Faith for Life
Navigating the faith journey of teenagers can be a challenging task. Embracing questions and uncertainties is a natural part of maturing in one’s faith. It takes bravery to confront these questions.
As leaders and parents, we have a unique opportunity to walk with students through seasons of doubt. Encourage your teens to seek answers to the questions that make them skeptical.
This free event will equip you with tools to engage your teens’ questions and doubts. We will learn from Joel Roberts, Alisa Childers, Dr. John Marriott, and Tim Barnett. Register for free today! This event will inspire, motivate, and empower adults like you to take that crucial first step in guiding and nurturing Gen Z’s faith.
Event Recordings
Discussion and Reflection Questions
The questions below are designed to help you get the most out of this event. If you are watching with a few people, discuss the questions together. If you are watching alone, reflect and think about the questions. Or gather some friends or co-workers and watch this event as a group.
Joel Roberts (pre-event)
- How have you experienced spiritual abuse or neglect in your story?
- How may you have participated in or perpetrated Spiritual abuse or neglect in your journey?
- Where may you have internalized unhealthy postures in your spiritual life?
- How does the teleological model challenge your current way of living?
Tim Barnett
- Is doubt always a bad thing? Why or why not?
- How did Jesus respond to John the Baptist’s doubts?
- How should you respond to your own doubts?
Final Session
- What have you learned from this Basecamp that you want to remember and apply to your life?
- What are your 3 biggest takeaways from this event? How are you going to implement those in your life and with your students?
Event Schedule
Exploring Faith: How to Question your Faith without Losing it
Pre-Event | Spiritual Abuse
Welcome (Megan Almon)
Wounded in the Sanctuary: Spiritual Abuse & Neglect in the Body of Christ (Joel Roberts)
The human condition is aimed at union and harmony with God, Others, Creation, and Self-Knowledge. Spiritual abuse and spiritual neglect distort the human condition, often resulting in rupture, deformation, or emaciation in the spiritual life of the victim. Understanding the source and impact of spiritual abuse is critical to coming alongside a process of restoration and reformation inherent to the Gospel.
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Q&A (Joel Roberts & Megan Almon)
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Summit Basecamp | Exploring Faith
Welcome (Megan Almon)
Understanding the Deconversion Crisis (Dr. John Marriott)
The number of those leaving the faith continues to grow at an alarming rate. Responding to this trend requires knowledge of what is causing it. Understanding the Deconversion Crisis will identify the factors contributing to this troubling trend.
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Doubting Towards God (Tim Barnett)
How you respond to your doubts will either make or break your faith. Suppressing your doubts can destroy faith. However, expressing your doubts can lead to strong and lasting faith. Using the Bible as our guide, Tim will provide five practical steps on how to doubt well.
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Healthy Doubt: How to do Theological Triage (Alisa Childers)
It’s no secret that many people who grew up in church are deconstructing their faith. What fuels this phenomenon, and how can we think clearly and biblically about what we believe? How can we approach our doubts in a healthy way and discern what beliefs are more important than others? In this talk, Alisa will unpack the difference between doubt and deconstruction, offer a healthy approach to doubt, and help Christians think through the core beliefs of the Christian faith.
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Panel Discussion (Dr. John Marriott, Alisa Childers, Tim Barnett, and Megan Almon)
The speakers will be taking questions live from the online audience and questions that were submitted during registration.
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Closing Session (Tim Barnett)
Survey (Win free books!)
We want your thoughts on this event! Your feedback is vital to us as we plan future events that will help equip you to train the raising generation. After you have watched the event, please take the survey. As a thank you for your feedback, you will be entered into drawing to win free books.
Suggested Resources
Suggestions from Joel Roberts
- Handout for Joel Roberts
Blue, K. (1993). Healing spiritual abuse: How to break free from bad church experience. InterVarsityPress.
McKnight, S., & Barringer, L. (2020). A church called tov: Forming a goodness culture that resists abuses of power and promotes healing. Tyndale Momentum.
Oakley, L., & Humphreys, J. (2019). Escaping the maze of spiritual abuse: Creating healthy Christian cultures. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Orlowski, B. M. (2010). Spiritual abuse recovery: Dynamic research on finding a place of wholeness. Wipf & Stock.
Johnson, D., & Van Vonderen, J. (1991). The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse: Recognizing and Escaping Spiritual Manipulation and False Spiritual Authority Within the Church. Bethany House Publishers.
Kruger, M. J. (2022). Bully pulpit: Confronting the problem of spiritual abuse in the church. Zondervan Reflective.
Damgaard, N. (Ed.). (2021). Wounded Faith: Understanding and Healing from Spiritual Abuse. International Cultic Studies Association.
Suggestions from Tim Barnett
- The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett (pre-order)
- God in the Dark: The Assurance of Faith Beyond a Shadow of Doubt by Os Guiness
- Wandering Toward God: Finding Faith amid Doubts and Big Questions by Travis Dickinson
Suggestions from Alisa Childers
- Live Your Truth and Other Lies: Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed by Alisa Childers
Another Gospel?: A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity by Alisa Childers
Suggestions from John Marriott
- johnmarriott.org
- Set Adrift: Deconstructing What You Believe Without Sinking Your Faith by Sean McDowell & John Marriott
- Before You Go: Uncovering Hidden Factors in Faith Loss by John Marriott & Shawn Wicks
- Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R Trueman
Videos
- Facing Our Doubts as Christians (Jeff Myers)
- Is It Sinful to Have Doubts? (Jeff Myers)
Books
- The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism by Tim Keller
- So the Next Generation Will Know: Training Young Christians in a Challenging World by Sean McDowell & J. Warner Wallace
- Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions -Sean McDowell & Jonathan Morrow
- I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist by Norman Geisler & Frank Turek
- The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus by Gary Habermas & Michael Licona
- The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus by Lee Strobel
- The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers From Genesis to Revelation by Norman Geisler & Thomas Howe
- After Doubt: How to Question Your Faith Without Losing It by A.J. Swoboda
- Perhaps: Reclaiming the Space Between Doubt and Dogmatism by Joshua McNall
Articles
Event Speakers
Joel Roberts
Joel Roberts is a Licensed Professional Counselor with a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Denver Seminary and is pursuing a Ph.D. there as well. His research focuses on spiritual abuse. His clinical approach is rooted in narrative and existential therapy, helping clients retain their faith after traumatic experiences. Joel earned a bachelor’s in history and political science from Cedarville University and has over a decade of service in the Defense Department. He is married with two children.
Alisa Childers
Alisa Childers is a wife, mom, author, podcaster, blogger, and speaker. She was a member of the award-winning CM recording group ZOEgirl. She is currently a respected speaker at apologetics and women’s conferences and the host of her popular podcast, The Alisa Childers Podcast, and her YouTube channel. Alisa’s story was featured in the documentary American Gospel: Christ Crucified. She has been published at The Gospel Coalition, Crosswalk.com, The Stream, For Every Mom, Decision Magazine, and The Christian Post.
Tim Barnett
Tim Barnett has worked as a speaker for Stand to Reason since 2015. He is a dynamic speaker who provides a perfect blend of expertise and humor in each talk. Using easy-to-follow and visually engaging presentations, Tim trains Christians to think clearly about what they believe and why they believe it. Tim’s passion and energy will help motivate you and your group to love God with all your mind.
Dr. John Marriott
John serves at Biola University as the Research and Program Coordinator for the Biola University Center for Christian Thought and teaches in the Department of Philosophy. A former pastor, he holds a Ph.D. degree from The Cook School of Intercultural Studies. His dissertation focused on deconversion from Christianity to atheism.