Will future generations find a church worth fighting for? A great reckoning is underway in the church today: a naming and exposing of the exclusivity, abuse, racism, patriarchy, and unchecked power that have marked evangelical Christianity for far too long. What kind of church will emerge on the other side? Like many families, the Beaches have been wrestling with this question. Together, Nancy and Samantha represent two generations: Nancy, a boomer, was a key player in the megachurch movement that revolutionized global ministry during the '80s and '90s, while Samantha, a millennial, is willing to abandon those massive buildings and celebrity cultures and find out whether the foundation holds. Each chapter offers their individual experiences and perspectives on a challenge facing the church and considers the way forward. Next Sunday
"This is a memoir of two people, a mother and a daughter, who live in two different worlds and the same world at the same time. Reading this book is a jarring experience as each explores basic ideas, like community and Sunday morning church services, on their own from their own world. They're the same but not, at the same time. It disturbs me because I wonder if I can even know Samantha's world. I
Scot McKnight, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary
"We are living in one of the most consequential times of the human story. Divides along economic, racial, cultural, and gender lines continue to widen. Conversations from pulpits to playgrounds, from halls of government to boardrooms and classrooms have been stymied to advance a way forward on these issues and a host of others. One entity that has not been consistent in these discussions is the church; she has yet to live out her full redemptive potential. Nancy and Samantha, as storytellers, speak with honesty, wisdom, and vulnerability as to what the church can be-and indeed must be-in this pivotal moment. Hear their lament. Embrace the hope they offer in the transcendent."
Marcus "Goodie" Goodloe, Martin Luther King Jr. scholar and leadership development consult
"I love everything about this book-the honesty, the truth, the stories, the insights, the cross-generational conversation, and even the tension! Especially the tension. Because here's the thing: we can't fix what we refuse to face. This work helps us face the hard stuff about the church while honoring the good stuff, and it does so in a most winsome way that points to a future with hope."
Ruth Haley Barton, founder of the Transforming Center and author of Life Together in Chris
