Don’t Just Doubt Your Faith, Doubt Your Doubts

Students
need space to share their doubts.  We all do.  If serious questions
about Christianity and uncertainty toward God are not recognized and explored,
they remain in the heart and mind, only to surface farther down the road and
often with greater force.  Simplistic Christian responses will not
suffice.  “Do extra devotions” or “just have faith” don’t do justice to a
student’s real struggle with doubt. 

I
encounter student doubt all the time.  My work actually helps to surface
doubts, as I raise challenges to Christianity and then explore answers in my
talks.  I remember when Helia, a freshman at a Christian college in
Southern California, approached me after the talk I gave at a Summit Ministries student conference this past summer and shared her struggle with doubt.  I was
glad for her honest questions and told her as much.  Why?  I want
students to get their doubts on the table while they’re with me. 
So I always allow space for questions, the starting point for dealing with
doubt. 

But
what’s the next step?  How do you help a student move from doubt to
confidence in God’s truth?  Here’s where some prominent voices in youth
ministry are doing more harm than good.  Andrew Root, coauthor of the
book, The
Theological Turn in Youth Ministry, has an entire chapter on
doubt titled, “Doubt and Confirmation:  the Mentor as Co-Doubter.” 
Root seems to suggest that doubt is not something to eventually overcome. 
Rather, it is an end in itself:  “But what if the objective of the
confirmation teacher was not to work to pass on anything but was rather to be a
partner and companion in doubt? …what if the best way to actually pass on the
faith was not through lessons, certainty, and knowledge, but through
doubt?" (p. 194)  Here's more of what Root has to say about the role of doubt in
youth ministry.  

A
recent youth ministry article entitled, “I Doubt It,” begins
well, discussing the need to create safe places where students can share their
doubt.  But after that, what?  The authors seem to recognize
that “students need to understand the basics of Christian faith in order
to discuss their faith with others, and training in core beliefs (sometimes
called apologetics) can be helpful.”  Alright, sounds great.  I’ve
seen confident faith emerge in many young lives as a result of good apologetic
training.  But in the next sentence, they undermine the very thing they’ve
just suggested.  “However, learning to argue about faith may not be
the most helpful approach.”  So, apologetics “can be helpful,” but since
it really amounts to arguing about faith, it “may not be the most helpful
approach.”  With that, apologetics gets a quick dismissal.  And
parents and youth leaders lose a valuable tool in dealing with doubt. 

Thankfully,
Jesus offers a different approach.  In Mark 9:14-29, the father of a
demon-possessed son pleads with Jesus, “I do believe; help my unbelief.” 
What an honest expression of doubt.  And how does Jesus respond?  He
casts the demon out of the boy.  Jesus provides evidence in the form of a
miracle, confirming His claims about Himself.

What
is Jesus’ response to “Doubting Thomas?”  Before seeing the resurrected
Jesus, Thomas declares, “Until I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and
put my finger into he place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will
not believe” (John 20:22).  When Jesus first appears to Thomas, He offers
evidence:  “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here
your hand and put it into My side; and do no be unbelieving, but believing” (v.
28). 

Jesus offers the way
forward for students struggling with doubt.  Don't shut down your
students' doubts.  Give them all the space they need to share them openly
and honestly.  Listen to them.  Seek to understand them.  Even
cry with them.  But then patiently, lovingly, diligently, and
intelligently guide them to the truth.  Yes, offer them apologetics.
 When students are given sound apologetic instruction, they discover the
rich storehouse of evidence confirming the truth of Christianity.  Such
evidence can move them from unbelief to confident faith.