Searching for Sunday

Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church

By: Rachel Held Evans

Narrated by: Rachel Held Evans

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Are you struggling to connect with your church community? Do you find yourself questioning the core beliefs that you once held dear? Searching for Sunday, from New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans is a heartfelt ode to the past and a hopeful gaze into the future of what it means to be a part of the modern church.

Like millions of her millennial peers, Rachel Held Evans didn't want to go to church anymore. The hypocrisy, the politics, the gargantuan building budgets, the scandals--to her, it was beginning to feel like church culture was too far removed from Jesus. Yet, despite her cynicism and misgivings, something kept drawing Evans back to church.

Evans found herself wanting to better understand the church and find her place within it, so she set out on a new adventure. Within the pages of Searching for Sunday, Evans catalogs her journey as she loves, leaves, and finds the church once again.

Evans tells the story of her faith through the lens of seven sacraments of the Catholic church--baptism, confession, holy orders, communion, confirmation, the anointing of the sick, and marriage--to teach us the essential truths about what she's learned along the way, including:

• Faith isn't just meant to be believed, it's meant to be lived and shared in community
• Christianity isn't a kingdom for the worthy--it's a kingdom for the hungry, the broken, and the imperfect
• The countless and beautiful ways that God shows up in the ordinary parts of our daily lives

Searching for Sunday will help you unpack the messiness of community, teaching us that by overcoming our cynicism, we can all find hope, grace, love, and, somewhere in between, church.

©2015 Rachel Held Evans (P)2015 Thomas Nelson Publishers

Beautiful, painful, and true.

Her experiences sometimes mirror my own and sometimes diverge, and either way the stories are honest and poignant. Her summaries of the history of Christianity and calm, big-picture interpretations of scripture seem to take the long view. I'm thankful I read this. And I'm thankful for every minute of my experience with the church.

AWESOME book.

An exceptional book written with great thoughtfulness and love. I learned a great deal. Awesome.

Honest insights from a true searcher

I'm grateful for the many things Rachel pointed out in the book. The best piece of news was the reminder that we are gardeners and as such should not fear the death-resurrection cycle that is a necessary part of life. I was greatly inspired by the hopefulness and invitation to fearlessness of the whole book. Since dying is truly a part of resurrection then I say bring it on! The sooner we get through the death and understand what we must learn from it, the sooner we can begin the exciting new era of Jesus' community. Maybe we'll get better at it this next time!

Excellent book!

Besides the wonderful content, getting to hear it read by RHD makes it so special.

thoughtful and provocative

Rachel Held Evans speaks from experience and sorrow as she shares her evolving fath. Rest in peace.

Lighting the lamp

My continuous struggle with my faith and my church put into words I could never come up with. Thank you for giving them voice.

all the feels!

loved this book so so much. I laughed , I cried , I shook my head in agreement far too many times to count.

what a light.

Rachel did an amazing job. Must read. loved the light she gave us in this book, which was in so many ways, just her simply speaking her truth.

Rachel - gone way to soon

You Spoke to me and to those who don’t understand what she is talking about - I pray for you to fine the love of Jesus .

Not for all

If you are looking to be converted, this isn’t for you. If you are looking for a “Christian World View” this also isn’t it.
This is a Narrative of one woman that struggles with her faith. This is a narrative shared by many millennials that were raised in church but don’t know what now. I found it hopeful, but not because she wrote it to be an inspiration. I found it hopeful to find someone that shares my struggles. I am a Baptist Pastor’s kid that has questions. I fight to stay with my faith but I’ve become more liberal and sometimes I wonder if I should give up the fight.
Rachel has reminded me being Christian is like Love. You make a choice to stay. It’s normal to have doubts. That’s a reminder that you’re trying.