Church Write-Up (Sort Of): It’s Personal, by Andy Stanley

The LCMS church that I attend has two Sunday School options for the next four weeks. One option is Andy Stanley’s series, “It’s Personal.” The other option is a discussion of the lectionary. The Andy Stanley option intrigued me because it addresses the issue of doubt and the barriers—both intellectual and personal—that people cite as inhibitors to their acceptance of the Christian faith. I decided to listen to the Andy Stanley series at home, and I will attend the lectionary Bible study at church. The LCMS church did not have its Wednesday Bible study this week, so I will use the time and space that I ordinarily devote to my mid-week Church Write-Up to a write-up about the Andy Stanley series.

Let’s start with a rough summary. Stanley acknowledges that people have legitimate, or at least understandable, reasons not to become Christians. They may wonder how the dinosaurs got onto the Ark. They may look at Christians and wonder why anyone would want to be like them, or they may have had bad experiences in churches. They may compare themselves with Christians and conclude that they live better lives than Christians do. Some may just be indifferent. “Why don’t I want to be a Christian? I don’t know—why don’t I want to stand on one foot all day? I just don’t want to be one.”

Stanley was encouraging people to desire to know and love God for himself, not to get their questions answered. Is that not the way many of us are: we want to be loved for us, not accepted after we answer people’s questions about us? We are that way because we are made in God’s image. Stanley said that most people who become Christians do so, not because their questions were answered, but because they had an experience in which they met and fell in love with God. One can have all one’s questions answered and still not be close to God.

Stanley drew a comparison with marriage. Single people may have a bunch of objections to getting married. Perhaps they struggle to support themselves financially, so how would they support both themselves and a spouse? What if they get married and then develop a connection with someone else, who could have been “the one”? But when they meet and fall in love with a person, those questions fall into the background. Sure, they will meet other people, but none of them will be that person. Before, they were looking at marriage as an issue, the way that many non-believers look at Christianity as an issue. After they meet the right person, they love that specific person, as believers are enraptured with Christ.

Throughout the series, Stanley referred to Scriptural examples. Abram did not have all of his questions answered when he believed in God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Genesis 15). He did not know how God would address his lack of offspring, and God did not tell him then and there. Nathaniel in John 1 was skeptical that Jesus was the Messiah because what good could come from Nazareth? Then Jesus revealed a personal detail that Jesus knew about him, and Nathaniel believed, even though that whole Nazareth question was not resolved. Saul of Tarsus encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus; he may have still had his religious questions about whether Jesus biblically qualified as the Messiah, but he could not deny the truth when he appeared to him. The Jewish leaders in John 9 had their reasons not to accept Jesus as the Messiah, yet there standing before him was a man who had been blind but now could see, due to Jesus.

Stanley expressed doubt that we would want a God who would be so undignified as to answer all of our questions before we accepted him. Stanley also referred to people’s experiences of God in Christ throughout the world, treating that as an unavoidable fact. Another point that Stanley made was that unbelievers may win a debate with their believing friend or spouse, but, after winning, there is still something that nags in their heart: the realization that God so loved the world.

A lot of what Stanley said hit close to home. I have some issues with the claim that one should just accept God, whether his or her questions are answered or not. Those questions are not just about curiosities. They pertain to whether the God of the Bible is real, and if that God is just, kind, and good (especially on such issues as hell and the biblical Conquest). In addition, not everyone, including not every Christian, has had a powerful experience of God.