A dear friend says this book changed her life so I picked it up and put it on the top of Mt. TBR. I finished it last week.
It’s powerful.
The description from the author, Jen Hatmaker’s web site:
Interrupted follows Jen’s messy journey through life and church and into living on mission. Snatching Jen from the grip of her consumer life, God began asking her questions like, “What is really the point of My Church? What have I really asked of you?” She was far too busy doing church than being church, even as a pastor’s wife, an author of five Christian books, and a committed believer. She discovered she had missed the point.
Christ brought Jen and her family to a place of living on mission by asking them tough questions, leading them through Scripture, and walking together with them on the path. Interrupted invites readers to take a similar journey.
This is the first book by Jen that I’ve read, although I did watch a few episodes of the HGTV series following their family’s home remodel.
I’ve had many of the same feelings Jen describes about doing church instead of being church. It’s a concept foreign to many of us in the middle classes, in suburbia, in complacency. Jen writes with honesty and the book also includes a few chapters written by her husband to give his perspective of their journey from a large contemporary church to a new church start-up in a more humble part of Austin, Texas.
I hope I’m as open as Jen to the possibility of change and being called to something uncomfortable. Frankly, I’ve been part of a new church start-up and it was exhausting and demanding and I never found it even the tiniest bit greatly rewarding. I know that experience has made me wary of making any changes in my Christian life.
But I hope if God calls, I would be obedient. Because otherwise, what’s the point of calling myself a Christian? It would just be a label, not a lifestyle.
May it never be.
Writer of Sweet Small Town Stories of Love and Family 