Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing
Dates: Monday, June 13 thru Monday, August 22 (July 4 will be a night off)
Time: 7 PM – 9 PM
Location: The River Church Community, 670 Lincoln Ave. San Jose, 95126
Many of us feel ashamed and undesirable after years of sexual brokenness. The guilt and stigma surrounding sexual struggles can paralyze us and keep us from seeking help and healing. Author Jay Stringer approaches these sensitive subjects with gentleness and understanding. Based on original research from over 3,800 men and women,
Unwanted is a groundbreaking resource that explores the “why” behind self-destructive sexual choices to help readers work towards freedom
Addressing difficult issues with compassionate insight, this book discusses:
- Abandonment and broken relationships
- Trauma and sexual abuse
- Dysfunctional family systems
- Deprivation, dissociation, and futility
- The sex industry and pornography
- Learning to love and care for yourself
- Healthy conflict and repair in your relationships
- Investing in community
- Creating healthy boundaries
A perfect resource for those seeking help in the area of sexual brokenness. Unwanted offers life-changing, practical guidance rooted in clinical evidence to light the way on a path to wholeness. Jay Stringer’s approach can be applied to any variant of sexual brokenness.
Most resources address unwanted sexual behavior as largely about lust and, therefore, requires tight controls on behavior and “check-in” accountability (with the associated shame and guilt when confession time rolls around). From rubber band snapping to “bouncing one’s eyes,” the pathway toward healthy sexuality has often left those caught in its grip feeling like MORE of a failure rather than hopeful that something new can emerge. Don’t get me wrong – certainly seeking to alter behaviors is part of the process – but those steps on their own (or even as primary solution steps) overlook the deeper story.
Our ten-weeks together is about sharing our stories with one another, learning the language of the heart that allows us to access the pain of our wounding that drives our acting out with self. This recognition that unwanted sexual behavior is far from random and the pathway to healing and wholeness lies in going deeper into one’s story rather than keeping it at arm’s length, will prove to be life changing. This deep sharing helps us to understand the root of our behavior, rather than just focusing on the behavior itself. There is power in working out our healing in community (small groups) rather than reading the book isolated from the life that intimacy with others offers us. Discussing this book with a trusted group of men who are authentically processing and exploring their own journey provides us the grace we need to share honestly.
So many of us are bound to shame that acts as a blockade to engaging with others; hence, our healing is never realized. For me personally, in exploring the terrain of my childhood, I found a lot of shame. That shame kept me from a life of relational and emotional wholeness that I think the Unwanted book group can help us to achieve.
We are offering a practical strategy for healing and wholeness within a supportive community. I hope you’ll consider joining us.
TUITION
Tuition for the class is $200
Paid either through our PayPal account or by check on the first group meeting.