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Lina and Amber discuss her journey of reconstructing her faith, what we should be deconstructing, and rhythms of faith.

Fractured Faith Questions Discussed:

1. (2:12) Share a little of your faith journey with us.  When did you begin walking with Jesus?
2. (12:12) You were serving as the women’s director of Harvest church when you hit a wall and so began the crumbling of the Christianity you had known up to that point.  Take us back and share the story that is the starting place of your book Fractured Faith.
3. (18:25) Deconstruction.  What do you think people mean when they say they’re deconstructing? And what do you mean?
4. (20:13) You write, “The key is in remembering who God really is, not who we’ve made Him to be.” That is easy to say and much harder to do, when you are untangling who God ACTUALLY is from all you’ve been taught and experienced culturally.  What did that process look like for you?
5. (24:19) Let’s talk about trusting feelings
6. (33:00) One thing I love about the book is the deconstruction diagram you provide as an appendix. In that diagram there comes a point where a person goes down a path of disbelief or a path of reconstruction. Share a bit of the diagram with us and your experience in reconstructing your faith.
7. (37:58) Talk about the rhythms of faith.
8. (43:04) What do you want to say this generation that’s just struggling with the church?
9. (46:21) What is Living With Power ministries doing in Ukraine?

Quotes to Remember From Fractured Faith with Lina Abujamra:

“By His grace, I’ve been able to wrestle through those difficult questions of the faith in various seasons of life, and come on the side of the Lord.”

“If God saves you, He’ll keep you.”

“All these other storylines that we create, that we make much of, that’s not the main storyline, we must make much of Him.”

“I think the years 2016 to 22, have been a really painful.  I’d give the American church a D-. And I hate to say it, because I think there are some great bodies of believers here and there…But by and large, if you are not a Christian and you’re looking at Christians, I think we get a D-. And we don’t fail simply because of God’s grace and the fact that His church doesn’t fail.”

“By the time I was three years into the woman’s ministry role, I was seeing a lot of the cracks in the foundation and things that I think I should have had better answers from the leadership, so I actually stepped down from the leadership role.”

“I think there are certain things in our church world that have to deconstruct, and one of the main ones is what we value as spiritually mature and successful.”

“I 100% believe the Bible is the inerrant, authoritative, infallible word of God. And I think that makes a big difference in terms of how you find your answers to the problem of deconstruction.”

“Don’t look at God like your pastor.”

“The person who wooed me back was Jesus…And where do you find Jesus? In His Word.”

“There’s a moment of awareness in every Christian’s life….I don’t know how to explain it, but Jesus was with me in the worst of it and he’s still here.”

“Wherever you are in the process of pain, or being alienated from God or His church, I think the minute you pivot your face towards Him, you’ll find that He’s coming towards you.”

“Probably what saved me, outside of the grace of God, was the disciplined habit of being in the Word of God.”

“We have become a culture that loves this authenticity, but we’re authenticizing ourselves to each other and we can’t save each other. We need to be authentic before the Lord.”

Scripture References

• Psalm 22
• Psalm 139
• Ruth and Naomi

Resources Mentioned:

• Book: Fractured Faith by Lina Abujamra
• Book: Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero
• Book: How to Hear God: A simple guide for normal people by Pete Greig
• Book: God on Mute by Pete Greig

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• 106: Scot McKnight & Laura Barringer | Church Culture: Goodness vs. Abuse of Power
• 94: Mary DeMuth | Hope After Sexual Abuse