Gospel, Grits, and Grace: Encountering the Holy in the Ridiculous, Sublime, and Unexpected

By T. Wyatt Watkins

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817013113
• ISBN13: 9780817013110
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Judson Pr
• Length: 193 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

What's grace got to do with Crazies, Cambodians, Chihuahus and Cats?

Little did I know that the author of this book would be my pastor in just three years after my encounter with the sublimity of his writings! But that is the case. In fact, as I write this on Christmas Eve of 2008, I will be participating in a service with him in less than 8 hours and he plans to tell a story from this book called "In Search of the Plastic Jesus." More than that he has helped build the church he serves as the most "grace filled" congregation in the entire state of Indiana. And Donna, his wife, is the illustrator. I am utterly convinced that this book is exactly what it's sub-title claims for it, namely, tales of "encountering the holy in the ridiculous, sublime and unexpected." Watkins concludes this book by observing, "...as long as there is drafty air and winter's biting frost," just that long will "light emerge from darkness and day from the cold black night." In a prior tale he tells of standing like a deer in the middle of the road, frozen by the headlights of impending doom." Reading this book doesn't make me feel that I am facing "impending doom" but it does leave me "frozen by the headlights" of these graceful stories piercing my darkness with "de-light!" If you will read about these other "encounters with the holy" then you will understand what "crazies, Cambodians, chihuahuas and cats" have to do with grace! Poignant stories? Yes! Stories of frail and faithful people? Yes! Get read to laugh and cry as you read them.

from The Church & Library Synagogue Association

"Move over Garrison Keillor! Here comes T. Wyatt Watkins as the newly ordained, Baptist preacher to the rural Ashgrove Church.I recommend Watkins' book to lovers of the Lake Wobegon stories. It is a nice twist that will have you in stitches at parts, or touched so deeply at others. In other words, this is Ashgrove Baptist Church, where the holy, ridiculous, sublime, and unexpected come together to create a charming community."- Mary Lou Henneman, Boardman, OH

Remembrances of times past

Besides being a delightful story of a pastor's first ministry, it is a rich look at people, their culture and their relationship to God and His Son, and the effect on the growing of a new preacher. The characters are pictures of the folks in my small home town in Arkansas years ago---their actions and responses to the everyday happenings in their lives. The relationship of the people in this book to their pastor in their times of sadness and joy is readily passed on to the reader.

This book finds God's Grace in the mundane of life.

This book will have you laughing and crying. It is about real life stories and how God's grace is always with us if we just look for it. The stained glass drawings are a creative addition.

Entertaining and thougth provoking

Having been raised in a small, country American Baptist church, I found this work to be a joy to read. The characters were so true -- I could have sworn he was writing about congregants in the little church of my childhood. But this book is not just entertaining; it gives the reader a chance to reflect on her/his faith and appreciate how faith affects others.