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Tuesday
Aug312010

New e-book: "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH"

DateTuesday, August 31, 2010 at 3:50PM

I've just published this free e-book, "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH -- How spiritual abuse sabotages the heart."  Feel free to download and share. 

You can also leave a comment by clicking, "Post a Comment" below.

E-book - "ENOUGH IS NEVER ENOUGH - How spiritual abuse sabotages the heart" - by Jim Robbins

Sherpa carrying load photo:
Courtesy of PaulPrescott: paulprescott.com/

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment4 Comments |
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Friday
Aug272010

Books I recommend

DateFriday, August 27, 2010 at 11:22AM

The following books take the idea of the Christian's good heart seriously. 
I highly recommend them:

by Larry Crabb
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by Dwight Edwards
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by Andrew Farley
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by Stone & Smith

What books do you recommend that take the Christian's good heart seriously? [Post a comment below.]


Related posts:

"How to Shame a Christian"  - video

"As the heart goes, so goes a life."

 

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment7 Comments |
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Wednesday
Aug252010

Audio book update!

DateWednesday, August 25, 2010 at 10:24AM

The audio book is done!

The files and artwork have been sent off to the CD duplicator.  The audio book CD sets should be shipping to me at the end of the week, and I'll make them available on the blog next week.  [CD sets and MP3 download.]

 

 

AuthorJim Robbins | CommentPost a Comment |
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Thursday
Aug192010

New podcast - "DISCOVERING OUR CALLING" - Calling Series -- Part 5 - special guest Gary Barkalow joins Jim

DateThursday, August 19, 2010 at 8:00PM

How does God reveal our unique calling to us?  What's the pattern he uses?  Join special guest Gary Barkalow and Jim as they unpack how God brings us into a deeper clarity of our calling. This is part five of their seven-part podcast series on calling.

Gary is the author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call -- What are You Doing Here?  to be released in October.

Gary's website:  www.thenobleheart.com

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Download the podcast for iTunes here.

More podcasts here.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment2 Comments |
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Monday
Aug162010

New e-book excerpt: "Enough is Never Enough - Abusing the Good Heart"

DateMonday, August 16, 2010 at 9:33AM

Non-commercial www.paulprescott.comThis excerpt is from a new e-book I'm writing on the idea of spiritual abuse -- specifically how spiritual abuse can kill the very life of our hearts.
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The particular kind of abuse I'm talking about is reflected in the following description of abuse.  It comes from The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, by Johnson and VanVonderan:

"Spiritual abuse is the mistreatment of a person who is in need of help, support or greater spiritual empowerment, with the result of weakening, undermining or decreasing that person’s spiritual empowerment."


The authors go further:

"Spiritual abuse can also occur when spirituality is used to make others live up to a ‘spiritual standard.’  This promotes external ‘spiritual performance,’ …or is used as a means of ‘proving’ a person’s spirituality."


This abuse may not even be intentional, but kills the heart, nonetheless.

Notice the effects of this kind of abuse:

  • weakening, undermining or decreasing that person’s spiritual empowerment.
  • enforcing a 'spiritual standard,' 'spiritual performance,' a means of 'proving a person's spirituality'

The e-book is nearly completed, and I'll be announcing its completion soon.

As always, feel free to click the "Post a Comment" button below.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment2 Comments |
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Monday
Aug092010

Book review - "Spiritual Abuse Recovery"

DateMonday, August 9, 2010 at 9:20AM

Book Review:  Spiritual Abuse Recovery - Dynamic Research on Finding a Place of Wholeness, by Barbara M. Orlowski
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From the book:

I have always believed that conflicts between Christians can be worked through when both parties submit their will to God.  Intentional, malicious action against me by a church leader blew me away.  The unwillingness of others involved to challenge the leader's actions, but instead look the other way in denial, preserving their positions, shattered my trust in church leadership.  [Quoted in Spiritual Abuse Recovery. Taken from the website, Kingdom Grace, 'Shattered Illusions.']

Spiritual abuse is likely to be minimized by those in Christian leadership.  However, it is affecting more Christians and churches than people want to admit.  Spiritual abuse is causing many very committed followers of Christ to leave abusing churches to seek out other options for Christian community.  Barb Orlowski provides a research-based, serious and needed look into the abusive dynamic occurring in many churches. 

