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WORK TITLE: Of Mess and Moxie
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 8/15/1974
WEBSITE: http://jenhatmaker.com/
CITY: Austin
STATE: TX
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born August 15, 1974; married Brandon Hatmaker (a pastor); children: five.
EDUCATION:Attended Oklahoma Baptist University.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Author, pastor, speaker, blogger, television presenter. Austin New Church, co-leader. Appeared in My Big Family Renovation, HGTV; cohost Your Big Family Renovation, 2015–.
RELIGION: Protestant.WRITINGS
Author of Jen Hatmaker Blog.
SIDELIGHTS
Jen Hatmaker is a Christian author, pastor, speaker, blogger, and television presenter. She is indicative of a new trend in the evangelical community of women’s ministry and the influence of individual bloggers and writers on Christians and non-Christians alike. Writing in BookPage, Amy Scribner noted of Hatmaker: “Her brand of religion is so inclusive, nonjudgmental and loving that her writing feels accessible to any woman–Christian or not–seeking wisdom about how to embrace a messy, beautiful life.”
Hatmaker is one of the leaders, along with her husband, of Austin New Church and the author of a dozen best-selling books on Christian and family themes. She has starred in the HGTV series, My Big Family Renovation, in which her family of seven renovates their century-old farmhouse. This led to a further series that she co-hosts, Your Big Family Renovation. She describes herself as “low-grade Christian famous,” which means, as she explained to Time.com contributor Belinda Luscombe, “It’s maybe a D-minus level, enough to get recognized in airports, but not enough to really have any true advantages. The Christian world is pretty small, especially for women in leadership.” But Hatmaker gained national notoriety in 2016 for an interview in which she said that LGBT relationships can be holy. This caused an uproar among many in the evangelical community; the Christian retailer, LifeWay, stopped selling her books. When she also blogged about her concerns of the Trump presidency, especially as regards race and immigration (Hatmaker has adopted two Ethiopian children), she began receiving death threats.
Speaking with Atlantic Online contributor Emma Green, Hatmaker remarked on this controversy: “It was bananas. It really was. … Being on the wrong side of the evangelical machine is terrifying and punitive. … And I wouldn’t change a thing. At the end of the day, I’m not here to build a career. I am here to lead with integrity. I felt like a fractured human being to have these convictions inside of me that I was too afraid to say out loud because it might damage my bottom line. But ultimately that tension became too heavy and I couldn’t hold it anymore. … Our days of silence are over. It’s time to lay that down, move on, and empower one another to speak up.”
Ms. Understood and Interrupted
Hatmaker’s 2008 book, Ms. Understood: Rebuilding the Feminine Equation, looks at five women in the lineage of Jesus in order to help define what makes a religious woman. These include Tamar, Rehab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary, each of whom exhibited both strengths and weaknesses and each of whom was important in the story of Jesus. Hatmaker makes the point that women of all walks are valued by God. “Hatmaker inspires women to take charge of their lives, but also to allow the Lord to work in their lives,” noted Lauren Moody in the online Biblical Woman. A Library Educated Website writer was also impressed, commenting: “Jen Hatmaker is awesome. She is funny and smart and sassy and does not have it all together and she makes no qualms about it. … This book basically talks about how women are glorious and worthy of all good things and how God always works for our good even if we don’t know Him or struggle with Him. She also talks about the women in Jesus bloodline who weren’t perfect (obviously) but play incredibly important roles.”
With Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith (revised and expanded as Interrupted: When Jesus Wrecks Your Comfortable Christianity), Hatmaker relates her own story of how she was transformed from “doing” church to “being” church; how she stopped being trapped by a consumer life and set out on a life of mission. She uses her own story to inform how to revolutionize one’s own life and congregation. An Internet Bookwatch reviewer noted that this is “quite the read and a top pick for anyone looking to revitalize their church.” Similarly, according to the online Natalie Brenner Writes, “Probably one of my favorite things about Jen is that, though she is in your-face-extreme-honest, she reminds us of God’s grace and that He isn’t here to guilt trip us all into feeding the homeless.” Brenner further commented: “[Hatmaker] isn’t here to put us in a place of fear, but to rip legalism out of the way. She raises necessary questions we should all be asking ourselves as Christians.”
For the Love and Of Mess and Moxie
In For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards, Hatmaker offers a “collection of wisdom (with a liberal sprinkling of humor) that feels like an easy conversation with an awesome sister more than anything else,” according to Dawn Klinge: Above the Waves Website. Throughout the work, the author stresses the theme of “grace” in dealing with human relations. And by grace, the author means “letting ourselves and each other off the hook.” She writes chapters from the difficulties of trying to have it all, of marriage and missions. Gospel Coalition Website reviewer Tilly Dillehay had a varied assessment of this book, commenting: “Hatmaker is clearly a cheerleader for women. She has a wealth of humor and wisdom, and she certainly inspires. I recommend For the Love, especially to women looking for a good laugh and some creative thoughts about service and community, but be aware of what the book lacks—theological clarity and a fully developed presentation of grace.”
Hatmaker’s 2017 book, Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of this Wild and Glorious Life, looks at issues that moms deal with, from first day back to school to doing exercise instead of Netflix, and from the hazards of field trips to learning how to forgive and to figuring out how to do grocery shopping for a family of seven. The book is written in Hatmaker’s trademark informal and humorous style, providing personal glimpses into her messes and acts of resiliency. Scribner, writing in BookPage, noted that the author “makes you feel like she’s confiding in you.” Similarly, Booklist contributor Joyce McIntosh commented: “Hatmaker shares the importance of reaching beyond comfort zones and extending welcomes. She owns the moxie she’s writing about.” A Publishers Weekly reviewer was also impressed, observing: “Those who find religious people humorless should certainly read this book. Hatmaker has humor in spades.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, July 1, 2017, Joyce McIntosh, review of Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life, p. 3.
BookPage, August, 2017, Amy Scribner, “It’s a Hard Job, but Someone’s Gotta Do It,” p. 20.
Internet Bookwatch, October, 2009, review of Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith.
Publishers Weekly, May 8, 2017, review of Of Mess and Moxie, p. 54.
ONLINE
Atlantic Online, https://www.theatlantic.com/ (August 20, 2017), Emma Green, “What Obligation Do White Christian Women Have to Speak Out about Politics?.”
Biblical Woman, https://biblicalwoman.com/ (May 1, 2012), Lauren Moody, review of Ms. Understood: Rebuilding the Feminine Equation.
Creative Madness Mama, /http://creativemadnessmama.com (June 19, 2010), review of Out of the Spin Cycle:Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load.
Dawn Klinge: Above the Waves, https://www.dawnklinge.com/ (August 18, 2015), review of For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a Cynical World.
