Churched: One Kid's Journey Toward God Despite a Holy Mess

by Matthew Paul Turner

Book Overview

He spent his childhood trapped within the confines of countless bizarre, strict rules. And lived to tell about it. In this first-hand account, author Matthew Paul Turner shares amusing-sometimes... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0307458016
• ISBN13: 9780307458018
• Release Date: June 2010
• Publisher: Waterbrook Press
• Length: 242 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.6" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A fine humorous read!

I swear this man has lived my life. If you grew up in a fundamentalist Christian home and have struggled to find your place with God then I believe you will love this little read. The author has a very quick wit that rang so true with me. It's not often you find a book that is actually a PLEASURE to read but his witty logic made this journey from growing up as a spit shined fundamentalist to truth seeker a compelling page turner. Never snobbish and usually light, those who have been "Churched" will truly appreciate this book. Highest recommendation.

Still not churched.

I have never truly experienced the things the author has gone through, as I have only come to Christ in my adult years and in looking for a church I stayed away from the the religion aspect of it all. All I ever wanted was a relationship with Jesus, and that is what I got. I've often wondered about the legalistic religions; what makes them work, and what it would've been like to be a child growing up in a legalistic church. This book has been a pretty good introduction to what life growing up as a "churched" child would've been. The author uses humor to make this quite the enjoyable read, and points out how fundamentalists often lose sight of what it is God really wants for us, an that is a relationship with him. Not legalities and rules that are man made. I liked this book so much that I am going to buy a few extra copies to mail out to my husband in Iraq so that he can pass them around among the camp. This was a very fun read and it also comes along with the message that it doesn't matter how we worship God, whether we cut our hair any certain length, picture him laughing, wear ties and suits to church, color his robe green, purple, blue or white...whatever. What matters is that we find Him and have a personal relationship with him. I highly recommend this book! Buy it now and have a good laugh while also coming to realize (or to reaffirm) what is truly important.

A book that will be a comfort to many whose religious beliefs are no longer those of their childhood

What I liked most about this book was how evenhanded it was. The author is not a blamer. He understood why his parents chose the fundamentalist church they did, and they are portrayed as caring, loving people who really felt they were taking the right route for this children. Turner's slow realization that the church is flawed is revealed so calmly and in such a matter of fact way. The last straw, although he doesn't call it that, is realizing that the church leaders are counting souls saved like accountants, and fudging figures here and there. Another touching moment in the book is when, out to save souls door to door, Turner meets a woman whose love of God doesn't involve fear, and he realizes for the first time that is a possibility. I also liked it that even at the end, Turner hasn't found an ideal church, and isn't even sure one exists, but he knows he loves God and needs to belong to a church community. This kind of quiet testimony is a wonderful thing to read for those of us in similar situations.

Entertaining, Enlightening...

Entertaining, Enlightening... Matthew Turner grew up in an extremely legalistic fundamentalist church. In his book titled Churched, he shares his experiences of a church where women could not wear pants and men could not have hair long enough to touch their ears. Christian contemporary music was a gift from satan. The Sunday School classes periodically had a Barbie burning. Turner's book will bring a smile to most Christian's face. He writes in a witty style that will delight readers and endear them to the characters. Despite the obstacles, Matthew Turner saw Jesus and fell deeply in love with him. Matthew Turner, you caused me to laugh. I can remember many of the same things, and we were not considered a fundamentalist church. I remember the scandal of a woman wearing pants to choir practice on a Wednesday evening. Heaven forbid if a woman tried to step foot in the pulpit. Long hair was a deadly sin as was dying your hair. I also found Jesus. However, I found Him at the church where I grew up. Pants and long hair are no longer sins. There is a praise and worship band and contemporary music. My church moved into the 21st century without compromising their Biblical beliefs. However, there is still a lot of grumbling about that Praise and Worship Music..... I love this book! It is entertaining, interesting, and delightful. It is spiritual and evangelical without an in-your-face attitude. Churched would make a great gift to your favorite Christian.

Fear / Hope

One of my favorite genres of literature to read is religious memoir. Off the top of my head, I can think of six or seven I've read in the last year - Frank Schaeffer's Crazy for God, Lauren Winner's Girl Meets God, Jon Sweeney's Born Again and Again, Barbara Brown Taylor's Leaving Church - A Memoir of Faith, and a couple from Frederick Buechner, The Sacred Journey, Now and Then, and Telling Secrets. Philip Yancey's Soul Survivor might also fit in that category. There are different things that I like about all of them. For some, it's seeing someone else who is close to the end of their journey, looking back at the things that happened in their lives that brought them to where they are now, like Buechner - on the back of his book The Longing for Home, there's a blurb from the New Oxford Review that says, "Journey on, Frederick Buechner. We need your stories to help us make sense of our own." Others, like Lauren Winner's and Donald Miller's, are thought provoking because they are a little further down the path I'm on, or at least a similar path. Schaeffer and Sweeney both come from a somewhat similar background in fundamentalism. Sweeney even begins one chapter in Born Again and Again: Surprising Gifts of a Fundamentalist Childhood by quoting part of a sermon by my Great Grandfather, John R. Rice. (Winner mentions Rice and his book Bobbed Hair, Bossy Wives, and Women Preachers in her chapter on Fundamentalism, but from an historian's perspective instead of a personal one.) But while I can find similarities between their stories and my own, it's not often that I read someone who not only comes from a similar background but who also has many of the same stories, someone who heard the same preachers growing up (to say nothing of Patch the Pirate). Enter Matthew Paul Turner. I read Matthew's first book, the satiric Christian Culture Survival Guide, back when it was published, in 2004, and found it hilarious. After noticing his stories of Patch the Pirate and about a certain college founded by a friend of my Great Grandfather, with the name changed slightly, I sent him an e-mail. Turned out, he even heard my Great Grandfather preach when he was about 5 years old. In the 4 years since then, Matthew has written ten or twelve books. His newest - his first hardback - is due to hit stores on October 7th. Churched: One Kid's Journey Towards God Despite a Holy Mess is his first memoir, and hopefully the first of several. He sent it to me after he finished the final draft about four months ago, and I read it in two days. And it resonated with me, not only because Matthew started out in a similar place, but because we are both in about the same place now, more so than with any other memoir I've read. Matthew's trademark humor is evident throughout, although much of it is a little painful because it is so close to the truth. For instance, when he writes about his pastor telling the church how he can spot sin in another person's life just by looking in their eyes