One of the issues which is somewhat resolved by the end is the idea of Ecclesial Superiority at Circle and other churches who were founded by people trying to do something new We believed that we were the ones who got it right and were untethered to the unhealthy traditions of the American Church This meant that it was us or no one I hope that this book teaches us that there also needs to be church communities where it is safe to be a slowly deconstructing white Christian There s a wonderful Queer Storytelling Bar Church in Chicago called Gilead who advertises.

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The four pastors of the now defunct Circle of Hope church provide the lens and story of how a church struggled through COVID and dealt with its baggage Eliza Griswold Eliza Griswold is an American journalist and poet She was a fellow at the New America Foundation from 2008 to 2010 and won a 2010 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters site_link wikipedia Eliza Griswold is an American journalist and poet She was a fellow at the New America Foundation from 2008 to 2010 and won a 2010 Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters site_link wikipedia site_link .

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This book hurt like Hell. Circle of hope church philadelphia I devoured it in two days but I didn t enjoy it I m giving it 5 stars because of the incredibly thorough reporting well organized structure and faithful representation of the complexity of Circle This was my church home for five intensely formative years and I will carry this community in my heart forever Having moved from Circle of Hope to pastoring in the United Church of Christ an extremely progressive denomination I m seeing the same issues among my new wider church family When we preach inclusion and radical welcome we idealistically imagine that includes everyone but by definition it cannot Because as we see in these pages when everyone is given equal platform the marginalized are made to shoulder a heavier burden and are often retraumatized by majority members who are unaware of their impact on others We can end up pulverizing each other with our good intentions I wonder how this story would have played out different if each congregation became it s own autonomous unit bound together by regular celebrations but given full independence to become who they were being formed to be The kind of open dialogue and big umbrella welcome that we strived for works a lot better in small settings and becomes wrapped up in messy power dynamics when we try to do it among such a large and disconnected group of people. Circle of hope pty ltd This book was both a heartbreaking postmortem of my beloved community and a hopeful testimony of the power of rebirth that is the foundation of the Christian faith It demonstrates the painful and necessary work that we in the majority must do to root out our own unseen biases while also highlighting that not everyone can move along with the speed set by those at the top of the system For those who were pushed out of the community because they couldn t deconstruct their embedded biases fast enough or fundementally change their personalities to become less threatening We re not for everyone but we might be for you I love that idea My wife and I planted a church a few years ago that is committed to equality justice and mutuality and we regularly tell our fellow UCC folks that we are not here to steal your members because most traditional Christians wouldn t be able to relate to us To the traditional church be the best that you can be To the modern church do that in a way that only you can To the weird church for the outcasts be weird At Circle we always used to say that we re working this thing out together and it s important than ever to do that across differing churches organizations and communities Eliza Griswold If I were to describe the church at the center of Pulitzer Prize winning author Eliza Griswold s Circle of Hope A Reckoning with Love Power and Justice in an American Church I would likely use a term popularized by folks like Tony Campolo and Shane Claiborne red letter Christian Started by Rod White Circle of Hope could easily have been seen as a cousin to The Simple Way the intentional community co founded by Shane Claiborne that burst to familiarity after the popularity of Claiborne s The Irresistible Revolution became a bestseller Claiborne s was a and still is to a degree the kind of popularity to which Jonny one of the Circle of Hope pastors chronicled by Griswold would likely aspire It has been these kinds of churches that have drawn a broad tapestry of believers These are people tired of church in the traditional way yet not quite ready to let it go They want to do church differently When White and his family founded Circle of Hope in hopes of creating just such a home a different kind of church that would love all and include all Words like emergent new monastic and others offer a way to understand these churches but they have always tended to draw the other Christians people wounded by the church or deconstructionists or people who simply believe there has to be a better way Truthfully after readingCircle of Hope I m starting to wonder if there is a better way It s well known and well documented that church attendance in America is down Churches are dying or becoming a fraction of what they used to be. Circle of hope golf tournament Griswold s Circle of Hope immerses us within Philly s Circle of Hope a church that began as one central body with a vision of being radically different and dedicated to living out the red letters Pastor White was its pastor though he enthusiastically fostered leadership growth that would eventually identify the individuals in Circle of Hope When White stepped down from leadership not so much leaving the congregation as widening its leadership it would fall upon the likes of Rachel Jonny Julie and Ben White s son to lead the church White had left the church at a time when four distinct congregations existed though in theory they were guided by united pastors Circle of Hope immerses us into the the journey of this radical outpost of Jesus followers in Philly They were dedicated to service the Sermon on the Mount social justice and toward having difficult conversations. Circle of hopex Circle of Hope is not the only such church in this relatively unknown yet influential movement that exists on the edge of what is known as evangelicalism As a church it grew for forty years and from one to four congregations Then crisis would hit generational differences an increasingly politicized religious landscape the COVID pandemic that prevented gathering in worship and a rise in activism that demanded than simply marching Suddenly this church which was founded as part of the peaceful Anabaptist movement struggled to know how to lean into its values If it feels like this is some jaded expose of contemporary Christianity think again Griswold immersed herself within the life of Circle of Hope with their permission As she notes eloquently in her final words a benediction of sorts it was a permission that none could have realized would end up providing an up close and deeply personal view of everything we love about church and everything that makes us need to deconstruct the church experience It took almost unfathomable bravery and transparency spirit led really for the White family to continue participating within this project even as it began to express itself differently It took remarkable leadership for these four pastors plus others within Circle of Hope to vulnerably continue sharing life shaking journeys Remarkable Circle of Hope is immersive It is explosive It is intimate and tender and wise and respectful Griswold s background as a journalist is evident throughout neither offering an overly sympathetic account nor doing some sort of journalistic body slam of this church and these lives Instead this feels like truth over and over and over again Questions of power come up over and over and over again gender based race based and so much Vital questions are asked and the answers aren t always pretty How do we welcome the least of these How do we commit to one another in a fractured world Does power have a home in the church and can it genuinely be shared Circle of Hope is a revelation You will feel immersed in the lives of these people and these pastors If you re a Christian you ll likely find yourself saying I would never go to so and so s church or this pastor sounds amazing Griswold doesn t decide for us if there are bad characters here she simply shares the story and immerses us in its fullness I found myself most drawn to Rachel as a pastor though by the end of Circle of Hope everyone here is richly human undeniably flawed desperate to be loving learning how to grow struggling to disagree and both part of the problem and part of its potential solution If you ve ever been a pastor and I have Circle of Hope will ring as familiar and yet will tug at your heart your mind and your spirit Circle of Hope is a must read for American churchgoers and anyone who has experienced what is described here as a reckoning with love power and justice while learning what it means to be the Church Eliza Griswold Reminded me how grateful I am to no longer be a part of a church and made me miss church simultaneously Such a thorny story portrayed with as much care and clarity as possible Eliza Griswold I can t write a review on my iPhone that will do justice to what I think this book is doing But I m also eager to share right now how much I appreciate what Griswold did here She managed to tell a tragic story truthfully in a way that captures careful nuance I think she truly empathized with each of the participants in this saga though one does come off particularly messy but you get the sense that she paints this person in the best light she possibly could have Circle is was a complicated place A beacon of what might be considered left wing evangelicalism Circle served disaffected ex vangelicals who took the teachings of their religious upbringing seriously but who also wanted to believe that following Jesus could be radical and counter cultural than their suburban white conservative churches seemed to believe And in some ways their racial reckoning and their pursuit of gender equality and LGBTQ inclusion outshine efforts I ve seen in the secular realm. Book circle of women In this book we see such earnest and genuine people really trying to do right by their god and their neighbor making themselves vulnerable in the midst of intense cultural reckoning Thanks Eliza for your research and beautiful writing Thanks to Ben Jonny Rachel Julie and Bethany for entrusting this reporter with your stories Eliza Griswold Hear me when I say this wasn t bad but for me it was forgettable Eliza Griswold is a great writer and journalist also make note o that However I felt myself starting to get bored because I kept getting confused sometimes with all the different people here a lot of whom are related and moving parts of the Circle of Hope churches and the dynamics of it all I think reading this might have been successful for me but I m still happy to have learned what I did about this congregation of believers Eliza Griswold

