Life Outside The Institution
After my deliverance I could see all the spiritual abuse in the shaming, rather than teaching on the good news of the Kingdom and how we could walk in Kingdom power. If you find people whose “minds aren’t warped,” let me know because that is a rarity.
It is good to find a community of people with which to have relationship and encouragement, but that is a difficult order to fill. Fortunately for us, we grew our own and our grown children are our closest friends. Then we have a very small circle of friends who serve at the retreats. This holiday season, we had dinner with each of them. Then we have another circle of friends that spans the country, from Colorado to Ohio to Florida. We keep contact by FB and phone calls and occasional visits. We can call on these relationships when we need personal prayer when we need more than what we send out to our intercessors. This is our network of relationships. That is what you need is to find and build healthy relationships. Some of ours go to church. Some are even pastors who know our “non-institutional” stance. All choose to be our friends, no, more like brothers, in a healthy family.
Probably one of the reasons you “can’t stand church” is because it is not enough. It is not only food that is not filling, but also distasteful and unhealthy. Your healing soul is reacting to this revelation that you have been fed food that is substandard. The dilemma is that many in this stage then look for a source with better food. I say “dilemma” because we think that we can find spiritual feeding in a better church or better pastor. In that context, it will always be tainted with the “party line” that you have to find spirituality, healthy spirituality inside the church four walls, when that was never the intention of Jesus when he walked the earth. Where was Jesus’ recorded sermon, ON THE MOUNT? It was out there among the people. His more in depth teachings were in private with His 12 to 20 close disciples. And it was through relationship. This doesn’t mean that you have to leave your church. Church is what it is. But what it does mean is that you need to feed yourself.
In our day and age, we have the benefit of hearing teaching from many others through the internet and the books of anointed authors. With the awakening of the Body of Christ to step outside the walls of the church, there are many resources available to feed the soul. Some are outside the “church” and some are still inside the church. That is where I get my teaching. And because of my years of walking out healing, I can pick the meat from the bones and find some great morsels.
These are some of my recommendations:
OrganicChurch by Neil Cole. He presents what a healthy church experience should be like. He has many other books on this subject.
Frank Viola is a prolific writer. In Pagan Christianity he describes the twists and turns that Christianity has taken over 2000 years and the “bad habits” it has picked up along the way. He has a discipleship course to feed the hungry soul. He has a blog that presents discussion. I recommend this connection.
Our friends, Tony and Felicity Dale have long been in the house church network. Felicity’s recent book (The Black Swan Effect) is about women’s role in the church compared to the historical first century church. (One of our team members here at the ranch, Suzette, wrote a chapter.) Felicity’s blog is, www.simplychurch.com.
We love Myles Monroe’s books on leadership.
What I am currently reading, Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.
Everything that James Richards writes is read worthy. In the Wholeness Coaching I recommend his How to Stop the Pain, also Escape from Codependent Christianity. You’ll find many books and teachings on CD at his website, www.impactministries.com
Over this next year, I am going to be blogging more to encourage those who have come through Bear Creek Ranch in their healing and growth. My book, The FiveWholeness Steps is now available. Also we will be producing our own CD’s and DVD’s of teachings which will be available on our website bookstore soon.
So my advice, find some friends and feed on some teachings. But don’t feed on your friends... (that’s codependency). Then share with others what you are finding and what is impacting your life. If you found a store that had make up that made you look ten, twenty years younger, or food that gave you the energy of a 16 year old or a 50% off coupon for a car, you’d tell someone, right?
Your deliverance was surgery that removed a life sucking tumor. Wholeness Coaching was the after surgery “therapy” to expose years of unhealthy emotional and spiritual living and implement a journey of emotional and spiritual health. Now discover food that brings spiritual health and invigorates life.
