[easyazon_image align=”left” height=”333″ identifier=”0802874134″ locale=”US” src=”https://englewoodreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/51zxriXcF5L.jpg” tag=”douloschristo-20″ width=”209″]Wisdom Sprinkled Lavishly
A Brief Review of
Love Big, Be Well:
Letters to a Small-Town Church
Winn Collier
Paperback: Eerdmans, 2017.
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Reviewed by Rhodara Shreve
In this new novel by Winn Collier, you might think letters written by a pastor to his small church congregation would be irrelevant to the modern, urban churches in larger city areas but, you would be so wrong. In fact, reading this book is more about getting a chance to remember what we can be robbed of in this crazy high-tech, global world and why this has to do with our deepest need for friendships that matter as as we journey through life. In this book, a pastor finds himself called to a rural church, and as he writes these letters to his congregation, he shares so much wisdom through the stories of people he meets in this church as he gets to know them and the community they inhabit.
Winn is also a pastor so this book is not fashioned purely out of his imagination. Over the years of his own pastoring and learning, this wonderful gift of writing has emerged and I was personally excited to see this new book. I have followed Winn’s blog for a couple years now because I find them to be so thoughtful and insightful. This book gives his writing gift a chance to be shared, and I would strongly recommend it for anyone because the simplicity of the story-telling of each chapter reveals an ability to capture the treasures of our humanity and our need for each other as we live out life together wherever we find ourselves. Friendship is a root that grows, and Winn shows us how it can become a rock on which a pastor can build his calling. Nurturing relationships is a lost art in our world and I had to pause after reading each chapter to take in the simple but profound truth in each story he captures so well. Winn has a way with words and he always takes me by surprise in ways that wake me up. This book can do that and more. It is worth the read if only to help anyone who reads it remember what makes us all truly human. Oh, and there is also a really good dose of wisdom sprinkled lavishly in words throughout these letters and that just seems so hard to find these days.
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Reading for the Common Good
From ERB Editor Christopher Smith
Reading for the Common Good
From ERB Editor Christopher Smith
and the life of the church."
-Karen Swallow Prior
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C. Christopher Smith is the founding editor of The Englewood Review of Books. He is also author of a number of books, including most recently How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church (Brazos Press, 2019). Connect with him online at: C-Christopher-Smith.com
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