I saw that Lin-Manuel Miranda said he was reading RHE's last book (Inspired). How cool is that? (Let's dream of him writing a hip-hop musical about the Bible now.)
I don’t really know how this all works, but if I could just get some prayers that Things will get better, I’d be so grateful. It’s just been one awful thing after another for over three years now, mostly with my health. I know this isn’t how this works, but I wish someone else would carry the load for even a day. I could definitely use the positive thoughts and prayers. Thanks.
Making friends in your thirties: how do people do it? Can someone please tell me. Because my friend group is spread across the country and those who are local are wrapped up in career stuff (mostly young lawyers). It suddenly hit me that I feel super lonely for the first time in my life and it is WILD.
I am still dealing with my son's attempted suicide, and I'm looking for a way to get involved in the mental health care crisis in this country. Summary of the three weeks I've spent grieving and terrified: 99 percent of us can afford care that is subpar and extremely hard to get. One percent of us can sell our first born children to procure something that may be better. I just wrote an $18,000 check, borrowed from retirement, that will cover FOUR weeks of treatment for my son, who is high-risk for repeat attempts. They recommend SIX MONTHS. Any similar experiences/ideas for getting involved?
My big Jesus news is that I'm going to be a deacon (caretaking ministry) at my church! Frankly, I'm constantly shocked that they don't ask me to refrain from mentioning my association with them in public, let alone asking me to participate in some sort of ministry!
I have another job interview this afternoon. I also applied to Divinity School and have been accepted (with 75% scholarship - more should be on the way and will dictate if it’s a real option). I’d love prayers for discernment!
For the sake of my husband and his relationship with his kiddos, we are gonna need to move to the town where they live with their mom. But that means leaving behind a church that I LOVE pastoring. And struggling to find a church to serve in a community that’s far from progressive. I need prayers to find work, for my son who will be uprooted, and for all the change on the horizon.
Hey! Nicole I just wanted to let you know that a Jesus Weds from July resulted in me connecting with another lovely commented named Sharon about my husband's job search (he recently left his role as a pastor and is looking for non-ministry roles for now) and her husband provided some great career coaching based on his similar experience! I thought that was really neat. He's still searching, so continued prayers would be appreciated! This summer has been a strange transition to no longer being a pastor's family, and it was an emotional departure (we really did love our church) but the reduction is stress was INSTANTANEOUS. I have a spouse who sleeps again!
Job leads in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area also appreciated!
Jesus news here is that I LOVE all of my divinity school classes and have made some friends of faith already! The plan now is to find a new spiritual director in my new town and figure out how I can do some service/liturgical work around my job and courses.
Adding to the people who are reconnecting with their faith. I (logical rational type that I was who couldn't possibly believe in anything that wasn't SCIENCE) lost my faith at about 16, although it was pretty tenuous even before that. Over the last year I've started to feel more of a connection to... something, and as time's gone on that something has slowly become God (I'm British, so saying "Jesus" still feels really weird, but yeah, that). Anyway, thanks in no small part to the reading Nicole has recommended in the past I've got to the point where I've felt able to come to terms with how I'm feeling, and what it means. I started attending a church near my house and it's just been completely wonderful. A small, lively congregation with a disproportionately fantastic choir that has just welcomed me wholeheartedly. My heart feels so full.
My boyfriend is really struggling with it, though. He's been a committed atheist for ages and is finding it hard to adapt to me sliding into believing something that he not only doesn't believe, but doesn't like. He's slowly, slowly getting more used to it, I think, but I feel like we've got a lot of processing and negotiating ahead of us, and I feel a bit overwhelmed.
Prayer request for a close family friend who took a bad fall this weekend. He sustained a serious head injury, and he's now in the hospital, intubated, but the path forward will likely be difficult. His wife is by his side, and his two young children started school this week.
Asking for prayers for me and my family. My beloved father died from cancer three weeks ago. He had been slowly declining but took a bad turn suddenly, and so it still felt like he died very quickly, if that makes sense. He was also my business partner - just the two of us in charge - and having to continue working without him is almost unbearable. Today is just a bad day and I feel so depressed and useless and I just want my dad back 😭
Hi everyone! I'm not really sure how this works to be honest! This is my first time actually posting on Jesus Wednesday, but I've been reading along for a while now.
