Monday, April 10, 2017

Lost and Found: Losing Religion and Finding Grace

Lost and Found: Losing Religion and Finding Grace, Kendra Fletcher

This short book tells the story of how one family, enmeshed in their own lives of self-righteous faith, came to a fuller, greater understanding of the grace of God for all of us, and that our meaning is found in him, not in what we do for him. 

As key leaders in a strongly patriarchal church community, and with eight home-schooled children, Kendra and Fletch they thought they were pretty good in God’s eyes.   Through the raw, terrifying experience of three major health scares for their children, they were challenged to realise that they trusted in themselves and their faith, rather than in Jesus power alone to save.

It would be easy to read this and fall into the trap of thinking ‘we’re not that extreme’, we’re not in one of ‘those churches’, where people think ‘that way’.   But Pharisees can lurk in all of us, wanting to prove our own worth and justify our own salvation.

Through the lens of the Fletchers’ experience, readers who connect with stories and like experience-based learning could find this book very helpful.   Those who are looking for a more structured, explanation of what they discovered theologically might look elsewhere.   There is real value, though, in stories like these.  They encourage, they correct, they rebuke, sharpen and strengthen.  And this one causes you to ask – where do I put my trust really?


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