Gospel Coalition, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/ (November 18, 2015), Tilly Dillehay, review of For the Love.
Library Educated, http://libraryeducated.blogspot.com/ (June 19, 2014), review of Ms. Understood.
Jamie Ivey Website, https://jamieivey.com/ (June 18, 2010), Jamie Ivey, review of Out of the Spin Cycle.
Jen Hatmaker Website, http://jenhatmaker.com (January 9, 2018).
Morning Motivated Mom, https://www.morningmotivatedmom.com/ (September 15, 2015), review of For the Love.
Natalie Brenner Writes, https://www.nataliebrennerwrites.com/ (July 29, 2014), review of Interrupted.
Time.com, http://time.com/ (August 17, 2017), Belinda Luscombe, “Jen Hatmaker Talks Faith, Family and the Church’s Battles.”*
HI. I'M JEN.
In the fall of 1992, a college junior named Brandon Hatmaker pretended he needed another fork in the Oklahoma Baptist University cafeteria so he would “randomly” arrive at the utensil cart just as my freshman self was getting there in line. Obviously with moves that smooth, we got married. Twenty years after the wedding, we’ve created a whole life, including a bunch of headstrong kids, a temperamental garden, and a church plant in Austin, TX, where we have lived for 15 years.
I love a handful of really important things.
I love writing. Words are my first love, because they matter. Words actually change lives, move people, sustain us. They take us to another world when we need to go and bring us home when we need to come back. Whatever you need, words can deliver: laughter, solidarity, encouragement, thrill, courage, silliness, spirit. I have been a reader and writer my entire life, and every single day I marvel that I get to make a living with words. I hope to use them for beauty and Jesus and life. I hope to make them count.
I love people. The messier, the wonkier, the further out from the bullseye...the better. I understand God best through people; their gifts and strengths, their love and compassion, their character and courage. I sincerely believe we were made in God's image, and when I evaluate the goodness of people, I love God more. I crave a world of justice where people are safe, loved, empowered. I plan to use whatever influence I've been given on behalf of edged-out people for all my days. If I loved well, I will consider my entire life a success.
I love home. I am a homegirl. I love my husband and family, my neighbors and friends. I love good people around my dining room table, eating good food and having good conversation. A cool vintage print on my wall is like Christmas morning; I want our home to be lovely and comfortable and sacred. I hope folks leave our home more restored than when they walked in the door. May our kids think back on these four walls and remember a childhood in which they were loved and treasured. I live for lazy evenings on the patio with our best friends. My beloved church is up the road. Austin is my favorite city on Planet Earth. I thrive here.
I love Jesus. I am absolutely that girl. I feel so tender toward Him that sometimes I think I'll die. Everything about Jesus moves me: the way He loved outcasts and shunned power, the subversive way He challenged religion, His genius teachings that managed to stay perfectly relevant for 2000 years, the cross. Simply everything. I often think that if people don't love Jesus, they just don't know Him. He is the standard to which I hold up everything: theology, behavior, relationships, culture, church. I love Him and I want to be like Him. I so hope to make Him proud.
I love my readers and our little community. I think about you constantly. I see you in my mind with every word I write. I care about you and what you care about. Your success and heart and soul matters to me so much. Protecting our space is vital: you are always safe with me. You can bring every ounce of doubt and hypocrisy and worry and struggle to me, and I will hold it with careful hands. You can love Jesus or not. You can go to church or not. You can believe or not or maybe not or maybe so. You can ask hard questions, and I promise to as well. We will work hard together to champion grace and goodness.
Welcome.
QUOTE:
It’s maybe a D-minus level, enough to get recognized in airports, but not enough to really have any true advantages. The Christian world is pretty small, especially for women in leadership.
Jen Hatmaker Talks Faith, Family and the Church’s Battles
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By BELINDA LUSCOMBE August 17, 2017
IDEAS
Belinda Luscombe is an editor-at-large of TIME
The Texas pastor, author, homemaker and social-media star talks about faith, family and the debates that are causing schisms among Christians.
In your new book, Of Mess and Moxie, you call yourself “low-grade Christian famous.” What does that look like?
It’s maybe a D-minus level, enough to get recognized in airports, but not enough to really have any true advantages. The Christian world is pretty small, especially for women in leadership.
As a woman of faith, do you think there’s a way forward in the anti-abortion vs. pro–abortion rights debate?
It’s one that my particular tribe of women is asking. Historically the Christian community has taken what is a very fraught decision and reduced it down to a sound bite. Right or wrong. But rather than simply just a pro-life stance, I’m seeing a much broader construct, which is pro–prenatal care, pro–affordable housing, pro–health care.
Why did so many evangelical Christians vote for President Trump, who didn’t seem to espouse traditional evangelical values?
The election exposed a divide in the Christian community in terms of what we hold dear and what garners votes. We are now facing an incredible uphill battle to see if we can reclaim any shared territory.
A lot of Christian leaders have been very excited by his actions so far. Are you?
I am incredibly concerned. I am concerned for my friends of color, for my friends who are immigrants. I’m deeply concerned about the language and the tone, that adversarial space is just being normalized. My son [who was adopted from Ethiopia] has peacefully and happily gone to school with his classmates now for almost six years. Shortly after the election he started hearing his first racial slurs in school.
Has your perspective changed now that you’re the parent of children from Africa?
Unquestionably. Going into our adoption, I would have said racism mostly was in the rearview mirror. It has been a crash course in lingering racism and implicit bias and the awful realities of white privilege. I’m probably not even the same human being as I was when I first brought them home.
Do you think LGBTQ issues will eventually divide the church?
I feel hopeful, to be honest. Had you asked this question even 10 years ago, I would have had a different answer. Now I see really smart people pulling chairs up to the table and thinking this through together. If we are following Christ literally, then nobody’s humanity is up for grabs. Nobody. That is a nonnegotiable. So I’m hopeful. And I hope to help lead that charge.
Were you surprised by the vitriol when you first expressed your opinion?
Yes and no. I knew that space was tender. It’s fragile, theologically. But if the end result was that I in some tiny, tiny, tiny way created a little safe space where really good people could join a conversation that matters, then I’m glad for it. It nicely parlays into what my dream is for my little moment on this earth, which is to set a really wide table.
What are the conversations happening in your church community, and your dinner table, about Charlottesville?
