Skepticism about Christianity is on the rise. That’s why we need to engage the skeptic in our preaching. The skeptic isn’t just “out there”; he or she is sitting in your church. Perhaps they’re confused and hoping for solid answers.
In this article, we’re going to look at what doesn’t work and what might work when it comes to preaching that engages the skeptic. Before we get to what doesn’t and does work, let’s take a moment to list some of the tough questions people in your church are likely wrestling with. Here are some examples of questions they might be asking:
- Suffering – Why is God okay directing a world in which there is so much suffering?
- Prayer – Why does God seem silent when it comes to answering some of my most important prayers?
- Hell – If God loves us so much, how could hell be real?
- Judgment – How could God command his people in the Old Testament to destroy entire city populations?
- LGBTQ identities – Why does God say that people are sinful based on having identities they can’t help?
- Miracles– Can I believe in miracle stories when they go against my everyday experience?
When it comes to helping people with questions like these, let’s first explore what doesn’t work and then move onto what might. Throughout this article, our tour guide in finding answers may seem an unlikely choice, but he’s going to be more helpful than you might think. He’s none other than the “tubby little cubby all stuffed with fluff”: Winnie the Pooh.
What Doesn’t Work? Pretending It’s a Moose Head.
When it comes to helping people with tough questions like the ones listed above, what doesn’t work? There’s a Winnie the Pooh story where Pooh visits Rabbit’s house right at lunchtime, eats all the honey in all of Rabbit’s honeypots, and announces that he must be going. But he’s eaten so much honey that he gets stuck in Rabbit’s door on the way out. Rabbit fetches their friend Christopher Robin, who pulls while Rabbit pushes, all to no use. Pooh is even more stuck now.
So, now in Rabbit’s house, Rabbit has an unfortunate view of Pooh’s lower half sticking out of the wall. Rabbit decides to improve the view. He takes some paint, draws eyes, a nose, and a smile on Pooh’s lower half. Rabbit takes some branches, attaches them to either side, and makes Pooh into a trophy moose head. He takes a frame and frames the moose head, placing a little shelf on Pooh’s two legs that are sticking out. On the shelf, he puts a tablecloth, a teapot, and a candlestick. This works pretty well until someone brings Pooh some sympathy flowers, he sneezes, and the moose head comes apart, with the shelf and frame all crashing down.
When it comes to the skeptic in your church, here’s something that doesn’t work: it’s when the tough issue is there, but you pretend like it’s not. You paint over it to make everything pretty and keep things happy. This is when we basically communicate that we’re not going to deal with the tough issues. Instead, we’re going to make church a place where we always feel good.
“This is when we basically communicate that we’re not going to deal with the tough issues. Instead, we’re going to make church a place where we always feel good.”
As long as we’re happy, feeling good in worship, and the sermons make us feel inspired, then the tough questions will just kind of go away, right? But no, that doesn’t make the tough questions go away. To the person doubting, keeping everything always happy and inspiring actually makes it look like we are a group of pretenders. So, first, what doesn’t work is to try to make the issue go away by keeping everybody happy.
What Doesn’t Work? Making It Off-Limits to Bounce.
Here’s another “what” that doesn’t work. When it comes to engaging the skeptic in our preaching, we may make the issue go away by making everybody believe. We may try to make the issue go away by making church a place where we never doubt. You will believe.
At one point, Tigger is having so much fun bouncing that he bounces really high up into a tree. He looks down, gets really scared, and says, “Say, how did this tree get so high?!” Now, Rabbit, who doesn’t like it when Tigger bounces because Tigger bounces him, says they’ll get Tigger down from the tree—but he’s got to promise never to bounce again. “Okay, if I ever get outta this, I promise never to bounce again.” They get him down, he’s back on the ground, and he says, “Say, I’m so happy I feel like bouncing!”
But Rabbit says, “Uh-uh-uh! You promised! You promised!”
Tigger says, “Oh, I did, didn’t I? You mean I-I-can’t ever bounce again?”
Rabbit says, “Never!”
“N-Never? N-not even just one teensy-weensy bounce?”
Rabbit says, “Not even a smidgen of a bounce!”
In helping the skeptic, here’s something that doesn’t work. It’s when the tough issue is there, and you try to make the issue go away by making it to where doubting is against the rules. Doubt is something we don’t do in church. “You mean I can’t ever doubt again?” “Not even a smidgeon of a doubt!” The idea is that we don’t ask those questions here; that’s not what a good Christian does.
“The idea is that we don’t ask those questions here; that’s not what a good Christian does.”
There’s an assumption we can have in church that we hit a point of maturity where we say, along with Buttercup in Princess Bride, “I shall never doubt again.” I’m wondering, at what point did that happen for Jesus’ disciples? They witnessed miracle after miracle after miracle, until the greatest miracle of all: Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. And still, Matthew 28:16-17 (NIV):
“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.”
