Michael Hidalgo - Changing Faith: Questions, Doubts and Choices about an Unchanging God

InterVarsity Press
P.O. Box 1400,
Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426
ivpress.com

2015 byMichael Hidalgo

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Pressis the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, visit intervarsity.org .

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

While any stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information may have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.

Cover design: Cindy Kiple

Images: calendar:grgroup/Fotolia.com

ISBN 978-0-8308-9767-4 (digital)
ISBN 978-0-8308-3695-6 (print)

H ere is a truism. The most important things about any persons lifewhat you will do, what you will become, and what you will endure and accomplishare largely based upon one thing: what you believe God to be. No, its not based on what you believe about the Bible, or what you believe about church, or what you believe about religion or even Christianity. Its simply and irrevocably what and who you believe God to be.

I travel almost every week, mostly speaking and working with Christian leaders and Jesus followers, and Im becoming more convinced than ever that belief systems do very little for people. The greatest example is Christianity. As the church declines (actually crashes and burns) in Western society, I find a deep, unquenched thirst, even an angst that has millions of Jesus-oriented people straddling a cynicism that will either paralyze and pull them out of organized faith, or push them toward a new, useless fundamentalism.

Is there any other option? Is there any other way we can base our lives upon Jesus without getting high-centered on all the other junk?

I believe there is, and Michael proves it in Changing Faith.

Ive known Michael for many years. Our churches have shared space. We have both been called to see Jesus come alive in the city of Denver. However, among all the leaders Ive run into, Michael has a unique gift of cutting through the red tape of religious confusion and guiding the spiritually open toward holy yet practical ground.

Michael will change your heart on many issues, and even change your mind. Youll be glad he did. And in the end, youll have a changing faith, one that will bring you to life and make sense to others around you.

Hugh Halter

J esus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. However, yesterday, today and tomorrow are not the same at all. A friend of mine told me recently, There are so many things I am not comfortable with claiming as 100 percent true, but I cannot say they are 100 percent false either. It hasnt always been this way for him.

Most of his life he believed he had the answers to all of lifes difficult questions; he was able to vanquish the most brilliant skeptic in a theological argument; and he had a number of degrees from well-respected seminaries around the world.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. However, yesterday, today and tomorrow are not the same at all.

He continued, I do not know what is ahead, but I do know I cannot and will not go back to the faith I have clung to for decades. I am done with it. This was not his declaration of renouncing faith, but a recognition that his faith had to change. He was going through a change of faith.

Ive had many similar conversations with people over the years. Ive been with people who struggle with doubt, ask questions with no good answers, acknowledge fear, recognize how little we know, grapple with their lack of certainty in God, and talk of their suspicions about the church. Their feelings are rooted in important and difficult questions. Questions such as: How much can we actually know about God and our world? Who is right and who is wrong, and who gets to determine that? Are right and wrong the best categories for our world anymore? Whose truth is really true, and is there only one? Do I need God to live a life that matters?

Mind you, these conversations are not with people who have rejected faith in God, the church, religion or spirituality. Rather, these conversations are with faithful men and women exploring a new kind of thinking in the midst of our rapidly changing world.

And our world is changing. Change is the process of moving from somewhere to somewhere else.

From science to business to politics to religion, our world is different every day. We live in a time of new questions, new realities, new technology and new insights that demand new answers. Our world is changing, and that changes everything, including us. It changes the way we live, communicate, think and even the way we believe. This change is sweeping and demands we rethink everythingeven our faith.

Like my friend, many of us held to certain beliefs about God, life, faith, church, religion and spirituality as though our lives and faith depended on it, but we cannot hold on to those anymore. Weve let go of them, knowing we wont pick them up again.

Whats more pressing, however, is the question, What beliefs will we pick up? We know we are moving from somewhere, but we dont exactly know what we are moving toward. Right now, the best we can do is consider what our next best steps should be, rather than deciding what our final destination will be.

And thats what this book is about.

Its not the final word on change, nor is it a deep exploration regarding all the ways our world is changing. My suspicion is that we have accepted that our world is changing, and in the midst of this it would do us well to have some direction. As we struggle for greater understanding, we will explore our faith in the midst of this dynamic, changing world that demands we think in new, fresh and creative ways about God, life, church, religion and spirituality. Which means we have some choices to make, because in the face of change we do not have a choice about making a choice.

We can choose to ignore our changing world. Rather than move from somewhere toward somewhere else, we can hold to the notion that we have all the answers we need, and believe that the final word on God, life and faith has been spoken. We can work to keep things the way they have always been and defend our territory. We can simply refuse to move anywhere and do all we can to stay right here.

Or we can choose cynicism. We can criticize the systems, institutions and those within them who think they have finally arrived. Rather than work creatively and constructively, we can tear down, mock and complain. We can work to destroy where we have been, leaving behind a mound of rubble and ruin for someone else to clean up. In the end we still will not have moved to somewhere.