Our family and church community watched the brutal display of humanity in Charlottesville. I was horrified. I was humiliated. I was furious. But I was not surprised. Our friends of color have been sounding the alarm for centuries, but we’ve been conditioned to rationalize the circumstances — “This wasn’t about white supremacy; it was about removing history!”; distance ourselves from complicity; and minimize the pain of our neighbors. The truth is obvious to anyone humble enough to admit it: white supremacy is a scourge upon the American landscape, and the only adequate response is confession, repentance and an unwillingness to normalize the language, icons, symbols and inequitable systems that celebrate the White Story over the Real Story. In our family and church we spent the weekend lamenting, and we will continue to spend our days listening to our friends — and children — of color, believing them, and fighting for them.
You’ve called yourself the worst-ever end-of-school mom. After five kids are you better at back to school?
It’s a nightmare. I think it cost me around $3 million a year to get them all back into school. When I was growing up, my mom gave me a notebook and a pencil.
What is your parenting philosophy in one sentence?
Take your time. No pressure. Lighten up — it’s probably going to be O.K.
QUOTE:
t was bananas. It really was. And I wouldn’t change a thing. At the end of the day, I’m not here to build a career. I am here to lead with integrity. I felt like a fractured human being to have these convictions inside of me that I was too afraid to say out loud because it might damage my bottom line. But ultimately that tension became too heavy and I couldn’t hold it anymore.
“Being on the wrong side of the evangelical machine is terrifying and punitive.”
Our days of silence are over. It’s time to lay that down, move on, and empower one another to speak up. It matters. I look forward to a container that is not so reticent to jump in, that is not so resistant to tension and to discomfort that they’re so busy silencing their members.
What Obligation Do White Christian Women Have to Speak Out About Politics?
Jen Hatmaker says the “days of silence are over” in polite evangelical culture.
Jen Hatmaker
Bethany Beams / Courtesy of Jen Hatmaker
EMMA GREEN AUG 20, 2017 POLITICS
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By her own estimation, Jen Hatmaker is “low-grade Christian famous.” She has written 12 books, starred in an HGTV series with her family, built a large social-media following, and gone on tour with other prominent female Christian writers.
In some circles, Hatmaker is also controversial. Last fall, she told the writer Jonathan Merritt she thinks LGBT relationships can be holy. LifeWay, a large Christian retailer, pulled her books from their stores. Some of her followers were “angry or shocked or confused,” she said, and her interview set off a round of debate on the authority of evangelical women in ministry. This spring, Hatmaker wrote on her blog that she has “[become] painfully aware of the machine, the Christian Machine.”
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A Conservative Christian Battle Over Gender
Hatmaker represents one road for the predominantly white, Protestant women who have built large, name-brand followings. While Hatmaker faced backlash specifically because of her position on same-sex relationships, people were also reacting to her decision to be politically outspoken. For women who make their living through their writing and teaching, taking strong positions on controversial issues can have extraordinary consequences—not only for their livelihoods, but for everyone who works for them.
Many women in Christian ministry take the alternate path. They choose to remain non-political, often out of a legitimate desire not to alienate the people they’re trying to reach. At times, even the aesthetics of their world can seem designed to telegraph non-threatening vibes: lots of swirly fonts, recipe trading, and talk about diets unfaithfully kept. Hatmaker’s new book, Of Mess and Moxie, is both of that world and not. It is distinctly non-political, full of references to wine drinking and gym misadventures. Yet it speaks, subtly, to the conflicted feelings women may have about the different aspects of their identity. Hatmaker’s readers, like her, face stark choices about when and how to speak up about politics, particularly those injustices committed by and within their communities.
I spoke with Hatmaker about her book and the stakes of being political for the women in her world. Our conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Emma Green: This has been kind of an insane year for you.
Jen Hatmaker: That feels right.
Green: You’ve gotten into a lot of fights—although maybe that’s not the right word—particularly around the LGBT stuff. What has that been like?
Hatmaker: This entire year has just been one for the record books. Everything last year just felt like it was DEFCON 1 at all times. It was sort of the dovetail of my statements toward the LGBTQ community and their inclusion in every manner of church, right alongside the election and the insane rhetoric surrounding the campaign.
In both cases, for me, I just could not sit silently by in order to protect my own brand. I just couldn’t do it. And I was advised to do it.
Green: Who advised you to do it?
Hatmaker: Everybody. They would say, “Jen, if you speak into the LGBTQ inclusion in the church conversation and/or the election, then this is career suicide.” I come out of an evangelical space, and there’s a party line, more or less, that runs alongside of that. On both cases, I went against the grain.
It was bananas. It really was. And I wouldn’t change a thing. At the end of the day, I’m not here to build a career. I am here to lead with integrity. I felt like a fractured human being to have these convictions inside of me that I was too afraid to say out loud because it might damage my bottom line. But ultimately that tension became too heavy and I couldn’t hold it anymore.
“Being on the wrong side of the evangelical machine is terrifying and punitive.”
Green: I’d describe you as part of a certain genre of Christian writers: women who go on tour, have a personal name brand, have their own books, and who primarily reach out to other women. You know the profile of women that I’m talking about, right?
Hatmaker: Sure.
Green: These women, in my experience, have been really reticent to be political. I’ve always been curious why that is. Is it that they’re scared, or they truly aren’t political, or they’re nervous about alienating people?
Hatmaker: I would set myself in that category certainly a couple years ago. At this point, I have decidedly broken from the silent part of it.
I suspect that their silence doesn’t just emerge from a place of fear, although I think it’d be crazy to say that’s not true. Being on the wrong side of the evangelical machine is terrifying and punitive. But I suspect that most of those women in leadership simply don’t want to alienate the people that they’re trying to lead. If there was any check in my spirit, anything that would’ve held me back, it would be that. At the core of our work, we want to be able to lead women spiritually. When we enter into fragile spaces like [politics], we are going to rock the boat, and we’re going to lose some people, and we’re going to make people upset or defensive or confused or disappointed.
The problem is that politics and controversy are inherently human. At the end of every policy is a human being. So I almost don’t know how we stay out of this—it’s actually a luxury of the privileged to stay out of it. Whatever is going on doesn’t affect us: It’s not going to harm our family, it’s not going to harm our marriage, it’s not going to harm our position or our place in society. It’s a luxury to say, “I don’t have to care about it, and you shouldn’t either because that would make us feel uncomfortable.”
I honestly believe that being uncomfortable is a great deterrent of the church in our generation—that, for whatever reason, we have elevated the majority’s comfort over justice. The truth is, those days are behind us. If we are unwilling to stand by our friends on the margins, then we have no business being leaders.
“I honestly believe that being uncomfortable is a great deterrent of the church in our generation.”
Green: How much of this reticence is about the particular space evangelical women leaders tend to occupy? Women with an Instagrammable image, who use swirly fonts and a lot of “hey girl” kind of discourse, etc.
It’s non-threatening. And it seems to me to be non-threatening by design. Do you feel pushed into a non-threatening, happy-Christian-woman-on-Instagram frame?