Those are the people to whom Jesus entrusted the Great Commission. They saw Jesus risen, and yet some still doubted.
Doubt is something we do from time to time, and it’s not even something we choose to do. And that’s why Jude wrote,
“Be merciful to those who doubt.” (Jude 1:22, NIV)
Take note that Jude was Jesus’ brother, and that Jude apparently spent most of Jesus’ ministry doubting Jesus (Mark 3:21). Jude learned mercy toward the doubter by experiencing it from Jesus himself.
Look, I’ve been in church all my life. I’ve studied Christian apologetics, have earned various Bible degrees in which I’ve studied tough questions, and I still have questions I have trouble with. I still believe, and for most of these questions, I’ve found helpful answers. But I still have unresolved questions. How much more so does the kid in your church who’s never studied these questions but has been watching YouTube videos by skeptics?
Be merciful to those who doubt.
“Be merciful to those who doubt.”
So, what doesn’t work? You can’t make the issue go away by trying to make church
- a place where we keep everybody happy
- a place where we make everybody believe
In fact, you might not be able to make the issue go away. Period. For some people, they’ve got a lot of anxiety about tough questions, and they’re looking for somebody who can tell them the right answer to all their questions so that they never have to doubt again. They’re looking for someone to give them relief from their anxiety, and their anxiety has manifested itself in spiritual doubts. They’re looking for relief, and they think they’ll get lasting relief if you can just answer this particular series of pressing questions.
But that’s not how anxiety works. You don’t beat anxiety by getting each and every question answered with 100% certainty. With that mindset that won’t rest until finding total certainty, for every question answered, ten more questions will likely pop up. Even a smart apologist or a comprehensive apologetics book can’t answer a person’s questions with 100% certainty.
“Even a smart apologist or a comprehensive apologetics book can’t answer a person’s questions with 100% certainty.”
There will always be room for doubt. And that’s okay. God has made it that way because there has to be room for the will, not just the intellect.
So, what doesn’t work? Again, it doesn’t work to make church a place where we keep everybody happy and making church a place where we make everybody believe.
What Works?
So, what does work?
Eeyore had a birthday, but being the pessimist he was, he didn’t expect anybody to celebrate it. Pooh and Piglet found out and wanted to surprise him. Pooh decided to give him a honeypot, and Piglet decided to give him a balloon.
Unfortunately, on the way, Pooh got hungry and his honey from the honeypot kept depleting until the honeypot became just a pot. Meanwhile, on the way to Eeyore, Piglet tripped, and the balloon popped.
So, they get to Eeyore, and Piglet has a popped, droopy balloon, while Pooh has an empty pot. They’re both really sad for him. Yet Eeyore brightens up because the two go perfectly together: a balloon just the perfect size to go into an empty pot.
“Eeyore brightens up because the two go perfectly together: a balloon just the perfect size to go into an empty pot.”
I’m not going to suggest that we can make tough questions go away. I am suggesting that we can help people see the bigger picture, how a popped balloon actually fits pretty well in the empty pot. We can help people see how
- The problem of suffering actually fits pretty well into a world in which God gives us free will.
- The problem of unanswered prayer actually fits pretty well into a world in which God wants us to grow in holiness, not just happiness.
- The judgment passages, like the command to kill the Amalekites or the plagues on Pharaoh, actually fit pretty well into a world in which God cares about rescuing the oppressed.
- The Bible’s teachings on sexuality actually fit pretty well in the Bible’s grand story of Christ as the groom and the church as the bride.
Here’s what I think can work. We can help people navigate tough questions by showing them how, even if this issue doesn’t make a lot of sense on its own, it does fit well when you look at the big picture of the gospel story. The popped balloon fits when you bring in the pot.
I’ll give you an example. As Christian parents, we tend to tell our kids of the overwhelming and unconditional love of God. They believe us, but then they hear about events in the Bible in which God does things which are downright scary. Like the Flood! They are confronted with two puzzle pieces that don’t fit: the kindness of God and the wrath of God/judgment passages.
“We can help people navigate tough questions by showing them how, even if this issue doesn’t make a lot of sense on its own, it does fit well when you look at the big picture of the gospel story.”
Yet between God’s kindness and wrath is a third characteristic that helps makes sense of both of them. It’s called God’s patience. God is not quick to anger as we can be when we get frustrated. As Numbers 14:18 says, “The Lord is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (ESV). God’s patience means that not only is he slow to anger, but that even when wrath is on its way, God provides a way of escape. The ark was meant for Noah and for any who chose to listen to Noah’s message of repentance (1 Peter 3:20).
The Flood fits better when you bring in God’s kindness, wrath, and patience. The popped balloon fits when you bring in the pot. Again, we can help people navigate tough questions by showing them how tough issues that seem inexplicable on their own fit well when you look at the big picture of the gospel story.
