May 2010
Home!
05/23/10 10:05 PM Filed in: Personal,
School
Another scholastic year has come to a satisfactory
finish. WIth the summer peaking its head around the
corner, I am excited to see what all God has in
store.
A quick word as to my unexpected absence. I was using my computer one day and it suddenly shut off. What I thought was a small problem, turned out to be an $800 problem. College student that I am, I didn't have anything near $800, so my computer sat dormant for a few months. I eventually found someplace to do it for significantly less then that, and I was back up and running a few weeks ago. So, in my opinion, my absence can be somewhat justified
I leave next week for Oklahoma City, OK to do my internship this summer with Darrell Stetler II. I am really looking forward to it! I am excited to see what God has in store for me this summer, and the ministry opportunities he is going to place in my pathway.
I am trying to get my website back up and running as we speak. I have put up several new papers in the Miscellaneous section, including a paper on: Perfectionism and the Conservative Holiness Movement, a Crisis Counseling Project on pornography, a short biography on Frances Crosby and a paper on the Historical Person of Jesus Christ. I will be uploading a bunch of pictures eventually, it just takes a lot of time.
Welcome back
Ryan
A quick word as to my unexpected absence. I was using my computer one day and it suddenly shut off. What I thought was a small problem, turned out to be an $800 problem. College student that I am, I didn't have anything near $800, so my computer sat dormant for a few months. I eventually found someplace to do it for significantly less then that, and I was back up and running a few weeks ago. So, in my opinion, my absence can be somewhat justified
I leave next week for Oklahoma City, OK to do my internship this summer with Darrell Stetler II. I am really looking forward to it! I am excited to see what God has in store for me this summer, and the ministry opportunities he is going to place in my pathway.
I am trying to get my website back up and running as we speak. I have put up several new papers in the Miscellaneous section, including a paper on: Perfectionism and the Conservative Holiness Movement, a Crisis Counseling Project on pornography, a short biography on Frances Crosby and a paper on the Historical Person of Jesus Christ. I will be uploading a bunch of pictures eventually, it just takes a lot of time.
Welcome back
Ryan
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Perfectionism
05/23/10 10:04 PM Filed in: Personal
Below is an excerpt from my Senior Worldview Class
indepdent project. The title of the paper is
Perfectionism and the Conservative Holiness Movement,
and the full paper can be found here. This is probably
one of the most personally beneficial papers I
have ever written. It was an eye-opening and
deeply reflective project.
****************************************************************************
Over the past several decades our society has seen an increase in unhealthy neurotic perfectionism that undermines the mental and emotional integrity of its people. Sadly, this also carries over into the Christian realm as well, and, even closer, into the Conservative Holiness Movement (Seamands, 2004). Is the heart of the problem unrealistic expectations or the results when these expectations are not met? Is the problem that our standards are too high, or that our need to achieve them too great? The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of perfectionism, specifically within the subculture of the Conservative Holiness Movement.
I will be approaching this discussion with the following presuppositions: 1) I believe that all of life should be guided by a Christian worldview. 2) I believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, and is the final authority in all matters. 3) I believe a Wesleyan Arminian persuasion to be the most appropriate interpretive paradigm for rightly dividing the Word of God.
While I will be addressing the issue of Christian perfection, also known as entire sanctification, it will not be the main focus of this paper. I will be focusing on the psychological neurosis of requiring absolute perfection out of oneself and others. I will define perfectionism more closely in the following pages.
The danger when discussing perfectionism is to fall into two extremes. On the one hand, there are those who believe the Bible demands perfection in every respect and flawless performance in this life. On the other extreme, there are those who assert that God is not concerned about our actions, and that His grace covers every failure and fault that we have ever committed, and ever will commit. One of the most difficult things to achieve and maintain in the Christian life is balance. I hope, however, in this paper to find a middle ground between these two extremes.
At the heart and foundation of this balance is a proper understanding of grace—what it is, and is not. What it covers and what it does not. Here is where theology flows over into psychology, and a synthesis occurs. The theology of grace and the frailty of man are wonderfully bound together on a Christian’s journey toward heaven. It is the purpose of this paper to more clearly define the concept of grace, and add equilibrium to an often-unbalanced discussion.
Perfectionism Defined:
Clinton and Hawkins (2009) define perfectionism as, “a disposition to feel that anything less than perfect is unacceptable.... Theologically, perfectionism is the destructive belief that people can be equal to God. Specifically, perfectionistic people think they should be all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), everywhere at once (omnipresent), and generally without human frailty” (p.198). But it must be pointed out that many perfectionists, especially those within the Conservative Holiness Movement, would never fully embrace this statement, or accept this statement as true for themselves. It is far more blunt than they would feel comfortable identifying with. Many times they have correct theology, but they subconsciously ignore it, or go against it. They may know that they don’t have to be “perfect,” but they simultaneously require it of themselves. Perfectionism is oftentimes not so much a problem of orthodoxy, as orthopraxy. In other words, a perfectionist sometimes believes the right things, but disconnects it from how he acts or reacts. He may believe the right things about God, and his standing before Him, but he doesn’t fully live out his beliefs at a gut level.