Circle of Hope: A radical mission; a riveting crisis; the future of faith: "extraordinary"Patrick Radden Keefe By Eliza Griswold

1035420295

9781035420292

English

353

Kindle Edition

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The Pulitzer Prize winner s extraordinary portrait of one religious community and what it means for us all Although most evangelicals have their sights firmly set on salvation in the afterlife one extraordinary church in Philadelphia is designed to fight for progress and dedicated to social justice in this life Over forty years Circle of Hope grew from one family to four congregations battling for equality among the sexes an end to racial discrimination and offering hope to believers of all kinds from outcasts to addicts in its radical mission to improve the world Then rocked by many of the same issues facing society at large from MeToo to Black Lives Matter Circle of Hope is forced to confront its own mistakes plunging the community into existential crisis Building on years of deep reporting Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold paints an intimate portrait of pastors and church members desperate wrestling to find a way to remain together despite their dividing truths Through generational rifts an increasingly politicised religious landscape a pandemic and a rise in foundation shaking activism Circle of Hope tells a propulsive layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs It is a soaring searing examination of what it means for a community to love to grow and crucially to disagree Circle of Hope A radical mission a riveting crisis the future of faith extraordinaryPatrick Radden KeefeHard to know how to react reading this Except to pray Eliza Griswold As a former covenant member of Circle of Hope 2005 2020 it is impossible to capture all my thoughts and feelings about this book in a goodreads review Many who spent time at Circle walked away with frustrations and issues myself included but I met so many quality people there and will always be grateful for that I have a lot of respect for the players in the book and feel sad for the broken relationships though it does seem best for this iteration of the church to die and make way for something new I m impressed with the vulnerability the pastors offered to the author forever recorded for anyone to read and judge this slice of their lives Thanks to all who tried to do the work in those final years Now the BIC which is non affirming and not working on anti racism gets to cash in on these buildings that have appreciated so much over the years Eliza Griswold An excellent telling of a story that will likely be familiar to anyone involved in progressive Christian institutions in the last couple decades I read the final pages through tears Church is so messy And so much work And when it s at its best usually in the smallest moments so so good To some of us essential So we keep going Eliza Griswold 3. Circle of hope boutique 5 StarsThis book was a unique twist on the typical bad church or harmful church narrative This was a place that by Griswold s skilled storytelling I could see myself being part of and excited about The allure of being part of a congregation who cares about social justice is real in a world filled with churches that seem preoccupied by the flowers at the front of the sanctuary The author did a lovely job telling the story Good read Eliza Griswold It is an interesting reported work that was thoroughly done and surprisingly balanced despite the perspectives interviewed and offered People are messy and this work does little to turn away from that fact The four central figures.

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I imagine this book feels less than generous