Download or read book God After Deconstruction written by Thomas Jay Oord and published by SacraSage Press. This book was released on 2024-04-04 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deconstruction is hard! Bad views of God and harmful experiences lead many of us to deconstruct. But we’re right to run from the nonsense we’ve been taught and from those who hurt us. God After Deconstruction will not be welcomed by traditionalists. It’s not a book for people who want the status quo or who think conventional theology works. It isn’t for people who just want to tweak a bit what they’ve been taught. Thomas Jay Oord and Tripp Fuller offer an open and relational vision of God. This vision makes sense; it fits our experience; it’s livable. The open and relational view aligns with our deep intuitions about love and freedom. God After Deconstruction is for those deconstructing and those wanting help after deconstruction. It’s for people in the fire and those with scars. God After Deconstruction is an adventure for lovers in tumultuous times! Buy this book. Six-Word Endorsements for God After Deconstruction “When everything goes, only God remains.” -- Simon Cross, chair of the Progressive Christianity Network (Britain) "Helpful companion on your deconstruction journey.” -- EDJ, author of Deconstructing Religious Sexual Trauma: A Memoir “A faith beyond deconstruction is possible.” -- Kathy Escobar, author of Faith Shift and Practicing “A relational way to think about purpose.” -- Jonathan J. Foster, author of indigo: the color of grief "This is a really great book." -- Keith Giles, author of the 7-part "Jesus Un" book series“ A God-centric approach to deconstruction.” -- David Hayward, aka NakedPastor “A compassionate primer on our deconstruction.” -- Angela Herrington, author of Deconstructing Your Faith Without Losing Yourself “A thoughtful third way - highly recommended.” -- Olivia Jackson, author of (Un)Certain “Life-giving for doubters, deconstructors, wonderers.” -- Mark Karris, author of The Diabolical Trinity “Powerful, essential, required reading for everyone.” -- Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Madang Podcast and author of Invisible “Adventure guide to life after deconstruction.” -- Brian D. McLaren, author of Do I Stay Christian? "I've always believed in this God!" -- Mason Mennenga, A People's Theology podcast "A deconstruction journey worth taking!" -- Sherri Pallas, author of We Have Ruined God "An exvangelical deconstruction guide to God." -- Jim Palmer, author of Inner Anarchy “A haven for the hard questions.” -- Elizabeth Petters, the Deconstructing Mamas podcast “Faces the hard questions without blinking.” -- Janet Kellogg Ray, The God of Monkey Science “The God you need right now!” -- Gary Alan Taylor, the Sophia Society “Everyone deconstructing should read this book.” -- Tim Whitaker, creator of The New Evangelicals “The God of Love always triumphs!” -- John Williamson, The Deconstructionists Podcast

Download or read book After Doubt written by A. J. Swoboda and published by Brazos Press. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there a way to walk faithfully through doubt and come out the other side with a deeper love for Jesus, the church, and its tradition? Can we question our faith without losing it? Award-winning author, pastor, and professor A. J. Swoboda has witnessed many young people wrestle with their core Christian beliefs. Too often, what begins as a set of critical and important questions turns to resentment and faith abandonment. Unfortunately, the church has largely ignored its task of serving people along their journey of questioning. The local church must walk alongside those who are deconstructing their faith and show them how to reconstruct it. Drawing on his own experience of deconstruction, Swoboda offers tools to help emerging adults navigate their faith in a hostile landscape. Doubt is a part of our natural spiritual journey, says Swoboda, and deconstruction is a legitimate space to encounter the living God. After Doubt offers a hopeful, practical vision of spiritual formation for those in the process of faith deconstruction and those who serve them. Foreword by pastor and author John Mark Comer.

Download or read book Before You Lose Your Faith written by Ivan Mesa and published by . This book was released on 2021-04-15 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book What Would Jesus Deconstruct The Church and Postmodern Culture written by John D. Caputo and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This provocative addition to The Church and Postmodern Culture series offers a lively rereading of Charles Sheldon's In His Steps as a constructive way forward. John D. Caputo introduces the notion of why the church needs deconstruction, positively defines deconstruction's role in renewal, deconstructs idols of the church, and imagines the future of the church in addressing the practical implications of this for the church's life through liturgy, worship, preaching, and teaching. Students of philosophy, theology, religion, and ministry, as well as others interested in engaging postmodernism and the emerging church phenomenon, will welcome this provocative, non-technical work.

