Visualize Doubt

© sframe - Fotolia.com

Doubts aren't the exception for life, they're the rule. If I'm honest with myself I doubt things all the time. I doubt whether my car will start in the morning. I doubt whether I will have enough money to pay my bills. I doubt the Theory of Relativity. I have moments when I doubt the existence of God. In truth I doubt pretty much everything that I don't both fully understand and fully control. The irony is that I'm sure that things that I understand and can control will happen the way I expect and they never do. Even what I'm sure about is open to doubt.

Stan Granberg had a great blog post on the Kairos Church Planting site entitled Preaching in Unbelief.

I propose the best way is to preach the gospel in the context of unbelief. Find your point of unbelief in the text. Hone it to a state of mental "scary sharp," then let God take you to his point of resolution from the text. There it is, the core of your sermon. Now wrap that core with a layer of street made reality and you have a sermon that will grip anybody. Probably even yourself.

It's precisely the point where we stop understanding where we can begin to grow. If we persist in speaking from a position of power, where we have everything figured out and tightly controlled, then we leave no space. Not understanding is frightening. Doubt is exhausting. The typical human response is to avoid, ignore and numb. God calls the leaders in his church to be the first into the breach. We lead the terrifying charge into the face of unbelief so that others can journey with us.

Let your doubt show through as you preach and you'll connect in a much deeper way.