I
equip people to serve God and others in a way that is both fruitful and sustainable. I do this through teaching, writing, and coaching. This newsletter is part of that work.
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1. Ready or not Thailand, here we come!
2. FEATURE ARTICLE: Dealing with Doubts and Anger Towards God
3. Other Stuff You Should Read This Week
4. Quote of the Week
5. How to Share -- and Sign Up for this :-)
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1. Ready or not Thailand, here we come!
Next week Charlene and I leave for two weeks of teaching and counseling in Thailand. We're going at the invite of the counseling arm of Youth With a Mission Thailand (YWAM). We'll be in Phuket and Bangkok, and teaching two workshops: "Overcoming Struggles with Online Behaviors" for pastors, therapists, and missionaries, and "How to Help Others without Hurting Yourself" for missionaries, pastors, and other spiritual
leaders.
"Overcoming Struggles with Online Behaviors" -- represents an expansion of my original focus, which was going to be on recovery from sexual addiction. I've learned there is a lot of struggle with other online behaviors, and the organizers have asked me to teach about struggles with Internet and social media use, online gaming, as well as compulsive sexual behaviors. I'm looking forward to being able to offer this teaching to other groups here in the
US.
"How to Help Others without Hurting Yourself" -- is a revision of a program I ran in 2018 called "The Thriving Leader Blueprint" and is based on the teaching in my book "Leaving Your Mark Without Losing Your Mind." My hope is that I'll be taking this new version, which includes new material, and creating a different program that I can offer here in the US later this year.
Charlene will join me for some of the teaching in the Online Behaviors Seminar, and will also be doing some counseling with missionary families while we're there.
Please pray for us ... for safety in travel, and good experiences in the workshops we lead.
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“If you feel like it's time to level up your game, and make a bigger difference -- this book will show you how. Mark is someone who knows what he's writing about. He's lived it, and he's helped equip leaders around the world to maximize their impact.”
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- Paula Rizzo
Media consultant, former Fox News producer, author of "Listfully Thinking"
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2. FEATURE ARTICLE: Dealing with Doubts and Anger Towards God
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“Doubt isn’t the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.”
― Paul Tillich
“If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
Many religious people live with profound spiritual confusion and contradictions. They profess certain beliefs and values, but their actions demonstrate otherwise. They know they are “supposed to” think and feel a certain way about God, the spiritual life, and death, but they don’t. They have nagging questions and doubts, and cope by trying not to think about them.
For the most part, they love God — after all, that’s the first and greatest commandment, right? But they also feel confused about God’s ways in the world. Sometimes this confusion gives way to anger and bitterness. Of course, they would never say this out loud, and don’t even like to admit it to themselves. But these mixed spiritual feelings are more common than people think, and are often the root of what seems to be “lack of commitment” in our churches.
In my work as a pastor, I’ve dealt with many people who struggle with these contradictions. Sometimes they recognize them, but often they don’t. As I said, it’s hard to admit that we have doubts, and hard to acknowledge confusion and negative feelings about God. Especially in church, where we’re all supposed to be “on the same page.”
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3. Other Stuff You Should Read This Week
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We're all busy, and there's too much stuff to read. So let me narrow things down for you :-) Of course you should read everything I've ever written, but after that, what? Here are two articles you might find interesting:
This article is a brief interview with Dr. Neal Krause on stress, faith, and religion. He talks about a study he's been doing, which tracks how people deal with stress, based on how they self-select in terms of faith and religion: They asked study participants whether they consider themselves to be "religious," "spiritual," "religious and spiritual," or "neither religious nor spiritual" and then compared the results.
Here's a new title for you: "Free range priest." This is a profile of an Episcopal priest who's established a unique role for herself working with small churches. Here's how she puts it:
At St. Paul’s, I serve two Sundays per month for a flat fee, plus they pay me hourly for pastoral care, Christian education and leadership formation, and other services as needed. I am not a “Sunday supply” priest -- basically, a substitute clergyperson -- because I have an ongoing relationship with this community. Yet I am also not their official pastor.
I am not in charge of the congregation, I do not attend their leadership meetings, and I do not represent them. The congregation runs the church, and their ministry keeps it going. They contract with me for my own ministry, where and when it works best for them, and for me.
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"Of course, it is true that religion on a superficial level, religion that is untrue to itself and to God, easily comes to serve as the ‘opium of the people.’ And this takes place whenever religion and prayer invoke the name of God for reasons and ends that have nothing
to do with him.
"When religion becomes a mere artificial facade to justify a social or economic system–when religion hands over its rites and language completely to the political propagandists, and when prayer becomes the vehicle for a purely secular ideological program, then religion does tend to become an opiate. It deadens the spirit enough to permit the substitution of a superficial fiction and mythology for this truth of life.
"And this brings about the alienation of the believer, so that his religious zeal becomes political fanaticism. His faith in God, while preserving its traditional formulas, becomes in fact faith in his own nation, class or race. His ethic ceases to be the law of God and of love, and becomes the law that might-makes-right: established privilege justifies everything. God is the status quo."
- Thomas Merton
5. How to Share ... an Sign Up for This Newsletter
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Please feel free to send this newsletter along to someone who might like it. Obviously you can just forward this email ... you can also send someone a link to the newsletter archive:
Or ... here's a link to a quick sign-up form:
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I write and speak at events as director of Renew Resources. I also am leader and teacher at Bethel Church in Princeton, MN. If you're ever in the area, come join us on a Sunday morning! Places to find my writing:
The Recovery Journey
Check out my 90 Day program for starting (or renewing) your recovery from sexual addiction / compulsion called "The Recovery Journey". There's also a special program for the partners of addicts. Also check out my other Audio Product:
Read my latest book:
"Leaving Your Mark Without Losing Your
Mind"
This book focuses on the innate need we all have to make a difference with our lives ... and what gets in the way. Building a life of meaning and purpose is essential for our happiness, but many people get sidelined because of stress, overwhelm, and discouragement. This book will help you find strategies to overcome those challenges (and others).
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