United Methodist people long to love God and serve their neighbors. Unrelenting Grace by Bishop Ken Carter shows us how to come together and embrace grace, seek holiness, and build meaningful connections promoting strength and healing. Unrelenting Grace evokes insights and courage to overcome feelings of isolation, loneliness, and alienation.
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Unrelenting Grace was a good book. I am grateful to have received it as a part of the annual conference meetings this summer. It was a quick read, too. And to be able to say that “my Bishop” wrote the book feels like I am vicariously sharing in the notoriety that comes with writing a book or being a Bishop. (And yes, that last sentence says more about me than anything.)
I appreciated the simple, faithful way Bishop Carter explained God’s grace and our participation in it. Grace is a gift. Grace connects us. Grace is a way of life. Grace is healing. We don’t talk enough about the healing part of faith (and I don’t mean the send in your money and I’ll pray for healing type of televangelist healing). Unrelenting Grace is distinctly United Methodist. It speaks to our current denomination season – the hurt, the need for self-examination, and the need for healing.
I read this book quickly and will likely read it again, next time more slowly, digesting and reflecting more. Because while much of the book drew me in, there were moments that I felt… disconnected. There were moments where I felt like people I love would be pushed away if they read it. Perhaps it was because I read it just after a gathering where I missed seeing friends because they have left the denomination. Perhaps it was because of personal conversations I’ve had with others who are struggling with where The United Methodist church is and might be heading. Perhaps it was because I know the pain of a local church still hurting from hard conversations and decisions. As I read, I kept thinking of people in my congregation, friends, family; I’d wonder how they would react reading the words. Thinking about it all, maybe, is still too painful.
Thus the need for unrelenting grace. And I don’t mean the book (although I do actually recommend it). I mean, God’s unrelenting grace. The grace that doesn’t let go of us, no matter how we are feeling, no matter what we think about The United Methodist Church, and no matter how much we are still hurting by the choices our local church might have made. God’s unrelenting grace, and our Wesleyan way of understanding it, is a gift, does connect us, and can heal us.
The good news is that we place our ultimate faith and hope in the One who has the power to heal us. God’s healing is the pathway to the re-membering of our bodies: our friendships, our churches, our communities.
Unrelenting Grace, pg. 71
Rev. Kris Mares 