What is "spiritual abuse?"  One definition the author uses is:  "Spiritual abuse takes place when leaders to whom people look for guidance and spiritual nurture use their positions of authority to manipulate, control and dominate."  Spiritual abuse often occurs when there is a distorted and unbiblical view of leadership authority. 

Barb Orlowski outlines distortions and belief systems that contribute to spiritual abuse:

1.  Legalism:  "When Christians struggle with feelings of shame, of never measuring up, and of feeling like they have to constantly try to earn God's approval, they often do not grasp why their Christian life is so spiritually draining." 

2.  A Faulty Hermeneutic [a faulty way of interpreting Scripture]:  "...makes a person vulnerable to erroneous teachings and the malpractices of controlling leaders."

3. Fully Understanding Healthy Church Leadership:  "Developing a biblically-sound understanding of Christian leadership based on Christ's teaching and the New Testament example will create a renewed appreciation  for godly leadership expressed in healthy communities."

4.  Personal Spiritual and Emotional Injury:  "A person's spiritual life has been severly marred by personal injury inflicted by church leadership."  Those injured can experience healing and restoration despite the trauma.

Spiritual Abuse Recovery includes the research results of the author's study on the topic.  A representative population of actual persons who suffered spiritual abuse were interviewed.  Some of the participants' comments read like these:

There was a tremendous dichotomy between what was said by leadership, and the message they actually conveyed.  They often spoke of the freedom we have as believers, as well as our individual value in God's eyes.  But any attempt to think or act with any degree of freedom was quickly and firmly labeled as unsubmissive to leadership.  An overarching theme in most of the subtle messages was that only a few were actually spiritual enough to hear and follow God for themselves, and that everyone else must follow them.

He [the pastor]  had left such a trail of hurting and damaged people, and I felt that I could no longer be a part of that type of destruction.

A toxic view of spiritual authority:  Orlowski outlines the flaws of bad, unbiblical leadership and delves into the restorative and biblical model of leadership hinted at in the Old Covenant and revealed in Jesus and the New Covenant.  This is particularly helpful for those who haven't given the issue much thought.  Assumptions can kill, and this book challenges faulty leadership assumptions.

Commenting on her own experience with leadership that wounds, the author says, "Those who had raised concerns were seen as agitators..."  Those who have also experienced wounding leadership will agree with her sentiments.

As Barbara Orlowski suggests, even the concept of spiritual abuse can be minimized by those who have never experienced it, or not even on the radar of many Christian leaders.  The issue of spiritual abuse needs to be exposed and addressed; and her book capably exposes this critical issue, giving the research results of her study into spiritual abuse.

Those who would most benefit from this book: 
.Pastors, church leaders, counselors, and seminary students - who want to know the research behind spiritual abuse and how it affects those who are marred by it.  The book also would serve to provide them with a deeper look into biblical authority.

.  Anyone interested in a more research-based look at spiritual abuse, that backs up claims of abuse with real data into the victims' of spiritual abuse traumatic experiences.

Author's website:  Church Exiters

Amazon link:  Spiritual Abuse Recovery - Dynamic Research on Finding a Place of Wholeness

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Reviewed by Jim Robbins, author of Recover Your Good Heart - Living Free From Religious Guilt and the Shame of Not Good-Enough

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Thursday
Aug052010

Audiobook version of Jim's book - update

DateThursday, August 5, 2010 at 12:53PM

This week, I completed the editing of the audiobook version of my book, Recover Your Good Heart.  I thought the recording part took a long time, but editing was even more labor-intensive.  (It can take over and hour to edit a 20-minute chapter.) But I'm excited to release this new resource in the near future.  I want to provide an audiobook version because many prefer to listen, rather than to read.

The audiobooks will probably come in a 5-CD set. I've talked with the company that will be producing my audiobook packages, and they say it will cost me around $400 to duplicate the CD's and package them. Each set is costing me $15 to produce, as I'll be doing a smaller run to test the waters. 

