Author Kurtis Vanderpool, in his book Giving Up Sunday, “gives voice to Christians,” one reader reports, “that are done with institutional church.” Another describes his reading as having been winsome: “It felt more like having a conversation with him than…being lectured at….”
Vanderpool himself observes, “This book is for…those who long for something more, but cannot imagine…finding it in a church building.” It’s sad, he adds, “that churches are viewed as the most dangerous place to even think differently than others; that it is the worst place to be your true self”—for being that, you’re apt to be “ostracized, criticized, or cast out….”
A life coach who works with others whom he calls “deconstructing Christians,” Vanderpool, “after years of working in Christian churches,” exited: “I myself have deconstructed most of my old faith,” he wrote last year in Relevant Magazine, a bimonthly platform for Christian 20- and 30-somethings. “[I]f I’m being honest,” he admitted, “for most of us it isn’t worth it to stick around when we’ve already spent too many years of our lives pretending. Try as we might, we simply cannot live with the idea of attending church if it isn’t real to us.”
Giving Up Sunday: Looking for More from Faith, Community, and Calling
By Kurtis Vanderpool
Amazon.ca, 2018
