The Shadow of a Doubt: Confronting Challenges to Faith
By Talbot Davis
()
About this ebook
Discussion questions at the end of each chapter are designed to help leaders of small groups. Also available when purchasing the book is access to a free video trailer and an audio recording of the author's sermons as another way to experience the weekly message.
Talbot Davis
Talbot Davis is the pastor of Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, a congregation known for its ethnic diversity, outreach ministry, and innovative approach to worship. He has been repeatedly recognized for his excellence in congregational development. During his 10-year term as pastor at Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church prior to serving Good Shepherd, that congregation doubled in size and received the conference’s “church of excellence” award six times. Talbot has also received the conference’s Harry Denman Award for Excellence in Evangelism. Since Talbot began serving at Good Shepherd in 1999, average worship attendance has quadrupled, growing from 500 to 2000 each Sunday. Talbot holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Princeton University and a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary. He lives in Charlotte with his wife, Julie, and they have two grown children.
Read more from Talbot Davis
Simplify the Message: Multiply the Impact Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Come Alive: Philippians and Colossians: Conversations with Scripture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Alive: Ecclesiastes: Conversations with Scripture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Alive: Conversations With Scripture: Ruth, Esther, Jonah Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Alive: Matthew: Conversations With Scripture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Come Alive: Proverbs: Conversations with Scripture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Storm Before the Calm: Making Sense of Life's Troubles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHead Scratchers: When the Words of Jesus Don't Make Sense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrash Test Dummies: Surprising Lessons from the Book of Judges Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolve: Finding God's Solutions in a World of Problems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCome Alive: Galatians and Ephesians: Conversations with Scripture Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Shadow of a Doubt
Related ebooks
Doubting Toward Faith: The Journey to Confident Christianity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Calculations From the Bible: Why a Computer Scientist Believes the Bible Is True Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrestling with Doubt, Finding Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCracking the Pot: Releasing God from the Theologies that Bind Him Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore You Lose Your Mind: Deconstructing Bad Theology in the Church Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnduring a Crisis of Faith Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Stone in My Shoe: Confessions of an Evangelical Outlier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSilent Savior: Daring to Believe He's Still There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A View from the Back Pew: God, Religion & Our Personal Quest for Truth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Broken Clay: Finding Renewal in the Potter's Hands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExamine Your Faith! Finding Truth in a World of Lies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Generous Spaciousness: Responding to Gay Christians in the Church Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Finding Faith---A Search for What Makes Sense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What God’s Up To on Planet Earth?: A No-Strings-Attached Explanation of the Christian Message Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBetween Religious Rocks and Life's Hard Places: 101 Answers to Tough Questions about What You Believe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDisorganized Christianity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Problem of God: Answering a Skeptic’s Challenges to Christianity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heretics, Mystics & Misfits Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Satanic Alliances: Christians Unwittingly in League with the Devil Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNot a Hopeless Case: 6 Vital Questions from Young Adults for a Church in Crisis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBorn Again and Beyond Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSinned Against: Exploring the Scriptures Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsConversations With My Unbelieving Friend Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuestioning Faith: Indirect Journeys of Belief through Terrains of Doubt Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSermons to Self: Touching God Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHelp My Unbelief!: Doubt, Faith, and the Gospel of Mark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Journey of Hope: New Believer's Guide to Discipleship Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPermission to Believe: Finding Faith in Troubled Times Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBelieve the Believable: Faith in the Face of Diversity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Christianity For You
Boundaries Updated and Expanded Edition: When to Say Yes, How to Say No To Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Screwtape Letters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Decluttering at the Speed of Life: Winning Your Never-Ending Battle with Stuff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changes That Heal: Four Practical Steps to a Happier, Healthier You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Story: The Bible as One Continuing Story of God and His People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winning the War in Your Mind: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wild at Heart Expanded Edition: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mere Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Four Loves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Less Fret, More Faith: An 11-Week Action Plan to Overcome Anxiety Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Uninvited: Living Loved When You Feel Less Than, Left Out, and Lonely Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Grief Observed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bible Recap: A One-Year Guide to Reading and Understanding the Entire Bible Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Law of Connection: Lesson 10 from The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Boundaries and Goodbyes: Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5NIV, Holy Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Enoch Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Don't Give the Enemy a Seat at Your Table: It's Time to Win the Battle of Your Mind... Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Boundaries Workbook: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Holy Bible (World English Bible, Easy Navigation) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I Guess I Haven't Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Shadow of a Doubt
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Shadow of a Doubt - Talbot Davis
INTRODUCTION
Shadows of Doubt
They wake me up at night.
Sometimes out of the deepest kinds of sleep.
And once they wake me up, it’s awfully hard to pick up where I left off.
What am I talking about? Bumps in the night? Sounds in the house?
Nope. Doubts in my head.
I have doubts about this thing that I claim as the center of both my identity and my vocation: the Christian faith.
And the doubts that wake me up from my slumber while rocking me to the core deal with the most pivotal issues of the faith:
Is God there?
Is God real?
Is God great?
Is God good?
What happens to the everlasting souls of people who die without ever hearing of Jesus?
Is the Bible reliable?
Why did John just have to tell us that he beat Peter in the footrace to the tomb on the first Easter?
Why do pomegranates do double duty as aphrodisiacs in the Song of Songs?
Am I selling people a false remedy to their very real problems?