This is a big chunk of change for my family.  The ministry of The Good and Noble Heart is just me -- no sponsors or publishing houses backing me. I've independently published my work.  (Which, I'm discovering, can have its advantages -- but that's another conversation) 

So, if you'd like to help me with some portion of the $400 it will take to produce the audiobooks, I'd be grateful.   I'm not an official non-profit, and therefore don't have a tax ID number -- but your gift would go right to the production of the audiobooks, and get the message of the good and noble heart out there.

You can email here, if you'd like to help.

Thanks!

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Monday
Aug022010

That story is too small for you.

DateMonday, August 2, 2010 at 4:14PM

How can you tell if the story you're living in, the script that you're following, is too small for you?

  1. Life becomes about managing risk, more than audacious faith.

  2. You'll borrow others' stories -- through pop-culture magazines, novels and reality t.v. shows -- because yours feels uneventful and boring.

  3. You won't think of entering into the stories of friends and family -- getting to know their hearts, their wounds and desires -- because you're not even aware of how your own story has developed.

  4. The nature of your prayers hasn't changed for years, perhaps:  stalled and sputtering, rather than asking the Father the sorts of things Jesus did.

  5. You'll feel that the stories of the Bible are distant and disconnected from your own experience -- that your own story bears little resemblance to the distinctly supernatural interplay those of ages past enjoyed with God.

  6. You'll feel disengaged from your own heart's desires -- perhaps even dismissing the life you most deeply want.  Or, your desires may be so deeply buried or denied that you're not even aware of them.

  7. Perhaps the story you've adopted is too small for you.  Perhaps it isn't God's story for you.

God's heart is strongly for you:  listen to his tailor-made invitation for your life.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment4 Comments |
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Wednesday
Jul282010

In defense of the Renaissance Man

DateWednesday, July 28, 2010 at 6:00AM

Is it possible for one to be both scholar and artist?  Simultaneously "right-brained, and 'left-brained" and capable at both?

Part of the problem with our contemporary culture of "experts" is that it doesn't allow for the real possibility that a man or woman can effectively operate out of both sides of their brain, or demonstrate expertise in both the arts and the intellect.   Going to our General Practitioner won't do -- we are referred to a 'specialist.'  There's simply too much to know for any one person to know it all.

As I've wrestled with my own calling, the idea that a person who is a jack-of-all-trades can only be 'master of none' has forced me into an artificial narrowness:  "If I am a writer, then people won't possibly believe that I am also an artist and musician."  (Or at least, not very good at either; because how could any one person possibly be skilled at both.)

What would Leonardo DaVinci have thought of this constricted vision of human calling?  His own brilliance covered such sweeping pursuits as painting, architecture, the anatomy of the human body, and even the design of tanks and advanced weaponary.  The man who painted the "Last Supper" also excelled in geometry and architecture. 

Yet, perhaps our culture of experts has sabotaged the Renaissance Man with narrow and constricting assumptions.

One the one hand, it is good for a person to be as clear and specific about their calling as they can be.  On the other, there may be a common thread running underneath the various pursuits of the Renaissance Man or Woman.  In my case, it was the thread of design:  whether I am composing a music score for a video, or writing another chapter of my next book, I deeply enjoy creating and revealing design  -- whether it's the design of a musical composition, or the design of the human heart and its longings.  The intellect and the artistry are not mutually-exclusive, but mutually-affirming.

So take heart, those of you who, like DaVinci have found yourself competent in both the intellect and scholarly as well as the poetic and sublime.  There is precident for what you can offer the world.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment4 Comments |
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Saturday
Jul242010

Why God became ruined

DateSaturday, July 24, 2010 at 6:00AM

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."  - Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - What I Learned While Editing My Life

God is also a character in a Story. However, even though he is its author, though he could write a less painful part for himself, he subjects himself to the story.     He's in fact, the hero, the protagonist.  If he doesn't come through, then you don't get to live.  So what does God have to overcome in order to get what he's after? 

First of all, what exactly is he after? 
He's after the total and supernatural re-making of each person -- which means he has to rescue their hearts.  Rescue the heart and you rescue the person.  Only restored persons are able to live well in a restored habitat.  God is after the thorough remaking of all living things, so that they may receive his affection and direct, unfiltered Life. 

