The doors that Rachel Held Evans wedged open

From Christian Century-

By writing and speaking about her own religious struggles in a way that was both irreverent and profound, Rachel Held Evans invited a host of doubters and rebels into a fresh conversation about Christian faith. This apostle to outsiders, who died on May 4 at age 37, was authentic, candid, smart, and funny—and refreshingly unintimidated by church hierarchies, particularly ones that exalted only men.

In her blog posts and books, Held Evans took on the shibboleths of the conservative evangelical faith of her childhood. For many people—especially women—who were struggling to find their way out of an evangelical milieu, Held Evans offered a safe haven. Many of them took to social media after her death to share their stories, tagging them #becauseofRHE.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor and writer who founded the Why Christian? conference with Evans in 2015, told the New Yorker, “Rachel pried open the door and then put her foot in the threshold and kept it open for other people.”

More here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/article/critical-essay/doors-rachel-held-evans-wedged-open

The Radically Inclusive Christianity of Rachel Held Evans

From The New Yorker-

Late on Friday evening, as Rachel Held Evans, a thirty-seven-year-old Christian activist, lay in a coma, in her hospital bed, in Nashville, Tennessee, her friend Nadia Bolz-Weber, a progressive pastor, anointed her forehead with frankincense. “Lord, let your servant go in peace,” Bolz-Weber intoned, beginning the liturgy of last rites. She couldn’t believe that she was performing them for her friend, and she told me later, “In times that we are collapsing, these are words that have been worn smooth by generations of the faithful.” To Bolz-Weber, and to Held Evans’s millions of fans, her sudden illness was inconceivable. She had two small children, and, just a month earlier, she and Bolz-Weber had been laughing about the challenges of motherhood. But soon after, while hospitalized for complications from the flu, doctors realized that she was experiencing seizures and placed her in a medically induced coma. Later, after weaning her off the coma medication, the medical team found that swelling of her brain had caused extensive damage from which she could not recover. She died on Saturday morning.

More here-

https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/the-radically-inclusive-christianity-of-rachel-held-evans

Reflecting on Rachel: Why She Mattered

From Christianity Today-

Yesterday, Beth Moore tweeted:

Thinking what it was about @rachelheldevans that could cause many on other sides of issues to take their hats off to her in her death. People are run rife with grief for her babies, yes. But also I think part of it is that, in an era of gross hypocrisy, she was alarmingly honest.

I noticed the same thing—people everywhere, from multiple streams of thought and faith, were expressing personal grief and often showing her honor.

Like many others, I am praying for Dan and her small children. But, I’m also reflecting a bit on her influence and our interactions.

More here-

https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2019/may/reflecting-on-rhe.html?fbclid=IwAR3vFN6J6sQhmkc_LaJ5DRZHJp_ViebKpPMYHokhFAWJP7L5B2HyBFPWHV0

Remembering Rachel Held Evans: #BecauseOfRHE

From Christian Post-

Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, wrote in part, "She was a fearless seeker of truth and servant of Jesus, and her witness will inspire and heal generations to come."

John Dickerson, co-anchor of "CBS This Morning," shared on Twitter, "You may not know of @rachelheldevans, you may not believe, or you may believe & disagree with her, but there is a heaving river of testimony & love rolling today that is a marvel. May grace, or its pursuit, rush through the doors her light opened & her memory is opening still."

The hashtag #BecauseOfRHE was trending on Twitter among her fans and friends. Many shared how Evans had touched their lives.

Evans was known for sending encouraging private messages to people she knew.

Jack Jenkins, a reporter for Religion News Service, noted that Evans "was a religion writer, and would periodically reach out to many of us reporters — unsolicited — with random words of encouragement. Just because. Even if she disagreed. People don’t do that. It’s hard to overstate how beloved she was."

More here-

https://www.christianpost.com/news/remembering-rachel-held-evans-becauseofrhe.html

Rachel Held Evans, Christian writer of honesty and humor, dies at age 37

From RNS-

Rachel Held Evans, a popular progressive Christian writer and speaker, died Saturday morning (May 4) at age 37 after a brief illness.

Evans had been in a medically induced coma for several weeks and never returned to an alert state.

Writer and collaborator Sarah Bessey tweeted that Evans was surrounded by close friends and family at the end, and the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber shared that friends were at Evans’ bedside Friday night, offering “our touch and tears and song. I anointed her with oil.”

Her husband, Dan, informed followers and supporters of his wife’s death on her website.

“This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it’s a nightmare from which I’ll awake. I feel like I’m telling someone else’s story,” her husband Dan Evans wrote in an update on Evan’s blog.

