18| Beyond Anxiety | Spiritual Development IV

02/20/18 • 48 min

How do Christians engage in drawing closer to God in a real church environment? This is a break-it-down episode, where we spend time talking more about moralism + hedonism and how we experience M. Scott Peck's Stage 2 in our lives, and in our churches.

We break down the concept of inviting God into the darkness of our shameful thoughts by asking "God, how can you be so good?" in the midst of it.

Stage 2 can be associated with high degrees of rigidity

Brandon's theory: The Anatomy of Religious Rigidity

Two ways to soothe Anxiety: Moralism/Hedonism (maladaptive coping skills) that don't help us in the long run.

People have anxiety because they have insecurity, people compensate by being rigid, because that feels like piety, piety feels like God will like us, soothes our anxiety

“In”-- am i in? What if I'm rejected? Am I fully loved, accepted, respected by you?

Looking at expectations of pastors in church--how do church members respond when pastors talk about difficult concepts or try to deal with difficult issues in the church? How do Christians engage with their pastors, and what roles to they expect pastors to fill?

Susette talks about her experience in shifting her pastors out the expectation of being close friends, or in an intimate relationship, even though the pastor-church goer relationship feels so intimate.

But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. John 6:54

Integrating love into shame is a spiritual discipline, and a neuroscientific process. Inviting God's goodness into the dark thoughts that we have, instead of hiding as a result of the thoughts, can neutralize them.

Brandon invites us to an exercise: when we're angry, sad, ashamed or embarrassed, or in the darkest thought of hatred, sexual desire, etc, we can state "God, how can you be so good?". We invite "light" into the "darkness", which neutralizes it.

The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. John 1:4-5

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:5-7

Previous Episode

17| Navigating Tension in Faith| Spiritual Development III

This is our third episode in an arc on Spiritual Development. We look closer at Stages II and III of M. Scott Peck's Stages of Faith, and how we can navigate tensions to this journey moving towards union with God. It's important to evaluate what part of Christianity we try to protect out of fear. Our goal: "Life in the Spirit" (see Romans 8) meaning to move into union with God.

Our guest music today is: Feel Your Love, by Still Spoken You can find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3wWxnAjCikcl6Ug9Fymr09

Reminder of the M. Scott Peck's Stages of Faith: Stage I: Chaotic, Antisocial Stage II: Formal, Institutional, Fundamental Stage III: Skeptic, Individual, Questioner Stage IV: Mystic, Communal

Part of the dark side of stage 2 is high boundaries, but because of fear, there's no openness to tension.

Sermon on the Mount reference re: murder, adultery and divorce: Matthew 5:21

Jesus is moving the focus of spirituality out of the rules into the center of our heart, where we need God to be transformed. If faith is not marked with compassion, and is not moving you towards openness in God, then it'll become religious and legalistic. The point of healthy boundaries is to lead you into LIFE.

Recommended podcast on Jewish & Hebrew culture: "Stuff Jews Should Know."

Examples of Stage II to Stage III transitions in the Bible: -Galatians 6: Paul reframing the importance of circumcision vs. being transformed into a new creation through Jesus Christ. -Peter having a vision about allowing "unclean" foods to be eaten. (Acts 10:9-16) -Jesus breaking sabbath laws with healing, eating grain, etc.

This transition is usually a result of suffering. These "rules" or the way that God and the world make sense based on religion until suffering happens in life, and the rules stop making sense.

Matthew 12:1 A Discussion about the Sabbath 12 At about that time Jesus was walking through some grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, so they began breaking off some heads of grain and eating them. 2 But some Pharisees saw them do it and protested, “Look, your disciples are breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath.”

3 Jesus said to them, “Haven’t you read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4 He went into the house of God, and he and his companions broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. 5 And haven’t you read in the law of Moses that the priests on duty in the Temple may work on the Sabbath? 6 I tell you, there is one here who is even greater than the Temple! 7 But you would not have condemned my innocent disciples if you knew the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’[a] 8 For the Son of Man[b] is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

Development is a process of maturing over time, through life stages. We can get stuck in different development stages, and never move past them.

From the therapeutic perspective: Looking at the amygdala + limbic system, the amygdala triggers "fight or flight" in our reactions. Even though in our current culture, our lives are rarely threatened day to day, we'll continue to experience life day to day as "threatening."

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom." Viktor E. Frankl

Our guest music today is: Feel Your Love, by Still Spoken You can find it on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3wWxnAjCikcl6Ug9Fymr09

Next Episode

19| Trusting God + Neuroscience | Spiritual Development V

How do we, as Christians, transcend boundaries appropriately while maintaining our faith in who God is? In this episode, we dive into part II of our discussion on M. Scott Peck’s Stages of Spiritual Development and how we see the transition from Stage II (Boundaries) into Stage III (Tension) play throughout the bible and our lives.

Image and explanation of a Dendrite https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/dendrite “One sign of maturity, are the thoughts that no longer occur to us.” -Dallas Willard

Romans 1

Romans 12

Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17 Paul’s Theology of Conscience 1 Corinthians 8-10 Romans 14

He set another man before them, saying, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches."

— Matthew 13:31–32 WEB More reading on the Theory of Moral Development: https://explorable.com/theory-of-moral-development Postmodernity: is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity. Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the 1980s or early 1990s – and that it was replaced by postmodernity, while others would extend modernity to cover the developments denoted by postmodernity, while some believe that modernity ended after World War II. The idea of the post-modern condition is sometimes characterised as a culture stripped of its capacity to function in any linear or autonomous state as opposed to the progressive mindstate of Modernism.

Postmodernity can mean a personal response to a postmodern society, the conditions in a society which make it postmodern or the state of being that is associated with a postmodern society as well a historical epoch. In most contexts it should be distinguished from postmodernism, the adoption of postmodern philosophies or traits in art, literature, culture and society. In fact, today, historical perspectives on the developments of postmodern art (postmodernism) and postmodern society (postmodernity) can be best described as two umbrella terms for processes engaged in an ongoing dialectical relationship, the result of which is the evolving world in which we now live.

The importance of Peck’s theory is basically seeing patterns that validate we aren’t alone. If we can understand/calibrate where we are in the process, it can help us see the world in a more dynamic way.