Resources
THERaPY
Pastors are not therapists. We know all too well the damage spiritual guides can cause by posing as such. Because of that, our leadership team does not provide counseling services. However, we are happy to meet with you once to sit, listen, and point you toward the right professional counselor. If you have an urgent pastoral need, please email us hello@viningslake.org with the subject line: Urgent. Below you will find our recommended counseling partners:
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Summit’s Edge Counseling 1.888.551.5168
www.summitsedgecounseling.com
Summit’s Edge is an Anti-Racist, Neuro-Diverse, Trans-Inclusive, LGBTQ+, and Gender, Sexual, & Romantic Minorities-Affirming practice. They are respectful of all cultures and exercise humility toward their client’s religious identities. In our humble opinion, they are the best in the business. They have a wide array of therapists that specialize in just about every area needed. If they cannot help your specific situation, they will walk you to the front door of someone who can. At VL, we love Summit’s Edge Counseling.
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Ignatius House (Jesuit Retreat Center)
www.ignatiushouse.org
Spiritual directors are not therapists. They are people who listen and may be able to offer observations about your understanding, relationship, and interactions with the Divine. St. Ignatius of Loyola understood the role of a spiritual director as one who helps another grow in relationship with God by listening, offering, and then getting out of the way. Ignatius House honors this commitment. Ignatius House is a beautiful retreat center just 10 miles from VL. If you need a listening ear, spiritual guidance, a night away, peace and quiet, or a walk in the woods, this is your place.
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Kent Dobson
www.kentdobson.com
Kent is no stranger to our collective. He has taught here a couple times, and we reference his work often. Kent calls himself a companion guide. What is that? Companion-Guiding is his term for the ancient archetype of Mentor, or Soul-Guide. This role is as old as the human tradition, though largely forgotten in the modern world. Kent will come alongside your journey of soul descent and spiritual development and offer mirroring, questions, dreamwork, and various nature-based practices. His work is informed by his ongoing training at Animas Valley Institute and his experiences as a guide, pastor, and teacher.
Readings
If you are new to our understanding and have found yourself wondering how you can go deeper, further, and wider, we got you. We have created a short list of some recurring topics that have continually arisen around our collective. This is not an exhaustive list and will be added to as we continue to move forward. We always recommend you flip to the back of the books you love most and see who your author is citing. If you want to think like your author, don’t just read what they write, read what they read. Remember, you are responsible for your own growth and maturity.
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How the Bible Actually Works - Peter Enns
The Bible Tells Me So - Peter Enns
What is the Bible - Rob Bell
Inspired - Rachel Held Evans
How to Read the Bible and Stay Christian - John Dominic Crossan
Reading The Bible Again for The First Time - Marcus J. Borg
If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I? - Angela N. Parker -
Inventing Hell - John Sweeny
Her Gates Will Never Be Shut - Brad Jersak
That All Shall Be Saved - David Bentley Hart Love Wins - Rob Bell
Raising Hell - Julie Ferwerda -
Trump and a Post-Truth World - Ken Wilber
Integral Consciousness - Steve McIntosh
A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle
Do I Stay Christian? - Brian McLaren The Great Emergence - Phyllis Tickle The Great Spiritual Migration - Brain McLaren -
Faith After Doubt - Brian McLaren
The Sin of Certainty - Peter Enns
Out of Sorts - Sarah Bessey
Faith Unraveled - Rachel Held Evans Leaving Church - Barbara Brown Taylor
Velvet Elvis - Repainting the Christian Faith -
Sacred Earth + Sacred Soul - John Phillip Newel
Christ of the Celts - J. Phillip Newel Immortal Diamond - Richard Rohr
Original Blessing - Daniele Shroyer -
Changing our Mind - David Gushee UnClobber - Colby Martin
God and the Gay Christian - Matthew Vines
Torn - Justin Lee
Sex and the Single Savior - Dale B. Martin
Bible, Gender, and Sexuality - James Brownson
Blue Babies Pink Podcast - B.T. Harman -
Green Like God - Jonathan Merritt
Food and Faith - Norman Wirzba
Greening Paul - Horrell, Hunt,
Serving God, Saving the Planet - J. Matthew Sleeth
Agrarian Spirit - Norman Wirzba
Order of the Sacred Earth - Matthew Fox -
A Black Theology of Liberation - James H. Cone
Stand Your Ground - Kelly Brown Douglas
I’m Still Here - Austin Channing Brown
The Little Book of Restorative Justice - Howard Zehr
The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander
The Little Book of Biblical Justice - Chris Marshall
Living Resistance - Kaitlin B. Curtice -
Interpretation Commentary Series
Wisdom Commentary Series Women’s Bible Commentary
JPS Torah Commentary
The Bible for Normal People Book Series
The New Testament for Everyone
Harper Collins Study Bible
Harper Collins Bible Dictionary -
Jesus and Empire - Richard A. Horsley
God and Empire - John Dominic Crossan The Writings of The New Testament - Luke Timothy Johnson
Hidden Riches - Christopher B. Hays The Old Testament - Coogan/Chapman
Church History - Everett Ferguson
Christ and the Caesars - Ethelbert Stauffer
Collectives
We get asked weekly, “Are there any collectives/churches in my area that are like Vinings Lake?” Behind that question is often an ache of loneliness and a longing for community. Our collective knows first-hand what it feels like to have family and friends walk away because of new perspectives, understandings, and ideas about life, God, faith, humanity, and spirituality.
At times, it can feel like you are the only person on the planet who sees the world the way you do. We want to assure you that you are not. More and more, collectives like VL are rising every day and might, in fact, be right underneath you. It’s likely most of these spaces are quietly and incessantly doing the good work in their part of the world and have largely gone unnoticed.
If you have begun to despair that you are the only one, take heart. YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
Below are a few safe trusted search engines that can help you better find a local collective that might share some of the same values we do at VL. If you still come up empty, be free to email us at hello@viningslake.org and we will try to help you further.