More here-

https://religionnews.com/2019/05/04/rachel-held-evans-christian-writer-of-honesty-and-humor-dies-at-age-37/

Over $67,000 raised for Rachel Held Evans; Christian writer still in medically-induced coma

From Christian Post-

Over $67,000 has been raised in just under 24 hours to support progressive Christian writer Rachel Held Evans, who’s been in a medically induced coma since last week due to complications with an infection.

Evans, a 37-year-old blogger and bestselling author, announced on April 14 that she was in the hospital to treat infection and the flu. However, she began later in the week experiencing symptoms that caused her to have constant seizures and was admitted to an intensive care unit.  

On Monday, feminist writer and friend Sarah Bessey and other colleagues launched a GoFundMe crowdfunding page to help support the Evans family, noting that the medical costs for Evans’ stay are “mounting.”

According to the page organizers, a “long road ahead” is anticipated at this time.

“We want to help with those [medical costs] as well as all the accumulating expenses that even decent medical insurance won't cover,” the GoFundMe page reads. “So many of us would love to do something tangible, like cook a meal or assist with child care, pay for gas to the hospital or clean their house. This is a way for us to gather around the Evanses, making that happen together from many locations around the world.”

More here-

https://www.christianpost.com/news/over-67000-raised-for-rachel-held-evans-christian-writer-still-in-medically-induced-coma.html 

and here-

https://wordandway.org/2019/04/23/supporters-of-hospitalized-christian-author-pool-funds-to-cover-medical-costs/

Fellow Christian writers start Twitter prayer chain as Rachel Held Evans is hospitalized

From RNS-

Rachel Held Evans, a popular progressive Christian writer and speaker with an active social media presence, is no stranger to using hashtags.

On Friday (April 19), the hashtag #PrayForRHE appeared on Twitter, forming a prayer chain for Evans as news spread she has been hospitalized.

Within hours, the hashtag was trending in the United States, signaling that it was one of the most read and commented-on topics in the country.

Later in the evening, her husband Dan Evans posted an update on her website, letting readers know the writer is in a medically-induced coma and thanking them for their support and sympathy.

Sarah Bessey and Jeff Chu, both co-curators with Evans of the Evolving Faith Conference, had asked their Twitter followers to join them in an hour of prayer for Evans Friday afternoon.

More here-

https://religionnews.com/2019/04/19/fellow-christian-writers-start-twitter-prayer-chain-as-rachel-held-evans-is-hospitalized/

Christian Author Comes Unglued on Evangelical Trump Supporters: “You don’t like that I’ve “gotten political,” huh?”

From Blue Dot-

Rachel Held Evans is a progressive Christian blogger and author of the books Faith Unraveled, A Year of Biblical Womanhood and Searching for Sunday.  Evans is also a prolific Facebook and Twitter poster who often stirs fiery debates in the comments sections with her posts.

In her most recent post that has people talking, Evans, who considers herself a former evangelical, calls out evangelical support for Trump as hypocritical and antithetical to the Christian life. “You don’t like that I’ve gotten political?” she asks in the post, answering herself with a strong defense of anti-Trump Christianity, and concluding with “Damn right, I’ve gotten political.”

More here-

http://www.bluedotdaily.com/christian-author-comes-unglued-on-evangelical-trump-supporters-you-dont-like-that-ive-gotten-political-huh/

Rachel Held Evans: You don’t have to give away iPads at church to reach millennials

From North Carolina-

Christian author-blogger Rachel Held Evans has what most churches long for these days: A big following among millennials.

At last count, Evans, 34 and due to become a mom in February, has about 82,000 Twitter followers and about 64,000 fans on Facebook. And her books are popular. Her latest is “Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church.”

On Sunday (Nov. 22), Evans will be at Charlotte’s Christ Episcopal Church for a public conversation with the Rev. Chip Edens, the church’s rector. Evans grew up evangelical in Tennessee, but now attends an Episcopal church in Cleveland, Tenn.

The Observer spoke with her recently about why she left evangelicalism, what she likes about being Episcopalian, how churches can attract more young people and how her soon-to-arrive son is coloring her faith. Here’s the edited interview.

Read more here:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article45469851.html#storylink=cpy

Why mainline pastors should read Rachel Held Evans

From Christian Century-

I put it off for a while. I don’t like to read people who are so popular, so trendy. Furthermore, I’m a United Methodist minister teaching at a PC(USA) seminary—why would I want to read a story of a young evangelical who has a few doubts and then joins the Episcopal Church?

What have you to do with me, Rachel Held Evans?

But this sense that I should read someone who a lot of people are talking about—this curiosity—got the better of me. So when I saw a good deal on her newest book, Searching for Sunday, I bought it and read it. I’m glad I did.