Download or read book Leaving the Fold written by Marlene Winell and published by Marlene Winell Ph.D.. This book was released on 2006 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Have you been harmed by toxic religion? Learn how to recover and reclaim your life. Psychologist Marlene Winell is uniquely qualified to address the subject of this book. In addition to her personal experience with leaving fundamentalist religion, she has worked with clients recovering from religion for 28 years. She is known for coining the term Religious Trauma Syndrome. Leaving the Fold is a self-help book that examines the effects of authoritarian religion (fundamentalist Christianity in particular) on individuals who leave the faith. The concrete steps for healing are useful for anyone in recovery from toxic religion. In this book you'll discover: - what you can expect about stages of religious recovery - information about the key issues of recovery - relevant family dynamics - the power of manipulations - motivations for belonging and for leaving religion - specific steps for healing and reclaiming life - further steps for rebuilding life in the present Leaving the Fold is the only self-help psychology book on the subject of religious recovery. The accessible, compassionate writing is ideal for the reader who needs clear information and concrete help. Buy Leaving the Fold and begin your healing journey today

Download or read book Regenerate written by Tony Scarcello and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2020-09-24 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Loss. Fear. Doubt. What does anything mean when your ground of being is stripped away?” Tony met God when he was four years old through the love of his mother. When he was twelve, he realized he had a crush on one of his male friends and grew convinced God would have nothing to do with him. At sixteen, Tony reencountered God who affirmed that nothing stood between them but love. When he was twenty-three, married to the girl of his dreams, and on staff at a church, Tony’s secret came out, and he came close to losing it all. What followed was arduous years of deconstruction, losing everything he thought he knew about God, only to rediscover God in the mystery. This God was not a new God—it was the same one as before, just seen with regenerated faith. This God was more beautiful and restorative than Tony could have ever imagined. Tony’s story is not uncommon in the modern evangelical landscape. Thousands of people throughout the West are experiencing a crisis of faith that is commonly referred to as “deconstruction.” With raw honesty, Tony uses his own story as a starting point for a dialogue on the deconstruction process. Tony unpacks what the deconstruction process is, why it happens, and how the church can help people experiencing a crisis of faith without worsening it along the way. In this memoir, Tony candidly pleads for the church to make a turn: not to a trendier, “progressive” version of Christianity, nor to a stricter form of fundamentalism, but to the revolutionary, Jesus-centered movement that changed the face of the earth. A movement once better known for its society of healing love than its dogma.

Download or read book Faith After Doubt written by Brian D. McLaren and published by St. Martin's Essentials. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of A New Kind of Christianity comes a bold proposal: only doubt can save the world and your faith. ONE of the Best Spiritual Books of 2021—Spirituality & Practice "Will help you live fuller and breathe easier..” —Glennon Doyle Sixty-five million adults in the U.S. have dropped out of active church attendance and about 2.7 million more are leaving every year. Faith After Doubt is for the millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is falling apart. Using his own story and the stories of a diverse group of struggling believers, Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor and now an author, speaker, and activist shows how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology and spirituality. He proposes a four-stage model of faith development in which questions and doubt are not the enemy of faith, but rather a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith. The four stages—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—offer a path forward that can help sincere and thoughtful people leave behind unnecessary baggage and intensify their commitment to what matters most.

Download or read book So You Don t Want to Go to Church Anymore written by Wayne Jacobsen and published by Windblown Media. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jake Colsen, an overworked and disillusioned pastor, happens into a stranger who bears an uncanny resemblance (in manner) to the apostle John. A number of encounters with John as well as a family crisis lead Jake to a new understanding of what his life should be like: one filled with faith bolstered by a steady, close relationship with the God of the universe. Facing his own disappointment with Christianity, Jake must forsake the habits that have made his faith rote and rediscover the love that captured his heart when he first believed. Compelling and intensely personal, So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anything relates a man's rebirth from performance-based Christianity to a loving friendship with Christ that affects all he does, thinks, and says. As John tells Jake, "There is nothing the Father desires for you more than that you fall squarely in the lap of his love and never move from that place for the rest of your life."

