Last week we looked at some of the notable quotes with which Rachel Held Evans starts different chapters of her 2015 book Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church. This week we look at some of her own insights from the book, which as the title suggests, explores her journey of loving, leaving and finding the church. The book is well worth the read – at times it is funny, at other times sad, sometimes poignant, and often profound.
- It is no coincidence that when Satan tempted Jesus after his baptism, he began his entreaties with, “If you are the Son of God…” We all long for someone to tell us who we are. The great struggle of the Christian life is to take God’s name for us, to believe we are beloved and to believe that is enough. Rachel Held Evans, p19.
- It seems those most likely to miss God’s work in the world are those most convinced they know what to look for, the ones who expect God to play by the rules. Rachel Held Evans, p90.
- It’s strange that Christians so rarely talk about failure when we claim to follow a guy whose three-year ministry was cut short by his crucifixion. Stanger still is our fascination with so-called celebrity pastors whose personhood we flatten out and consume like the faces in the tabloid aisle. But as nearly every denomination in the United States faces declining membership and waning influence, Christians may need to get used to the idea of measuring success by something other than money, fame, and power. No one ever said the fruit of the Spirit is relevance or impact or even revival. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – the sort of stuff that, let’s face it, doesn’t always sell. Rachel Held Evans, p112.
- The first thing the world knew about Christians was that they ate together. Rachel Held Evans, p125.
- I’m not convinced the pursuit of greater unity means rejecting denominationalism altogether. A worldwide movement of more than two billion people reaching every continent and spanning thousands of cultures for over two thousand years can’t expect homogeneity. And the notion that a single tradition owns the lockbox on truth is laughable, especially when the truth we’re talking is God. Rachel Held Evans, p183.
As always, nice chatting…