I was raised Baptist, but left the church at 16 when I came out as a lesbian. But these last couple of years have been difficult, and I've found myself missing that connection to God. What are some of your favorite books or podcasts about Jesus, and reconnecting with him and Our Father? It's been about 10 years since I stepped foot in a church so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed as I wade back in. Thanks!!
This is really new for me (all of it. I was raised Catholic and haven't been a part of a church of any kind for years), but would love some prayers for friends who are going through IVF. Ideally, that it all works out. But if it doesn't, to help them though what comes next - whatever that is.
I just had ankle surgery yesterday and will be travelling solo tomorrow.... So any and all prayers for clarity through the cloud of oxy and safety would be greatly appreciated.
What I’m walking through lately: intense, late-stage church burnout. I’ve been asking, “How much of my identity in Christ is rooted in my being a Leader? Will I be like the people in Matt. 7 who are doing all the ministry things—and showing signs of genuine effectiveness and spiritual life in those practices!—but Jesus says he doesn’t know them?” It’s a very humbling, and a bit terrifying, concept to reflect on.
Nicole/y'all!! I had an initial talk with Margot at In the Coracle about spiritual direction yesterday and it was SO GOOD. It felt so good. I've been feeling so much lately like I need some kind of Jesus-specific guidance and I think this is going to turn into a really good thing. Thanks for talking about your interest in it/experience, Nicole!!
Prayer always used to confuse me-- I was never totally sure what it was meant to do, or if I believed it really 'worked', and sometimes I thought it was selfish to ask God for things that I wanted. But in the last year or so, I've been feeling a much greater desire to pray for both myself and other people, pretty much all the time. I'm throwing up prayers willy-nilly. And I feel so uplifted when other people say that they are praying for me. I still don't really know what to make of it, but it's been a great comfort in some hard times, and amplified the good times. I wonder if it's the intense vulnerability of it that's so meaningful-- when I pray, I can't hide from the thing I really want.
I asked y'all for prayers last week, and I just wanted to say thank you -- the scary situation is resolved, in a good way, and I feel much less like flinging myself into traffic.
Hey y'all. Last week I asked for prayers, and it struck me while reading this thread that I actually feel SO MUCH better about the uncertainty in my life this week. I'm leaning into it and exploring and playing and generally having fun, so much so that I nearly forgot how stressed I was only one week ago! So that's just to say....thank you all so much for your prayers! They worked!
I'm a pastor who just started month two of a 3-month leave of absence because I realized in June that I needed to either ask for time off or I'd quit in a ball of flame and bad boundaries. (this isn't time 100 percent off -- I'm bivocational so I'm still at my 'civilian' job). But I've got 10 hours a week now that I should be doing something with that is healing and restorative, but mostly I'm playing Candy Crush. Prayers appreciated. I just feel so stuck much of the time.
Prayers for my brain: moving in my mid-40s has meant a lot of NEW and I guess I'd been used to being on auto-pilot for a lot of things (how to get to the grocery store; what time school ends for the kid). Auto-pilot is awesome! I miss it and as a result I'm turning into a spaced-out doofus. Making dumb mistakes driving; forgetting what day it is; etc. And I'm just exhausted all the time. And anxious. And I'm surrounded by nice Christian people, which makes me nervous, as I am a Christian of the saltier and cussier type. Thanks, y'all!
Jesus adjacent but not, you know, 1:1 related: I just sat and watched a mob of people dance to house music on their lunch hours and felt like weeping with at the joy and beauty on display. I wish I had joined in. I am considering whether some sort of formal declaration of sobriety has a place in my life and seeing and feeling how music and dancing can move people way, way outside the bar or club context felt like a sign.
Any good thoughts and vibes anyone can spare toward me are much appreciated, I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed Friday morning and starting to feel extremely nervous. There's something funky with the bottom two that pay cost me an extra $650 each, and my dad has said he can help me out but still not wild about the possibility. Just trying to stay positive and look at it as an excuse to lay in bed with my cat and eat ice cream for several days.