Hatmaker: Yes and no. I think plenty of my career partners would be thrilled if I would be less threatening. I think they put that in their prayer journals and light prayer candles about it—it creates a lot of work for everybody, and sometimes chaos.
I’ll tell you, I know how to do that. I could build my career for the next 20 years doing that, and I could do it well. There’s an intrinsic reward to that sort of leadership, that speaks that insider vernacular and feels a certain way to a certain group of people.
But I don’t want to do that. That feels disingenuous to me, simply because we’re too connected to people who are not comfortable in that environment. They don’t have the luxury of enjoying platitudes and having that sort of—I don’t want to say sanitized, but maybe. A sort of sanitized version of Christianity.
Green: You’ve carved out a distinctively female space in your work. Men can be part of it, but it really is for women—as you say in your book, “this one’s for the girls.” I notice a lot of talk about food and bodies and drinking wine, for example. Do you purposefully do that to make it a female space?
Hatmaker: I love leading women. The women that are in my community are unbelievably smart and talented, passionate, goal-oriented, ambitious, hilarious. Women at this point in history—certainly in our culture—we can do more, we can say more, we can go further, we can lead stronger than ever before in history. Once upon a time, a man would’ve had to give us permission to lead, and even then, it would have been in an incredibly limited capacity. And so it’s really wonderful to see women rise up in their gifts right now, unhindered.
While I love to talk with my community about all those traditionally female things that are both serious and funny, obviously the tongue-in-cheek part of it, I also feel this incredible sense of responsibility to elevate the voices around me that are decidedly female but incredibly necessary right now in our discourse and in our culture.
Green: Something I hear a lot is a complaint from women that there’s a “pink ghetto” around women’s opportunities to engage with either Bible study or Christian ministry. Do you struggle with this at all?
Hatmaker: Well, first of all, I want to acknowledge that literally hundreds of thousands or millions of women actually spiritually thrive in what you’re calling the “pink ghetto.” I don’t want to diminish their experience. I don’t want to say that, just because that’s limiting to me, it must be limiting to women in general. Because that’s not true. I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all here on what it looks like to be a Christian woman in today’s culture.
But for the women in which that space feels… What’s the word I’m looking for… Like a prison. The truth is that today, there is every manner of spiritual space that we can now find. Whatever it is about any woman that makes her tick, that really reaches into the depths of her soul spiritually, there is a place for her to be led spiritually.
“Our days of silence are over. It’s time to lay that down.”
Green: You talk a lot in your book about the balancing act Christian women face in finding joy and also being concerned for the world—doing service work, but also being able to chill out and eat salsa or whatever. I wonder: When it comes to politics, what do those challenges look like, especially in this particular time of distress in our culture? And what obligation do Christian women have in a moment such as this?
Hatmaker: Jesus talked about wine skins. It’s one of my favorite weird little stories he told—really it’s like two verses—but he talked about how wine skins can only stretch so much before they burst. The wine remains the same, but the container has to keep being renewed. It can only hold for so long before it becomes brittle and unable to expand.
I think we’re in a new-container season right now. There are so many people now in the church who have come up through nontraditional channels. Back in the day, you were raised in church, and your parents were, and your grandparents were, and this was just how it looked. But now, everybody is atypical. This tidy container no longer works. And so it’s a really challenging but exciting time to be part of building the new container, because the wine is still precious.
Like, to me, that’s everything: The good news is still good, and Jesus is as good as it gets down here as far as I’m concerned, and everything about that is intact. Everything about that message, everything about his life and ways, everything about our life in him now, all of that is the same. But the container’s different.
Our days of silence are over. It’s time to lay that down, move on, and empower one another to speak up. It matters. I look forward to a container that is not so reticent to jump in, that is not so resistant to tension and to discomfort that they’re so busy silencing their members.
QUOTE:
her brand of religion is so inclusive, nonjudgmental and loving that her writing feels accessible to any woman--Christian or not--seeking wisdom about how to embrace a messy, beautiful life.
makes you feel like she's confiding in you.
It's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it
Amy Scribner
BookPage. (Aug. 2017): p20.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 BookPage
http://bookpage.com/
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Full Text:
Raising children has never been more complex, but with a mix of expertise, humor and compassion, these parenting books offer important advice for parenting in the modern age.
[...]
Jen Hatmaker and her husband, Brandon, are pastors in Austin, Texas. She's the bestselling author of 11 books, including several Bible studies, but her brand of religion is so inclusive, nonjudgmental and loving that her writing feels accessible to any woman--Christian or not--seeking wisdom about how to embrace a messy, beautiful life.
Hatmaker's latest book, Of Mess and Moxie (Thomas Nelson, $22.99, 224 pages, ISBN 9780718031848), is not strictly about parenting. She writes passionately about many aspects of modern female life, such as resiliency, the importance of creating art and how to find time to exercise (although she admits that, for her, "The problem is, I prefer watching Netflix and eating snacks."). But her most poignant and hilarious chapters focus on her family of five children. From having the sex talk with her kids to grocery shopping for a family of seven, she mixes her advice with a healthy dose of humor and writes in a conversational tone that makes you feel like she's confiding in you.
QUOTE:
Hatmaker shares
the importance of reaching beyond comfort zones and extending welcomes. She owns the moxie she's
writing about.
Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out
of this Wild and Glorious Life
Joyce McIntosh
Booklist.
113.21 (July 1, 2017): p3+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of this Wild and Glorious Life.
By Jen Hatmaker.
Aug. 2017.224p. Thomas Nelson, $22.99 (9780718031848). 204.
Popular Christian speaker, author, and HGTV personality Hatmaker here joins the ranks of blogger-moms
turned humor authors. Women who want the grit and wit of Karen Alpert's I Want My Epidural Back (2016)
without the colorful language and those who enjoy Glennon Doyle Meltons blog and books will embrace
this one. Hatmaker tackles issues facing moms, especially those who are Christian, with fresh humor and
perspective, giving readers the luxury of accepting imperfection, offering recipes, and starting each chapter
with pithy quotes that set the tone on topics ranging from Southern fanaticism over football to the intense
challenge of forgiveness. Readers should not expect a stock conservative approach here. Hatmaker shares
the importance of reaching beyond comfort zones and extending welcomes. She owns the moxie she's
writing about.--Joyce McIntosh
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
McIntosh, Joyce. "Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of this Wild and Glorious Life." Booklist, 1
July 2017, p. 3+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499862616/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=b4a526a4. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499862616
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517172850043 2/3
QUOTE:
those who find religious people humorless should certainly read this book. Hatmaker has humor in spades,
Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out
of This Wild and Glorious Life
Publishers Weekly.
