Searching for Sunday

   I think Rachel Held Evans' goal with her book, Searching for Sunday, is to help the reader fall back in love with the church--that is, the universal/international/global church; as in the body of believers that makes up Christ's bride.

   I don't know if it helped me in that at all. I think it was meant to show me the beauty of the church, and there were definite glimpses. But Rachel described to me the indescribable: the mysterious beauty of Jesus Christ and the person he could be to me. She made me want to love Jesus again.

   Searching for Sunday is formatted into seven parts--seven sacraments: 

1. Baptism: the church tells us we are beloved
2. Confession: the church tells us we are broken
3. Holy Orders: the church tells us we are commissioned
4. Communion: the church feeds us
5. Confirmation: the church welcomes us
6. Anointing the Sick: the church anoints us
7. Marriage: the church unites us
   (Evans, Rachel Held. Searching for Sunday. Nelson Books: Nashville. 2015. p.xvii)

   This is the account of Rachel's journey through loving, leaving, and finding the church again--this is how she chooses to portray that journey. Each of the seven sections hold chapters that bring out each sacrament in all of their unearthly beauty. I was captivated by every word, sentence, and page. More than once, this account tugged at my throat and brought tears to my eyes.

   I expect I'll be coming back to this book over and over again in the years or--Lord willing--decades to come. When I find myself floundering, lost, and falling away, Rachel may have found the words to prop me back up on my feet again.

--Elise T--

   For more information on Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans, visit our website here.