Childish Things: A Memoir

The Jesus movement of the 70s was a heady time. It was a time of Jesus Christ Superstar and Godspell. It was a time of the Doobie Brothers telling us that “Jesus is Just Alright With Me”, and Norman Greenbaum singing about a “Spirit in the Sky”. It was a time when Jesus was going to return any day, according to the bestselling book “The Late Great Planet Earth”. It was a time of the Rapture, Armageddon, and the Antichrist.Dave Warnock’s faith took root during this intoxicating era, and soon he was speaking in tongues, casting out demons, and praying for legs to grow. That raw, emotional faith grew into a mature Christian lifestyle over the next three and a half decades, including pastoral roles on three different church staffs, where the innocence of Dave's early faith evolved into staff meetings, budgets, and carefully planned worship services. Dave's spiritual journey included vocational, financial and personal struggles, and an increasingly frustrating search for God's involvement.But what if it’s not true? What if there’s not an active God doing things for His people? What does a man do when he pauses and reflects on a life lived in this kind of faith, and finds, upon examination, that the God he dedicated his life to has never been there?By 2011 Dave had come to the conclusion that he no longer believed in a personal God and he rejected his lifelong faith. In 2019 he was diagnosed with ALS.