264.19 (May 8, 2017): p54.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life
Jen Hatmaker. Nelson, $22.95 (224p) ISBN 9780-7180-3184-8
Bestselling humorist Hatmaker (For the Love), a blogger, pastor, HGTV star, and mother of five, will be
familiar to any evangelical Christian reader. She's like a friend whose laugh that most of the time is fun to
listen to but sometimes it's too much. Here, Hatmaker piles on stories about bingeing on food (or wine or
Netflix) alongside a bevy of kid poop jokes and kids-learn-human-anatomy jokes. Tucked in between are
conversational reflections designed to offer pastoral advice and empathy when things go wrong. Those who
don't spend time in the evangelical subculture may miss some of the references (singer Sandi Patty, Baptist
youth groups) and find that the humor relies on too many stereotypes of women, Erma Bombeck style. But
those who find religious people humorless should certainly read this book. Hatmaker has humor in spades,
which will please those looking for laughs, but her work will disappoint readers wishing for something with
more depth. Agent: Curtis Yates, Yates & Yates. (Aug.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life." Publishers Weekly, 8 May
2017, p. 54. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491949130/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=bebf0662. Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491949130
1/28/2018 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1517172850043 3/3
QUOTE:
quite the read and a top pick for anyone looking to revitalize their church.
Interrupted
Internet Bookwatch.
(Oct. 2009):
COPYRIGHT 2009 Midwest Book Review
http://www.midwestbookreview.com
Full Text:
Interrupted
Jen Hatmaker
Navpress
PO Box 35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935
9781600062179, $12.99, www.navpress.com
When church life becomes stagnant, the prayers become more and more lip service. "Interrupted: An
Adventure in Relearning the Essentials of Faith" is a guide to revolutionizing one's church to refresh the
faith and piety of one's congregation. Revolution restores passion for one's faith, which is important for
keeping a congregation together in the long term. "Interrupted: An Adventure in Relearning the Essentials
of Faith" is quite the read and a top pick for anyone looking to revitalize their church.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Interrupted." Internet Bookwatch, Oct. 2009. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A209903067/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=ed978d2e.
Accessed 28 Jan. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A209903067
QUOTE:
or the Love is a collection of wisdom (with a liberal sprinkling of humor) that feels like an easy conversation with an awesome sister more than anything else.
A Review of Jen Hatmaker's book, For the Love
a review of Jen Hatmaker's For the Love
(This post contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click on and buy through one of these links, I do receive a small percentage. Thank you.)
Jen Hatmaker’s new book, For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards, releases today! I’m so excited to finally tell you more about this new book. I got to read an advance copy months ago, but I’ve kept (mostly) quiet, knowing that wouldn’t be very nice to tell you all about a book that wasn’t available yet. This is a book that you definitely will want to read.
For the Love is a collection of wisdom (with a liberal sprinkling of humor) that feels like an easy conversation with an awesome sister more than anything else. With chapter titles such as, On Calling and Haitian Moms, Fashion Concerns, Marriage: Have Fun and Stuff, Jesus Kids, and Dear Christians, Please Stop Being Crappy, the topics run across a wide gamut, from serious to silly.
a worthy life, Jen Hatmaker, #forthelove
This is an easy book to pick up and read little snippets of. The chapters are not necessarily connected, other than the overriding theme of fighting for grace. It’s more of a series of related essays. The theme of grace is close to my heart, something I’m always fighting for, and I appreciated what Jen had to say about letting go of perfectionism and judgment. The book had me laughing out loud and re-reading portions to my husband, but it also had moments of deep insight that made me think.
I had high expectations for this new book, after reading Jen’s other popular book, Seven: A Mutiny Against Excess. This book was very different from that one, but I was not disappointed. If you’re looking for a book that will encourage you in your Christian faith, that will make you laugh, and a book that is honest about living a life of grace, then I recommend For the Love. I was given a free copy of this book, but all opinions are my own.
QUOTE:
Hatmaker is clearly a cheerleader for women. She has a wealth of humor and wisdom, and she certainly inspires. I recommend For the Love, especially to women looking for a good laugh and some creative thoughts about service and community, but be aware of what the book lacks—theological clarity and a fully developed presentation of grace.
Grace Is More than Letting Someone Off the Hook
NOVEMBER 18, 2015 | Tilly Dillehay
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CHRISTIAN LIVING
It’s no accident many women want to be Jen Hatmaker’s best friend right now. If I learned one thing about her from her new book For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards, it’s that she’s a hoot.
Hatmaker uses her own loose structure to address her intended audience (women) on a smattering of topics she knows they care about—community, church, fashion, entertaining, entertainment, outreach, social media, children, and marriage. These topics are tied together into chapters through her unifying theme: grace. Grace, according to Hatmaker, is “letting ourselves and each other off the hook.”
Resonating and Readable
Hatmaker, a well-known writer and HGTV personality, has hit the sweet spot for today’s ubiquitous blogger/author. Readers flood the Internet with praise for her wit and sisterly wisdom. She’s like a Christian Tina Fey, and the pages of her book simply turn themselves.
Even the somewhat fractured subject matter doesn’t make the reader feel jerked around, which is a testament to Hatmaker’s writing ability. Though the relationship between the subject matter and the word “grace” isn’t always clear, this doesn’t stop you from enjoying every chapter and gleaning good nuggets along the way.
Highlights for me were her chapters on marriage, running your race in your own context instead of waiting for some mysterious “calling” (reminiscent of Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something), and several chapters that offer an appealing picture of hospitality as ministry. Of the latter, she writes:
Instead of waiting around for church to assemble a perfect group dynamic of People Who Can Meet on Tuesdays, maybe just invite some folks over. A shared table is the supreme expression of hospitality in every culture on earth. . . . [I]f you can make a pot of chili and use a cell phone, then you can create community. If you want to wait until your house is perfect and you aren’t nervous, then just forget it. (116)
I also resonated with Hatmaker’s chapter on the modern female myth of “having it all.” No one, she says, can be a wife, mom, speaker, writer, housekeeper, cook, fashionista, and theologian all at the same time and to the same degree of excellence (although many of us have decided this is both possible and necessary).
I also appreciated Hatmaker’s comments on short-term missions (though this is probably the hardest chapter to integrate with her theme). She addresses the danger of conducting mission trips in a way that ignores the input of long-term missionaries already on the ground. On a related note, she provides a helpful litmus test for doctrine. She states that if our doctrine can’t be applied to a single Christian mother in Haiti, then it isn’t true, because “theology is either true everywhere or it isn’t true anywhere.”
