Giving Doubt Room Is Not Enough
Lifeway Research suggests the challenge with skeptical young people is not answers, but room for their questions.
Lifeway Research argues that the obstacle to reaching skeptical young people is not a lack of answers, but not giving room to doubts. I half agree: room is necessary and not enough.
When kind silence doesn't answer
Picture a common scene: someone who is 19 raises their hand in the small group and asks why a good God allows so much suffering.
They can get two responses. The first is a three-minute mini sermon, with verses pasted in without context. The second is a "relax, God knows what He's doing." Both shut down the conversation.
«Listening without opening the Scripture leaves the church in a waiting room»
I worry that doubt is treated as sin. I worry just as much that it is treated as virtue. James 1:19 says: "Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19, ESV). James commands listening before speaking; he does not command staying silent forever.
Room without the Word is a waiting room
Listening without opening the Scripture leaves the church in a waiting room. The person keeps their question and now also has the sense that no one dares to answer it. Hospitality that does not teach leaves the young person where they were.
Peter writes to believers living among hostile cultures: "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect" (1 Peter 3:15, ESV).
Listening and answering are not enemies. A local church offers something no video offers: a person with a name who sits down with you to read the text.
Doubt is not the destination; Christ is
The Bible does not hide those who doubted. Thomas wanted to see and touch, and Jesus showed him His hands instead of scolding him. His doubt was not rewarded or punished: it was led to a confession. That is the path I want for a young person who asks questions.
Christ is the destination of those who walk with questions, not the prize of those who no longer doubt. "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6, ESV).
I think of Hispanic young people who live between two cultures. They ask things their grandparents did not ask: whether science fights with faith, why a pastor they admired fell, why God allowed the death of a cousin. A "God knows" is not enough for that. It takes an open Bible, in context, with time.
And it takes someone who is not scared. A church that gives room to questions and then opens the Scripture does not lose anyone; it gains brothers and sisters who know why they believe.
Write down your most uncomfortable question on your phone today. Find a mature believer, ask for half an hour, and bring it without dressing it up. If no one in your church answers, start with the Gospels and keep asking. What question stopped you, and who answered it for you?
