The Doubters' Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

If you’re a doubter, welcome to the club. This book will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you think. Preston’s authenticity is not only endearing; it’s enlightening.

MARK BATTERSON, New York Times bestselling author of The Circle Maker, lead pastor of National Community Church

Most Christians think evangelism is about trying to convince nonbelievers to believe what Christians believe. In Western culture, this is painfully awkward and rarely effective, which is why, despite the New Testament’s many instructions to spread the Good News, most Christians understandably shy away from it. In The Doubters’ Club, Preston Ulmer uses compelling stories, insightful biblical teaching, and a healthy dose of refreshingly raw (and, often, comically self-deprecating) honesty to lay out a radically different and much more compelling model of evangelism. Among other things, instead of trying to rescue skeptics from their doubts, Ulmer encourages Christians to simply befriend skeptics as they are, which includes affirming and exploring their doubts. Perhaps most importantly, Ulmer is one of those gifted communicators who inspires readers at least as much as he informs them. The Doubters’ Club stirred a fire in me for evangelism that I confess had become rather cool over time. I am confident this book will have a similar effect on most who read it with an open mind, which is why I sincerely hope The Doubters’ Club finds its way into the hands of a great multitude of Christians.

GREG BOYD, senior pastor of Woodland Hills Church, president of ReKnew.org, author of Benefit of the Doubt

The Doubters’ Club comes at just the right time. We live in a time of political, racial, and ideological division. This book helps us see the image of God in all people, love them for who they are, and listen and lift them up from wherever they are.

WALTER HARVEY, president of the National Black Fellowship

I love both the evangelism and discipleship that is taking place through the Doubters’ Club! Preston makes it possible for any of us to live with Christlike love without having to have all the answers. This book is a true north for anyone who wants to have meaningful relationships with doubters and skeptics.

DOUG CLAY, general superintendent of The Assemblies of God

This book is for the cynics, dreamers, hesitant hopefuls, and the ones all too familiar with being shamed for their doubting. Preston Ulmer shares how to move past motivations of evangelical spiritual-trophy collections to genuinely seeing and loving others authentically and naturally. The Doubters’ Club is simply a stunning display of God’s desire to know and love us. Are you doubting? Are you in need of a fresh perspective on how to love others as they are? Are you hopeful for unity in relationships that seem to get stuck over arguments and petty disagreements? This book is for you.

CANDACE PAYNE (CHEWBACCA MOM), author, speaker, viral sensation

Preston is a practitioner of what is presented in The Doubters’ Club. His writing stirs my confidence that in an increasingly skeptical world, the gospel is and always will be good news for the curious and not-yet-convinced. Preston solidifies the truth that guided wrestling with faith questions, concerns, and doubts does not have to cause someone to drift away from Christ—in fact, it might cause them to drift toward him. I highly recommend this book!

JEFFERY PORTMANN, director of the Church Multiplication Network

I have been inspired by the life and ministry of Preston Ulmer for years now, and I am so thankful that he is putting the brilliance of the Doubters’ Club into book form. This resource will not only help doubters find faith in Christ but also help Christians to create healthy environments for doubters to wrestle with their beliefs. This book will help the church truly be the church. I highly recommend this book and look forward to the lives that will be transformed because of it.

DR. AARON BURKE, pastor of Radiant Church

The Doubters’ Club exists for the curious at heart. It forms a bridge that can connect people with different worldviews in a safe and honoring space. It is a comforting reminder that we are more than allowed to ask questions.

HOLLYN, American singer and songwriter

Preston Ulmer officially joins the ranks of historic Christian writers such as C. S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther, and Charles Spurgeon, all of whom in like manner laid bare their own doubter’s souls. It takes audacity to display your uncertainties, but Preston Ulmer sees the future and how evangelism will play out in the days ahead. Through masterful storytelling and a strong dose of academic rigor, Preston dispels the myth that our doubts need to remain secret and undisclosed. Instead, The Doubters’ Club will show you how to leverage your doubts toward a life of conviction and influence.

DR. SCOTT HAGAN, author, president of North Central University

The Doubters’ Club welcomes people across dividing lines to explore genuine conversations about life, faith, and purpose. Read this book with your friends, and join the conversation!

DR. DAVID DOCUSEN, author of Neighborliness: Finding the Beauty of God across Dividing Lines

NavPress is the publishing ministry of The Navigators, an international Christian organization and leader in personal spiritual development. NavPress is committed to helping people grow spiritually and enjoy lives of meaning and hope through personal and group resources that are biblically rooted, culturally relevant, and highly practical.

For more information, visit NavPress.com.

The Doubters’ Club: Good-Faith Conversations with Skeptics, Atheists, and the Spiritually Wounded

Copyright © 2021 by Preston Ulmer. All rights reserved.