Download or read book Fractured Faith written by Lina AbuJamra and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After your faith has fractured, let what takes its place be the real thing . . . at last. Somewhere along the way, the Christianity you knew began to crumble. You began to suspect your faith was misplaced. Disillusionment set in. Churches hurt you. Their people failed you. Christian institutions were exposed as fake. And in it all, God was silent. Is He gone? Or is God really there, waiting for you to find Him instead of the counterfeits? If you’re walking this difficult spiritual path, Lina AbuJamra understands you. After experiencing the near deconstruction of her own faith, Lina had to rebuild something more solid when the faith she once knew let her down. With her diagnostic style that comes from her training as an ER doc, Lina helps you grapple with questions like: Where is God in my pain? Is this how Christians are supposed to act? Why did my story end up this way? Is this the normal Christian life? Why is it so hard for Christians to love? Let Fractured Faith help you find your way back to God. You just might discover that the real God has been waiting for you all along.

Download or read book Open and Relational Theology written by Thomas Jay Oord and published by Sacrasage Press. This book was released on 2021-07 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most theologies suck. They're too technical or they describe a God nobody understands. Sometimes the God portrayed sounds like a controlling boyfriend or absentee parent. Rather than woo or persuade, most theology books clobber readers into submission. This book is different. Thomas Jay Oord presents a theology that makes sense. It fits the way we live our lives and matches our deepest intuitions. To the surprise of some, it harmonizes with sacred scripture... at least the good parts. And it promotes a genuinely loving God. Open and relational theology is controversial. Oord and others have lost their jobs because they embrace it. Others have been booted from religious communities or shunned by families and friends. It's that radical! This way of thinking is life-changing - for good - for so many. This theology doesn't suck. People around the world are turning to open and relational theology. It answers our biggest questions about good and evil, purpose and freedom, love and science. "Timely!" - Cody Stauffer & Craig Morton, All That's Holy Podcast "Cosmic!" - Pete Enns & Jared Byas, Bible For Normal People Podcast "Conceptual!" - Seth Price, Can I Say This in Church? Podcast "Inspirited!" - Jay McDaniel, Conversations in Process Podcast "Clear!" -Joe Smith and Drew Dunbar, Crisis of Faith Podcast "Radical!" - Shaleen Kendrick & Holland Fields, Desert Voices Podcast "Prodigious!" - John Williamson, Deconstructionists Podcast "Relieving!" - Joey Monteleone, Dismantle Podcast "Compelling!" - Loren Richmond Jr, Future Christian Podcast "Liberating!" - Melanie Mudge & Gary Alan Taylor, Holy Heretics Podcast "Magnificent!" - Tripp Fuller, Homebrewed Christianity Podcast "Enlivening!" - Michael Frost, In the Shift Podcast "Tantalizing!" - Jim Stump, Language of God Podcast "Captivating!" - Jason Elam, Messy Spirituality Podcast "Thought-Provoking!" - Gabriel Gordon, Misfits Theology Podcast "Interrogating!" - Todd Littleton, Patheological Podcast "Exceptional!" - Keith Giles, Peace Catalyst Podcast "Zesty!" - Mason Mennenga, A People's Theology Podcast "Tangible!" - Hayden Bruce, Pragmatic Christian Podcast "Clarifying!" - Mary-Anne & Andre Rabe, Question Your Answers Podcast "Trailblazing!" - Todd R. Vick, Reconstruction Rebel Podcast "Peace-Bringing!" - Chris Harman, Redrawing the Bath Podcast "Stimulating!" - Greg Boyd and Dan Kent, ReKnew Podcast "Punchy!" - Ryan T. Mullins, Reluctant Theologian Podcast "Exciting!" - Josh Patterson & Marty Fredrick, (Re)thinking Faith Podcast "A Gift!" - Beth Hayward, Souls in Soles Podcast "Inviting!" - Kurt Willems, Theology Curator Podcast "Accessible!" - Dustin Kensrue, Thrice & Carry the Fire Podcast "R-/evolutionary!" - Tim Victor, Urban Mystic Podcast "User-Friendly!" - Glenn Siepert, What If? Podcast "Reinvigorating!" - Jon Steingard, Wonder & Mystery of Being Podcast

Download or read book Making Sense of God written by Timothy Keller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

