Have you ever struggled with "giving God control, finding God’s will, hearing God speak, or letting God work”? Do those phrases sound familiar and even spiritual, but when you try to apply them, they actually cause more anxiety, not less? This class will be discussing these sorts of phrases’ and how they are actually based in good intentions, but bad theology. When we understand how the gospel differs from what one author calls “the new evangelical theology”, we come to realize that many techniques we try to apply to our Christian life are often oppressive, unbiblical, and manipulative. Based on the book, Good News for Anxious Christians, by Philip Cary, we’ll be discussing crucial issues every Christian faces, and how to discern the right approach from "spiritual-ish" approaches. You can see the approach in the titles of the first two chapters of the book: “ 1. Why You Don’t Have to Hear God’s Voice in Your Heart; Or, How God Really Speaks Today. 2. Why You Don’t Have to Believe Your Intuitions Are the Holy Spirit; Or, How the Spirit Shapes Our Hearts”. The insights from this class will have the power to free you from many anxiety-inducing thoughts and habits with which we all struggle.
Introduction (9/16)
Ch. 1, - “Why You Don’t Have to Hear God’s Voice in Your Heart; Or, How God Really Speaks Today” (9/30)
Ch. 2, - “Why You Don’t Have to Believe Your Intuitions Are the Holy Spirit; Or, How the Spirit Shapes Our Hearts” (10/7)
Ch. 3, - "Why You Don’t Have to ‘Let God Take Control’; Or, How Obedience is for Responsible Adults" (10/14)
Ch. 4, - "Why You Don’t Have to ‘Find God’s Will for Your Life’; Or, How Faith Seeks Wisdom" (10/21)
Ch. 5, - "Why You Don’t Have to Be Sure You Have the Right Motivations; Or, How Love Seeks the Good" (11/4)
Ch. 6, - "Why You Don’t Have to Worry About Splitting Head from Heart; Or, How Thinking Welcomes Feeling" (11/11)
Ch. 7, - "Why You Don’t Have to Keep Getting Transformed All the Time; Or, How Virtues Make a Lasting Change in Us" (11/18)
Ch. 8, - “Why You Don’t Always Have to Experience Joy; Or, How God Vindicates the Afflicted” (12/2)
Ch. 9, - "Why ‘Applying It to Your Life’ is Boring; Or, How the Gospel is Beautiful" (12/9)
Ch. 10, - "Why Basing Faith on Experience Leads to a Post-Christian Future; Or, How Christian Faith Needs Teaching" (12/16)