This really just reads like a promotion for Masters Seminary and Grace Community Church, but using Bill Gothard's teachings as an easy punching bag, gThis really just reads like a promotion for Masters Seminary and Grace Community Church, but using Bill Gothard's teachings as an easy punching bag, given the widespread criticism of his theology.
She gushes about how she loves her new church because of its diversity and because everyone can believe different things "as long as they agree with the Bible." John MacArthur's theology and church are known for having a very narrow definition of what they read to be "biblical." I don't know how free Jinger can really be. She might not be wearing long skirts anymore, but she still goes to a church that doesn't permit women to preach. She can use birth control since science shows it's safe and effective, but her church gleefully defied COVID-19 restrictions by the city and risked the health of thousands.
Much of the book, which is co authored by the communications director of Masters, feels just like a copy and paste from the What We Believe part of their website. There's just walls of texts of endless scripture references that don't help explain the transformation she's gone through. Nobody is reading this book because they want a doctrinal opposition to Gothard's teachings. We want to know how this shift affected Jinger.
But instead we get vague narratives about being focused on others instead of yourself and how that helps social anxiety, or how it's about Christ and not rules. But no specifics on what it means to change your focus or how it's really changed her life. She mentions briefly that she may have struggled with post-partum depression. It would have been so much more interesting to have a whole chapter on her journey with that and how her new way of looking at her faith made a difference. Instead we get a reference to Christ being sufficient and we move on.
I just don't think this book is going to do it for anyone who is looking for something other than a John MacArthur promotion. If you're on board with that train and want to hear a vague description of how someone changed their belief system to that this might be for you. For anyone looking for actual radical change or a new analysis of Gothard theology, this will leave you dissatisfied....more