The Doubters' Club Quotes

“How to Invite People into a Life-Giving Relationship 1. Make seeing them a natural rhythm of your life.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“After impression is intention. It’s a soul check to see whether we have ulterior motives. Does my friendship with this person depend on them deciding to follow Christ within some allotted amount of time? (Ulterior motive.) Or do I intend to befriend this person and share my life with them, regardless of if they ever decide to become a follower of Christ? (Ultimate motive.)”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“If God is real, wouldn’t he care about the things that I care about?” To this day, I don’t know if Wesley is what you would consider a “Christian.” What I do know is that we are both way closer to Jesus than we were when we first met.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“These sorts of questions are the natural progression of living the Doubters’ Club as a lifestyle. Remember, it’s not a thing we do. It’s a new way to do everything!”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“It wasn’t just that Jeremy didn’t have a chance in the church; the church was unwilling to give Jeremy a chance. He had experienced church many times over again, and it seemed to be the same thing. The church would put their best foot forward through an invitation to their service and then refuse to use the other foot to walk with him.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“It wasn’t just that Jeremy didn’t have a chance in the church; the church was unwilling to give Jeremy a chance.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“The difference is not in what we experience along the way; the difference is in who is committed to the journey with”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“For people who don’t yet have Jesus, they have us.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Jesus is the “yes” face of God, always inviting us into his life and requesting that we invite him into ours. Eugene Peterson captured the essence of this when he translated John 16:33 in The Message: [Jesus said,] “I’ve told you all this so that trusting me, you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace. In this godless world you will continue to experience difficulties. But take heart! I’ve conquered the world.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“INVITATION How to Invite the Nonbeliever into Real Life, Not a Church Service You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you. DALE CARNEGIE, How to Win Friends and Influence People I have an enormous amount of trouble getting people to come to my place. . . . I can’t tell you how much leftover guacamole I’ve eaten.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“The purer the intentions, the more influence we gain. Every. Single. Time.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“The intention of the Doubters’ Club is not to ‘win’ the debate,” I told him. “The intention is to build a platform of friendship for us to pursue truth together.” I shared with him that we do not intend to ever pray the prayer of salvation at a Doubters’ Club meeting. Our intention is to build friendships with people who don’t think like us. The common ground we all have is our doubts.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“If people are gardens, knowledge should be treated like the seeds that will, eventually, grow. We need to make sure that the seeds we are planting will produce something of the Kingdom when fully grown. And you can’t rush it. Some questions need to be revisited for years before the answer takes. Some answers need to be revisited for years for a good question to take.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“But people are gardens, not factories.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Rather, I agree with Bible commentator Adolf Jülicher that parables have a single point, and the rest is narrative scenery.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“I like listening to people who know what they are talking about. It becomes impressive, though, when they know who they are talking to.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Finally, genuine people are sought after because they are trustworthy. They are rarely spreading gossip disguised as emails to the leader of the church’s prayer chain.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Another step toward the right side of the scale is to share stories where the other person is the hero.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“If you are to become more genuine, avoid generalizations about your life and share specifics. Instead of “we all struggle,” how about you share about yesterday and the day before that?”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Apparently, the mystic poet Thomas Merton was right when he described himself as “a member of a human race which is no more (and no less) ridiculous than I am myself.”[5]”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“For example, Christians evangelize because if they were lost and going to hell, they would want someone to tell them about Jesus. Therefore, they feel that, according to the Golden Rule, they should be telling others about Jesus.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Do unto others as they would have you do unto them,” she replied. “How I want someone to treat me is not always how they want to be treated. If I learn to listen to them first, I can treat them how they want to be treated.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Is every event really a Trojan horse to turn them into one of us? Are we unable to have genuine relationships with nonbelievers? What would happen if we faced up to what drives us? Does anyone in the church know this is a problem?”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Jesus, on the other hand—he did it well. He wasn’t just the life of the party; he brought the party to life.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Actually, most of the evil in this world is done by and through “good” intentions. The cause of evil is stupidity, not malice. AYN RAND Elphie, now that we’re friends, I’ve decided to make you my new project. GLINDA, Wicked the Musical”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Anticipate that it’s a long road ahead.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Appreciate the journey they are on.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Here are some steps we can take, together, to rebuild the impression people have of us: Apologize where you missed it.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“Meaning: If we, the church, are not willing to bleed for the one we disagree with, we should not expect to win them over.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

“In the introduction to his book Jesus Is the Question, Martin Copenhaver cites two published studies that point out Jesus’ answer-to-question ratio is 1:100.[7] For every answer Jesus gives, the Gospels record that he asks a hundred questions.”
― Preston Ulmer, The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded