J.R. Briggs

doubt :: night summary

February 25, 2009

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“Be merciful to those who doubt…” (Jude 22)

Last night we had a great time at doubt :: night. We wanted to provide some intention to the evening – but little structure (we were more interested in creating space for conversation rather than host a program) and the evening seemed to flow well. It was so energizing. I love being around courageous questioners…

Last night, almost 40 people showed up at the bar that we had rented for an intentional, but laid-back conversation regarding our doubts and questions about life, faith, Jesus, church, God and the Bible. It was a great group of people – and a comfortable size group, too. Lots of good, healthy discussion. There were about ten people who showed up that I did not know and/or who were not professing followers of Christ.

My friend Brian, who I met several months ago at a Starbucks and who has a New Age worldview showed up. He emailed me today and told me that he loved it, he wants to come back and to “keep up the good work.”

It was a healthy mix of people – men and women, 40-somethings and college students. Believers. Doubters. Christian Universalists. New Agers. Agnostics.

We got several great questions. Some raised their hands and shared, others wished to remain anonymous and write them out on index cards and turn them in. We didn’t get through all the questions (we didn’t expect to) but we had some good ones:

• Who determines where truth resides when comparing the Bible to the Koran?
• Why do bad things happen to good people?
• What about the non-Christians I know who live better moral lives than other Christians? Why should Christians go to heaven if others are more kind, compassionate and loving?
  
• How could a good God send people to hell?
• How do we know that there is a heaven and a hell?
• Today’s research seems to prove certain events in the Bible didn’t happen as described. Is that a problem for the belief in the credibility of the Bible?
• Where is God?
• Are our choices predetermined ahead of time?
  
• Who determines who goes to heaven?
• What about homosexuals?
• Can I consider myself a Christian if I question most things about it?
• How do we get to the point of having faith in the first place?
• Why are church leaders of all denominations choosing parts of the Bible to take literally and not others (example: women preaching, homosexuals, etc)?

Great, great questions that are worth the time and thought and energy to wrestle with.

At the end of the evening I asked people if this was worth doing again and if so, how often. Once a year? Once a quarter? Once every other month? Once a month? I was surprised by the amount of people who strongly desired to see doubt :: night occur once a month. So, it looks like we’ll be hosting another event some time in March. Stay tuned.

Before we started I met a guy named Dominick – a self described Italian ex-Catholic nihilist. I invited him to the event, telling him it would start in about twenty minutes in the side room if he wanted to join us. He told us that we wouldn’t want someone like him because he doubts that God exists. I told him that doubt :: night was hosted for people like him. He said that I didn’t understand him: he actually tries to convince people to doubt God and the Bible. And I said, all the more reason for him to join us for the event!

He didn’t join us, but he caught me afterward and asked how it went and what questions were asked. He told me he was intoxicated. For the next 45 minutes he talked my ear off about philosophy, religion and nihilism – the belief that there really isn’t anything to live for. You just die and that’s it. “Kinda like television,” he said. “When you turn it off, its done.” He told me he had read the Bible from cover to cover, as well as the Satanic Bible – and he highly recommended that I read the Satanic Bible because it had some interesting insights in it! He told me this is the first time that he had talked to a Christian about his nihilistic worldview without being judged and was interested in talking some more. We swapped numbers and will be hanging out some time in the near future.

Being around skeptics and questioners, doubters and cynics is something that excites me. It was refreshing to have a roomful of people admit their doubts and want to wrestle with them like Jacob did with God on the banks of the Jabbock River in Genesis. The entire evening I was reminded of a few characters in Scripture who doubted God. Job, who was obedient but doubted often. David, who wrote many of the Psalms. Some praising God for his goodness…and oftentimes the next psalm wondering where God is and if He even cares. (This being a man that God said was after His own heart!) The father in the book of Mark who had a sick son who asked Jesus to heal him and said to Jesus: “I believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

I hope and pray that we learn to be more courageous with our questions and we continue to build relationships with the doubters and the skeptics and the cynics who are intrigued by Jesus, but turned off by what they have seen in other Christians and churches.

Posted in: Faith