-ReChurch

I got an email from Tyndale asking me to review a book, ReChurch by Stephen Mansfield.  The description said, "If you've ever attended church you've probably suffered a church hurt.....If you're ready to take the tough path to healing, Mansfield will walk you through it with love and understanding, showing you how you can be better than ever on the other side of the mess....but only if you're willing to ReChurch."  I was both skeptical and interested at that description.  I have two distinctive church hurt stories.  The first happened when I was 17, and it was hard to battle my way through that and find a new church.  It took a while.  The second happened only a few years ago, and I will be honest with you, I have only returned to church (other than tv church) in the last two months.  I've still been dealing with my hurts and my feelings about the people who hurt me.  So, when I got this email I thought I would go for it.  See what this guy had to say about church hurt.

I am so glad that I did that.  This book is amazing!!  He starts with a small history lesson, (which is much more interesting than I just made it sound!) showing that being hurt in church is nothing new, it started in the New Testament church and continues to this day.  Chapter four is called "Lessons from a Season in Hell", this title convinced me that this man had lived through it!  He asks the reader to examine that time, to see what lessons we can learn from it.  There are hard truths to be found in that chapter.

He doesn't get to forgiveness until chapter 5, which I think was very intentional.  If you are still living in the pain of that hurt, you aren't ready to really do the forgiveness work until you have worked through the previous chapters, but once he gets to forgiveness......he isn't handing out simple platitudes, he means business!!  Forgiveness, what it means and how to do it.  For me, it was a revolutionary look at something we should all be doing, but often don't know how to start.  If you have been hurt in church, or you love someone who has been hurt in church and you want to understand what they are going through and how you might be able to help them, I would suggest this book.  In fact, I would suggest the chapter on forgiveness to everyone. 

I was not paid by Tyndale for this review, but I did receive a copy of the book for free.  The opinions are my own and I was not required to say nice things about this book.

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