[nlcf] – a church community for Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, and Christiansburg

What makes it hard for you to get closer to God?

On October 3rd, we are going to start a new series called, “Show Us Your Buts – our reasons for not getting closer to God” at [nlcf].  In my experiences over the past 14 years in ministry, we all have our reasons for why we trust God where we trust him, and for why we don’t where we don’t.  Oftentimes those reasons are complex and tough for us to unravel.

Here is your chance to help shape an entire series based on those very issues!  What are your questions for God?  What do you take issue with?  Where are your doubts?

Close to 200 people have already shared their thoughts; you have about one more week to share yours!   If you could shape a series that deals directly with the things that make following Jesus at all, or more closely, difficult for you, what would it look like?  If you could ask God some questions, what would they be?   As much as possible, we want the issues that we deal with to be what most people that we hear from struggle with.   Here is what has been shared so far…

Intellectual Questions

• Why does God allow so much pain?
• Why doesn’t prayer work more predictably? What does prayer even accomplish if God already knows everything?
• There are some verses that seem to say that God will do things that he doesn’t do in my life. Are they wrong?
• If God is so central to our lives, why don’t those who live without him see their need more?
• How can we follow God boldly without becoming an extremist?
• How can we connect with our world today without becoming just like it?
• What do we make of the church’s past mistakes?
• Is the bible anti-women?
• Is the bible anti-homosexual?
• What are we to make of the stream of writing today that seems to show the bible is unreliable and riddled with error?
• Why doesn’t God just deal with Satan if he is causing so much pain and suffering?
• Aren’t all the religious choices similar paths to the same destination?

Current Events

• What do you think should happen with the mosque in NYC?
• Should we burn the Qur’an?
• Is Glen Beck right to warn people to stay away from churches that are involved in social justice?
• What should we make of Steven Hawking’s claims that the universe didn’t really need God to get started.

Personal Questions

• How can I know that I am hearing from God and not making a mistake?
• Can God really love me?
• How can we make space to be closer to God in our busy lives?
• Why does the bible seem so socially backward?

Are your questions and issues on the list?  You have about one more week to let us know. Tic-toc tic-toc