Alisa Childers I Blog

To the Brink of Atheism: A Reconstruction Story, With Travis Lowe—The Alisa Childers Podcast #63

2/27/2020

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There is no shortage of deconstruction stories on the internet. Podcasts, videos, and blog posts deliver stories of lifelong Christians who begin to question and doubt everything they were taught about the faith they grew up with. From the Gungors to Joshua Harris to the most recent, and possibly most impactful deconversion stories, Rhett and Link of the Good Mythical Morning Podcast—these stories continue to impact Christianity, shaking the faith of many. Today, I talk with Travis Lowe, a pastor from Florida who went through the long and painful process of deconstruction. However, his story has ended a bit differently from ones we often hear. Listen to Travis' journey of hope as we walk with him from childhood through deconstruction, and into the reconstruction of a vibrant faith.

Listen on iTunes

Links:

Travis' podcast: The Stone Table Podcast

Books that helped Travis' reconstruction:

7 Comments

Steve Jackson link

2/28/2020 12:42:43 pm

Interesting podcast. The subject of doubts and questions about faith among new or immature Christians is one older and more mature Christians do not quite understand. As a result, many questions are dismissed. This dismissal often results in new Christians either leaving the faith or becoming CINO (Christians in name only). To support new Christians as they struggle with their doubts, I wrote a book outlining a way to build a strong foundation for building a mature Christian faith. The title of the book is “Dare to Doubt”. It is a self published book and is not ready to be officially launched. The web site above provides some insight into the book.
I live in Brentwood, TN and would love to make a connection to discuss this further.

Mao Vang Her

2/28/2020 04:38:42 pm

What a great and inspiring story. I went through a somewhat deconstruction of my faith in a liberal seminary too, but now I am stronger in my faith than ever before. For me it is either Jesus or nothing! Thank you for sharing!

Elena

2/29/2020 12:13:30 pm

Thank you so much for this thoughtful and moving podcast! So well done. I was especially helped by the concept of getting answers from a wide range of sources. I too am part of a Reformed Evangelical church tradition and do not agree with N.T. Wright's view on justification. And I'm relived to know that I can still look to him for other answers. I was wondering if Travis would be willing to post a short cheat sheet of the sources that helped him the most on the topics he discussed. For example, where do I find answers to the challenge of lack of archeological evidence for the Exodus?

Separately, I've been on my own journey of thinking through God's will for my life regarding shelving topics for now and simply trusting the bible. Like Travis, I have a tendency toward deeply researching nuanced apologetics from the source. As a stay at home mom I can end up neglecting my family responsibilities and drowning in anxiety as I go deeper and deeper trying to find the best answers. Both R.C. Sproul and Billy Graham hit points where they essentially said I'm done digging into these issues and I'm simply going to trust the bible. Billy Graham talked about the power that surged into his life when he simply said "the bible says" and believed and submitted. For me (not others), I think in my current season, this is the right approach. I'm not completely giving up! Right now I am getting a certificate from the Ravi Zacharias Academy online. But I tell myself that if I hit a stumbling block, I don't need to buy 5-10 books and find the answers right now with little boys at home who need their mama to be present. God has given me a lifetime to read and learn and in the meantime, I can trust he will bring the answers at the right time. What do you think?

Lastly, I would love it if you would consider doing a podcast on how to emotionally handle local churches/pastors whom I've loved and respected changing course and going the way of progressive Christianity. It has felt like a knife in my heart and I've had to move my family to a new church twice in the last 6 years. This is especially hard because I live in an area that is very liberal with limited orthodox church options. How do I handle this emotionally? How do I trust God's sovereignty and yet still mourn the loss? How do I think about these leaders? These are people who have devoted their lives to ministry! How has it happened? Why has it happened? Can I still consider them Christians? Were they never Christians to begin with? Why are they abandoning the historic faith? One source of comfort has been to research church history and to acknowledge this is part of it! All the way back to the book of Acts. But it is still sad and discouraging. I would love some encouragement!

Thank you so much for your amazing work in this area! No need to post this comment unless you think it would be helpful (I generally never comment as I am shy and don't like being published). Feel free to email me directly if you have time. If you don't, no worries and just know that I'm so grateful for you.

Paul Wilson

2/29/2020 04:54:56 pm

An excellent orthodox Christian scholar who is rock-solid reliable always is Richard B. Hays at Duke Divinity. He has many videos as both a solo presenter and as a discussion panel member and several published books, having usually a understandable for-the-layperson ability and intent. One of his mottoes is "Much of my time and effort is to EXPLAIN TO SCHOLARS THAT WHICH IS PRETTY AND IMMEDIATELY OBVIOUS TO MANY FOLKS IN THE PEW!"

Charley

3/1/2020 08:59:37 pm

This is a great interview, thank you both for doing this! I can relate to Travis's story very well, as I have been diagnosed with severe OCD and have been taking an antidepressant for years to help manage it. Everything he described about worrying, having a thought lodged in his mind that he can't get over, and how he would Google search on his phone over and over almost fits me to a T. I'm currently in process of deconstruction. It has ebbed and flowed over the past 5 years, but when it returns, it's always with a vengeance. I'm encouraged to hear that there is hope for getting through it, because there are times where, similar to Travis, I feel like I'm an atheist who is reluctant to admit it. I've heard many apologetic arguments for the faith, but my doubting nature naturally begins to question them as soon as I hear them. It's almost like I'm more ready to trust the skeptics than God's Word and God's people. Nonetheless, this was a treat to listen to. I'm glad to know I'm not alone in this, because I have always felt that any believer who goes this far into their skepticism is a lost cause. Glad to know there's hope. This was an answered prayer, honestly.

Bill Grandi link

3/3/2020 07:02:09 am

Alisa: I have been trying to listen to this in my truck and can only find it on ITunes. I use Spotify and can download it there. when I listen to it now it stops even though I have cellular data turned on. Can you, in any way, get to Spotify?

By the way, what I have been able to listen to has been a great listen!

Pastor John Wagner link

6/2/2020 02:04:45 am

Very interesting story, thank you for sharing this podcast, i was invested every single minute of this.

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To the Brink of Atheism: A Reconstruction Story, With Travis Lowe—The Alisa Childers Podcast #63

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