I moved to New York and it is a BLESSING and I saw The Oklahoma That Fucks and it BLESSED me but also messed me up, so life is going really well, but also.... I really need to find a church: I love community and ritual and proving to my parents that I still do "Christian-y" things. I just don't feel ready to look yet. So, thanks everyone for being part of my internet church, and pray I find some nice people who like communion and social justice.
I'm an ambivalent Catholic who attends Mass about once a year, but who regularly apologizes to God and Jesus for my various mistakes (as in "Sorry, Jesus, that I said that mean thing to myself about that lady's choice in shoes," etc.). I feel myself lately more strongly needing support and feel very vulnerable asking this, but would you mind saying a little prayer for me if you find the time? I've started a new medication for my autoimmune disorder, and over the past 15 years I've gone through so many of them - this is basically my last option for medication. I'm finding it really hard to get through this period of waiting to see if it will work. Right now my pain is controlled so well because of steroids, but I'm afraid of what will happen when I taper off them in a couple of weeks. I don't even know what to ask for. For the medication to work? For a general sense of peace and calmness?
Prayer and discernment needed. I am in my final year of seminary. My husband had to move to begin a job- I have the three kids by myself. I am working at a church and have multiple commitments on campus on top of classes. All of them are 'good' there is no easy thing to set aside. Potty training the youngest has me not sleeping well - plus the cold we all have from starting school again. I know this time will pass, I don't want to wish this year away. There is so much beauty, but I am drowning.
Hi all, am looking for a little guidance. I (a millennial Catholic) am happily dating & living with my boyfriend of 4+ years who is Jewish. My parents, who are incredibly devout Catholics, aren’t jazzed about us living together (generally supportive to us being together but make us sleep in separate rooms when we visit them), and I’m worried about tension as my boyfriend and I start talking about marriage. I don’t want to force him into a Catholic ceremony (i personally struggle a LOT with my Catholicism), and he doesn’t want to force me into a Jewish ceremony either. In an ideal world we would have a ceremony officiated by a loved one, but I don’t even want to start thinking about how upset my parents would be if I told them I wasn’t getting married in a Catholic Church. Does anyone have any advice/books/words of guidance/personal experiences here? I’ve been praying about this but am feeling lost.
(This may be a bit jumbled; I'm trying to type this before I start crying over it at work)
I would love any resources this group has on reconciling homosexuality with Christianity, along with reconciling one's faith with the Bible not needing to be inerrant to be true (I read and loved Rachel Held Evans' "Inspired").
I have no issues with either of these things, and have done a great deal of my own research that has lead to my reconciliation with seeming contradictions, but my husband is struggling with the belief that being a Christian requires adherence to the Bible being either *completely* right or *completely* wrong, and if the former, it requires believing that homosexuality is a sin.
It's become a difficult topic in our marriage, particularly as I've become more involved with LGBTQIA groups and friends, and I am considering going to an Episcopalian church whose head priest is gay (he's incredible, and that church also has female priests who regularly teach and speak during services--I love it, even while missing my protestant hymns). If you have book or article recommendations that address this topic, or that of inerrancy, I would sincerely appreciate it.
Please pray for him; for us--he has other faith struggles that usually leave him utterly miserable and convicted that he is damned, and I do not know how to comfort him.
Venting: So, after being extremely involved in church for pretty much his whole life, my husband came to the realization about 4 years ago that he doesn't really believe, well...any of it. Which is totally fine! What isn't totally fine is that his parents are EXTREMELY devout Evangelicals (started as Presbyterians but switched about a decade ago when that got too progressive). When they come to visit us, they usually stay for about 10-14 days, because it's kind of a hike from Kansas to where we live, and we have two kids they never see, so it it makes complete sense to stay for a while. Before my husband came to his big realization, he was going to a non-denominational Evangelical church and playing weekly in the band. He loves to play music, he liked his friends, he ran the youth band, etc. So, he always had some churchy stuff to talk about with his parents. After he realized he actually didn't believe any of it, we were basically lying and saying we were "looking for a church" whenever they came to visit. But, I've been feeling icky about it. I think it would be much healthier to just come out as an atheist to his parents, but he has no intention of doing so. He thinks they have already caught on and are avoiding unpleasant topics by just not bringing it up (his dad DID finally stop asking us to say blessings over our meals...we don't mind if he does it but we don't really feel comfortable doing it ourselves), and his family generally avoids talking about, well, pretty much everything. I don't know. The French/Italian Catholic in me just wants to have it out with these people and then move on, but his fear of their buttoned-up nature is preventing it. I just needed to vent because there is undeniable TENSION and it is driving me crazy!
