I was first introduced to Rachel Held Evans’ blog by my good friend Heather Sunseri who said something like, “You’ll have to check out this blog I read everyday. It’s…interesting…curious to see if you agree with it.” Now, people send me blog links all the time and they rarely get me to add their blog to my feeder but Rachel’s blog was a little different. There was actual conversation going on. Her posts are relevant and were striking a chord in certain parts of Christendom.
Having said that, that’s how I began following Rachel and the publication of her first book and ultimately how I got my free copy of Evolving in Monkey Town. She was kind enough to send me a copy.
Monkey Town is Rachel’s story of her own spiritual evolution. Raised in Dayton, TN, the home of the Scopes Monkey trial, Rachel brilliantly uses the concept of evolution to describer her own spiritual journey and ultimately that of Christianity’s adaptation to survive in an ever-changing cultural milieu. If you want easy answers to tough questions, skip this book. If you want to be challenged to deepen your understanding of the Almighty, then this is a great place to start. I can think of younger adults who struggle with many of the questions that Rachel Held Evans struggles with.
I’m not sure I would use the book in its entirety for my small group or class I would lead. I would like to use chapter 7, When Believers Ask, to set up a group session to see how we might respond to her doubts. I suspect I’ll find others with the same questions. But I know I will find younger people with the same questions. So I am going to recommend it to our young adult Sunday school class. I think they will more readily identify with the author. Why didn’t I identify with her journey as much as a 20something might? I think it comes out of the fact that my faith journey comes from the polar opposite of Rachel’s. I come from a mainline anti-creedal church that taught openness. I learned many of the lessons she’s just recently learned when I was much younger. At the same time, I haven’t come to the same conclusions as she has on many of the issues she deals with (see Chapter 7).
Let me conclude that Rachel Held Evans is a breath of fresh air to the church and she has voice that NEEDS to be heard in Evangelical circles, even if you don’t agree always with her. Why? She has put in words what many people are thinking and the modern American Church for the most part is not addressing their questions and doubts.
