PDF Ebook Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor
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Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor
PDF Ebook Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. A widely acclaimed preacher, Taylor draws on her homiletical skills in this finely crafted memoir with a simple plot: an Episcopal priest exhausts her inner resources, first in an urban church and then in a small country parish; she changes jobs, struggles and finds renewal. Such a synopsis, however, does not do justice to Taylor's literary style in this rich evocation of her lifelong love affair with God. "When I think of my first cathedral," she writes, "I am back in a field behind my parents' house in Kansas, with every stalk of prairie grass lit up from within." Drawn to the church, she compulsively overworks: "I had such a strong instinct for rescue that my breasts fairly leaked when I came across those in need of rescuing." Though she has found new employment, she realizes she is still a priest: "I miss being a lightning rod, conducting all that heat and light not only from heaven to earth but also from person to person." Current and former clergy will relate to her comical and sometimes touching descriptions of parish life, while memoir buffs will savor her journey as she identifies her core beliefs, sets boundaries and learns to relish her "blessed swath" of the world. (May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From Booklist
Episcopal priest Taylor, a respected and beloved preacher, ended a 20-year career when, after much reflection, she left the church. She had expected to spend the rest of her life writing sermons and leading worship. Instead, she now teaches full time at a college in Georgia. With its three indicatively titled sections--"Finding," "Losing," "Keeping"--Leaving Church aims to explain her compulsion to leave the familiar behind. When she was first ordained and for years thereafter, she felt certain about the fundamentals of her own faith and what it meant to be Christian. But she slowly realized that she was conflicted, internally and with the church, in large part because of church-inclusiveness controversies, including gay and lesbian issues. She laments that while ostensibly protecting the integrity of scripture and church doctrine, people can trample the rights of others. She discovered that change isn't easy. Sometimes, even getting dressed in the morning seems an insurmountable challenge. Ultimately, Taylor's is a luminous portrait of faith not lost but questioned, refound, and regained. June SawyersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product details
Hardcover: 256 pages
Publisher: HarperOne (May 30, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0060771747
ISBN-13: 978-0060771744
Product Dimensions:
5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
319 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#184,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
So grateful to find a voice of experience who walked the very path that I am currently hiking along, especially with regards to how I should be serving the Divine Presence and following the leading of the Holy Spirit's soft voice. I thought, like Barbara, that the best way to do it would be with a collar and pulpit of my own. I'm beginning to realize, and Taylor's words have confirmed for me, that being a professional servant is not the only way to serve, and that I should not rush the Spirit's message - she'll fill in more of the blanks when I'm ready for them. Until then, Taylor's book has been a great encouragement to continue on the spiritual divine goose chase called being a follower of Jesus Christ.
Barbara Brown Taylor is renowned as a preacher and teacher of religion. An ordained, episcopal priest, she is no longer in congregational ministry. Couldn't stand it, couldn't set limits, couldn't manage time, couldn't handle the stress, left her idyllic, rural church in a spectacular melt-down, found a more suitable niche teaching in a small college, and, it appears, is still searching. It was hard for her to be a "professional holy person," understandable. It is also hard for her not to be one, not to wear the distinctive regalia of a priest, not to have people look at her the way they look at clergy. But with her new freedom she is exploring other traditions, other types of community, and she's learning a lot.Episcopalians like to do spiritual autobiographies, and this is a great one. Of course, it doesn't have a beginning, middle, and conclusion. The journey keeps changing as she pursues it.Author Taylor writes lush, delightful, descriptive prose, evoking the rural environment, sights, sounds, smells, and ever-recurring conflicts. It's hard to put this book down. At the same time, it leaves too much unsaid. What really happened in the small country church that led to her abrupt resignation? She gives hints and allusions. One senses the parish was relieved to see her go. What is clear is that she is still searching, growing and learning. Should you go out and buy this book? It depends. If you're looking for definite answers, certainty, and biblical literalism, you won't like it. If you're comfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty, mystery, and inner conflict, this may be just the book you've been searching for. I certainly enjoyed it and recommend it. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.
