Psychology Professor Richard Mullis joins Mark to explore the often noted yet also often misunderstood concept of identity in Christ. Over the last decade the church has stressed finding your identity in Christ but it has not always clearly defined what is meant by the phrase. Appealing to their shared spiritual formation backgrounds, Mark and Richard look to define what it is and what it isn’t.

TRANSCRIPT

0:08

Welcome to Jessup think I'm your host, Mark Moore. And today on the show, I'm really excited to be joined by a psychology professor Richard mullis. Thanks for coming on the show. Happy to be here. And we actually have a connection that maybe, you know, many of our listeners don't know about. Kind of a connection. We didn't know each other there. But I did my graduate studies at Biola, and Talbot, and I was a part of the second semester of the first year of the spiritual formation Institute. And you were also at Biola, Talbot around the same time,

0:42

correct? That's correct. Yeah, I was a graduate student doing my doctorate in clinical psychology. And I was teaching as an adjunct professor in the Institute of spiritual formation,

0:53

Hey, I know and I missed you, I missed we didn't even I missed you, man. We will, well, we're gonna we're gonna connect later on our Biola connection. Even more, so it's just it's all gonna be full circle. But I was really excited to kind of bring you on the show, based on that kind of spiritual formation background and that blend of formation and psychology and theology. And and I'm really want to talk about the topic of identity and identity in Christ. I think it's, it's really, maybe kind of like a buzz term. Now, if we can say that, like a buzz Mo's term. term. And, and I think we use it a lot. And I think it's been good that we've been kind of stressing that to younger generations. And we've really been kind of hyping that I think if you talk to a lot of maybe even high schoolers, your highs and about their youth groups, they've probably heard that phrase, identity in Christ, we'll see that within the church as well. But it's also we do this a lot in the church, we have phrases that we use, but we don't really define them. And we don't maybe know. And we all just kind of nod and say, yeah, I think I know what that means. And we don't maybe really know what it means. But it's kind of like when you've met someone, and you're past the point where you're gonna ask them their name again, right? Like, you've met him a couple times. And so we've all like used the phrase a couple times. So we can't ask now, what is this mean? Because then you play your cards that you don't know, you know, anything of what the identity in Christ, what it really means. I mean, I think we have a general knowledge. And so I want to kind of really explore that, you know, and I think identity is just a huge issue for not only young people, but everybody struggles with kind of identity and understanding who they are their role in the world. But particularly, I teach a freshmen class, and we spend our entire session on our week on identity. And it's, it's just really interesting to see, maybe lights going on of them realizing I've been finding my identity here or there, and just noticing that struggle. And as you and I know, Richard, it doesn't get any easier as you get older. It's not like you solve the identity problems. At 18. That's for sure. And then and then move on. And so I guess with this, for me starting it, and maybe starting to define it, I'd like to, to get a grasp on the terms too. And and so just when we say identity, what do we what do we really mean when we say identity?

3:40

Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think at its rock bottom core identity is that which you are most deeply and profoundly constituted by okay.

3:51

Yeah, like that deeply and profoundly constituted by Yeah. And I have to define constituted,

3:57

yeah, like, you know, like our