Free Downloads Searching For Sunday: Loving, Leaving, And Finding The Church
From New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans comes a book that is both a heartfelt ode to the past and hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the Church.Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--church culture seemed so far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing her back to Church. And so she set out on a journey to understand Church and to find her place in it.Centered around seven sacraments, Evans' quest takes readers through a liturgical year with stories about baptism, communion, confirmation, confession, marriage, vocation, and death that are funny, heartbreaking, and sharply honest.A memoir about making do and taking risks, about the messiness of community and the power of grace, Searching for Sunday is about overcoming cynicism to find hope and, somewhere in between, Church.
File Size: 1953 KB
Print Length: 288 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0718022122
Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (April 14, 2015)
Publication Date: April 14, 2015
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishing
Language: English
ASIN: B00PWOH2CI
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray: Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Best Sellers Rank: #5,486 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store) #16 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Religion & Spirituality > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Living > Spiritual Growth #79 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Christian Living > Spiritual Growth #656 in Books > Religion & Spirituality
Rachel Held Evans' new book does NOT disappoint. It is a brilliant deconstruction of a personal journey of faith -- particularly where it concerns the Church. The book is separated into a literary exposition of the sacraments recognized by the Catholic and Orthodox churches. I found this to be both intriguing and effective. Her own memories concerning these aspects of faith were fascinating and more than once I found myself expressing, "Me, too!!"Because so much of Christianity is viewed by the evangelical // fundamentalist lens in the Bible Belt South, it can be very frustrating to be a progressive, moderate Christian. For those of us who believe in marriage equality and the fair, loving treatment of LGBTQ people, we often feel there is not a place for us in many denominations. For those of us who believe women should have a place in the pulpit, we can experience outright hostility.However, I found myself slightly saddened by some of the sentiments expressed in Searching for Sunday. For one, Evans mentions the belief of some of her contemporaries that if a church does not welcome LGBTQ people and women into their ministrative openings (or even the church itself for the LGBTQ folks), we should refuse to attend. On the one hand, I understand this sentiment. On the other, I feel that in the spirit of ecumenism, we must "be the bigger people" and recognize that just because someone doesn't believe a woman should preach does not mean that they reached that conviction out of bigotry and hate. Just because someone doesn't believe in marriage equality doesn't mean they hate gay people or that they arrived to their beliefs lightly.
This book was for me, and I think this book might be for a lot of you, too. If there’s a part of you– a big part, a small part– that is whispering the question “why am I still a Christian?” then I think you might need to read this. Not because she has some earth-shattering answer that will miraculously solve all our problems. I didn’t finish this book, set it down, and think to myself “ah, this was just the thing I needed to get me to go to church again.” I still have reservations, and questions, and doubts, and the thought of walking into a church still terrifies me. But it did help make having hope a little more possible.The longer I’m away from church, though, the more a sliver in the back corners of my heart hungers for the bread and the wine the wine. Reading Searching for Sunday was a gentle, gracious, gorgeous reminder that I do believe in the sacraments. I do believe in the Body. Reading her chapters on Communion was one of the most sacred experiences I’ve ever had, and it gave me the nudge I needed to start reaching out again. I don’t know where this road will take me– maybe further away from church, from faith, I don’t know. But I want to hope. I want to believe. I want to try again, even if I get terribly burned.Going through this book was comforting, and encouraging. It was like sitting down with a friend and drinking tea and being honest in a way that terrifies both of you, but once you start talking you can’t seem to stem the flow of words. Each slicing knife wound is recounted, each euphoric moment comes out tinged over with a little bit of sadness.
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