Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
Sep 22nd, 2008 by John
Leaving Church
Barbara Brown Taylor is honest. She can be trusted.
I laughed at her wit, I groaned with her struggles, and I felt expectant about her and my future.
In Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, she writes, “As a general rule, I would say that human beings never behave more badly toward one another than when they believe they are protecting God.” Having seen arguing husbands and wives decimating each other with Bible verses, I can say a hardy “Amen” to Barbara’s observation. Having seen denominational in-fighting and evangelical right-wing website vitriol, I can say “Amen” to Barbara’s insight.
She continues, “I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than the encounters that gave rise to them. … The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.”
Pastor Barbara Brown Taylor sounds like Paul who wrote, “You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3). D. L. Moody said, “For every man who reads the Bible, one hundred men will read you and me.”
Rev. Taylor also invites readers into her marvelous as well as messy (maddening?) journey in pastoral work. I identified with many of her expectations and most of her disillusionments. She presents an intriguing description of life as a map with both a center and edges. What wonderful comforts are at the center and what unknown, scary adventures (and people) are at the edges! Leaving the parish life to teach religion in a college and reflecting back on her years in the church, Barbara writes, “On the twentieth anniversary of my ordination, I would have to say that at least one of the things that almost killed me was becoming a professional holy person.”
Any brother or sister in ministry (or in life) who is currently engaged in any form of “the dark night of the soul” will find Barbara and her book to be friendly, steady, sensitive companions.
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[...] Thanks to John [...]
Adam,
Thanks for the shout out and the link.
God bless!
John
Good find. Look forward to the read.
Sometimes I think about my frustration with church(es) / church culture and how much it bothers me. Then I think that is exactly why I might be there.
CWILLZ,
I do think you’ll like the book.
John,
I was inspired just reading this little bit.
Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
I hope all is going well.
You, your family and ministry are always in my thoughts and prayers.
God bless the work you are doing.
Preacherman Kinney,
God bless you, your family and ministry.
With you in serving Jesus,
John
As one who “left church” through no choice of my own, let me say that this book was a tremendous comfort to me. Its main solace came in knowing that there was someone who could so accurately and eloquently describe the journey of “leaving.” I’m still looking for the voice that can do the same with the journey of “returning.”
mike,
Thanks for these frank and kind comments.
John
[...] TheWayofaPilgrim Here’s some stuff I came across this week… 1. John Frye reviews “Leaving Church: a Memoir of Faith” by Barbara Brown Taylor (a great book). 2. Noah’s Ark? 3. Pastoral endorsements of political [...]
Hi! Brother,
I read this wonderful book two years ago and laughed as much as I might have cried. . .looking back. I thought, wow!, here is one of the most renowned preachers in the world, and she is FEMALE and a PRIEST. I left my church (again) and went out and joined the Episcopalians.
God bless the people who are life time members of one church, but God did not make me one of them. I wrestle.
My favorite pages in this book which I still have marked are: 72, about transference, 107 about the Bible as a “special kind of book,” 116 about saying goodbye in the bathroom, 121 “Happiness is reality divided by expectations,” 122 “The world for which you have been so carefully prepared is being taken away from you…by the grace of God,” 173 “I left the yard,” 176 the definition of heresy, 177 the heretics, 217 “I will keep hunting the Divine Presence in the world,” 221 the comments of Reynolds Price on trauma, 224 how helpless love can be, and especially the excellent preacher’s challenge on 225: “Tell us what is saving your life now.”
Miss your face. Wish you well.