“This world is a great sculptor’s shop.  We are the statues and there is a rumor going round the shop that some of us are some day going to come to life.”  - C.S. Lewis

This has already been done.  The Great Lion, Aslan, by the stirring of his own breath, has released those bound in stone into his own immortality.  Sodom and Gomorrah has been reversed.  This is the gift of salvation.

Second, what does God overcome to get it?
The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom. The unintended consequences of his Beloved's freedom.

He has to enter into conflict with his own creation's ruinous affliction and overcome it.  He ties the millstone around his own neck. He goes down with the ship.  Because he is truly free, he discards his own freedom by becoming ruined himself [God "became sin for us"], turning the human heart back towards his affection. He gave the Christian her new and noble heart, so that she could return to God with all her heart.

 

"A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."

AuthorJim Robbins | CommentPost a Comment |
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Tuesday
Jul202010

THE ASSAULT AGAINST YOUR CALLING - new podcast in the 'calling' series

DateTuesday, July 20, 2010 at 9:47AM

Special guest Gary Barkalow, author of the upcoming book, It's Your Call:  What are you doing here?, joins Jim again for part four of their series on living from our calling. 

What has been coming against your heart to shut it down?  What is at stake as we pursue the deep desires of our hearts and the calling that is written there?

This was a powerful conversation with Gary Barkalow, who brings a deep clarity to the struggles of calling.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment4 Comments |
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Friday
Jul162010

Danger: Exhortation that ignores the new heart

DateFriday, July 16, 2010 at 6:27PM

Much of what passes for the “gospel” these days is a message of exhortation without regeneration—preaching that excludes the New Covenant reality of a transformed heart. (Or more accurately, preaching that is grossly unaware of this transformation having already occurred.)

The message of exhortation translated today says, “You’re not doing enough of this; or you’re doing too much of that:” “You’re too selfish, not committed to your marriage, not serving enough …”

Exhortation becomes an attempt to manage (or manipulate) people’s behavior by pressure and guilt, rather than urging them to release the good stored up in their heart through Christ’s work in them.  Exhortation leans toward the 'not-enough' and 'not yet' rather than relentlessly pursuing the  supernaturally-pure heart Jesus has already given us at our conversion.

[Excerpted from my book: Recover Your Good Heart -- Living Free from Religious Guilt and the Shame of Not Good-Enough.]

AuthorJim Robbins | CommentPost a Comment |
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Tuesday
Jul132010

Good and also becoming good

DateTuesday, July 13, 2010 at 1:40PM

How can Christians be both already good, and becoming good?  Here are two verses that lay this out for us:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Cor. 5:17)   (Here, there’s a sense of finality. Our goodness is a settled fact.)


But Scripture also show us the ever-increasing process of becoming good …

“ For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge...and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1: 4-8)

(In this verse, we have a sense of Christ’s character developing in us with growing measure, over time.)

As I learn to live from my new and supernaturally-good heart, I mature in the goodness that God has already given me. That goodness may be as yet not expressed, but nevertheless still present in me. Discipleship is the process by which I enjoy and continue to express an already-present holiness and wholeness within me.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment1 Comment |
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Wednesday
Jul072010

Toxic preaching that confuses and wounds

DateWednesday, July 7, 2010 at 12:32PM

"Christianity is not about how good we are, but how good God is." 

Are we sure about that?  [Even raising the question sounds heretical, doesn't it?]  As my friend Mike cautions, "Don't poke the bear..."  But what if the answer to the question is:  It depends on who the "we" is, in that statement. 

Part of the problem with preaching today is that it often has to be addressed to a large, diverse crowd, some of whom buy into the teaching of Jesus and some who are cautiously investigating.  The speaker/preacher ends up delivering a broad, cast-a-wide-net message that isn't oriented to any particular segment of the crowd [and ends up confusing everybody], or ends up covertly addressing the "unbeliever" in an attempt to evangelize them, though he appears to be addressing everybody.  [I used to be in that very position, so I understand the complexities.]

