The Book Has Launched!

 

Our book came out!

We've done a couple of podcast / interviews and, you guys, this is an excellent practice forum for letting go - because I HATE being interviewed. I feel so uncomfortable and out of control, so, here we go! 

We've also just been launched into empty nesthood and, Lord have mercy on me, the letting go of this stage is no joke.

So - coming at you as fellow pilgrims - learning as we go about accepting the uncontrollable and being present in this life with each other as pastors, parents and people, open to being encountered and transformed by something we can't make happen but can only receive and participate in.

Hope you enjoy it! 

I'll update links to reviews, podcasts and interviews here as they come: 

• Review: Presbyterian Outlook, by Philip Reed
• Christianity Today Interview
• Shifting Cultures Podcast
• Review: Joel Wentz "Are we trying to control our congregations and our kids??"

Receiving This Life

 In a few weeks my second book comes out! It's officially available December 19, but can be pre-ordered now. 

I know it's cliche to say a book has been "a labor of love," but this one really wrestled with me and made me listen and pay attention. It is about living with openness to receive life at it is - to let yourself be encountered by God and others in the midst of any and every circumstance. 

My daughter drew a cartoonish face with wide eyes and snaggletoothed mouth cheerfully commanding me in a word bubble too: RECEIVE! I hung it in front of my desk in The Chapter House (my backyard shed/office) and let the little fellow keep calling me back and focusing me--both in the writing, and so also in my living of what I was writing. It took many different forms before the book finally revealed its true shape, and I am so happy with how it came out. I can't wait for this book to be out in the world. I pray it is a blessing and invitation to others as it has been to me. 

Receiving This Life is a versatile volume - it's designed as a devotional with short reflections that build on each other when read cover to cover, or can be dipped in and out of in any order.  It is also packed with prayers, liturgies and practices that individuals, families and congregations can adapt and use for different occasions and experiences. It would make an equally great bedside book as it would a book club or church-wide read.  (And, dare I suggest, a wonderful Christmas present-?!)

Receiving This Life is 30% off (as is The Deepest Belonging!) if you pre-order it directly from Fortress, with the code: AARSBL23

Here it is to pre-order on Amazon.

As we head into a holiday season, may you know yourself to be held in the love that holds us all. May you find pockets of peace and ease, and may you receive the gifts that await in each moment.

Kara

Birth Announcement

 Some of you know that for the past four years I have been working on a book. Some of you have nudged me along with your supportive cajoling, and buoyed me through with grace when the gestation was longer and more arduous than my own impatience imagined it should be. It turned out to be just what this book needed to become what it was meant to be. So thank you, friends.  And thank you, Lake Nokomis Presbyterian Church who recognized this calling and offered accountability and encouragement throughout - this is their story too.

I'm so pleased to announce that The Deepest Belonging is coming out June 1 and is now available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop (independent booksellers).  

Where does God meet us in this life? Rooting Christian faith in joy, freedom, and trust that God interacts with us in this life, The Deepest Belonging: A Story of Discovering Where God Meets Us invites readers to walk through surprising doorways--weakness, vulnerability, smallness, rest, and honesty--into a new perspective of the Christian life and the role of the pastor.

Kara Root draws wisdom from three compelling stories, all about finding freedom on the other side of fear. In one thread, Marty, a member of the small congregation Root serves, learns that he is dying. In the second, Root finds that her once-invincible faith of assurance and answers collapses.

These stories come together in a third, when the congregation does a unique and counterintuitive thing: it commissions Marty to a "ministry of dying." By embracing instead of fleeing death, Marty, this community, and Root herself are infused with life through shared experiences of God. They learn to be vulnerable and brave. They discover--again and profoundly--an unguarded faith of wondering and watching for God's presence.

This is a book for all pastors and church leaders, as well as for those disillusioned with Christianity and the church and longing for something more real and honest. It explores questions such as: How does God meet us? What is church for? What is a pastor? What does it mean to be truly human?

The Deepest Belonging is a call not to resist but to embrace our vulnerability. As a move away from religion seeking security, protection, and influence, this story invites individuals and congregations to return bravely to the core of our humanity: our belonging to God and one another.