Is Doubt a Sin?
For Reflection Roundup each week, we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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May you find rest in the winter of doubt and receive the affirmation of spring.
1. “In my life and in the lives of people I love, I’ve noticed that doubt, as painful as it can be, really is an impetus to a more authentic, personal spiritual life.” Shannon Evans’s statement landed in Kevin Clarke’s inbox in the process of writing “What if doubt is actually good for your faith?” for America. Permission to doubt is something we, in our congregations, need to know is available to us. It is here that we find the adventure that is life with God and grow in our faith in unexpected, God-ordained ways. In this lovely piece, Clarke expands the conversation, exploring with several talking partners the differences between doubt and belief in a way that leaves the reader hopeful and encouraged along the continuum of faith.
2. Carey Nieuwhof shares a lovely conversation with Shauna Niequist on his own Leadership Podcast, “Shauna Niequist on Letting Dead Things Die, Reconstructing Faith, and Breaking from Family and Church Culture with Your Family’s Blessing.” The two gently explore topics such as giving ourselves and others permission for faith and associated practices to grow throughout the seasons and circumstances of life – including periods of apparent dormancy.
3. There’s power and healing in contemplative community. Minister Elizabeth Felicetti and psychologist Melissa Perrin share what they’ve discovered, writing “Naming the beast, shifting power, taking a breath” for Duke Divinity’s Faith & Leadership. The pandemic has ushered in so many changes, deaths of old ways, births of new systems. Much of what we do feels inherently automated because, well, it is. We’re focused on doing. Noticing this, Felicetti and Perrin remind us that “our most primal strategy to manage our fear response is to be in communion with each other.” When our gatherings have been fractured, it’s easy to forget the simple power one’s presence provides. Inhabited by the Spirit, we serve one another as visible reminders of God’s nearness.
4. Does merely shifting our pressures a Sabbath make? Laura Loescher explores this question in “Earth Altars: A Practice for Grateful Living” for Gratefulness, offering readers a lovely point of focus this Earth Day. Ripe with awareness of the fallen nature of our world, Loescher began taking time each day to engage with the beauty of creation, sharing in the creative act herself. This became a Sabbath ritual with a daily rhythm, the fruit of which was simple beauty and shareable joy. When Sabbath days or moments begin to brim with other forms of work rather than true engagement with rest, Loescher suggests we consider exploring creative engagement with the natural world.
5. This video from Morning Altars is a great way to engage, prayerfully and imaginatively, with creation. Easter week reminds me of times when our boys were young and we would walk our neighborhood, picking up flowers (weeds), bits of moss, and rocks to decorate wooden crosses our church would provide for meditative creativity. I still have several years’ worth of mementos from these walks. Why not make a new prayer memory and give this practice a try?
6. Marisa Iati writes “How money from dying churches could breathe new life into communities” for the Washington Post. Iati reports on how congregations have repurposed funds from the sale of their properties into continuing the legacy of faith in the communities of which their churches have been a part. An organization called Invested Faith partners with nonprofits to continue spreading the gospel in areas once ministered to by a church. Funds once funneled internally, toward efforts focused on keeping the church doors open at all costs, are now outwardly directed toward neighborhood needs and civic partnerships, “doing the stuff” that takes the church “out of the pews.”
7. “The goal should be to make a difference in the lives of others, not to be acknowledged as the focal point of the ministry effort.” David Gilmore includes this bit of wisdom in “4 Key Lessons for Vital Small Church Ministry” for the Lewis Center for Church Leadership’s Leading Ideas. Outward focus as a general rule is key for ministry. When we try to do it all on our own, be everything to everyone, and resist partnerships, we are stepping outside any scriptural model for ministry we have. The effectiveness of the ministries of a church do not depend on its size, but rather on willingness to look around the body and the community and see the truth. We have everything we need.
8. The Siburt Institute for Church Ministry offers a series of webinar conversations called Intersection: Where Theology and Practice Meet. Earlier this month, Brad East, author of The Church’s Book: Theology of Scripture in Ecclesial Context, spoke with Randy Harris and Carson Reed. These three are experts in applying Scripture in practical ways to our lives and ministries. Register to participate in the upcoming Intersection webinar on May3: “Church Community in an Age of Isolation” with Myles Werntz.
9. Our family has had a longstanding affection for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, of which we are reminded each Easter. We used to live near one, and appreciated the beautiful eggs and baked goods they offered the community each spring; we looked forward to this annual indulgence! This church is no longer on our daily travel route to school, but we are more mindful than ever of our Ukrainian siblings. Nicolas Sooy shares “Ukrainians show faith in the face of destruction” for Faith & Leadership, describing what it means to truly celebrate the end of the reign of death this Easter amid the daily circumstances in the lives of the Ukrainian people. With death all around, the celebratory hearts of these Christians reveal the deep mystery of resurrection power.
10. Jessica Young Brown writes, “Ministers cannot thrive if they neglect themselves” for Faith & Leadership. At this point, you may either buy into this truth, be tired of hearing about it, or find yourself at some mark along a continuum between the two, but it’s a drum I’m going to keep beating because I’ve become a believer. When we are committed to the message of 1 Cor. 15:58 – “Always give yourself to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted” – it can be hard to remember that sometimes the Lord’s work is interior to the heart and life of the worker. Easter’s now in season. Let’s celebrate and allow the Lord to resurrect some places within our lives we’ve possibly neglected in all the preparations.