A NavPress resource published in alliance with Tyndale House Publishers

NavPress and the NavPress logo are registered trademarks of NavPress, The Navigators, Colorado Springs, CO. Tyndale is a registered trademark of Tyndale House Ministries. Absence of ® in connection with marks of NavPress or other parties does not indicate an absence of registration of those marks.

The Team:

David Zimmerman, Acquisitions Editor; Elizabeth Schroll, Copy Editor; Olivia Eldredge, Operations Manager; Julie Chen, Designer

Cover photograph of stacked mugs by Samantha Ram on Unsplash.

The author is represented by the literary agency of WordServe Literary, www.wordserveliterary.com.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked AMP are taken from the Amplified® Bible, copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org. Scripture quotations marked CEV are taken from the Contemporary English Version, copyright © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission. Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers. Scripture quotations marked NCV are taken from the New Century Version.® Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version,® NIV.® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Some of the anecdotal illustrations in this book are true to life and are included with the permission of the persons involved. All other illustrations are composites of real situations, and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Tyndale House Publishers at csresponse@tyndale.com, or call 1-855-277-9400.

ISBN 978-1-64158-335-0

ISBN 978-1-64158-337-4 (ePub); ISBN 978-1-64158-338-1 (Kindle); ISBN 978-1-64158-336-7 (Apple)

Build: 2021-08-09 11:53:45 EPUB 3.0

For my wife, Lisa.

You believed in me when I didn’t believe in God.

The one thing I have never doubted is your love for me.

Contents

Introduction : Great Minds Do Not Think Alike

Chapter 1: God of the Doubter: Out of the Faith, into the Kingdom

Chapter 2: God, I’m Tired of This: The Exhaustion of Only Having Christian Friends

Chapter 3: God of the Detour: You Cannot Clean Up What Was Meant to Be Messy

Chapter 4: Impression: How to Rebuild Someone’s Impression of You

Chapter 5: Intention: How to Renovate Your Intentions for the Nonbeliever

Chapter 6: Invitation: How to Invite the Nonbeliever into Real Life, Not a Church Service

Chapter 7: Initiation: How to Re-examine Our Views through Conversations That Matter

Chapter 8: Imitation: How to Redefine Progress

Chapter 9: Concluding with the CliffsNotes: How to Get This Party Started!

Acknowledgments

INTRODUCTION

Great Minds Do Not Think Alike

Whether the questions are old or new—or angry varieties of either—we should be more engaging and less confrontational in our sharing of the good news. We must find new hinges upon which to swing open new doors.

RANDY NEWMAN, Questioning Evangelism

I

N

1618, playwright Dabridgcourt Belchier expressed an idea that has outlived the ancient English of its time: Good wits doe jumpe,[1] by which he meant what has become a cliché: Great minds think alike. Since then, we have been playfully commending one another for sharing our thoughts and our opinions. I would dare say that celebrating the person who thinks and believes like us is far older than the seventeenth century.

The ironic part of it all is that every one of us thinks we are right.

When I was in seminary, I heard a quote that shared a similar idea. With conviction, my professor would often quote a famous philosopher by saying: What monstrosities would walk the streets were some people’s faces as unfinished as their minds?[2] The quote is a profound way of saying, If you aren’t certain about everything you believe, you’re a monster.

After two master’s degrees, years of pastoral ministry, and years of being an Uber driver, I couldn’t disagree more. People who think about the complexities of life and are perplexed by belief in God are not monsters. Most people approach those who think differently than them with anxiety, frustration, and resistance. Dismissive of their views. Discouraged by their lack of faith. We have been trained by the cultural cliché that great minds think alike. We use this sort of rhetoric when it comes to categories like sports and our favorite restaurants . . . and we apply it by refusing to genuinely connect with the person we are inwardly condemning—mostly because connection and condemnation can’t share the same space.

In every society there have always been people who are committed to connection in spite of differences. Poets, artists, and TED Talks teach us that great minds do not think alike! The people of the ancient Near East saw the mind as the seat of the emotions. It was, what we call in American culture, the heart. Great hearts feel differently. They process, think, remember, bleed, and heal in a multitude of ways. Jesus never calls those unlike him monsters for their unbelief. He brought unbelievers and religious Pharisees together to help them move toward the Father. Together.

His tactics were different than ours. Jesus had a way of making the supposed monsters look beautiful. Few people have written about this as accurately as Flannery O’ Connor. In her short story Revelation, Ruby Turpin is a legalistic woman likened to a bigot of the worse kind. Amid her self-righteous posture is her unrelenting judgment toward those who need even the slightest dose of conventional grace. As the story develops, however, her final epiphany is an emotionally hazardous one. She has a mystical vision of bridges and pathways to heaven. Reuniting the saved and the damned, O’ Connor writes:

A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven . . . [along with]