Friends of Lake Drive Books,
So many of us are experiencing social and spiritual turbulence in our lives. So much has changed, and our institutions, however you might define them, haven’t always kept up.
The result is that we’re not as connected. We feel we’re in a wilderness, groping to find a way. And that’s a good thing, because we don’t want to go back to the identity we once claimed. We’re trying to find something new.
So in the words of that old rock classic, who are you?
What’s great about that question is that on the one hand, we might find there’s not as much to us as we thought. We were loyal to generic things, unexamined things, often confining things. But on the other hand, now’s our chance to go do better.
And the secret to figuring out who you are is not as difficult as you might think. But it’s not a quick fix. It’s a long adventure.
That’s what former pastor turned podcaster, speaker, and musician Matt Kendziera is getting at in his new book Bring It Home: The Adventure of Finding Yourself after Being Lost in Religion.
Matt grew up in a small town, in a special world, and throughout his life has had some formative real-life experiences. These experiences taught him so much, and informed who he was. Then along came a certain kind of church, like for so many of us, that kept telling him who he should be and what to believe.
Matt went along with it, like so many of us have, but found he was dying inside. Until one day that same kind of church told him he wasn’t wanted anymore.
So he started a new adventure.
And here’s his secret. Matt started finding himself by returning to the stories of the real-life, authentic experiences he’s had throughout life (maybe especially the early ones) that always pointed him to a divine reality that a certain kind of church could never quite capture, much as it acted as though it had a corner on truth.
I won’t say anymore about the book. I just want you to know that I completely believe that so many of us are now needing to do the work of finding out who we are. Get grounded. Get embodied. Own up for mistakes. Celebrate your worth. Be compassionate to others. There are so many of these big ideas, and you’ll find them in Matt’s book (see especially the final section in each chapter titled “bring it home”).
I really want to encourage you to check out Matt’s book. Bestselling author, speaker, and activist Brian McLaren called it:
“… a spiritual memoir that will make you laugh as it touches your heart.”
This is work we all need to do. And Matt makes it fun. He makes it an adventure.
For more, see the Lake Drive Books video interview of Matt talking about this book below.
Gratefully
David Morris, Publisher