I am so grateful for this space and for all of you!
I need some advice, if any of you would help! I grew up evangelical and only recently became hashtag exvangelical. I want to leave my current conservative evangelical bible study due to many theological, ethical, and political differences, but I still have some close friends in there with whom I don't want to burn bridges. How do I leave without being/sounding like a total asshole? (side note: this is also the kind of friend group that would invite you to lunch under false pretenses and then attack you with some "accountability" and "truth" and tbh the fear of that happening again has prevented me from leaving already)
This is a meandering mess of a question but would appreciate any recommendations :)
Random thought, up for discussion: I’m ex-Evangelical. Heaven is always what I end up holding onto from all my faith past lives and I still wholeheartedly believe in it.
It flusters me when other ex-evangelicals or progressive Christians don’t believe in an afterlife (and I know many of these)—like, as long as you aren’t problematic about hell, what do you have to lose?
Idk why this bothers me. Would love to hear varying perspectives here!
This is really new for me (all of it. I was raised Catholic and haven't been a part of a church for any kind for years), but would love some prayers for friends who are going through IVF. Ideally, that it all works out. But if it doesn't, to help them though what comes next - whatever that is.
My cool pastor asked me to consider mentoring a confirmation student. I have a lot of experience with kids and my volunteer opportunity fell through. Thoughts?
I saw that Lin-Manuel Miranda said he was reading RHE's last book (Inspired). How cool is that? (Let's dream of him writing a hip-hop musical about the Bible now.)
JENNIFER2 min
I don’t really know how this all works, but if I could just get some prayers that Things will get better, I’d be so grateful. It’s just been one awful thing after another for over three years now, mostly with my health. I know this isn’t how this works, but I wish someone else would carry the load for even a day. I could definitely use the positive thoughts and prayers. Thanks.
Making friends in your thirties: how do people do it? Can someone please tell me. Because my friend group is spread across the country and those who are local are wrapped up in career stuff (mostly young lawyers). It suddenly hit me that I feel super lonely for the first time in my life and it is WILD.
I am still dealing with my son's attempted suicide, and I'm looking for a way to get involved in the mental health care crisis in this country. Summary of the three weeks I've spent grieving and terrified: 99 percent of us can afford care that is subpar and extremely hard to get. One percent of us can sell our first born children to procure something that may be better. I just wrote an $18,000 check, borrowed from retirement, that will cover FOUR weeks of treatment for my son, who is high-risk for repeat attempts. They recommend SIX MONTHS. Any similar experiences/ideas for getting involved?
My big Jesus news is that I'm going to be a deacon (caretaking ministry) at my church! Frankly, I'm constantly shocked that they don't ask me to refrain from mentioning my association with them in public, let alone asking me to participate in some sort of ministry!
I have another job interview this afternoon. I also applied to Divinity School and have been accepted (with 75% scholarship - more should be on the way and will dictate if it’s a real option). I’d love prayers for discernment!
For the sake of my husband and his relationship with his kiddos, we are gonna need to move to the town where they live with their mom. But that means leaving behind a church that I LOVE pastoring. And struggling to find a church to serve in a community that’s far from progressive. I need prayers to find work, for my son who will be uprooted, and for all the change on the horizon.
Hey! Nicole I just wanted to let you know that a Jesus Weds from July resulted in me connecting with another lovely commented named Sharon about my husband's job search (he recently left his role as a pastor and is looking for non-ministry roles for now) and her husband provided some great career coaching based on his similar experience! I thought that was really neat. He's still searching, so continued prayers would be appreciated! This summer has been a strange transition to no longer being a pastor's family, and it was an emotional departure (we really did love our church) but the reduction is stress was INSTANTANEOUS. I have a spouse who sleeps again!
