My latest book is entitled ReChurch: Healing Your Way Back to the People of God. I want to tell you why I wrote it.

This book is certainly different from what I usually write. My field is faith and culture, which means I tend to write about how faith impacts law and politics, leadership and corporations. But a few years ago I had a painful experience and when I emerged and looked around, I realized that nearly everyone I knew had either endured the same hardship or knew someone who had.

To put it in brief, I had an experience with a church that was deeply wounding. I don’t need to go into the details here, nor do I in the book. Suffice it to say that the experience left me bleeding and bitter, and then I deepened the wound by how I rehearsed the events in my soul and plotted my petty versions of revenge. Only when some righteous pastors stepped in, smacked me around, and helped me heal did I emerge clean and free. It was then that I realized how many people are sitting at bars and Starbucks talking about their church hurts.

And I wanted to help.

So, I wrote this book. It is hard hitting and blunt and as biblical as I know how to make it. It leads people through steps of healing, forgiving and recovering themselves. It stresses that we have to make nice with the bride of Christ whether we want to or not. There is even some wisdom for how to reconnect in a healthy manner with the people of God.

I’ve never written a specifically Christian, ministry oriented book before. I may not again. But I feel so strongly that there is a great floating mass of wounded humanity out there that needs someone to speak to them like a coach who loves them but will work them to death to help them improve. That’s what I’ve done in this book. You’ll want to buy it for your disconnected friends. You’ll want to encourage it for those who’ve sworn off church. You’ll event want to use it as a checklist for the state of your own soul.

I’d love to hear from you when you’ve read it. More importantly, let’s use it to bring our wounded friends home.

More soon.