A standalone study on building a church that welcomes hard questions.
The big question
Many people do not leave the church because they stopped believing. They leave because they had questions and found no safe place to ask them. Lisa Fields calls the alternative a free-to-ask church, one that welcomes doubt and answers it. This study walks her practical blueprint and asks how welcoming your own church really is.
Key takeaways
- People, especially young adults, leave when their questions are met with defensiveness.
- Assess what your people actually believe before you assume you know.
- Lean into the hard texts the culture is already asking about.
- Build real ways to ask: anonymous questions, small groups, and follow-through on answers.
- Reward questions and be honest about your own doubts. The more people ask, the stronger their faith grows.
Scripture to sit with
Psalm 13:1-2. How long, O Lord? Scripture gives doubt its own words. Questioning God is in the songbook.
Job 38-42. God answers Job with questions of his own. The relationship runs on honest exchange.
Acts 17:11. The Bereans examined the Scriptures to test what they heard. Questioning is commended, not condemned.
Jude 22. Have mercy on those who doubt. The posture the church is called to take.
Quotes worth discussing
Fields relays a young adult’s question: “If we can question God, why can’t we bring our questions to those leaders at church?”
On the stakes, Fields says of one man, “He found more answers to his questions in a false belief than the true belief.”
On the payoff, Fields says, “The more questions they ask, the more their faith will be sharpened.”
Discussion questions
- When you last asked a hard question at church, how was it received?
- Do you actually know what the people around you believe and doubt?
- Which hard texts does your church avoid, and why?
- Where could your church create a safe way to ask questions?
- What doubt could you be honest about that might free someone else?
Go deeper
This study comes from the opening session of the Jude 3 Project’s Preaching in the Culture conference with Lisa Fields. For a related conversation, see the Jude 3 work on whether God can handle our questions.
A closing reflection
This week, invite one honest question, from a child, a friend, a congregant, and resist the urge to defend. Just listen, take it seriously, and if you do not know, promise an answer and actually deliver it. That single habit is how a free-to-ask culture begins.