There are few places where her story and mine would connect. Many of the doubts she is having in her early 30s I had as a freshman in college, the year I made my way back to Methodism after a two-year sojourn among evangelical Baptists (a return occasioned by my evangelical Baptist girlfriend breaking up with me). While Evans grew up evangelical, I wasn’t evangelical long enough for the culture to seep into my bones. Unlike her, I still have to Google snatches of scripture stuck in my mind to locate them in the Bible—the tragedy of being raised in the mainline.

More Here-

https://www.christiancentury.org/blogs/archive/2015-09/why-mainline-pastors-should-read-rachel-held-evans

We Are All the Ages We Have Ever Been: An Interview with Rachel Held Evans

From Patheos-

"I attend an Episcopal church, but I still carry with me attitudes and convictions from my evangelical upbringing. Evangelicalism is like my religious mother tongue. I could no more 'walk away' from evangelicalism than I could 'walk away' from my parents."

Although it may get talked about in the local grocery store, not many of us make the national news when we switch churches. However, most of us are not Rachel Held Evans, "the most polarizing woman in evangelical Christianity," according to the Washington Post. Rachel, a New York Times bestselling author who has chronicled her search for a thoughtful and authentic faith in books, blog posts, and through social media, has just published a new bestseller, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church.

The book has become a sensation, largely because of the primary storyline being condensed from the book's subtitle: that Rachel, one of America's best-known evangelicals, has left that tradition for the Episcopal Church. However, as she notes in this exclusive interview for Patheos with another evangelical turned Episcopalian, Greg Garrett, you can leave home, but home doesn't leave you, and the story everyone is telling doesn't do justice to the truth.

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/Progressive-Christian/We-Are-All-the-Ages-We-Have-Ever-Been-Greg-Garrett-05-08-2015.html

Want millennials back in the pews? Stop trying to make church ‘cool.’

From The Washington Post (Rachel Held Evans)-

Bass reverberates through the auditorium floor as a heavily bearded worship leader pauses to invite the congregation, bathed in the light of two giant screens, to tweet using #JesusLives. The scent of freshly brewed coffee wafts in from the lobby, where you can order macchiatos and purchase mugs boasting a sleek church logo. The chairs are comfortable, and the music sounds like something from the top of the charts. At the end of the service, someone will win an iPad.

This, in the view of many churches, is what millennials like me want. And no wonder pastors think so. Church attendance has plummeted among young adults. In the United States, 59 percent of people ages 18 to 29 with a Christian background have, at some point, dropped out. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, among those of us who came of age around the year 2000, a solid quarter claim no religious affiliation at all, making my generation significantly more disconnected from faith than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their lives and twice as detached as baby boomers were as young adults.

More here-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/jesus-doesnt-tweet/2015/04/30/fb07ef1a-ed01-11e4-8666-a1d756d0218e_story.html?postshare=571430425649860

Rachel Held Evans: the Church can be a place of hope – even for millennials

From Christian Today-

Much has been made of American blogger and author Rachel Held Evans' decision to leave the evangelical church and attend an Episcopal church. But her latest book, 'Searching for Sunday: loving, leaving and finding the church' (Nelson Books), is about more than that, and it would be a shame for it to be reduced to the binary terms of the very labels she is trying to escape.

After all, the book is a memoir, not a doctrinal thesis. The reflections she makes based on her own journey and those around her – such as a return to tradition – are not necessarily a blueprint for all millennials, but could be seen instead as a report from the front line: what it looks like to try and come to terms with your religious heritage, and find a new and living faith as an independent, thinking adult.

More here-

http://www.christiantoday.com/article/rachel.held.evans.the.church.can.be.a.place.of.hope.even.for.millennials/52624.htm

Traditional Worship Is the Future

From Huffington-

Conservative Christians love to get their knickers in a twist over various things from time to time such as the horrifying possibility that a victim of sex trafficking might seek an abortion after a rape, or the completely made up issue of "religious discrimination" where apparently roaming gangs of LGBT couples are going around forcing god-fearing business owners to treat them with respect (or at least like any other paying customer).

Politics aside, a perpetual source of gleeful angst is when someone formerly deemed "one of us" dares to nuance an obscure theological teaching about heaven (Rob Bell), dares to be honest about doubt in the life of faith (Ryan Bell), dares, heaven forfend, to make a slight lateral move from Christian pop to secular pop (Amy Grant), or worst of all, becomes Episcopalian!

In the most recent kerfuffle, Christian author and blogger Rachel Held Evans has been excoriated in advance of her upcoming book, Searching For Sunday, where she speaks about her faith journey from Evangelical roots to sacramental worship that has led her to her current worshipping community at an Episcopal church. (And for the record, she herself points out, she's not even officially Episcopalian having not yet been confirmed).

