https://youtu.be/sMzNLMiKFQ8

Many Christians have gone through a Deconstruction of their faith. This has created doubts, fears, anxiety and damaged relationships.

To help people move forward, I've created a 13 week, 90-Day coaching program called "Square 1" that provides practical, real-world solutions to find healing, stability and a foundation for a new kind of faith.

In this course, we'll talk about:

Each week we'll spend an hour listening to a video presentation on these topics, working through homework, and one hour at the end of the week together in a live video webinar session with the host and fellow students.

Participants will need to engage the material and complete their weekly homework assignments to get the most out of this 90-Day program.

If you've deconstructed your faith and you're not sure how to move forward, this course is just for you.

zoom_0.mp4 32.38 MB

VIDEO LESSON 1
Why does Deconstruction hurt so much?
*Psychology
*Trauma/Stress
*Damaged Relationships
*Going it alone
*How do I find the bottom? When does it end?
*What will it take to heal and move forward?

“In the case of fundamentalist beliefs, people expect that choosing to leave a childhood faith is like giving up Santa Claus – a little sad, but basically a matter of “growing up.”

“But religious indoctrination can be hugely damaging, and making the break from an authoritarian kind of religion can definitely be traumatic. It involves a complete upheaval of a person’s construction of reality, including the self, other people, life, the future, everything.

“People unfamiliar with it, including therapists, have trouble appreciating the sheer terror it can create and the recovery needed.” – Marlene Winell, PHD.

These 6 Pillars Hold Up Christianity

How do we take what's left when these are deconstructed and rebuild something worth believing?

Once everything has been torn down, what is our foundation for rebuilding faith?

Is anything true? Is anything "real"?

What is the one thing that cannot be shaken or removed if faith is still essential to me?

Why should I believe anything about God or Jesus is true?

Who was Jesus?
How do we know Jesus existed?
Are the Gospels reliable? How do we know?
What are the core truths from Jesus we can hold on to?
What about overlap with Buddha, Socrates, etc.?
Was Jesus right about God?
What is the value of "faith" at all?

How did Jesus go from "Jewish Messiah" to "Cosmic Christ"?

Can we really hear the voice of Jesus [or Christ] today?

Questioning our faith and beliefs creates a need to detox from our indoctrination. This is normal. 
But at some point - very soon - we need to detox from detoxing and focus on the freedom we have discovered, or we enslave ourselves once more to those ideas we thought we escaped from.

Those who hurt us deserve to suffer for what they've done. But do we deserve to suffer for it?
Letting go and forgiving the other person is the only way we can end our own suffering.
Drinking poison and expecting others to die is what unforgiveness is like.
How do we practically forgive?
What forgiveness is/is not.
Steps to actual forgiveness.

What Stephen Colbert said about suffering: "What punishments of God are not gifts?"
https://youtu.be/p5bkP8H5NHM

Two Key Components:

Why? Because being thankful re-wires our brains [see the science behind this and the power of being grateful], AND because serving others allows us to focus on healing others rather than lingering on our own suffering/pain.
*"....share your food with the poor, and then your healing will come..." [Isaiah ?]

"Forgiveness is giving up the right to retaliate. Forgiveness is the willingness to have something happen the way it happened. It's not true that you can't forgive something; it's a matter of the will, and you always have the choice. Forgiveness is never dependent on what the other person does or does not do; it is always under our control. Forgiveness is giving up the insistence on being understood.... Jesus forgave those who crucified him. This is a radically new way of thinking. For those who accept and practice this discipline, there is a release of energy and a sense of freedom." - Pixie Koestline Hammond; "For Everything There Is a Season."

Blog: Sweet Hour of Thanksgiving
https://subversive1.blogspot.com/2016/03/sweet-hour-of-thanksgiving.html

The Power To Love and Forgive
https://subversive1.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-power-to-love-and-to-forgive.html

How Happiness [and Thanksgiving] Affect Your Bottom Line
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-happiness-affects-your-bottom-line-keith-giles/

Grace is a way of life, not a little prayer we say before a meal.
How do we embrace the concept of practical grace?
Why does it only work if it is freely applied to everyone around us?
How can we start to live from this place of inner grace?
What does it mean to Love God and Love Others if we don't also learn how to allow God to love us, and learn to receive love from others, too?

Now that you know these things you will be blessed IF you DO them.
Why does this make sense?
How can we start living our lives to intentionally put the wisdom of Jesus into daily practice?
What does it mean to "abide in Christ"?
How can we truly experience Christ abiding in us?
Be still and know....
The power of silence and quiet meditation

Reconstruction is not a solo effort.
We were created to thrive in community.
We need one another.
Finding our tribe [without being Tribalistic]
How Jesus uses our Tribalism to subvert Tribalism
Where to find community
How to cultivate healthy communities
A Profoundly Safe Place = "One where the worst about me could be known and I would be MORE loved in the telling, not less."

VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY9DcIMGxMs

BLOG POST:
The Healing Power of Community:
https://subversive1.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-healing-power-of-community.html

Daily Journals
Daily Practices
Healthy Community
Honest Communication
Quiet Reflection/Meditation
Learning to Listen [to God, to yourself, to others]
The power of listening: "Listening to people is so much like loving them that most people cannot tell the difference."
Trusting that: "God really does love me as I am, not as I should be [because none of us are as we should be]" - Brennan Manning
Trusting that: Jesus is right about God, about me, about what's wrong with our world, and about how to transform everything from the inside out.