Resource list for my sermon series on anxiety
Last month I preached a sermon series that I had been working on for months, if not nearly a year. In 2019, I decided to only preach out of the 4 gospels. As I was preparing for this series in late 2018, I knew I wanted to collect a few of these passages and preach on anxiety. Little did I know that I would go through a major health crisis in just a few months, and one of the main causes of it would be my ability to process anxiety and stress in my own life.
I finally preached the series in November of 2019.
Here are the messages on anxiety
What is Anxiety
The non-anxious presence of Christ
Filling the gaps in our mind
Resources Used
I wanted to make sure I had a good grasp on the theological idea of anxiety as well as what some Christian pastors AND mental health practioneers had to say. I also interviewed a good friend who is a Doctor and professional, licensed mental health practitioner. I knew the church had done some pretty bad job of talking about depression and anxiety before. I wanted to try to avoid those mistakes.
The Christian and Anxiety – Hans Urs von Balthasar
This is a theological treatment of anxiety and Christianity. It is a deep, but short theological aesthetic of anxiety and how it relates to the Triune God. It is an academic text, but was extremely valuable.
Balthasar and Anxiety – John Cihak
Because Balthasar is a rather complex work, I ended up also using this book that digs into the ideas in Balthasar’s own writing and explains it a bit.
The Anxious Christian – Rhett Smith
I picked this up on title alone. It was a good book, but over the course of my study, I found it to not be exactly what I was looking for.
My Name is Hope – John Mark Comer
I was reading Comer’s book below and enjoying it. I was doing a quick Kindle search to find a book to read in the deer stand and came upon this book. It was a fantastic glimpse into anxiety and super practical. It gave great tips for understanding and overcoming anxiety.
The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry – John Mark Comer
I was excited about this book releasing, and it came out right before I started preaching the series. I quickly devoured it and found it to be a fantastic companion to the practical side of these messages. It was extremely helpful for the last message.
Thanks for checking out these resources. I hope they and the messages are helpful for you.