Message: “Where’s Jesus? vol. 5: Letting Go of the gods of Christianity” from Ross Stackhouse

Message at 28:40. Every human being on planet earth has a core fear. It might be something they developed from childhood. It might be something that took shape later in life. And oftentimes our way to deal with that core fear is not to turn towards our hard feelings and the fear, but instead we invent ways to avoid our feelings and core fears. Would you believe we do the same thing with religion? Instead of facing our doubts and sorrows and uncertainty and fear, we invent methods to build up false certainty and control so we don’t have to feel vulnerable. If we want to fully experience the beauty and power of life with Jesus, we’ll have to let go of the gods of false certainty and control. We’ll have to turn toward our fears, doubts, sorrows and uncertainty as we turn toward Jesus. If we want to find Jesus in all his power and beauty, we will have to accept the invitation to turn away from the gods of Christianity like false certainty and control and toward hard, worthy things like mystery, vulnerability, insecurity and fear.

Related Topics: discipleship, theology | More Messages from Ross Stackhouse

From Series: "Where's Jesus? Finding and Following Jesus When Much of Christianity Doesn't Look Like Him"

Data and stories reveal that a growing number of people, especially in younger generations, don't want much to do with Christianity. Folks feel like they can see Christians in every direction, but they can't necessarily see Jesus in the Christians they find. We're going to have an honest, hopeful series of conversations about rediscovering the Jesus whom so many folks in the first century were thrilled to see and seek with everything.