Perfectionism is driven by an insatiable need to feel secure and accepted. Life for a perfectionist revolves around a search and struggle to earn this security. Just how the perfectionist goes about seeking this security varies, but most often it involves setting unrealistically high goals for him or herself hoping to impress and endear themselves to others. However, the problem is that the goals they set are so high they can never fully reach them. This creates a cycle of setting impossibly high goals, and then “negatively evaluating the self in response to inevitable failure” when those goals are not met (Walsh & Ugumba-Agwunobi, 2001, p.240). The reason they set these goals is to achieve a sense of acceptance and security. They desperately desire security, and the only way they know how to get it is to perform so well that people accept them on the merits of their performance.
It is essential here to distinguish perfectionism from excellence. The two are often mistakenly confused. The key difference resides in the motive of the person. A perfectionist strives for improved performance in order to feel accepted and secure. A person pursuing excellence does so, from a Christian perspective, for the glory of God and the furtherance of His Kingdom.
...
****************************************************************************
Over the past several decades our society has seen an increase in unhealthy neurotic perfectionism that undermines the mental and emotional integrity of its people. Sadly, this also carries over into the Christian realm as well, and, even closer, into the Conservative Holiness Movement (Seamands, 2004). Is the heart of the problem unrealistic expectations or the results when these expectations are not met? Is the problem that our standards are too high, or that our need to achieve them too great? The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of perfectionism, specifically within the subculture of the Conservative Holiness Movement.
I will be approaching this discussion with the following presuppositions: 1) I believe that all of life should be guided by a Christian worldview. 2) I believe that the Bible is the authoritative Word of God, and is the final authority in all matters. 3) I believe a Wesleyan Arminian persuasion to be the most appropriate interpretive paradigm for rightly dividing the Word of God.
While I will be addressing the issue of Christian perfection, also known as entire sanctification, it will not be the main focus of this paper. I will be focusing on the psychological neurosis of requiring absolute perfection out of oneself and others. I will define perfectionism more closely in the following pages.
The danger when discussing perfectionism is to fall into two extremes. On the one hand, there are those who believe the Bible demands perfection in every respect and flawless performance in this life. On the other extreme, there are those who assert that God is not concerned about our actions, and that His grace covers every failure and fault that we have ever committed, and ever will commit. One of the most difficult things to achieve and maintain in the Christian life is balance. I hope, however, in this paper to find a middle ground between these two extremes.
At the heart and foundation of this balance is a proper understanding of grace—what it is, and is not. What it covers and what it does not. Here is where theology flows over into psychology, and a synthesis occurs. The theology of grace and the frailty of man are wonderfully bound together on a Christian’s journey toward heaven. It is the purpose of this paper to more clearly define the concept of grace, and add equilibrium to an often-unbalanced discussion.
Perfectionism Defined:
Clinton and Hawkins (2009) define perfectionism as, “a disposition to feel that anything less than perfect is unacceptable.... Theologically, perfectionism is the destructive belief that people can be equal to God. Specifically, perfectionistic people think they should be all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent), everywhere at once (omnipresent), and generally without human frailty” (p.198). But it must be pointed out that many perfectionists, especially those within the Conservative Holiness Movement, would never fully embrace this statement, or accept this statement as true for themselves. It is far more blunt than they would feel comfortable identifying with. Many times they have correct theology, but they subconsciously ignore it, or go against it. They may know that they don’t have to be “perfect,” but they simultaneously require it of themselves. Perfectionism is oftentimes not so much a problem of orthodoxy, as orthopraxy. In other words, a perfectionist sometimes believes the right things, but disconnects it from how he acts or reacts. He may believe the right things about God, and his standing before Him, but he doesn’t fully live out his beliefs at a gut level.
Perfectionism is driven by an insatiable need to feel secure and accepted. Life for a perfectionist revolves around a search and struggle to earn this security. Just how the perfectionist goes about seeking this security varies, but most often it involves setting unrealistically high goals for him or herself hoping to impress and endear themselves to others. However, the problem is that the goals they set are so high they can never fully reach them. This creates a cycle of setting impossibly high goals, and then “negatively evaluating the self in response to inevitable failure” when those goals are not met (Walsh & Ugumba-Agwunobi, 2001, p.240). The reason they set these goals is to achieve a sense of acceptance and security. They desperately desire security, and the only way they know how to get it is to perform so well that people accept them on the merits of their performance.
It is essential here to distinguish perfectionism from excellence. The two are often mistakenly confused. The key difference resides in the motive of the person. A perfectionist strives for improved performance in order to feel accepted and secure. A person pursuing excellence does so, from a Christian perspective, for the glory of God and the furtherance of His Kingdom.
...