This book is about Rev. Barbara Brown Taylor, and her search for herself and her identity. She begins her search as a young girl, eventually winding up in the Episcopal church, hoping desperately to find it in her vocation. She goes through a journey and a process that describes in great detail, what clergy burnout looks and feels like, and an identity crisis from ordination, to large church, to small church, to no church at all. Her restlessness stems from a lack of identity, and uncertainty. She eventually comes to the realization that her identity is not in what she does, but who she is at her core, and that in order to be able to give out, one must let God pour in and replenish on a daily basis.(Sabbath Rest) Unfortunately, she doesn't come to this epiphany until after she has completely given up her ministry, in my opinion, tragically. This book is a good lesson for anyone thinking about ordained ministry, or new to ordained ministry, of what NOT to do.
As a non-religious person I had assumed that the title inferred her "leaving church," but instead it is really about her leaving the priesthood of the church. However, she is an excellent writer and vividly describes her path leading to her decision to leave her position in the church. Looking forward to reading her followup to this book.
Barbara Taylor is an excellent writer and storyteller, and this autobiographical book is a compelling read. In this book, she writes about her own journey in faith and a life-changing decision: After twenty years of ordained ministry in a church position, Taylor resigned as rector of a relatively small Episcopal church in the North Georgia mountains to accept a position teaching religion at a small college nearby.The title "Leaving Church" is inaccurate, of course, because leaving ordained parish ministry is not the same as leaving church. Taylor is still an Episcopal priest, but even if she had resigned as a priest, she would still not necessarily have left church. The title stems from Taylor's resignation as a church rector, which surprised many people, and some apparently misunderstood her choice as really leaving church and/or losing her faith. In this book, Taylor explains the journey that led to her change in direction, providing an overview of her experience of ordained ministry and her transition out of church employment. Overall, she regards the decision to leave as spiritually liberating.Unfortunately, in my opinion, Taylor says too little about the actual decision to leave, other than emphasizing that she was tired and depressed. Although Taylor emphasized how hard she worked, so much so that it's almost exhausting to read about it, her decision to resign as rector of a church never seems adequately explained. From the viewpoint of many -- particularly those engaged in ordained ministry -- she has lived a charmed and even enviable life. First, after an apparently easy ordination process, she immediately received a position at a large and wealthy multi-staff church in central Atlanta, working with a popular rector. Then she was called as a rector of a charming church in exactly the area she and her husband wanted to live - the kind of location that people retire to because it's so beautiful. Taylor appears to have been financially comfortable throughout her ministry, and the couple were able to build a dream house on 100 beautiful acres in the mountains (with three streams on their property!) In the meantime, she was developing a widespread reputation as an outstanding preacher while authoring a number of popular books. What's not to like about this life? Sounds ideal, right?Apparently the author didn't like it, or at least the part about being rector of a parish, because she resigned. Exhaustion and symptoms of depression appear to have played a major role, as well as conflict in a church split over the issue of homosexuality. However, little time is spent discussing the decision to resign and even less on the reaction of the church members. Some of this may have been unavoidable, because of concerns about confidentiality and washing dirty linen in public. Taylor mentions that she had committed to stay 10 years when she accepted the position and left after 5 1/2, but other than that, says little about breaking that agreement. Additionally, she mentions only in passing that her recently hired assistant had to resign when she did (it's the rule). She hints that some in the church were unhappy with her (perhaps because she was spread too thin?) Certainly, one wonders about the wisdom of her initial commitment: 10 years is a long time to commit to. I wish she had felt free to tell more about that part of her story and spent less time describing finding God in the beauty of nature. I get it. Nature is lovely. The mountains are lovely - it's easier to find God there than in a church hall of angry people. Life in the church can be as messy as any barnyard, and that no doubt contributed to her decision, but she barely mentioned it. It was frustrating when she skipped quickly over her farewell party but spent pages on birds.It seems likely, also, that much of the author's exhaustion came from her own very high standards and successful outside endeavors. Taylor barely mentions her increasingly busy schedule filled with engagements outside her own church, as her reputation as preacher and author grew. She was no doubt traveling frequently while living in a remote area, accessible only by mountain roads. Additionally, Taylor's many publications during this period would by itself be sufficient work for most people! She says virtually nothing about these activities but instead describes the demands of providing pastoral care. It's amazing she managed to do all that she did for as long as she did without completely burning out.This book would be great for use by a book club, particularly those in a church setting, as it raises some provocative questions. I wonder if the author will find that even after "leaving church," she will continue to find herself over-scheduled, with more demands on her than most people could manage. I hope not, because she's definitely gifted as both an author and preacher.
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