However, to preach or teach and not be clear with the crowd exactly to whom you are speaking [especially when making a statement like the one above] can have a bewildering and injurious effect.

For example, the above claim that:  "Christianity is not about how good we are, but about how good God is"  is true, but requires a clear caveat.  If you're a Christian who hears that statement, you might assume that your heart [your true nature] remains selfish and sinful --because it's not about "how good we are," according to that statement. 

This would in fact, be untrue and unbiblical for the Christian to believe.  The idea that the human heart is desperately wicked is true -- prior to a person entering the 'in-Christ' life.  After Jesus enters the person, he or she has a supernaturally and thoroughly-pure heart [true nature].  This is the classic notion of regeneration.

You can image the confusion many Christians have felt when hearing statements that are non-specific and unclarified like this.  The affect of such an unthoughtul approach to preaching (and a misunderstanding of Jesus' rescuing of the heart] leaves many who are technically free, but functionally bound, like Lazarus:  Invited into life, but unable to live freely, under the 'easy yoke.'  They don't know they've been made radically good; and their spirits break under the weight of poor preaching.

Can you think of other apparently 'Christian' statements that really need clarifying and a deeper undertanding?

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Related post:

"How much do you know about 'grace?'

Video:  "How to Shame a Christian"

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment4 Comments |
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Tuesday
Jul062010

Registration ends tomorrow - 'Live' web event

DateTuesday, July 6, 2010 at 9:28AM

I'm teaching an online webcast series on "RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART."  The first (of four) sessions is called, "Guilt, Shame and Pressure!"

 

 

  1. When:  Thursday, July 8th at 8:30 p.m. (East Coast time)
  2. Registration for that event is now open.  Click here for more.
AuthorJim Robbins | CommentPost a Comment |
Thursday
Jul012010

Web "Live" event series - registration is now open

DateThursday, July 1, 2010 at 10:40AM

I'm teaching an online webcast series on "RECOVER YOUR GOOD HEART."  The first (of four) sessions is called, "Guilt, Shame and Pressure!"

 

 

  1. When:  Thursday, July 8th at 8:30 p.m. (East Coast time)
  2. Registration for that event is now open.  Click here for more.

Watch the video to get an idea of what I will cover in the web series:

HOW TO SHAME A CHRISTIAN from Jim Robbins on Vimeo.

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Thursday
Jun242010

What does 'calling' have to do with your heart?

DateThursday, June 24, 2010 at 9:20AM

You may be wondering why a guy like me, who typically speaks about the heart, is talking about 'calling' lately. 

The first reason is that the topic of calling is part of a book I'm working on.  Second, because you can't find your calling without believing Christ has given you a good and noble heart.  Calling flows from heart.

Within your new heart lie the clues to your place in the Story - your 'calling.'  These clues come in the form of your deep desires, as well as the story your heart has been living in.   Beneath the defining events of your life, the pattern of wounds, the activities that made you come alive, something was happening in your heart - shaping it, calling it up and out.  Your heart has a unique history and a story to tell.

If you believe your heart is deceitful and selfish, it will be hard to see your deep desires and to believe that there are now good and noble desires within your new and noble heart.

That's why I write about calling.  Calling flows from heart.

 

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Monday
Jun212010

Is it o.k. to get paid for your calling?

DateMonday, June 21, 2010 at 4:41PM

Yes, it is o.k.

There are those, who with good intentions, are saying 'no,' though.  Their contention is that "God's stuff" should be free.  However, as noble as that sounds, it stems from an unhelpful view of calling.

Their argument:  Get a 'real job' so that you can support your true calling and offer your message for free. But here's the problem with that: 

Your calling is to bring the effect of your life into every area of your life -- including your 'job.'  Ideally, your job reflects your calling and giftings and is suited to them.  Isn't your job a ministry?  For those that want to say "Get a real job that supports your ministry so that your ministry offering is free,"  I say, "But isn't your 'real job' a ministry?  Don't you bring the effect of your life, your gifts and unique heart to that job setting?  Why is that any less a ministry?

