In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Pete and Jared talk with Jen Hatmaker about what can happen, emotionally and relationally, when you change your mind about the Bible, and they explore the following questions:
- How do we survive changing our minds about the bible and still keep our faith intact?
- What did Jen Hatmaker’s upbringing teach her about questions and pushing back on her faith?
- How did changing her mind about human sexuality in the church put Jen in a position of public scrutiny?
- Did the backlash against her theology shift come from personal realtionships or industry?
- Were there any surprises about the reaction to Jen’s change in position?
- Does Jen feel like she was treated any differently as a female Christian leader, as opposed to a man?
- What was it like to walk her church through becoming an affirming church?
- As she has gone through this process of healing, what insights has she learned about the people that lashed out at leaders who begin to ask hard questions?
- What does changing your mind do for your sense of safe certainty?
- What was the key exposure that God wrote into her story that started breaking down Jen’s certainties?
- What passages in the Bible caused theological shifts for Jen Hatmaker?
- What does Jesus’ teaching about “fruit of the spirit” mean to Jen?
- What did Jen see when she looked at the fruit of the non-affirming Christian tree?
- What role did biblical interpretation play in Jen Hatmaker’s theological shift?
- How does it feel to be on this journey, in partnership with the Holy Spirit?
- How has Jen found nourishment through this experience?
- What words of encouragement does Jen have for others who are going through this experience?
Tweetables
Pithy, shareable, less-than-280-character statements you can share.
- “I didn’t grow up in an environment where questions were asked, much less welcomed. I didn’t even know we could do that. I had no idea that we had permission to press hard on our faith.” @JenHatmaker
- “I have myself permission to become a critical thinker about faith, about the Bible, about cultural understandings of all of those things.” @JenHatmaker
- “The misfits find their way to one another.” @JenHatmaker
- “Just when I thought I was leaving a structure where I was banished and doomed to wonder the wilderness by myself the rest of my life, I get out to the wilderness and find it fairly populated and it’s kind of wild out here…There’s great joy out here.” – @JenHatmaker
- “If it feels like it’s the end of the world, it’s only the end of one world. If you’re in the season of lonely, just stay the course.” @JenHatmaker
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