Engaging views and analysis from outside contributors on the issues affecting society and faith today.

CP VOICES do not necessarily reflect the views of The Christian Post. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).

On pastors who doubt

By Randal Rauser, Sunday, February 17, 2019

File photo. | (Photo: Flickr Creative Commons)

Some pastors doubt.

Pastors sometimes doubt their own salvation, or the goodness of God, or perhaps even God’s very existence. These doubts may be mild and fleeting or existentially gripping and persistent. And the longer they linger and the deeper they go, the more the pastor might wonder, am I being a person with integrity if I continue to minister when I have these doubts?

In one sense, that’s a question that must be left to every individual to answer. Each one of us must decide for ourselves when we are no longer acting with integrity. That said, I do want to address here the general notion that doubts of this kind are somehow incompatible with an individual’s ministry, and thus that doubts might call the integrity of the minister into question.

My answer is simple: that is a lie. It is a lie akin to the person who thinks that their failure to feel love for their spouse provides grounds for questioning the integrity of their marriage. On the contrary, the integrity of one’s marriage is in peril not when you don’t feel love but rather when you think that lack of feeling is grounds for the abandonment of the marriage. In fact, those who remain true to their vows in the moments when they don’t feel love show themselves to be the truest spouses of all.

By the same token, those who minister to others even in the moments when God seems most hidden to them show themselves to be the truest ministers of all.

For further discussion of doubt and belief, see my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? chapter 26.

Dr. Randal Rauser is Professor of Historical Theology at Taylor Seminary in Edmonton, Alberta, where he has taught since 2003. He blogs at randalrauser.com and lectures widely on issues of theology, Christian worldview, and apologetics. Randal is the author of many books including his latest, What's So Confusing About Grace?