From Skeptic to Friend // DiscipleSHIFT // Bri Johns// 02.08.26

Bri opens with a funny, honest conversation with her son about whether Jesus (or even George Washington) was real, and uses it to name something most of us feel: we don’t outgrow doubts, we just upgrade them. Underneath those questions is a deeper ache, the longing to know God and hear God, and the confusion that comes when God feels close but hard to sense.

From there she shows how Scripture is full of people who hesitate with God, and God doesn’t flinch. Gideon asks for signs, David brings raw lament, and Moses argues and resists, yet God stays near and keeps speaking with them. Bri names a repeating pattern: God initiates, we hesitate, God reassures, we respond, and relationship deepens.

She also challenges the “checklist Christianity” many of us learned, where spiritual practices subtly become transactional and performance-driven. She shares a personal season of anxiety and emptiness while still doing “all the right things,” until she realized God wasn’t asking her to perform, but inviting her to come closer. That leads to the central invitation of the message: Jesus calls us friends, not servants, and He proves it by welcoming questions, doubt, and honest relationship.

Bri closes by inviting listeners to name where God is calling them to shift right now, what they need to release, and what one small step of trust might look like. She sends the church out with a simple, steady blessing: God is not distant or disappointed, and we can learn day by day to walk with Him as deeply loved friends.