This coming Sunday our community will be hosting our first ever Elephant in the Room (our take on the idea that our good friends at the Renew Community- http://renewcommunity.org/ and J.R. Briggs- http://www.jrbriggs.com/ hold every so often called Doubt Night) from 5:30-7:30 at the Community Room on Prince and will include FREE Pizza and Drinks. The bulk of the night will be focused on those Elephants in the Room that we all have. You know the doubts, questions, struggles, etc.. we have with our faith, with church, with God, with Christianity, etc... that all too often we hide because "Good Christians don't doubt." But I believe that doubt is an essential component to faith. Many others, including many writers and theologians have written about the role of doubt within faith. Here are but a few of them:
“Doubt is but another element of faith.” (St. Augustine)
“Don’t expect faith to clear things up for you. It is trust, not certainty.” (Flannery O’Connor)
“It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.” (G. K.Chesterton)
“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” (Rene Descartes)
“The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.” (Pierre Abelard)
I could go on with many other quotes but I think these make the point that faith and doubt aren't on opposite ends of the spectrum, like we so often think, but that doubt can help us into a deeper faith. We don't necessarily want to put the seed of doubt there, but we realize that if we are all honest we all have those elephant in the room questions. This is just our attempt with this event to ask questions together in a safe environment with no preaching, no judging, no pat answers, but sharing our struggles together as a community.
So if you want a place to share your elephant in the room questions and doubts, if you love a good theological discussion (not debate) and/or you need a safe community to help you wrestle with your questions and doubts, then please come out on Sunday night March 4 from 5:30-7:30 PM at the Community Room on Prince (19 North Prince Street, 3rd Floor above Prince Street Cafe in downtown Lancaster) for Elephant in the Room. And please bring your Elephant, we want to have them in the room that night.