Anxiety

 

Ralph Moore has made available a free course on anxiety.

We live in extraordinarily uncertain times. The future is far less predictable than ever. Our children are anxious. Who knows when COVID-19 might hit close to home. Businesses are vulnerable. The housing market is out of control and people's dreams have been torpedoed. There are many things to keep us awake at night.

Ralph Moore knows what it is like to collapse under the weight of anxiety and he speaks out of his own experience plus his understanding of the Bible.

The course consists of a small e-book plus recordings of excerpts from some sermons. Moore looks at:

1. Why do you feel this way?
2. Anxiety takes different forms.
3. What causes anxiety?
4. How you can learn to cope with anxiety.
5. Why Christian leaders often hurt more than other people.
6. How to let God worry instead of me.

If you think it looks useful for yourself or someone else, have a look.

I've Got No Friends At Church

The Lonely Crowd: Churches Dying Due To Friendlessness, by Mike Frost suggests that churches might be pretty bad at helping people find genuine friendships. Interactions can be friendly but superficial.

It is not only churches. People feeling that they have few or no friends is increasingly common in our societies.

Frost offers his reflections under four headings:

1. Church people aren't good listeners
2. Church people struggle to be vulnerable
3. Church people need to be less busy
4. The onus shouldn't be on the newcomer

It might well be that we can do much for the growth of our churches by encouraging deeper relationships and teaching members how to be friends. Some people are leaving churches because of the inability to make friends there. Could the church model something that is being lost in our world but we all crave?