More here-

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vr-marianne-zahn/traditional-worship-is-the-future_b_7090656.html

Rachel Held Evans Returns to Church

From Christianity Today-

Four years ago, Rachel Held Evans spent Easter in the apartment of a funeral home. But there would be no candles lit, no feast after the service. Instead, the group of about 10 had gathered to mourn the death of their church.

The Mission had launched in 2010 at the urging of Brian Ward, Evans’s former youth pastor in Dayton, Tennessee, 45 minutes north of Chattanooga. Like other emergent/missional/ancient-future “experiments,” the house church had a piecemeal, earnest feel to it. Evans was quickly named worship pastor and wrote liturgy for group drawn from the Anglican prayer book. Ward baptized a local guitar player in the Tennessee River. Members volunteered at Dayton’s free health clinic. Evans and her husband, Dan, helped to pay the lawyer’s fee to register the Mission as a nonprofit, a decision that “felt as momentous as a down payment on a house,” Evans writes in a new book, Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church (Thomas Nelson).


More here

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2015/april-web-only/rachel-held-evans-returns-to-church.html

Churches shouldn’t be stuck in past, author says

From Columbus-

The media struggle to label Rachel Held Evans.

She is either an evangelical Christian or an evangelical-turned-progressive Christian, or, as one newspaper put it, “a feisty biblical feminist.”

“All of the above,” she replied when I ran those descriptions by her.

“These days, everybody wants to assign you a label to know if you’re in their group or not, so they’ll know whether to love you or hate you.”

Evans, a 33-year-old author who will speak on Friday in Columbus, grew up evangelical but breaks with the tradition on many social issues and goes to an Episcopal church.
More here-

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/life_and_entertainment/2015/04/14/1-churches-shouldnt-be-stuck-in-past-author-says.html

The importance of church

From Lancaster PA-

Churches make mistakes.

“Church is hard and screws things up a lot,” Rachel Held Evans said in a recent phone interview. “But it’s still worth it, and it’s still important.”

Evans, 33, of Dayton, Tennessee, writes about the church — flaws and all — in her latest book, “Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving and Finding the Church,” which will be released next week.

“The questions Rachel is asking are very similar to the questions we hear from many of the congregations we work with,” Kate Good, executive director of Parish Resource Center, wrote in a press release.

“Some congregations are aging, and they are struggling to connect to young people, as well as families and even long-time congregants,” Good added. “Other churches are lively and attracting new members but don’t want to take their church life for granted.”

More here-

http://lancasteronline.com/features/faith_values/the-importance-of-church/article_4c34ee94-dfa4-11e4-b26c-f77763552cfe.html

Rachel Held Evans, adult conversion, and the necessity of confirmation

From The Living Church-

Influential evangelical writer and blogger Rachel Held Evans has gotten a fair amount of attention recently for leaving evangelicalism to become an Episcopalian (although she’s been attending an Episcopal church for some time now). In an interview with Jonathan Merritt of Religions News Service (RNS), Held Evans described a process of “finding [her] own way,” noting her attraction to practices that she “felt were missing in my evangelical experience,” including room for silence and the central place of the Eucharist.

Her soon-to-be-released Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church promises to tell the story of her recent journey. Structured around the liturgical year, the book has a chapter on each of the seven sacraments. Held Evans will also be producing a series of short films on the book’s liturgical themes through The Work of the People, an emergent-progressive evangelical film platform, whose founder, Travis Reed, also recently announced his own conversion to the Episcopal Church.

More here-

http://livingchurch.org/covenant/?p=5385

Episcopalian and evangelical are not exclusive categories

From Patheos-

I dealt with this snarkily yesterday, but here’s a less-jokey follow-up … So Rachel Held Evans has joined the Episcopal Church. Good for her! (And good for the Episcopal Church!) Some of my best friends are Episcopalian, after all.

This is being treated as “news,” because Evans is a newsworthy evangelical figure. Fair enough, I suppose. But, weirdly, some have decided that the news here is that by joining the Episcopal Church, Evans is somehow “departing” evangelicalism.

Nonsense. “Evangelical” and “Episcopalian” are overlapping categories, and always have been. The Episcopal Church has around 2 million baptized members and a good chunk of that total is evangelical. It’s part of the worldwide Anglican Communion — a church of more than 80 million members which, likewise, includes tens of millions of evangelical believers. Justin Welby, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, is one of them.

White evangelicals in America have always had an affinity for Anglicans and Episcopalians. They lionize the Episcopalians among America’s founding generation as champions of Christianity. And they love C.S. Lewis, John Stott and N.T. Wright.

Read more:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2015/03/19/episcopalian-and-evangelical-are-not-exclusive-categories/#ixzz3UvUmSDKC