces the idea that every problem has a solution (there’s an app for that!). The consequence of culture is treating our faith like a ladder to climb. If I can solve my problems, one rung at a time, then I will move higher and higher in my faith. In Job’s case, he was delivered into a divine relationship where God is actually God and Lord.
As we get older we find that plastic theology melts in the furnace of life. We might be tempted to pretend the cracks in life are not there or to abandon our faith like we’ve seen so many others do, especially in the celebrity Christian culture. But, I believe that the cracks are an invitation to a deeper faith. A faith that really and truly depends on God rather than merely acknowledging him and accumulating correct beliefs Sunday after Sunday. And I believe that this is biblical faith. Meaning that this is the kind of faith we see in the bible and the kind of faith that God honors.
In my younger days as a Christian I was taught that faith was about discipline. Or to be more precise, “disciplines.” The spiritual disciplines of prayer, bible study, and church attendance. Discipleship was an adjacent discipline but it was defined as taking a class and learning an evangelism or prayer technique. Never was I encouraged to really and truly depend on God. My faith was essentially based on my efforts and acknowledging God. This was plastic theology for sure! I had lots of verses and techniques but not an ever deepening relationship with Jesus. I read the bible for self rather than for knowing God and Jesus whom all the scripture point to (Luke 24:7).
I have to confess the self-centered view of my faith impacted my view of the bible. I was confused when I would hear people say that ALL scripture is about Jesus. “What do you mean every verse in the bible is about Jesus? There are plenty of verses that do not mention Him.” Looking back now, I see how I treated the bible as a manual, not the Living Word of God Himself fully revealed in Jesus. My quest was for answers rather than for Jesus as a person.
Meeting Jesus in Doubt
Over time I realized that what I needed was not more how-to training but a deeper encounter with Jesus. I also realized that I’m not alone in this. Even the first disciples experienced this. These disciples walked with Jesus for three years, saw miracles, heard the Sermon on The Mount, yet were prone to disorientation. Even after the crucifixion they scattered, terrified and confused (Mark 14:50; Luke 24:11; John 20:24-29). Even upon seeing the resurrected Jesus the bible is honest about the reaction of fallen humans – Some believed and some doubted, Matthew 28:17.
In our culture of the “don’t ask don’t tell”, doubt seems like a contagion to be avoided rather than a burden to help bear. We forget the story of Scripture, that doubt is not something to fear. Humans are the ones who fear doubt, not God and we know this is true because doubt is the plight of humanity and it’s all over the pages of Scripture.
Recall the story of John the Baptist. Jesus Himself said of John, that he’s the greatest born of women (Matthew 11:11). Meaning that he surpassed legendary figures like King David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. He had a divinely appointed role as the forerunner to the Messiah, personally preparing the world for Christ’s arrival and introducing Jesus to the world as the “Lamb of God” (John 1:35-36). Surely John was certain about his faith in Jesus, right?
Yet locked away in a prison cell and facing a death sentence the categories of his faith began to blur. His circumstances didn’t match his expectations of the Messiah. So he sent his own disciples to ask Jesus, “Are you really the Messiah or did I make a mistake?” – see Matthew 11:3. John’s question is a bit jarring and unexpected given his role. But even more startling is Jesus’ response. Jesus doesn't rebuke him but points to the evidence of the blind seeing and lame walking (Matthew 11:4). Jesus is not threatened by our doubts like we are. He invites us to bring our honest questions to Him. And even more stingingly, He actually meets us in these doubts.
Contemplate that for a moment. Psalm 66 says that heaven is God’s throne and the earth is His footstool. Our problem as humans is that we see with human eyes. To us, the earth is huge…to God, who created it and ordered it with His mere words, it’s a footstool. That’s the God we serve. A God who bends down low like a parent to pick up a baby and reassure it.
For me faith-formulas were a crushing weight. Like an umbrella in a hurricane, woefully inadequate. The personal God of the bible is so much bigger than I can ever imagine. Bigger than my formulas, big enough to handle my doubts, fears, confusion, and child-like questions. He’s not a neatly packaged God but neither is life.
Consider another story from Mark 4:35-41. The disciples and Jesis in a boat, in the midst of a life-threatening storm. A great storm arose and the boat was swamped and Jesus was sleeping. They woke Him up and asked him, “Do you not care that we’re going to die in this storm?” Jesus rebuked the storm and reminded them to have faith and the result was: awe and wonder. “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!” That’s the point: awe and reverence even while we struggle. They couldn’t explain Jesus, only worship Him.
Faith, Mystery, and Holding On
Faith built on formulas and plastic theology place demands on us that we can never meet. They demand that we align ourselves with a predetermined set of intellectual beliefs regardless of what we experience. As a pastor committed to the faith and confession of my denomination, I firmly believe that correct beliefs and right theology is important. I am not suggesting that we cannot know Truth. If you do not know what you believe then you have no anchor in the storm, but answers and theology are not the end, but the means.
I have my theology and my God-given understanding of who He is according to Scripture and I believe 2 Timothy 3:15-17, that Scripture is sufficient for life. But that same Scripture reminds me that there is a valley of shadow of death that I may walk through. Scripture reminds me that Jesus brings resurrection power into my life but to be resurrected means that death comes first. It’s precisely because of the things that we do know about God that we can hold onto Him during the darkest of times – even if it’s our questions that keep us in His grace.
Plastic theology and formulaic faith ignores real life and Jesus never did that. So, for me, faith is less like being a spiritual super-hero and more like being stubborn in my trust in God. The world, my own flesh, and the Devil want to convince me otherwise. I will study the bible as long as I am able. I want to know His word as much as possible in this life, but I do not worship the bible but the God who gives it. The God who stoops to my level. The God who is mysterious (Deuteronomy 29:29) but who also reveals the mysteries of His will through Jesus (Ephesians 1:9). We have to embrace both the answers God gives and the unknowns that only he knows.
Becoming the Honest Church
Doubt is not a spiritual disease but a catalyst for growth. It motivates us to ask deeper questions and move beyond a superficial faith into the presence of a personal God. It’s like the friction in a clam that produces the pearl. Doubt is a necessary part of the pilgrimage of faith that we all undertake.
As the church and “Body of Christ” we need to loosen our grip on the need for easy and clear answers in all things. Pursue Truth by all means, never stop studying and applying your God-given talents to knowing God as He has revealed Himself in Scripture. But, we need some space for honesty and struggles, rather than a culture of having it all together. The church is a place not for putting on a show of strength but one of walking alongside each other in patience and humility directing our steps to Jesus.
Rev 19:13 – He wore a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God