Big Theological Claims, Less Theological Clarity
It’s an age-old dilemma: how do you draw in your readers and make things palatable while simultaneously delivering content that will actually impact their lives in a meaningful way? For a writer like Hatmaker, doing detailed biblical exegesis would (for lack of a better phrase) cramp her style. Still, she has an ambitious goal in writing For the Love. In her introduction she writes:
I hope you close the last page and breathe an enormous sigh of relief. I hope you laugh out loud because you just got free. (xv)
In other words, the book is not all comedy. It attempts to address some weighty topics: ministry, missions, a woman’s role in the church, pastoral leadership, and grace.
The problem is she wants to work both angles at once. She presents herself as a generator of light fare, but then tries to construct some big-time theological positions. The latter is done in the same rather imprecise way, however, often leaving you with little to grab hold of and engage. For example, in the chapter on women’s roles in the church, she writes:
Spiritually, I grew up with mixed messages regarding a woman’s worth. Church taught that women were great in their place, but that place was pretty narrow. . . . [T]hey led at home and work, but I didn’t see their authority translate to church. I wish they’d had the permission and influence God is restoring to my generation. (199)
Hatmaker seems to simply assume a non-complementarian audience whose plausibility structure makes it obvious that the pastoral office ought to be open to women. But if you’re going to charge the church through the ages (including the church of your childhood) with oppression for barring women from leadership positions, it’d be helpful to interact with the texts on which the view is based.
Instead, we’re simply told that the Bible “was used to subjugate women for centuries” (201). Which parts of the Bible? We don’t know. She quotes Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 2:15 as marching orders for women’s ministry (201) while being silent about his words in 1 Timothy 2:11–15—despite the fact that the latter passage deals with her subject much more directly.
In another chapter, you encounter the following, trying to interpret her commentary on the gospel in the most charitable way possible:
We tend to formulize the mysterious, opting for a more manageable gospel than the wild, unpredictable one we have. We’d like one with clearer edges and better boundaries. . . . God has rescued people in and out of church, in and out of religions, and in and out of traditions since time began. He operates in truly mysterious ways we won’t know of until heaven. (194, 195)
Statements like these aren’t necessarily endorsements of inclusivism or misinterpretations of the gospel, but one senses Hatmaker is trying to go a step further than the message of the chapter—“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). You’re just not sure what that step is.
I don’t mind a Christian author writing lighter fare, but if you’re going to address big-ticket items, you need to use Scripture to substantiate your arguments. If you’re really aiming for the edification of her readers—as I think Hatmaker is—this would be a better approach.
Anemic Vision of Grace
One major symptom of this book’s thin scriptural content is Hatmaker’s use of the word “grace.” She uses her humor well to encourage realistic expectations of our own performances, relationships, and friends and family. But when she’s got a wide-open shot to talk about the Christ who died to bring us the costly grace that motivates and enables this “letting each other off the hook,” she doesn’t take it.
It’s not that Hatmaker is trying to avoid the topic; in the introduction, she leads with statements like “This grace thing is no joke. We get to live a free life. So do other people because God gave us Jesus, who fixed everything” (xvi). But after a rollicking good time in the 200-plus pages that followed, one reaches the end feeling that her overall use of the word “grace” was a little hollow.
When someone sets out to give me a sigh of relief, and the empowerment to give grace to those around me, I need more than this. I need Scripture—I need Christ himself—in order to breathe that sigh of relief. A hilarious woman reminding me that my kids don’t have to wear designer clothing just isn’t enough.
Read with Awareness
Hatmaker is clearly a cheerleader for women. She has a wealth of humor and wisdom, and she certainly inspires. I recommend For the Love, especially to women looking for a good laugh and some creative thoughts about service and community, but be aware of what the book lacks—theological clarity and a fully developed presentation of grace.
Next time, I hope to see Hatmaker wield Scripture as effectively as she wields her comedy.
Jen Hatmaker. For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2015. 224 pp. $22.99.
For the Love Book Review
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I recently read For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards and I am still trying to figure out whether or not I would recommend the book. In short, I appreciated a majority of the humor, but could not figure out how all of the humor fit within a book about love and grace. She had many great points, but a few that were off the mark.
For the Love Book Review. For the Love by Jen Hatmaker
A POSITIVE:
I enjoyed much (but not all) of her humor. You know that an author has a great line if you still find yourself chuckling about it pages later. I was definitely laughing out loud. She clearly has a gift in adding humor into her writing. I can see why she has quite the following.
A NEGATIVE:
I could not get over the flow of the book. She would fill a chapter with passion and depth as she wrote about subject matters close to her heart. You are deep into a chapter talking about matters of eternal significance…then the next chapter would then be solely a humorous essay about the most random topics. If confused me every time. She ends a chapter with “God, make us worthy of Your calling.”, then you turn the page to read a rant about pants as leggings. This may be a personal preference, but I did not like going back and forth between the two.
And…the random humorous chapters had little to do with love. Yes, they were entertaining, but I felt like some of her humor detracted from her message.
A POSITIVE:
If you know you are saved by grace and that you are loved by Him regardless of your sins and shortcomings and if you are OK with weeding through snippets of doctrinal errors, go ahead and read For the Love. She had valid points and I think the book would make for a great book club discussion.
She speaks of finding women who excel in different areas. You can combine the best of many different individuals and decide The Result is the woman you want to be. All of everything. It’s not attainable or realistic and it sets you up for failure and disappointment. Jen speaks of this invented standard that steals joy. I liked her advice when she said:
We need to quit trying to be awesome and instead be wise.”
I appreciated much that she said about using your gifts. She spoke of a purpose that may not venture outside a home. To a stay-at-home mom who may be deep in the busyness of little children, she speaks highly of meeting the needs of and nurturing the little souls. Her chapter “On Calling and Haitian Moms” reminded me of a quote that I like: “We do not all have to shine”.
A NEGATIVE:
I am not going to share every sentence I did not agree with, but this is where I think the book is off: “God measures our entire existence by only two things: how we love Him and how we love people. If you get this right, you can get a million other things wrong.”
Is love important? ABSOLUTELY! Does our Savior call us to love? YES!
Does God measure my existence based on how good I am at loving others? Thankfully no. I fall short. I do not love as I should. I can be selfish with my time. I can be impatient with those I love (just ask my husband!). I am quiet and can be tentative with showing love to those not close to me. By falling short in loving those around me, I fall short in loving my Savior.
So based on the line in For the Love (page 71), I’m out of luck. I don’t love my Savior and others like I should, so I wouldn’t want to know how God measures my existence…
This I do know: I am sinful. Thankfully, by God’s grace I am forgiven for not showing love as I should. It’s through His love that I am saved. MY love has nothing to do with it.
