We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Reflecting on the Conference and Cynicism
We had such a great time this weekend at the Faith, Doubt & the Idol of Certainty conference. People came from all over the United States and it was good to get a chance to connect. We’re more convinced than ever that God is up to something beautiful and real. You’ll be hearing more about this last weekend soon. Thanks to everyone who came and participated. It was a huge blessing.
We thought it would be good to follow up our week of posts on doubt with David Flower’s reflections on cynicism. We received a question during the Q&A session of the conference asking whether too much doubt can lead to cynicism. The short answer is, “Yes”. Doubt and cynicism are two different animals. We are not championing doubt, we’re championing openness and honesty. If you feel like you’ve fallen into cynicism, David’s words will provide a needed corrective and some encouragement for you.
From David’s piece:
But let me be clear. It’s not cynicism simply to acknowledge reality. It’s just that we can’t fully know what’s real without considering the God revealed in Jesus. Reality must conform to the good news of Christ.
Cynicism leads to despair. Repent of it when it’s at work in you.
Repent by believing that God is greater than the evil at work in the world. He calls us to be people of hope. Hopeful realism is about resurrection and the promise of new creation. It allows us to see the Spirit of God at work, and it empowers us to join him in shaping God’s good future.
Category: General
Tags: Benefit of the Doubt, Connecting, Cynicism, David Flowers, Doubt, Doubt and the Idol of Certainty, Faith, Fellowship, Hope, Truth, Viva la Revolution!
Related Reading
Have You Taken a Gospel Immunization Shot?
Why does being “Christian” in America make so little difference in so many people’s lives, when the kingdom movement revealed in the New Testament revolutionized people’s lives? This drastic difference is hardly surprising when you consider that the gospel that people are often given today is little more than a contract of acquittal that is…
Does God Still Heal?
In the ancient world Jesus was known first and foremost as an exorcist and a healer. These two activities are mentioned in every summary of Jesus’s ministry found in the Gospels. It’s common for Western Christians today to accept that infirmities (sickness, disease, injuries, disabilities and deformities) are part of God’s mysterious plan for their…
Biblical Versus Magical Faith: Reflections on the ReKnew Manifesto
The second core conviction of the “ReKnew Manifesto” is that we believe it is time for the Church to re-think common assumptions about faith. Faith is at the heart of what it means to follow Jesus and to live under the reign of God. Yet Christians rarely seriously reflect on what it means to “have…
Why Bart Ehrman Doesn’t Have to Ruin Your Christmas (Or Your Faith) Part 2
This is the second of several videos Greg put together to refute Bart Ehrman’s claims published in the article What Do We Really Know About Jesus? If you missed it, you can catch the first installment here.
Introducing “TribeNet”
Hello Kingdom people, For years I’ve heard on a regular basis from individuals and small groups/house churches who wanted to know if there are others in their area that share their vision of a Jesus-looking God raising up a Jesus-looking people to transform the world in a Jesus kind of way. Along the same lines,…
Faith, Doubt and Agnosticism
Hartwig HKD via Compfight Greg was recently interviewed by Premier Radio in the UK for the program Unbelievable? along with Andrew Whyte (an agnostic) on the topic of faith and doubt. They discuss their personal journeys of doubt and how this led them on vastly different paths. You can find the interview by clicking here. You…