Orphaned Believers
How a Generation of Christian Exiles Can Find the Way Home
About
Hope for the one who is weary, wandering, and wondering where things went wrong
In the wake of the culture wars of the 1980s and 1990s, many young evangelical Christians found themselves untethered, disillusioned, and--ultimately--orphaned as they grappled with the legalistic, politically co-opted churches of their youth. Perhaps you are one of them. Perhaps, like Sara Billups, you have felt alone, misunderstood, and maligned in the American church, longing for a more loving, more biblical expression of the faith and discipleship taught by Jesus.
Part spiritual memoir of an apocalyptic childhood and part commentary on growing up as an evangelical kid during the culture wars, Orphaned Believers follows the journey of a generation of Christian exiles reckoning with the tradition that raised them and searching for a new way to participate in the story of God. Because for all the baggage, we still belong, and a bigger, more beautiful story awaits.
"As American Christianity changes, and as we change along with it, we need guides to remind us who we are and who we're not. Sara has been one such guide for me. She's brutally honest and hilarious, and her heart is wide open to the radical possibility that belonging to Jesus is identity enough for Christians. I couldn't be more grateful for her."--Jon Guerra, singer-songwriter and producer
"Billups reminds us that no matter who we are or where we come from, God can move us from a place on the margins to a community of faith."--Foxy Davison, educator and activist
"Sara helped me feel more 'found' than I did before--orphaned but also anchored in a much better story than the one the world's been selling me over the past decades. I needed this book more than I knew."--Chuck DeGroat, author, therapist, and professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary
Endorsements
"As American Christianity changes, and as we change along with it, we need guides to remind us who we are and who we're not. Sara has been one such guide for me. She's brutally honest and hilarious, and her heart is wide open to the radical possibility that belonging to Jesus is identity enough for Christians. I couldn't be more grateful for her."
Jon Guerra, singer-songwriter and producer
"I needed this book. I have no glowing words of endorsement, no pithy comments of promotion; I just have this: Sara and I, we overlapped like a Venn diagram in the themes of this book--the wrecking of our childish understanding of theology, the intentions gone wild, the incredulity of what it means to be a child and an orphan simultaneously. I needed this book, and I am grateful it is now in the world."
Lore Ferguson Wilbert, author of A Curious Faith and Handle with Care
"Billups reminds us that no matter who we are or where we come from, God can move us from a place on the margins to a community of faith. She calls us forward, with deep care for the people of God."
Foxy Davison, educator and activist
"This is the book you've been waiting for: the book that addresses those who love Jesus but find themselves disoriented by the ways he is wielded and weaponized in halls of power. This is a book for those who mourn the disconnect between the American church complex and the Bride of Christ. Half journalist, half mystic, Sara reminds us we are not alone and helps us move forward with the greatest gift: hope."
Erin Hicks Moon, writer and podcaster
"I wept as I read Sara Billups's Orphaned Believers because so much of her story is similar to my own. And though the similarities are daunting, the grace and wisdom she dispenses is exhilarating and so totally relieving. She proposes that there is a legitimate way forward for followers of Jesus. If you have been made weary by too many conspiracy theories and the outrage thereof, I invite you to feast on the grace and wisdom in Orphaned Believers. There is a balm for those of us connected, whether intimately or at a distance, with the American church. Sara Billups's voice is one that, if we are willing, will prophetically point us beyond the various problematic ideologies that have held us hostage to a life led by the Holy Spirit and toward the tender, merciful ways of Christ."
Andy Squyres, musician and writer
"'There's wilderness in all of us,' Sara writes. 'We're lost and found a little every day.' And in her honest-but-hopeful reflections, Sara helped me feel just a bit more 'found' than I did before--orphaned but also anchored in a much better story than the one the world's been selling me over the past decades. I needed this book more than I knew."
Chuck DeGroat, author, therapist, and professor of pastoral care and Christian spirituality at Western Theological Seminary
The Author
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Jenny James Sara Billups
Sara Billups is a Seattle-based writer and cultural commentator whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Christianity Today, and more. Sara is completing her Doctor of Ministry in the Sacred Art of Writing at the Peterson Center for the...
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