Job leads in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area also appreciated!
Jesus news here is that I LOVE all of my divinity school classes and have made some friends of faith already! The plan now is to find a new spiritual director in my new town and figure out how I can do some service/liturgical work around my job and courses.
Adding to the people who are reconnecting with their faith. I (logical rational type that I was who couldn't possibly believe in anything that wasn't SCIENCE) lost my faith at about 16, although it was pretty tenuous even before that. Over the last year I've started to feel more of a connection to... something, and as time's gone on that something has slowly become God (I'm British, so saying "Jesus" still feels really weird, but yeah, that). Anyway, thanks in no small part to the reading Nicole has recommended in the past I've got to the point where I've felt able to come to terms with how I'm feeling, and what it means. I started attending a church near my house and it's just been completely wonderful. A small, lively congregation with a disproportionately fantastic choir that has just welcomed me wholeheartedly. My heart feels so full.
My boyfriend is really struggling with it, though. He's been a committed atheist for ages and is finding it hard to adapt to me sliding into believing something that he not only doesn't believe, but doesn't like. He's slowly, slowly getting more used to it, I think, but I feel like we've got a lot of processing and negotiating ahead of us, and I feel a bit overwhelmed.
Prayer request for a close family friend who took a bad fall this weekend. He sustained a serious head injury, and he's now in the hospital, intubated, but the path forward will likely be difficult. His wife is by his side, and his two young children started school this week.
Asking for prayers for me and my family. My beloved father died from cancer three weeks ago. He had been slowly declining but took a bad turn suddenly, and so it still felt like he died very quickly, if that makes sense. He was also my business partner - just the two of us in charge - and having to continue working without him is almost unbearable. Today is just a bad day and I feel so depressed and useless and I just want my dad back 😭
Hi everyone! I'm not really sure how this works to be honest! This is my first time actually posting on Jesus Wednesday, but I've been reading along for a while now.
I was raised Baptist, but left the church at 16 when I came out as a lesbian. But these last couple of years have been difficult, and I've found myself missing that connection to God. What are some of your favorite books or podcasts about Jesus, and reconnecting with him and Our Father? It's been about 10 years since I stepped foot in a church so I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed as I wade back in. Thanks!!
This is really new for me (all of it. I was raised Catholic and haven't been a part of a church of any kind for years), but would love some prayers for friends who are going through IVF. Ideally, that it all works out. But if it doesn't, to help them though what comes next - whatever that is.
I just had ankle surgery yesterday and will be travelling solo tomorrow.... So any and all prayers for clarity through the cloud of oxy and safety would be greatly appreciated.
I'm working on something about a depressed, lonely (and hot) Catholic priest. So, I feel like it's fitting that Jesus Wednesday is a little late.
Hey everyone!
What I’m walking through lately: intense, late-stage church burnout. I’ve been asking, “How much of my identity in Christ is rooted in my being a Leader? Will I be like the people in Matt. 7 who are doing all the ministry things—and showing signs of genuine effectiveness and spiritual life in those practices!—but Jesus says he doesn’t know them?” It’s a very humbling, and a bit terrifying, concept to reflect on.
Love you all!
Nicole/y'all!! I had an initial talk with Margot at In the Coracle about spiritual direction yesterday and it was SO GOOD. It felt so good. I've been feeling so much lately like I need some kind of Jesus-specific guidance and I think this is going to turn into a really good thing. Thanks for talking about your interest in it/experience, Nicole!!
Prayer always used to confuse me-- I was never totally sure what it was meant to do, or if I believed it really 'worked', and sometimes I thought it was selfish to ask God for things that I wanted. But in the last year or so, I've been feeling a much greater desire to pray for both myself and other people, pretty much all the time. I'm throwing up prayers willy-nilly. And I feel so uplifted when other people say that they are praying for me. I still don't really know what to make of it, but it's been a great comfort in some hard times, and amplified the good times. I wonder if it's the intense vulnerability of it that's so meaningful-- when I pray, I can't hide from the thing I really want.