Download or read book Sacred Pathways written by Gary Thomas and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sacred Pathways reveals nine distinct spiritual temperaments--and their strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies--to help you improve your spiritual life and deepen your personal walk with God. It's time to strip away the frustration of a one-size-fits-all spirituality and discover a path of worship that frees you to be you. Experienced spiritual directors, pastors, and church leaders recognize that all of us engage with God differently, and it's about time we do too. In this updated and expanded edition of Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas details nine spiritual temperaments and--like the Enneagram and other tools do with personality--encourages you to investigate the ways you most naturally express yourself in your relationship with God. He encourages you to dig into the traits, strengths, and pitfalls in your devotional approach so you can eliminate the barriers that keep you locked into rigid methods of worship and praise. Plus, as you begin to identify and understand your own temperament, you'll soon learn about the temperaments that aren't necessarily "you" but that may help you understand the spiritual tendencies of friends, family, and others around you. Whatever temperament or blend of temperaments best describes you, rest assured it's not by accident. It's by the design of a Creator who knew what he was doing when he made you according to his own unique intentions. If your spiritual walk is not what you'd like it to be, you can change that, starting here. Sacred Pathways will show you the route you were made to travel, marked by growth and filled with the riches of a close walk with God. A Sacred Pathways video Bible study is also available for group or individual use, sold separately.

Download or read book The Sin of Certainty written by Peter Enns and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The controversial evangelical Bible scholar and author of The Bible Tells Me So explains how Christians mistake “certainty” and “correct belief” for faith when what God really desires is trust and intimacy. With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of “once for all delivered to the saints.” Enns offers a model of vibrant faith that views skepticism not as a loss of belief, but as an opportunity to deepen religious conviction with courage and confidence. This is not just an intellectual conviction, he contends, but a more profound kind of knowing that only true faith can provide. Combining Enns’ reflections of his own spiritual journey with an examination of Scripture, The Sin of Certainty models an acceptance of mystery and paradox that all believers can follow and why God prefers this path because it is only this way by which we can become mature disciples who truly trust God. It gives Christians who have known only the demand for certainty permission to view faith on their own flawed, uncertain, yet heartfelt, terms.

Download or read book Another Gospel written by Alisa Childers and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2020-10-06 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “This may be the most influential book you will read this year.” —Lee Strobel, bestselling author of The Case for Miracles A Movement Seeks to Redefine Christianity. Some Think that It Is a Much-Needed Progressive Reformation. Others Believe that It Is an Attack on Historic Christianity. Alisa Childers never thought she would question her Christian faith. She was raised in a Christian home, where she had seen her mom and dad feed the hungry, clothe the homeless, and love the outcast. She had witnessed God at work and then had dedicated her own life to leading worship, as part of the popular Christian band ZOEgirl. All that was deeply challenged when she met a progressive pastor, who called himself a hopeful agnostic. Another Gospel? describes the intellectual journey Alisa took over several years as she wrestled with a series of questions that struck at the core of the Christian faith. After everything she had ever believed about God, Jesus, and the Bible had been picked apart, she found herself at the brink of despair . . . until God rescued her, helping her to rebuild her faith, one solid brick at a time. In a culture of endless questions, you need solid answers. If you or someone you love has encountered the ideas of progressive Christianity and aren’t sure how to respond, Alisa’s journey will show you how to determine—and rest in—what’s unmistakably true.

Download or read book Searching for Sunday written by Rachel Held Evans and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are you struggling to connect with your church community? Do you find yourself questioning the core beliefs that you once held dear? Searching for Sunday, from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans is a heartfelt ode to the past and a hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the modern church. Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--to her, it was beginning to feel like church culture was too far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing Evans back to church. Evans found herself wanting to better understand the church and find her place within it, so she set out on a new adventure. Within the pages of Searching for Sunday, Evans catalogs her journey as she loves, leaves, and finds the church once again. Evans tells the story of her faith through the lens of seven sacraments of the Catholic church--baptism, confession, holy orders, communion, confirmation, the anointing of the sick, and marriage--to teach us the essential truths about what she's learned along the way, including: Faith isn't just meant to be believed, it's meant to be lived and shared in community Christianity isn't a kingdom for the worthy--it's a kingdom for the hungry, the broken, and the imperfect The countless and beautiful ways that God shows up in the ordinary parts of our daily lives Searching for Sunday will help you unpack the messiness of community, teaching us that by overcoming our cynicism, we can all find hope, grace, love, and, somewhere in between, church.

Download or read book Empty the Pews written by Chrissy Stroop and published by . This book was released on 2019-12 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Flip It Like This written by David Hayward and published by Augsburg Fortress Publishers. This book was released on 2022-06-24 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aggravated women disciples, Jesus hugging rainbow sheep, a man praying WTF?: the cartoons of David Hayward, the artist behind @NakedPastor, are graffiti on the walls of the church. This collection includes best-loved and never-before-seen cartoons that will challenge and inspire those grappling with the realities of the church as we know it.