Losing Your Religion, Finding Your Faith

Losing Your Religion, Finding Your Faith PDF

Author: Brett Hoover

Publisher: Paulist Press

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 154

ISBN-13: 9780809137824

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In this lively, challenging book, Brett Hoover says that the typical young-adult loss of faith is a necessary part of maturing spirituality: faith can grow only when religion is doubted, lost, and found again in a new light. Using the metaphor of a road trip, Hoover describes the lifelong process of discovering both God and self. "Losing your religion" is just one necessary obstacle on the road to a holistic spirituality.

Losing Your Faith, Finding Your Soul

Losing Your Faith, Finding Your Soul PDF

Author: David Robert Anderson

Publisher: Convergent

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780307731203

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Argues that one can retain their faith, even when distancing oneself from the traditional methods of worship through the organized church, and helps readers identify six life-tested passages that lead through changes in faith towards authentic renewal.

I Am Restored

I Am Restored PDF

Author: Lecrae Moore

Publisher: Zondervan

Published: 2020-10-13

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 0310358043

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When the challenges you've faced threaten to destroy your life, how do you find your way back to the truths you thought you believed? I Am Restored tells the untold story of how Lecrae's past nearly ruined his future--until he learned that the wounds we carry can have the potential to be unlikely guides to healing and freedom for ourselves and others. Throughout I Am Restored, Lecrae documents the shattering yet hopeful story of how he faced the scars of his past--sexual abuse, physical trauma, addiction, and depression--and emerged more fully human than ever before. With remarkable transparency and vulnerability, Lecrae reveals that at the height of his professional success, his life was spinning out of control, driven by a past that he had never confronted and a religious perspective that was incapable of meeting the challenge. I Am Restored takes an unflinching look at the personal and public spaces that are too often at the societal core of our pain and heartache--culture, politics, family, church, and more--and teaches us that forgiveness can be the birthplace of the life that God has created for us. Throughout this powerful, deeply personal account, Lecrae shares the life lessons he's learned about: Confronting the pain and trauma that has shaped your story Breaking the cycle of sin and shame and embracing joy and authenticity Finding hope and healing in the midst of chaos The simple practices that can change your mental, emotional, and spiritual health Leading a life that's bursting with creativity and true freedom I Am Restored is a hopeful, inspiring charge to start your journey to lasting healing today. No matter what your past has held, God is near you, he hears you, and he's not done writing your story.

Losing My Religion

Losing My Religion PDF

Author: William Lobdell

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-03-06

Total Pages: 313

ISBN-13: 0061877336

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William Lobdell's journey of faith—and doubt—may be the most compelling spiritual memoir of our time. Lobdell became a born-again Christian in his late 20s when personal problems—including a failed marriage—drove him to his knees in prayer. As a newly minted evangelical, Lobdell—a veteran journalist—noticed that religion wasn't covered well in the mainstream media, and he prayed for the Lord to put him on the religion beat at a major newspaper. In 1998, his prayers were answered when the Los Angeles Times asked him to write about faith. Yet what happened over the next eight years was a roller-coaster of inspiration, confusion, doubt, and soul-searching as his reporting and experiences slowly chipped away at his faith. While reporting on hundreds of stories, he witnessed a disturbing gap between the tenets of various religions and the behaviors of the faithful and their leaders. He investigated religious institutions that acted less ethically than corrupt Wall St. firms. He found few differences between the morals of Christians and atheists. As this evidence piled up, he started to fear that God didn't exist. He explored every doubt, every question—until, finally, his faith collapsed. After the paper agreed to reassign him, he wrote a personal essay in the summer of 2007 that became an international sensation for its honest exploration of doubt. Losing My Religion is a book about life's deepest questions that speaks to everyone: Lobdell understands the longings and satisfactions of the faithful, as well as the unrelenting power of doubt. How he faced that power, and wrestled with it, is must reading for people of faith and nonbelievers alike.

