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"This book will make a profound difference for the church in this moment in history."
— The Most Reverend Michael B. Curry
Sometimes it takes disruption and loss to break us open and call us home to God. It’s not surprising that a global pandemic and once-in-a-generation reckoning with white supremacy—on top of decades of systemic decline—have spurred Christians everywhere to ask who we are, why God placed us here and what difference that makes to the world.
In this critical yet loving book, the author explores the American story and the Episcopal story in order to find out how communities steeped in racism, establishment, and privilege can at last fall in love with Jesus, walk humbly with the most vulnerable and embody beloved community in our own broken but beautiful way.
The Church Cracked Open invites us to surrender privilege and redefine church, not just for the sake of others, but for our own salvation and liberation.
"If you are looking at the landscape of the church and wondering, ‘How’d we get here?’ and what’s next, I invite you to board Rev. Spellers’s plane and take in the big picture with her. Take in the history, the theology, the pain, the beauty, and the hope that her view from thirty thousand feet offers. When she lands the plane, you’ll realize—there’s simply no better guide out there."
"Stephanie Spellers draws our attention to the unraveling of white Christianity in the face of contextual diversity and Jesus’s cross. She invites her readers to stop negotiating with the past and to realize that love is not maintaining and protecting community but the very cracking open at the heart of community."
"In a moment when structures and patterns in the church’s life are being deeply disrupted, this book is a loving, passionate invitation to repent, reimagine, and renew. Stephanie Spellers not only names hard truths but also and even more importantly offers hope and promise in Jesus’s way of love."
"Spellers courageously challenges American Christians to have tough conversations surrounding imperialism, racism, and self-centrism. Moreover, she offers solutions that bring us back to what Jesus intended the church to look like and function."
“Congregations seeking to wrestle with their own past practices and future hopes will find
this book a very helpful guide. Do not expect easy answers or simple solutions: this is a
map to the land without roads, where only trust in the love of God and a community of
loving pilgrims will find—not a city on a hill—but a family of faith.”
Individuals and groups familiar with this ongoing work will find many points of connection here, but every Christian—Episcopalian or not—stands to gain from this indispensable book. Stephanie Spellers has given a grace to the Church—and like all graces, it offers a challenge and a gift.
Spellers takes a loving approach to a most difficult conversation. The reality is many of our congregations today are not ready for such conversations. However, there is much work to do if we are going to tear down the walls that divide us. The Church Cracked Open acknowledges that work, the pain, the history, and our current reality in such a way that is truthful while offering a framework for those difficult conversations.
Congregations seeking to wrestle with their own past practices and future hopes will find this book a very helpful guide. Do not expect easy answers or simple solutions: this is a map to the land without roads, where only trust in the love of God and a community of loving pilgrims will find—not a city on a hill—but a family of faith.
Stephanie Spellers serves as Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's Canon for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation, helping Episcopalians to share good news and cross boundaries as part of the Jesus Movement. A former church planter and seminary faculty member, she is the author of Radical Welcome: Embracing God, The Other and the Spirit of Transformation. She lives in New York City.