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Introduction to this forum!

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Introduction to this forum! Empty Introduction to this forum!

Post by Admin Thu Aug 04, 2016 9:48 pm

Hello there!

My name is M. (for now) and I have been encouraged after many a conversation with friends and family to start a site/forum
that can be a support network for people who want to speak openly about issues relating to the church
such as..guilt, shame, depression, anxiety, women's role in the church, doubt, and sexuality.  It's all good stuff that you probably
wouldn't feel so comfortable chit chatting about during coffee hour after a Sunday Liturgy!

Well, here's the deal.  I need your help!  A forum can't be started and maintained by one person!
This forum is
not. about. me.
Or you either, for that matter.  
Rather it is safe place for people to come together as a community to share their ideas, their questions, their fears, triumphs
and their stories.  You can post stuff anonymously so that people don't know it's you!  (I will be setting up a forum to explain more about that)  
 
Each one of us has a relationship with the church.  For some people, that relationship was in the past but they seek closure or better understanding of the effects that relationship had and has on their lives.  For some people, their relationship is just beginning and perhaps they are considering becoming part of the church.  For some people, they were born into it, like me.  

I have reason to believe that many people, including myself, struggle and have struggled and will struggle with the church.  I believe that there is a difference between fighting the good fight of seeking God, and dealing with shame, guilt, confusion, and mental suffocation; disorders that God doesn't want you to suffer from.  

That is why this forum is here.  To talk about those symptoms that can form out of any type of relationship, including one with the church.  
I ask you to add on your thoughts and opinions and wisdom to this forum about the relationship between church and the individual human spirit.

I want you to feel totally free to be disagreeable.  Do it respectfully, but please-do it!  Put your thoughts onto the page.  

Again, I want this to be a safe place to speak your mind openly.

After all, it's good to acknowledge your feelings.  Acknowledging your feelings rather than suppressing them is saying, "I am worthy of my emotions and my thoughts.  I am worthy to FEEL."

And you are!  What a relief.  


I will be posting a mission statement and guidelines for how to use this forum to keep it as respectful and transparent as possible.  

This forum is not a place to dump your bitterness, but it is a place to talk about your pain.  
It's not a place to condemn other human beings but a place to talk about your hurt and consider forgiveness.
It is a place to share your experiences, your pain, your worries, your epiphanies, and questions.

Please feel free to share stories but do not use real people's names.  If you talk about other people using their names, your post will be taken down.
Please understand this is because we want to keep a presence of peace that does not involve discrimination and condemnation.

We are here because we are seeking first in order to find.  If you don't look, then you will not find.
Jesus says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven" and that "the kingdom of heaven is within you".  

We have to look inside ourselves to find our truth.  

I invite you to be brave and to question and to seek.  The answers will be given to you if you only ask.  

We are all in this together.

Peace, bro and sis!

Admin
Admin

Posts : 2
Join date : 2016-08-04

https://seekyefirst.board-directory.net

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