I suspect that I’m not the only one to be assaulted with these questions of faith. Most people of faith will admit that they have doubts if they are being honest with themselves. In fact, your own doubts are probably the reason you picked up this book in the first place.
This wrestling is nothing new. I was not raised in church,
as they say, but I nevertheless had a dramatic encounter with Christ when I was seventeen years old. Yet not long after that conversion, questions like the ones I’ve asked above started to seep in.
A year later, I found myself in college—and in the kind of intellectual environment that celebrated doubt and ridiculed faith. So my doubts intensified. I remember picking up a then-classic book in the evangelical world, In Two Minds: The Dilemma of Doubt and How to Resolve It, by Os Guiness. The book made me feel better simply because I persevered and read it all—even though I was unable to grasp much of what it had to say. I was grateful for a book that expressed my faith mixed with doubt. The title resonated with me because I lived the title.
Fast-forward a quarter century and half a lifetime. In the course of pastoring at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, what have I discovered? That people today—even people of great faith—are plagued with the same kinds of doubt that have been with me from the beginning of my belief. The people of this congregation honor me by bringing into my office their honest, raw, conflicted doubts about their Savior. Like the anguished father in Mark 9:24, they often cry out, I have faith; help my lack of faith!
So what do I do with the doubts of the people, both as their pastor and their fellow pilgrim?
It seems to me that people have long had these three kinds of responses to doubt:
1.Ignore them. If you pretend like the doubt doesn’t really exist, pretty soon it won’t. Focus on what you do know of the faith; pay precious little attention to what you don’t know; and in the end, your faith in Christ will be like it was before. Unless it’s not.
2.Explain them away. This is the approach many of us take when we treat that Bible as if it were a book—which it’s not—and not as a library—which it is. When we misunderstand the nature of the biblical revelation, we are tempted to create all kinds of false harmonies in between its texts. In contrast, I believe that the highest view of the inspiration of Scripture takes into account that the books of the Bible are often in conversation with one another. They even, at times, correct each other. If you doubt me on that, read the Book of Proverbs. Then read Ecclesiastes. There is some serious conversation and disagreement between the two authors who wrote those books.
3.Cave in to them. All too often, people respond to their very real doubts about faith by taking the easiest route of them all: They abandon faith altogether. The weight of doubt piles up; the lure of life without restraint seeps in; and the next thing you know, a follower of Jesus suddenly is not.
As you might imagine, I don’t find any of those solutions to doubt’s dilemma very satisfactory. So, along with the people of Good Shepherd, I came up with a very different approach to the doubt of faith:
What if instead of hiding in the shadow of our doubt, we were to bring our doubts into the light?
Instead of ignoring them, explaining them away, or caving in to them, I believe that we should take our doubts and expose them to the light, fearlessly acknowledging them and wrestling with them in the open. We should be honest about doubts, unafraid to acknowledge them and shine the light of Christ on them. When we do so, are we not likely to discover that a faith that has gone through its shadows of doubt and then emerged on the other side is, in fact, a faith worth having?
I believe it is. That conviction stands behind the chapters, activities, and conversation guides in the rest of this book. Because I believe that when we dig deep into our doubts and excavate them with a community of faith, we rob them of their power and we strengthen our faith.
And who knows? Maybe they’ll stop waking us up in the middle of the night as we rest with assurance that Jesus is Lord and there is no other.
Talbot Davis
1
BELIEVE IT AND NOT
I have faith; help my lack of faith!
(Mark 9:24)
I conducted a little experiment in getting ready for this series called The Shadow of a Doubt. I anticipated the series so much that as I prepared for it, I did something I’ve never done before: I took an online poll. On the Good Shepherd Church Facebook page, I posted a simple question about faith and doubt and asked people to respond. I asked the online community, which includes both Christians and non-Christians, What is the source of your doubts? When it comes to your faith, what doubts do you bring to the table?
This open-ended, two-part question invited people to share any and all doubts they had about God, or Jesus, or the church, or heaven and hell, or themselves, or anything else that might relate to their faith. I knew that I would get a lot of responses, and I did. Here are some of the answers I received:
Whenever a young life is taken, or stolen, especially in a violent manner, I always ask, Why?
If everything on earth belongs to God, including the children, why does he allow those things to happen?
I get to the point where I feel helpless . . . there are so many poor and suffering people . . . I feel like we aren’t making a dent.
I doubted my faith and his love when I lost my best friend to cancer.
Wonder why some babies are born with deficiencies when they haven’t had a chance yet and the mother did all the right things during pregnancy.
Sometimes when prayer goes unanswered or the outcome is bad I doubt if praying makes a difference.
I don’t think there’s room on Facebook for all mine. . . .
Some of those doubts may be your doubts; you might even feel like that last person, the one whose doubts would fill Facebook. And the answers that came in privately, which I can’t share, were even more painful and poignant than the ones printed above.
IN THE GAP, THE SHADOW OF DOUBT MAKES ITS HOME.
But the reason I did that survey about doubt—and the reason I’m doing this series—is that I have them too. I have doubts. Doubts about God, and Jesus, and the Bible. I proclaim a gospel of faith, and I too live in doubt’s shadow. Is God real, or am I perpetuating some kind of heavenly pyramid scheme on the poor people of Good Shepherd? And if God does exist,