Secondly, their argument seems to apply primarily to those having a message-based ministry, rather than a product or service that isn't primarily message-based.  This might include Christian authors and speakers, or those creating explicitly 'Christian' music.  Those who are bringing a kingdom message seem to fall into a separate category than anyone else in the Body of Christ -- pedestalizing that group of communicators -- and diminishing the role of everyone else in the Body.  [I'm not even specifically thinking of paid 'pastors' and the like, necessarily; but more generally of anyone whose mission is primarily message-driven.]

Would they expect a physician, who happens to be a Christian, to offer his services free?  Not likely?  But isn't he also doing God's work and offering the restoring work of Jesus?  How about the hairdresser who loves God and brings him into conversations with her clients?  Should she offer her services free? I don't think we would expect that of her.  But for some reason, those whose primary mission centers around a message are expected to offer it free -- austensibly because it's "God's stuff."  (Yet isn't the doctor and the hairdresser offering 'God's stuff' as well to their clients?)  Don't we all have a right to support our families at a reasonable level? [-Of course, I'm speaking of reasonable pay and in good-conscience.]

If we use the inequitable scale of value that those who want God's stuff to be free do, then no one  in the Body should be paid for any of their work, including the 'real jobs' they have, since we'd hope that every believer treats his/her job as a ministry and an extension of their calling. 

I understand the sentiment of those wanting the message to be free -- I just don't think that value -scale is being applied equally across the Body, and I think it creates a false division in the Body as to which callings are more important than others.

No calling is more godly or sacred than the next, because each one's gifts and calling flow from him who levelled the playing field.  Let's stop pedestalizing (and penalizing) those primarily offering a message, and lift up each one's offering to others -- whether that person brings their gifts as an artist, author, electrician, doctor or hairdresser.

Your thoughts?

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment5 Comments |
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Wednesday
Jun162010

The Trinity is a clue to calling

DateWednesday, June 16, 2010 at 8:39AM

Just about anything of importance can be figured out by watching the Trinity in action.  This includes our individual callings as unique persons.

We don't have one God wearing three different hats:  we have one God in three distinct persons.  All possessing ultimate divinity, yet living out unique roles.  Let's take a look:

The Father:  the Sender  ["As the Father has sent me..."]

The Son:  the Bridge  ["Therefore, since we have a great high priest ..., Jesus"]

The Spirit:  the Counselor  ["But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, ... will teach you all things and will remind you of all..."]

Clearly, there's a fluidity and overlap to the roles of each person in the Trinity, but the distinctness of those roles is also true.  That's why you and I have distinct roles and callings in the Body of Christ.  Remember, as the Trinity goes, so goes the Body:  Whatever is in the Trinity flows towards us.

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What unique calling do you have, your distinct offering to others?

 

 

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Thursday
Jun102010

Badly underestimating a life

DateThursday, June 10, 2010 at 6:21AM

On NPR today, a man was being interviewed who had made it his year-long quest to bake the perfect loaf of bread. 

My first thought was, "This guy has badly underestimated the cosmic drama unfolding around him."  My second thought was, "This guy has a really lackluster sense of his own personal calling."

Don't misunderstand me:  I think freshly-baked bread is one of life's true pleasures.  In fact, today I enjoyed a sandwich made with a nutty garlic and potato artisan bread:  Nourishing and hand-crafted.  But taking a year of my life to learn how to bake the perfect loaf isn't something that strikes me as urgent or enduring.  Rather, it strikes me as a bit naive. 

He has miscalculated two things:  the unfolding Story into which he has been invited; and his place in that Story.  It's much like the journalist in the movie, Saving Private Ryan, who had never seen battle before.  He's been asked to join a rescue operation.  He wants to bring his clunky and cumbersome typewriter; but the Captain, played by Tom Hanks says, "Here, take this instead" and hands him a pencil. The journalist didn't know what to take because he sorely underestimated the unfolding circumstances:  He wasn't taking another desk job  -  he was about to engage in field ops, where he would get shot at.

Surely the man who took a year of his life to pursue the perfect loaf has much more to offer the world -- a more needed and substantial treasure to give.   If our naivete persists, we might as well bring cookies and punch to flood victims; and board games to the clinically-depressed.  Surely much more is needed than that.

AuthorJim Robbins | Comment5 Comments |
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