I asked y'all for prayers last week, and I just wanted to say thank you -- the scary situation is resolved, in a good way, and I feel much less like flinging myself into traffic.
Hey y'all. Last week I asked for prayers, and it struck me while reading this thread that I actually feel SO MUCH better about the uncertainty in my life this week. I'm leaning into it and exploring and playing and generally having fun, so much so that I nearly forgot how stressed I was only one week ago! So that's just to say....thank you all so much for your prayers! They worked!
I'm a pastor who just started month two of a 3-month leave of absence because I realized in June that I needed to either ask for time off or I'd quit in a ball of flame and bad boundaries. (this isn't time 100 percent off -- I'm bivocational so I'm still at my 'civilian' job). But I've got 10 hours a week now that I should be doing something with that is healing and restorative, but mostly I'm playing Candy Crush. Prayers appreciated. I just feel so stuck much of the time.
Prayers for my brain: moving in my mid-40s has meant a lot of NEW and I guess I'd been used to being on auto-pilot for a lot of things (how to get to the grocery store; what time school ends for the kid). Auto-pilot is awesome! I miss it and as a result I'm turning into a spaced-out doofus. Making dumb mistakes driving; forgetting what day it is; etc. And I'm just exhausted all the time. And anxious. And I'm surrounded by nice Christian people, which makes me nervous, as I am a Christian of the saltier and cussier type. Thanks, y'all!
Jesus adjacent but not, you know, 1:1 related: I just sat and watched a mob of people dance to house music on their lunch hours and felt like weeping with at the joy and beauty on display. I wish I had joined in. I am considering whether some sort of formal declaration of sobriety has a place in my life and seeing and feeling how music and dancing can move people way, way outside the bar or club context felt like a sign.
Any good thoughts and vibes anyone can spare toward me are much appreciated, I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed Friday morning and starting to feel extremely nervous. There's something funky with the bottom two that pay cost me an extra $650 each, and my dad has said he can help me out but still not wild about the possibility. Just trying to stay positive and look at it as an excuse to lay in bed with my cat and eat ice cream for several days.
I moved to New York and it is a BLESSING and I saw The Oklahoma That Fucks and it BLESSED me but also messed me up, so life is going really well, but also.... I really need to find a church: I love community and ritual and proving to my parents that I still do "Christian-y" things. I just don't feel ready to look yet. So, thanks everyone for being part of my internet church, and pray I find some nice people who like communion and social justice.
I'm an ambivalent Catholic who attends Mass about once a year, but who regularly apologizes to God and Jesus for my various mistakes (as in "Sorry, Jesus, that I said that mean thing to myself about that lady's choice in shoes," etc.). I feel myself lately more strongly needing support and feel very vulnerable asking this, but would you mind saying a little prayer for me if you find the time? I've started a new medication for my autoimmune disorder, and over the past 15 years I've gone through so many of them - this is basically my last option for medication. I'm finding it really hard to get through this period of waiting to see if it will work. Right now my pain is controlled so well because of steroids, but I'm afraid of what will happen when I taper off them in a couple of weeks. I don't even know what to ask for. For the medication to work? For a general sense of peace and calmness?
Prayer and discernment needed. I am in my final year of seminary. My husband had to move to begin a job- I have the three kids by myself. I am working at a church and have multiple commitments on campus on top of classes. All of them are 'good' there is no easy thing to set aside. Potty training the youngest has me not sleeping well - plus the cold we all have from starting school again. I know this time will pass, I don't want to wish this year away. There is so much beauty, but I am drowning.
Hi all, am looking for a little guidance. I (a millennial Catholic) am happily dating & living with my boyfriend of 4+ years who is Jewish. My parents, who are incredibly devout Catholics, aren’t jazzed about us living together (generally supportive to us being together but make us sleep in separate rooms when we visit them), and I’m worried about tension as my boyfriend and I start talking about marriage. I don’t want to force him into a Catholic ceremony (i personally struggle a LOT with my Catholicism), and he doesn’t want to force me into a Jewish ceremony either. In an ideal world we would have a ceremony officiated by a loved one, but I don’t even want to start thinking about how upset my parents would be if I told them I wasn’t getting married in a Catholic Church. Does anyone have any advice/books/words of guidance/personal experiences here? I’ve been praying about this but am feeling lost.