Believe Again

Believe Again PDF

Author: Josh Roberie

Publisher:

Published: 2021-05-08

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781091596047

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How do you know when you need to believe again? If you have ever gone through burnout in your spiritual life or disappointment in your church experience, then it may be evident. For others, it is not so clear. You continue to push forward despite the check engine light warning you something is wrong beneath the surface. In Believe Again, Josh uses his real-life fish out of water story to demonstrate how you can leave behind exhausting religion and find refreshing faith. Josh's entire life was wrapped up in his job, relationships, and involvement at his church. But what happens when all of that is stripped away, and he enters the "real world" for the first time as an adult? Instead of preaching on stage and enjoying the trappings of being a successful ministry leader, he found himself delivering pizza, attending church with homeless people under a bridge, and wrestling with the realities of life outside of his church bubble. And that is just the beginning of this intentional yet unconventional journey to discover a new way to relate to God, church, and those who do not believe as we do. Whether you are like Josh and unaware of how much you need to make a change, or you are already looking for something new, Believe Again's raw and sometimes hilarious story will inspire you to overcome life's setbacks and rejuvenate your faith.

Finding Faith, Losing Faith

Finding Faith, Losing Faith PDF

Author: Scot McKnight

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13:

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However, the book's sensitive detailing of the stories themselves makes conversion more than a theoretical occurrence; it makes the immediacy, and often the difficulty, of conversion both real and moving.

Finding My Faith

Finding My Faith PDF

Author: Kevin Harrington

Publisher: Truth Publications, Incorporated

Published: 2021-01-03

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 9781584275282

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Finding My Faith, by Kevin Harrington is a practical study aimed at helping the reader develop faith in Jesus Christ that is personal, genuine, and capable of enduring the challenges life presents. Divided into two parts ("Understanding My Faith" a "Using my Faith"), each chapter is followed by study questions for use by individuals or groups.

God Spare the Girls

God Spare the Girls PDF

Author: Kelsey McKinney

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2021-06-22

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 0063020270

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"Read it for twists on twists, meditations on faith, and a deeply thoughtful treatment of an evangelical community." — Glamour, Beach Reads That Are Like Summer in a Book “A thoughtful and candid meditation on faith, family, and forgiveness . . . fabulous.” —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had Recommended by Good Housekeeping, Elle, Parade, Real Simple, Glamour,Refinery29,Bustle, Oprah Daily, The Millions, Shondaland, Yahoo!, Literary Hub, and more! A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover an unsettling secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception. Luke Nolan has led the Hope congregation for more than a decade, while his wife and daughters have patiently upheld what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his younger daughter Caroline has begun to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway. When it comes to light, five weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been lying to his family, the entire Nolan clan falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting. An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves. “A deeply felt book about love — love for family and community, for people who sustain you and people who disappoint you. And love for God, too, which Kelsey McKinney writes about with humane and incisive frankness.”—Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over “The accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it.” — Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty

Leaving the Witness

Leaving the Witness PDF

Author: Amber Scorah

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2020-06-02

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 073522255X

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"A fascinating glimpse into the consciousness of being an outsider in every possible way, and what it takes to find your path into the life you'd like to lead."--Nylon A riveting memoir of losing faith and finding freedom while a covert missionary in one of the world's most restrictive countries. A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture--and a whole new way of thinking--turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true. As a proselytizer in Shanghai, using fake names and secret codes to evade the authorities' notice, Scorah discreetly looked for targets in public parks and stores. To support herself, she found work at a Chinese language learning podcast, hiding her real purpose from her coworkers. Now with a creative outlet, getting to know worldly people for the first time, she began to understand that there were other ways of seeing the world and living a fulfilling life. When one of these relationships became an "escape hatch," Scorah's loss of faith culminated in her own personal apocalypse, the only kind of ending possible for a Jehovah's Witness. Shunned by family and friends as an apostate, Scorah was alone in Shanghai and thrown into a world she had only known from the periphery--with no education or support system. A coming of age story of a woman already in her thirties, this unforgettable memoir examines what it's like to start one's life over again with an entirely new identity. It follows Scorah to New York City, where a personal tragedy forces her to look for new ways to find meaning in the absence of religion. With compelling, spare prose, Leaving the Witness traces the bittersweet process of starting over, when everything one's life was built around is gone.