#stan mitchell

“Sincerely yours, Stan, PS: We should be together too”

Stan Mitchell stimboard :3

Despite being an atheist and really hating Christianity for how it’s hurt me, there is ONE sermon I will still listen to. “The Good News You’ve Never Needed” by Stan Mitchell

I grew up believing there was a chasm between me and God and Jesus had to die so I could be reunited with him. When I would evangelize, our first task was to convince people they were broken and had sinned. Then we’d sell them the solution.

This sermon flips the narrative on its head and condemns the church of being the one who separates people from God. It feels vindictive.

Here are some quotes:

“The good news we never needed is that we can be reunited with God. The great news you never heard is that you were never separated in the first place”

“And if they need a journey of salvation, the journey is not a linear journey to become something they aren’t, it’s a circular journey to come home to who they are and always have been”

“Gods holiness is his unwillingness and incapacity to ever be separated from us, no matter the condition of our present soul”

“The serpent told [Eve] she had a sickness she did not have, offered her a cure she did not need, and led her to another illness she did not deserve - and that other illness is an illness of shame” (THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT THE CHURCH DID TO ME)

“The gospel is not a religious process of appeasement so we’ll help God become comfortable with our brokenness, our frailty, and our imperfection. The gospel is God trying to help us understand how comfortable and safe we should’ve always felt in the Divine presence”

I may no longer believe there is a God to come home to, but I do believe I have finally come home to myself. I am not broken, I have nothing to feel ashamed of, I am whole, I am not in need of salvation, I have always been safe and whole as I am.