I enjoyed reading much of For the Love. I feel like you could grow and learn from points that she shared, but I feel like you could also be confused.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers
OUT OF THE SPIN CYCLE BOOK REVIEW
BY JAMIEIVEY • JUNE 18, 2010 • BOOKS, FAITH
If I’m completely honest with you friends I would tell you that these past few months have been the hardest parenting moments for me as a mom. I have been stressed to the max, had feelings of inadequacy, worry about how much I’m screwing up my kids and deal with feeling overwhelmed at one point during the day each day. Going from two to three kids last October was super hard. It wasn’t so much hard with discipline and stress levels, but just hard to learn how to balance as a family of 5 and to try promote bonding between all of us and the new 2 year old. Then in January going from 3 to 4 nearly put me in the looney bin. I felt like I had been run over by a train most days. We were all still learning life with our new 2 year old when Amos came home and shook things up. It was a time of complete joy for our journey to get both kids home had ended, but our new journey was a hard one and we both knew it.
I tell you all that to say that since January I have tried very hard to be honest with myself and with my friends. When strangers ask me how life is I usually just tell them it’s good. They don’t really want to know and I really don’t want to share. 🙂 When my friends ask now they get it from me. I am more honest about parenting and about adoption and about real life issues. I have been honest on here as well. Although there are 100’s of things that aren’t shared on here, I’ve tried my best to be real and honest about our life now with four kids and 3 via adoption.
I recently was given a book to read and review by a friend of mine Jen Hatmaker. I was excited to do this, but a little apprehensive for a few reasons. #1 My reading has pretty much been non existent this year. I’m so bummed about this, but it’s been something that I’ve had to let go with all the other challenges that we’ve faced. What if I failed the task and didn’t read the free book I was given. #2 I was worried about thinking the book sucked and then not feeling like I could truly review it well since I know Jen. We’re supposed to have a double date next month and I would hate to have ripped her book to pieces with how much I hated it and then had to share a wedge salad with her. Not fun. Could be a tad bit awkward.
spin cycle
Well I have some good news. #1 I actually read the book. #2 I really liked it & #3 I can be honest and still enjoy our dinner next month. #4 So many of her topics went straight to my heart and dealt with the crazy things I’ve been dealing with these past few months.
The book is called OUT OF THE SPIN CYCLE and it is kinda a devotional more than a book I would say. There are 40 chapters that are each a few pages long. Easily something us mothers could read at night before bed or in the morning before we start our day. I read it more like a book and can honestly say that each chapter resonated with me in some way or another. Each chapter addresses something that we as mothers struggle with. There were many chapters where I felt as though Jen had been spying on my life these past few months and then wrote this directly to me. Needless to say I was convicted, moved and encouraged lots throughout this book.
I read Jen’s book INTERRUPTED last year and loved it. I feel as though we think about life in the same way. She loves people. She wants to give away her life to serve people for Jesus. She is trying not to get caught up in the things of this world. Her book reminded me a lot of Shane Claiborne’s IRRESISTABLE REVOLUTION, and that book was life changing for me.
This newest book is something that I can keep on my book shelf and get out and read each year. It pushed me as a mother to a deeper level. Jen talked about “mom things” and tied them all back to scripture. Her writing is real. She is real. She is not your average pastor’s wife and for that I’m grateful. She confesses the areas where she has failed and shares how Jesus has molded her into a new person. As moms we can hold on to lots of stuff that isn’t ours and needs to be given over to Jesus. She encourages that we give it to Him in this book. She starts out in the first chapter with encouraging us moms to “let it go” and be real with each other. We try so often to put on that “perfect” face and act as though our kids are perfect, never fight, and we look tired b/c we’ve been up each night preparing family devotionals for the week.
I highly recommend this book to all you moms out there. It will encourage you as you parent. It will bring light to areas where you struggle. It will allow you to “let it go” and just trust Jesus and be the best mom you have been created to be. At the end of each chapter there are great questions to ponder on and even an action point that Jen suggests to help capture that lesson for the day.
Thanks to Donna at Baker Publishing Group for letting me review this book.
Available June 2010 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group
Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load
CherryBlossomMJBOOKS, Family Life, Reviews & Shopping
Genres: General Non Fiction
Out of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother LoadOut of the Spin Cycle: Devotions to Lighten Your Mother Load by Jen Hatmaker
Genre: Christian Devotional for Mom /Christian non-fiction/ Christian Life/ Family/ Parenting/ Motherhood
Pages: 144
Date Published: June 1st, 2010
Publisher: Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Following Jesus shouldn’t be just one more thing to do
Motherhood sometimes feels like a list of expectations. You may be busy or even overwhelmed. But you are also strong and brilliant. And here’s a secret: a lot of those things on your list of expectations are things Jesus never expected you to do on your own.
What lists and systems and self-help books have failed to do for young moms in the trenches, Jesus can accomplish blindfolded. Yes, moms are busy, they need a break, and they’d just like a shower. But they are also strong and brilliant and have the power to move mountains. Author and speaker Jen Hatmaker takes the words and deeds of Jesus, adds the humor of a young mom’s life, and offers messages of grace and encouragement. She shows overburdened moms forty things Jesus doesn’t expect them to do on their own. Covering areas such as worry, marriage, priorities, money, and the trap of comparison, this lively Bible teacher brings Jesus’s message alive in a format geared to the short moments moms have that can be allotted to reflection. This is a devotional for the woman inside the mom–the Bible student, the learner, the world-changer.
So put aside that to-do list for a moment and discover the ways Jesus can lighten your mother load.
Over the last few weeks while I have been spending minutes at a time reading a chapter or two in this fun loving little Devotional book I have been amused and in deep thought. Jen Hatmaker brings reality of motherhood to the page and lives out the humor in life and making situations fun too look back on, even if in the moment they are rough. Each chapter gives a realistic scenario and then a scripture verse and principle to apply to live a fuller Christian Life.
This is one of the better devotions that I have read in a while. It is not preachy, but so much more in the way that it’s another mama telling it real. I would easily say this could be an advice book as well as devotional. It is a devotional in the sense that each chapter is giving you as a reader one more suggestion of a scripture to cleave to and bringing it all back to God first, family second. As an advice book, I’d say that is more so for first time mamas like myself, although I’m sure the experienced mothers will find a kindred spirit within the pages.
I highly recommend this book and I am so glad that I was blessed to read it.
*Thanks to Revell Books for providing a copy for review.*
Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, offers practical books that bring the Christian faith to everyday life. They publish resources from a variety of well-known brands and authors, including their partnership with MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) and Hungry Planet.
QUOTE:
Probably one of my favorite things about Jen is that, though she is in your-face-extreme-honest, she reminds us of Gods grace and that He isn't here to guilt trip us all into feeding the homeless. She isn't here to put us in a place of fear, but to rip legalism out of the way. She raises necessary questions we should all be asking ourselves as Christians.
