Review for: Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
Synopsis from the Goodreads website: What if that person you've been trying to avoid is your best shot at grace today?
And what if that's the point?
In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls “a religious but not-so-spiritual life.” Tattooed, angry and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people—a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA.
As she lives and worships alongside these “accidental saints,” Nadia is swept into first-hand encounters with grace—a gift that feels to her less like being wrapped in a warm blanket and more like being hit with a blunt instrument. But by this grace, people are transformed in ways they couldn’t have been on their own.
In a time when many have rightly become disillusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints demonstrates what happens when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together, and tell each other the truth about their real lives. This unforgettable account of their faltering steps toward wholeness will ring true for believer and skeptic alike.
Told in Nadia’s trademark confessional style, Accidental Saints is the stunning next work from one of today’s most important religious voices.
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Synopsis from the Goodreads website: What if that person you've been trying to avoid is your best shot at grace today?
And what if that's the point?
In Accidental Saints, New York Times best-selling author Nadia Bolz-Weber invites readers into a surprising encounter with what she calls “a religious but not-so-spiritual life.” Tattooed, angry and profane, this former standup comic turned pastor stubbornly, sometimes hilariously, resists the God she feels called to serve. But God keeps showing up in the least likely of people—a church-loving agnostic, a drag queen, a felonious Bishop and a gun-toting member of the NRA.
As she lives and worships alongside these “accidental saints,” Nadia is swept into first-hand encounters with grace—a gift that feels to her less like being wrapped in a warm blanket and more like being hit with a blunt instrument. But by this grace, people are transformed in ways they couldn’t have been on their own.
In a time when many have rightly become disillusioned with Christianity, Accidental Saints demonstrates what happens when ordinary people share bread and wine, struggle with scripture together, and tell each other the truth about their real lives. This unforgettable account of their faltering steps toward wholeness will ring true for believer and skeptic alike.
Told in Nadia’s trademark confessional style, Accidental Saints is the stunning next work from one of today’s most important religious voices.
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Hello all. I just finished a new book tonight, and one of the few ones I would give 4-5 stars! I finished Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People, by Nadia Bolz-Weber ! A great, thought provoking book. The author put it all out there, flaws and all, shining light on the lessons learned as she has stumbled, and tripped her way to God's grace, as we all do in this crazy, puzzling mixed up fascinating world we live in. The message she was trying to get across is not how many sinners she has hung out with or how great she is for doing that , as some reviews have accused her of, thinking she was bragging. I felt the message of the book was that no matter who we are, no matter what we've done, no matter how far from God we believe we are, no one is so far down and so far gone that Jesus cannot reach down and rescue you, and that truth has shines through in spite of her human frailties that she had the courage to let all hang out. When God covers you in grace and you feel that intimacy, that forgiveness, its not about pride, its about gratitude. I believe Nadia has a very important work she does. She can reach people that their life choices have them beaten down, and left them in the dust and show them that God loves them and there is hope. People that may not feel welcome in some churches, churches that feel they are somehow a step above these prodigal sons and daughters, when they need to be saying "There, but for the grace of God go I"! A big message that runs throughout the book is that often God will work changes in us using connections with people we meet in our everyday lives. People that may not look the "churchie" look, may have flaws. Peter denied Christ, Matthew was a tax collector, Thomas doubted, other disciples had tempers. Jesus came that men may have life and more abundantly, for all, not just those that know how to dress up and play the game at church on Sunday. If you look for Jesus, you will find Him in the lame, the crippled, the blind. I believe that the author, Nadia, is constantly searching for Him everywhere He can be found, and He does His best work in the weakest. The ones that are malleable clay that let Him do His work and look for His face in all souls, not just in the pretty ones, or the cool hip ones. Several of the passages I underlined were these: " ...it has been my experience that what makes us the saints of God is not our ability to be saintly but rather God's ability to work through sinners....I have come to realize that all that saints I've known have been accidental ones- people who inadvertently stumbled into redemption like they were looking for something else at the time, people who have just a wee bit of a drinking problem, and manage to get sober and help others to do the same... What we celebrate in the saints is not their piety or perfection but the fact that we believe in a God who gets redemptive and Holy things done in this world through, of all things, human beings, all of whom are flawed. ... Never once did Jesus scan the room for the best example of holy living and send that person out to tell others about Him. He always sent stumblers and sinners. I find that comforting." Nadia has a way of speaking that is raw and frank, toward herself most of all. She noted the importance of remaining humble when being Jesus' hands and feet and who the work is for: " While we as people of God are certainly called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, that whole "we're blessed to be a blessing" thing can still be kind of dangerous. It can be dangerous when we self-importantly place ourselves above the world, waiting to descend on those below, so we can be the "blessing" they've been waiting for, like it or not. Plus, seeing myself as the blessing can easily obscure the way in which I am actually part of the problem and can hide the ways in which I, too, am poor and needing care. Seeing myself or my church or my denomination as "the blessing"-- like so many mission trips to help "those less fortunate than ourselves"--can easily descend into a blend of benevolence and paternalism. We can start to see the "poor" as supporting characters in a big story about how noble, selfless and helpful we are." I would highly recommend this book! Read it and learn about a loving God that saves us not because we are pious and saintly but because we are not. If we were we would not need saving and that is the message I take from this book.
I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review.
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