Free Anne Jackson book and a collection of confessions.
Sep 19th by adminThe contest is closed. Thanks so much for the great comments. I’ll have the winner posted soon.
You have to dig Anne Jackson. There’s not a rule or official decree I am aware of, but if you meet her or hear her speak or read her book, Mad Church Disease
So when she told me she was writing a new book in the style of “Post Secret” in which folks like you and me could talk about the things you just can’t confess in church and put that in a beautifully designed book and beautifully designed website, my first thought was “awesome.”
OK, my first thought was “I’m so jealous I didn’t think of that idea.” And then I kicked a small woodland creature who skittered across my path as I walking to the mailbox.
But once I was able to get to my second thought which was, “what an awesome idea” I asked Anne if the readers of Stuff Christians Like could join conversation. She’s collecting ideas right this second on her site permissiontospeakfreely.com
So that brings us to the challenge of the day.
Simply put, what’s something you can’t confess in church? What is something true of your life that you’re afraid or embarrassed of ashamed to say in the confines of church?
Anne is going to give the author of her favorite comment a free autographed copy of her book, “Mad Church Disease.” And then, she’s going to read through all the other comments and maybe use some of them on her site in a book or in a million other ways that the ever creative Anne Jackson thinks of. I’ve told her ya’ll are awesome, so Anne is really excited to see what you have to say. And because your words might be printed somewhere, at the bottom of this post is the fancy legal jumbo you apparently have to put when you do these kind of things.
Comment on this post until Tuesday, Tuesday, September 22nd with a response to the question:
What’s something you can’t confess in church?
legal stuff they tell me i need to say and that i took from PS: By submitting information to this project, you grant Anne Jackson a perpetual, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute, and otherwise exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to that information at its sole discretion, including storing it on my servers and incorporating it in other works in any media now known or later developed including without limitation published books. If you do not wish to grant me these rights, it is suggested that you do not submit information. Anne Jackson/Thomas Nelson reserves the right to select, edit and arrange submissions, and to remove information from the website at any time at its sole discretion.
Comments
I can't confess that I still think of the man I dated not long before I got married to someone else, and I was much happier with him than I was with my spouse.
This may be too late, seeing as how it's Tuesday, but…
I would never confess that I think my infertility is punishment for having premarital sex with ONE man, whom I thought I was going to marry. I was devastated when he left me. I married four years later.
Deep down I believe it is punishment (even though my own Bible study tells me differently) because my church growing up hammered into me "Thou shalt not have sex before marriage."
I'm afraid if I confess that, someone heartless will say, "You're right.It is punishment"
And I would never confess I write women's erotica. Everyone in my stories is married, but still…I can imagine what people would say.
I am a man who struggles with weight and food addiction. At church, we're told women struggle with body image, and men struggle with porn. But that's not the case for me. I pretend like I don't care about how I look and how much I weigh, but I really do. I pretend that I like being a big teddy bear, but I hate it. I don't like looking at myself in the mirror. I am afraid to say anything about it because I feel all alone in my struggle. The men in my small group want to start an accountability group for looking at porn, but I rarely look at porn. I need someone to help me eat right and exercise. I feel helpless and hopeless.
I was also groomed for a staff position at my church by one of the associate pastors, until he threw me under the bus for his own good standing with the senior pastor. The senior pastor is a loving, Godly man, but sometimes he runs the church more like a cut-throat corporation than a house of healing and discipleship. I am afraid to say anything about for fear I'll lose my standing and be labeled as someone who is "not a team player."
I'm a female and I masturbate.
I graduated from a Christian school with a degee in youth ministry, and I question my faith. often.
I don't know what to tell my depressed friends because I think I might be as bad off as they are, but I just ignore it.
I hate that women aren't allowed in leadership and I think the church is a shithole for propogating the emotional abuse of women in our own country, and condemning it in other places.
I think homosexuality is fine and homosexuals should be able to get married.
Obama isn't a dirty antichrist waiting to send us all to hell.
I didn't marry the one man in my life who has loved me, and I wonder if I'll ever have another chance to marry anyone.
Single female here.
1) No one seems to care that we don't have enough single spiritually mature men in the church to go around. Single women are dying on the vine in loneliness.
2) Many (not all) of the single men that I see in church are painfully socially awkward and are not mature enough to become husbands and fathers. They don't know how to approach and date women. No one, particularly not the older men in the church, are helping them overcome this.
3) That there are times I wish I was not a Christian because I think it would be easier to find a man to marry if I were not a believer.
I think God is a narcissist.
I can't wait for heaven because I think being a Christian on this earth is just too hard.
I know prayer is important. But I wonder why I even bother when I pray for things for years and don't see any results. When I pray for a parking space, God provides. But when I pray for something important, he is silent. Why is that?
What I couldn't say: If you put a gun to my head and told me I had to choose one: remain a Christian, but I had to embrace folks like Kirk Cameron and Ray (Banana Guy) Comfort and their anti-evolution thinking, or believe the science but have to profess atheism, I'd choose science. I don't feel like believing in science and evolution is anti-Christianity, but I think so many in the church feel it's either/or.
Why in the world is masturbation (female or male) considered to be sin? I can find no biblical basis for this view; outside of letting it usurp your relationship with a spouse or in connection to pornography. It is normal and natural. And like blowing your nose or passing gas, meant to be done privately and not flaunted publicly.
Here's your next blog topic Jon, Stuff Christians Like…pretending God hates masturbation.
Well said Anon. Well said.
If only Christians could spend all of the energy they seem to waste on feeling guilty about masturbation on doing something good for the world.
I seriously doubt God cares if you masturbate, but I'm pretty sure God DOES care that people are hungry, homeless, lonely and sick out there and "Christians" are too busy sitting in their "small groups" wining about their masturbation guilt instead of figuring out how to make a difference in the world.
The problem isn't masturbation at all. It is the lust for physical pleasure and lusting after the other sex that is the problem. Jesus said that if you have even thought of someone of the opposite sex in an impure manner you have sinned against them. Masturbation nearly ALWAYS involves lust. That is just how it works. And just because something is commonplace doesn't make it normal or right. God calls us to be better than average.
There is no question about it, Masturbation is dangerous.
I want to be the last comment here so a few of the previous comments making people feel bad about stuggling with masturbation won't be the final word.
God knows our hearts.
God knows our sins.
God knows the sins of those that have hurt you and I.
God knows the sins that we have committed against others.
God knows what makes us mad about the church.
God hasn't fallen off his throne.
God is still there.
God knows how we stuggle with serving him because of our "little sins."
God cares more than you know.
God is FOR you.
He is FOR you!