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Recently the Christian interwebs were set a-twitter by a few high profile leaders saying that they had lost, or were losing, their faith. I was particularly struck by Marty Sampson's story. He was a worship leader at Hillsong church, and a big figure in the Pentecostal world. You can read what he has to say about his faith at Relevant Magazine (the original Instagram post seems to have been taken down.)
It's a common story. What seemed so solid, so trustworthy gradually evaporates into air. It's a story a lot of Cafechurch people have wrestled with, and so reading Marty's story made me feel quite sad. I'm sorry that his experience of faith and his formation as a bigh profile church leader didn't equip him better to engage them. Because these are very, very good questions. They open us up to a lot of really important theological questions that you really need to address to be a Christian in our culture.What does it mean that the church is led by fallible people? What sort of book is the Bible - and, given that there are in fact contradictions, what does that tell us? Does God really send people to Hell if they dont' hold a certain set of theological beliefs? Does science destroy religion? And, best question of all: What actually is "genuine truth"?
This whole thing is a a great gift to groups like Cafechurch who actively seek to engage people who are coming out of Pentecostal, Evangelical, and Charismatic churches in exactly this sort of conversation.
So we're going to turn Marty's excellent questions into a little curriculum for September and October 2019. We'll link to any resources we develop here.
Leaders fail - Let's start with Saul and all the long, depressing history of the disastrous Christian leaders. See the washup here
There are contradictions in the Bible if we grant that there are indeed contradictions in then Bible, then what? What sort of book is the Bible, and what is our faith based on if not Biblical Inerrancy? See the washup here
How can God send people to Hell because they don’t believe? See the washup here
Science keeps piercing the truth of all religions
“I want genuine truth. Not the “I just believe it” kind of truth."
