Serenity Gardens
Serenity Gardens inspirational material
You'll be equipped to minister in truth and compassion to a loved one who deals with same-sex attractions, respond to misinformation in our culture and defend biblical beliefs with grace and understanding. But mostly, you'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality and lead people into freedom in Jesus Christ.
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Those who bear the marks of despair on their bodies need a community that bears the world's only sure hope in its body. They need communities that rehearse this hope again and again and delight in their shared foretaste of God's promised world to come. They need to see that this great promise, secured by Christ's resurrection, compels us to work amidst the wreckage in hope. In so doing, the church provides her depressed members with a plausible hope and a tangible reminder of the message they most need to hear: This sin-riddled reality does not have the last word. Christ as embodied in his church is the last word.
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My psychiatric hospital stays were not what I expected. They were unpleasant, in that being in a psychiatric ward is almost like being in jail. You are not free to come and go, the windows all have tough screens or even bars on them. You aren't allowed to have anything not approved by your doctor or the ward staff. Visitors can only come two-hours a day and, even then, only a pre-approved list of people can visit. You are not allowed any rest during the day, as activities are planned all the time.
In short, I can't recommend it as a vacation destination.
My later inpatient stays were each followed by a few weeks in a "partial hospitalization" program. Even though you live at home, you spend 6-hours a day in intensive group therapy. In many ways, it's more intense than being an inpatient because the pace and depth of the therapy is much more advanced. I emerged with a true grasp of exactly how erroneous my thinking was, how distorted my perception of the world.
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You'll be equipped to minister in truth and compassion to a loved one who deals with same-sex attractions, respond to misinformation in our culture and defend biblical beliefs with grace and understanding. But mostly, you'll be encouraged by the power of God's love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality and lead people into freedom in Jesus Christ.
>>
Those who bear the marks of despair on their bodies need a community that bears the world's only sure hope in its body. They need communities that rehearse this hope again and again and delight in their shared foretaste of God's promised world to come. They need to see that this great promise, secured by Christ's resurrection, compels us to work amidst the wreckage in hope. In so doing, the church provides her depressed members with a plausible hope and a tangible reminder of the message they most need to hear: This sin-riddled reality does not have the last word. Christ as embodied in his church is the last word.
>>
My psychiatric hospital stays were not what I expected. They were unpleasant, in that being in a psychiatric ward is almost like being in jail. You are not free to come and go, the windows all have tough screens or even bars on them. You aren't allowed to have anything not approved by your doctor or the ward staff. Visitors can only come two-hours a day and, even then, only a pre-approved list of people can visit. You are not allowed any rest during the day, as activities are planned all the time.
In short, I can't recommend it as a vacation destination.
My later inpatient stays were each followed by a few weeks in a "partial hospitalization" program. Even though you live at home, you spend 6-hours a day in intensive group therapy. In many ways, it's more intense than being an inpatient because the pace and depth of the therapy is much more advanced. I emerged with a true grasp of exactly how erroneous my thinking was, how distorted my perception of the world.
>>