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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
This book is going to be a well loved member of my collection. I’m not even sure I can write a review that gives it enough credit.
What happens if keeping your faith and love for the church means leaving it? What does it mean to announce the power and love of church work to discover your humanity as a regular person in the world? What does it mean to find your faith, lose it, and then find it again in new ways?
This book is the story of Barbara Brown Taylor and her process of finding, losing, and finding again as it relates to her position as clergy. She asks, answers, and explores deep theological questions that I felt reflected my own journey.
I see myself in these pages. I find inspiration in her journey and see much that I could learn. Again, I’m not sure I have the words that will do right by this work!
But if you can’t tell yet, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is struggling with religion (this is Christian specific) and think that maybe leaving could save them. Questions are good and healthy. Let’s ask them together (or you can read BBT, either way!)
What happens if keeping your faith and love for the church means leaving it? What does it mean to announce the power and love of church work to discover your humanity as a regular person in the world? What does it mean to find your faith, lose it, and then find it again in new ways?
This book is the story of Barbara Brown Taylor and her process of finding, losing, and finding again as it relates to her position as clergy. She asks, answers, and explores deep theological questions that I felt reflected my own journey.
I see myself in these pages. I find inspiration in her journey and see much that I could learn. Again, I’m not sure I have the words that will do right by this work!
But if you can’t tell yet, I highly recommend this book for anyone who is struggling with religion (this is Christian specific) and think that maybe leaving could save them. Questions are good and healthy. Let’s ask them together (or you can read BBT, either way!)
I am thankful for this memoir. We need more stories like this, to open up each other's minds/lives about what it means to live a life of faith, what it means to be ministers to each other, what it means to be members of the priesthood of all believers, what it means to be followers of Jesus...
I found myself relating to multiple points of this story; whether because I experienced them myself, or have observed them over a lifetime of being surrounded by Pastors, church people, and the general life of the church.
I am also thankful for this memoir because it is a memoir. It is personal. The more we learn to share our personal stories, our vulnerabilities, failures and fears, but hopes and "what saves us" too, the more we will experience the Kingdom among us.
I found myself relating to multiple points of this story; whether because I experienced them myself, or have observed them over a lifetime of being surrounded by Pastors, church people, and the general life of the church.
I am also thankful for this memoir because it is a memoir. It is personal. The more we learn to share our personal stories, our vulnerabilities, failures and fears, but hopes and "what saves us" too, the more we will experience the Kingdom among us.
Beautifully written. I copied so many passages down because how she is able to draw out deep things in lyrical ways. Highly recommended.
Sometimes the right book finds you at the right time. I needed a book with “greenery on the cover” to complete a reading challenge. This, combined with a self-imposed challenge to read 4 books I already own or borrow from the library, for every book I buy. This was the book I found in my stash that met both criteria.
This also became one of the most important books I’ve read this year. I’m not religious. Or, more accurately put, I grew up in the Episcopal Church, have explored numerous other faiths along the way, and am now convinced that there is no God. At least there is no God as a supreme being or entity with any knowledge or care of my life and concerns.
So why did this book written by an Episcopal priest, and steeped in traditional Christian theology, speak to me? Because it was a deeply personal exploration by a woman who tried to be everything to everyone and burned out doing so. That’s a pretty common theme for many women, especially women professionals, and I understood. It’s 1 1/2 years since I retired and I grapple with many of the same emotions and questions this author confronted as she let go of what she thought was her life’s calling. What’s next and how do I become more fully human. How do I live a wholehearted life? Now I have time to contemplate these core questions. My challenge is to give the questions the time and energy they deserve - and not distract myself with mundane, routine, and ever-calling/never-ending chores.
There is much wisdom yet few answers in this book. But it’s a good place to start if you are making or seeking a transition in your life.
This also became one of the most important books I’ve read this year. I’m not religious. Or, more accurately put, I grew up in the Episcopal Church, have explored numerous other faiths along the way, and am now convinced that there is no God. At least there is no God as a supreme being or entity with any knowledge or care of my life and concerns.
So why did this book written by an Episcopal priest, and steeped in traditional Christian theology, speak to me? Because it was a deeply personal exploration by a woman who tried to be everything to everyone and burned out doing so. That’s a pretty common theme for many women, especially women professionals, and I understood. It’s 1 1/2 years since I retired and I grapple with many of the same emotions and questions this author confronted as she let go of what she thought was her life’s calling. What’s next and how do I become more fully human. How do I live a wholehearted life? Now I have time to contemplate these core questions. My challenge is to give the questions the time and energy they deserve - and not distract myself with mundane, routine, and ever-calling/never-ending chores.
There is much wisdom yet few answers in this book. But it’s a good place to start if you are making or seeking a transition in your life.
This book was recommended to me by another pastor who no longer serves a local church. Barbara Brown Taylor's story is honest and interesting and her writing is wonderful. I look forward to reading more by her.
Another one I need on constant rotation. This is probably the third time I’ve read Leaving Church from cover to cover, though I draw inspiration from it on a more frequent basis. As a clergywoman, this book tears me apart in a necessary way. It reminds me of what it means to live with one foot pointed toward the center and the other pointed toward the margins. It reminds me that the vocation of priesthood is most simply to recognize the holy and the whole, wherever you may be, and to lift those things up to both God and humanity. Recommended for the churched, the over-churched, the unchurched, and the de-churched.
The amount of post-it flags I have in this book…..really beautifully written.
“I like the parts (of the Bible) in which God sounds like an alien, since those parts remind me that God does not belong to me.”
“The clear message was that God did not live at the seminary, God lived in the world.
If churches saw their mission the same way, there is no telling what might happen. What if people were invited to come tell what they already knew about God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a station than a destination?”
“I like the parts (of the Bible) in which God sounds like an alien, since those parts remind me that God does not belong to me.”
“The clear message was that God did not live at the seminary, God lived in the world.
If churches saw their mission the same way, there is no telling what might happen. What if people were invited to come tell what they already knew about God instead of to learn what they are supposed to believe? What if they were blessed for what they are doing in the world instead of chastened for not doing more at church? What if church felt more like a station than a destination?”
A week or so ago at church there was a discussion about doubt and how we deal with doubt within ourselves and within our congregation and within our religion as a whole. This book was already on my short list to read this month, but the discussion made the subject matter more resonant for me.
Taylor's faith tradition is quite different from mine and the types of subjects that evoke questions for her are not things that I can relate to. But I do very much relate to the idea that central to any spiritual relationship with God must be how we treat each other and the natural world. I can also connect to the idea that more of the work God intends us to do is based in active ministry to others and less to the busy-work around which so much of organixed religion orbits. Reading this account of finding Gid and self and God within the self left me with some new doubts, but even more so with a language to express them and to express the core concepts of my personal and individual religjon within a broader framework of the church I belong to.
Taylor's faith tradition is quite different from mine and the types of subjects that evoke questions for her are not things that I can relate to. But I do very much relate to the idea that central to any spiritual relationship with God must be how we treat each other and the natural world. I can also connect to the idea that more of the work God intends us to do is based in active ministry to others and less to the busy-work around which so much of organixed religion orbits. Reading this account of finding Gid and self and God within the self left me with some new doubts, but even more so with a language to express them and to express the core concepts of my personal and individual religjon within a broader framework of the church I belong to.
inspiring
slow-paced
emotional
reflective
slow-paced