(This may be a bit jumbled; I'm trying to type this before I start crying over it at work)
I would love any resources this group has on reconciling homosexuality with Christianity, along with reconciling one's faith with the Bible not needing to be inerrant to be true (I read and loved Rachel Held Evans' "Inspired").
I have no issues with either of these things, and have done a great deal of my own research that has lead to my reconciliation with seeming contradictions, but my husband is struggling with the belief that being a Christian requires adherence to the Bible being either *completely* right or *completely* wrong, and if the former, it requires believing that homosexuality is a sin.
It's become a difficult topic in our marriage, particularly as I've become more involved with LGBTQIA groups and friends, and I am considering going to an Episcopalian church whose head priest is gay (he's incredible, and that church also has female priests who regularly teach and speak during services--I love it, even while missing my protestant hymns). If you have book or article recommendations that address this topic, or that of inerrancy, I would sincerely appreciate it.
Please pray for him; for us--he has other faith struggles that usually leave him utterly miserable and convicted that he is damned, and I do not know how to comfort him.
Venting: So, after being extremely involved in church for pretty much his whole life, my husband came to the realization about 4 years ago that he doesn't really believe, well...any of it. Which is totally fine! What isn't totally fine is that his parents are EXTREMELY devout Evangelicals (started as Presbyterians but switched about a decade ago when that got too progressive). When they come to visit us, they usually stay for about 10-14 days, because it's kind of a hike from Kansas to where we live, and we have two kids they never see, so it it makes complete sense to stay for a while. Before my husband came to his big realization, he was going to a non-denominational Evangelical church and playing weekly in the band. He loves to play music, he liked his friends, he ran the youth band, etc. So, he always had some churchy stuff to talk about with his parents. After he realized he actually didn't believe any of it, we were basically lying and saying we were "looking for a church" whenever they came to visit. But, I've been feeling icky about it. I think it would be much healthier to just come out as an atheist to his parents, but he has no intention of doing so. He thinks they have already caught on and are avoiding unpleasant topics by just not bringing it up (his dad DID finally stop asking us to say blessings over our meals...we don't mind if he does it but we don't really feel comfortable doing it ourselves), and his family generally avoids talking about, well, pretty much everything. I don't know. The French/Italian Catholic in me just wants to have it out with these people and then move on, but his fear of their buttoned-up nature is preventing it. I just needed to vent because there is undeniable TENSION and it is driving me crazy!
I am so grateful for this space and for all of you!
I need some advice, if any of you would help! I grew up evangelical and only recently became hashtag exvangelical. I want to leave my current conservative evangelical bible study due to many theological, ethical, and political differences, but I still have some close friends in there with whom I don't want to burn bridges. How do I leave without being/sounding like a total asshole? (side note: this is also the kind of friend group that would invite you to lunch under false pretenses and then attack you with some "accountability" and "truth" and tbh the fear of that happening again has prevented me from leaving already)
This is a meandering mess of a question but would appreciate any recommendations :)
Random thought, up for discussion: I’m ex-Evangelical. Heaven is always what I end up holding onto from all my faith past lives and I still wholeheartedly believe in it.
It flusters me when other ex-evangelicals or progressive Christians don’t believe in an afterlife (and I know many of these)—like, as long as you aren’t problematic about hell, what do you have to lose?
Idk why this bothers me. Would love to hear varying perspectives here!
This is really new for me (all of it. I was raised Catholic and haven't been a part of a church for any kind for years), but would love some prayers for friends who are going through IVF. Ideally, that it all works out. But if it doesn't, to help them though what comes next - whatever that is.
My cool pastor asked me to consider mentoring a confirmation student. I have a lot of experience with kids and my volunteer opportunity fell through. Thoughts?
How great was that Andrew Garfield profile? It made me want to check out The Spiritual Exercises