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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Book Review: Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans

I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.


I've enjoyed Rachel Held Evans' previous two books, Faith Unraveled (originally released as Evolving in Monkey Town) and A Year of Biblical Womanhood, so was excited to read the newest release, Searching for Sunday.

As always, I think Evans is a talented writer. She has a way of weaving words together that, quite frankly, I'm a little jealous of. In Searching for Sunday, there were parts that made me laugh, parts that made me teary, and parts that made me feel thoughtful. I loved how she structured the book around seven different sacraments.

What I appreciated most about the book, however, was that although it is a memoir of her journey of "loving, leaving and finding the church," there really is not a definitive destination. At the end of the book, I didn't find that it was "oh, here I've arrived, end of story." It was more like, "this is where I've come from, this is where I am now, and there's a lot of journey left in my future."

While there is much about the book I really can't relate to--I don't have the Evangelical background that she does--I certainly appreciate the journey she has been on and how she wants to be able to appreciate and love the background she came from even if she has many disagreements with it.

As someone who would love to see the different strands of Christianity be able to stop fighting all the time and start loving each other more, I enjoyed this paragraph:
But the gospel doesn't need a coalition devoted to keeping the wrong people out. It needs a family of sinners, saved by grace, committed to tearing down the walls, throwing open the doors, and shouting, "Welcome! There's bread and wine. Come eat with us and talk." This isn't a kingdom for the worthy; it's a kingdom for the hungry." (p. 149)
In a world where celebrity and power are highly valued (yes, even in Christianity), these are words that we all need to take to heart. We need to welcome each other and talk to each other and break down the walls between us instead of building them up.

Special Announcement about a free gift you get with Searching for Sunday.


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