Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Group Study
Unleash a revolution in your life in Christ.
Emotional health and spiritual health, when interwoven, offer nothing short of a spiritual revolution, transforming the hidden places deep beneath the surface of our lives.
Emotional health and spiritual maturity cannot be separated. It is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature.
When we ignore the emotional component of our lives, we move through the motions of Christian disciplines, activities and behaviors, but deeply rooted behavioral patterns from our past continue to keep us from living an authentic life of maturity in Christ.
We often fail to reflect on what is going on inside us, and around us, and are too busy to slow down to be with God. As a result, we run the high risk of remaining spiritual infants, failing to develop into spiritually and emotionally mature adults in Christ.
"Jay" described it best: "I was a Christian for twenty-two years. But instead of being a twenty-two-year-old Christian, I was a one-year-old Christian twenty-two times. I just kept doing the same things over and over and over again."
Top Ten Symptoms of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality
- Using God to run from God
(My prayers are usually about God doing my will not me surrendering to his will) - Ignoring the emotions of anger, sadness, and fear
(I am rarely honest with myself and /or others about the feelings hurts and pains beneath the surface of my life) - Dying to the wrong things
(I tend to deny healthy, God-given desires and pleasures of life like friendships, joy, music, beauty, laughter, nature, while finding it difficult to die to my self-protectiveness, defensiveness, a lack of vulnerability and judgmentalism) - Denying the past's impact on the present
(I rarely consider how my family of origin and significant people/events from my past have shaped my present.) - Dividing life into "secular" and "sacred" compartments
(I easily compartmentalize God to "Christian activities" while usually forgetting about him when I am working, shopping, studying or recreating.) - Doing for God instead of being with God
(I tend to evaluate my spirituality based on how much I am doing for God.) - Spiritualizing away conflict
(In the name of "peacemaking" we bury tensions and avoid conflict rather than speak the truth in love.) - Covering over brokenness, weakness, and failure
(Instead of humility and approachability, I am highly reactive and defensive) - Living without limits
(Those close to me would say that I often "try to do it all" or "bite off more than I can chew") - Judging the spiritual journeys of others
(I often find myself occupied and bothered by the faults of others.)
Developing emotionally healthy spirituality requires intentionality and intentionality requires a plan. These studies can provide a structure and resources to serve you in carrying out that plan.
This study will be broken down into nine weeks as follows:
Week 1: Introduction and Overview
Week 2: The Problem of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality
The 7 Pathways to Emotionally Healthy Spirituality
Week 3: Know Yourself that You May Know God
Week 4: Going back in Order to go Forward
Week 5: Journey Through the Wall
Week 6: Enlarge Your Soul Through Grief and Loss
Week 7: Discover the Rhythms of the Daily Office and Sabbath
Week 8: Grow into an Emotionally Mature Adult
Week 9: Go the Next Step to Develop a "Rule of Life"
Schedule
Check the Healthy Hearts Calendar for the start of the next group study.
Location
260 Beckwith Road, West Henrietta in the large house right by the road (the south side of the house has three doors. Enter through the middle door with the overhang above the door. If you have any questions please call the office at 334-6722.
Register
In order to plan for group size and materials, we would appreciate it if you would register. However, registration is not mandatory so if, at the last minute you decide to come, please come! To register, please send an e-mail to rstoddard@ridgelandchurch.org with a subject line of 'Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Registration' and the following information in the body of the message: name, address, phone number, email address, and how you heard about Emotionally Healthy Spirituality.