A BOOK REVIEW FOR JEN HATMAKER'S INTERRUPTED: IN THE MAKING
July 29, 2014
I have said about 18 times that I will soon be posting a book review for Jen Hatmaker's revised & expanded edition of Interrupted. This is because I don't even know the beginning of writing this book review; I will call upon my 3rd grade book reports. Thank you, Mrs. Hinkle. In my dire attempt to share that I'll be reviewing this book, I had this secret and silent longing that someone would do it for me -- apparently no one caught the memo. This is how I landed myself in this awkward scenario: I saw a post on Facebook to email her publishing co my info, and if I were in the first 250 bloggers, I would receive a hard copy and an e-copy of her book. I simply was asked to write a book review! Naturally I jumped at the opportunity for this free book --> an expanded edition of the book I have shared with so many.
I first read Interrupted 2 years ago; I was in the first year of life through the church plant. {Side note: Best year of my life}. At that time, my heart was being completely transformed. I was nodding at every word she had etched into those pages; agreeing with it whole heartedly, I continued my pursuit of Christ by loving His people scandalously. Things like quitting nursing school to volunteer my time in serving through Corvallis Church -- a church that didn't exist, but would soon and is now 3 years old. Celebrate! Oh how many times I was told I was crazy - though the things aren't crazy when you're actually just living life and seeing humans for humans. Example: loving the outcasts and marginalized; like inviting homeless men into our home for dinners and desserts {and setting our table as though the King were our guest}, driving them places, helping write a resume, inviting them for Thanksgiving dinner, bringing our new friends into Sunday morning services all smelly and in their full glory - even if they only came for free coffee and left. Interrupted put a beat to the song in my heart. And might I add that the only reason this song existed was because of the deep and unending grace that Jesus has shown me?
Without realizing it, I fell into an unhealthy pattern which led my fresh and new spirit to stray, often leaving me confused, frustrated, and questioning. But this book has Interrupted my threatening-dry tired soul.
Friends, I'll soon be writing this review. And let me tell you...this time around, I was convicted and moved and inspired more than I was ready for. But it was delicious and just what I needed. It was the luring back into Jesus where I have strayed; it was the newness in the Spirit that I needed. As I've shared recently, I am in this odd season (can a year and a half be a season?) of being wrecked within, searching and seeking and exhausted all in one. The pure fact of how un-incredible I am seems to be the theme of my life. Rest has been around, but not the deep within rest that my soul craves and I know exists in His presence. I feel bi-polar as I go from deeply refreshed in His love to desperate and dry within hours - I get frustrated at myself, and there I am back at the center of self. The constant attempt to "uphold my reputation" (oh the irony -- writing that brings me fear) has been wearing me out and my own fear of man has been the pressure behind my actions too often. I was so, so, so refreshed and wrecked and reminded why it's not even supposed to be a THING through Interrupted. As I began this book, second time around, I asked Jesus to keep my heart open and to point out my arrogance and ignorance. A dangerous prayer.
Jen Hatmaker addresses these questions and many more: •What does it mean to live at the bottom, to descend rather than ascend, to be the least of these? •Who was Jesus broken & poured out for? •Do I care about the impoverished and starving in the world? •Am I even concerned about the homeless guy on the corner? •Am I willing to take the Bible at face value? •Why do I spend all my time blessing blessed people?
Jen asks these questions after a long list of reasons she qualifies as awesome. She is much like Paul: her credentials are listed long, and yet she is humbled to her knees by her Father and breathes by His grace.
Probably one of my favorite things about Jen is that, though she is in your-face-extreme-honest, she reminds us of Gods grace and that He isn't here to guilt trip us all into feeding the homeless. She isn't here to put us in a place of fear, but to rip legalism out of the way. She raises necessary questions we should all be asking ourselves as Christians. She doesn't condemn the church - Jen isnt anti-church. She is very pro-church, believing in the Bride Jesus died for. Which is just fabulous because the Bride is beautiful and radiant in all of it's messy brokenness. Also, love her blog. She is witty and crazy and all sorts of honest. Her humor is much like my mother-by-law's.
Her most popular book, 7, would not exist if Jesus hadn't Interrupted her comfortable consumerism Christianity.
Purchase a copy for 20% off by July 31! That's TWO DAYS PEOPLE. Move move move! Men. Women. All ya'll.
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"In all our efforts, if we are not about people, our labors aren't really about Jesus but about us." -Brandon Hatmaker
Cheers.
QUOTE:
Jen Hatmaker is awesome. She is funny and smart and sassy and does not have it all together and she makes no qualms about it.
this book, basically talks about how women are glorious and worthy of all good things and how God always works for our good even if we don't know Him or struggle with Him. She also talks about the women in Jesus bloodline who weren't perfect (obviously) but play incredibly important roles.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Book Review: "Ms Understood:Rebuilding the Feminine Equation" by Jen Hatmaker
You guys. I have had a rough past week or two, if we're being honest. It's nothing serious, it's just the real life hurts and crummy things that come along with being a human being. Heart hurts happen.
And lack of sleep makes me overly philosophical and weird and irrationally upset about things. I was really irritated yesterday when I went to a library that had put "Animal Farm" in the YA section, but not "1984". Like I was angry about that for like an hour.
So anyway, when I read this book I was all gushy and in love with it and it made my week so here's the review to get me back in that happy feeling and maybe spread it to you too. I also bought swiss cake rolls last night, but I'm not sharing those. Let's not get nuts.
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I know that title sounds a little like something you'd have to read for a gender studies class where you buy this huge $300, 60 lb book that you don't use once, and then you try to sell back to the campus bookstore and they're like, I'll give you $30 bucks and you run out of the room screaming like attic lady from Jane Eyre.......
Sorry, flashback. This book isn't like that at all.
Jen Hatmaker is awesome. She is funny and smart and sassy and does not have it all together and she makes no qualms about it. She has also written a bunch of books. The first one I read by her was called "7:An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess" which I loved. She takes the 7 areas of her life where there is the most excess (food, clothes....something something) and cuts it down to 7 items for a month. So for one month she only wears the same 7 pieces of clothing (with unlimited underwear and bras because let's not get crazy). She does this experiment after finding out about the kind of conditions her soon to be adopted kids in Ethiopia are living in. She prays about it a lot, gets a lot of funny looks, but she barely cheats at all. Apparently this book has a bible study and it's popular in women's bible classes too. So even if you're not religious the book is interesting because it talks about all the excesses we have that we don't even realize.
So this book, basically talks about how women are glorious and worthy of all good things and how God always works for our good even if we don't know Him or struggle with Him. She also talks about the women in Jesus bloodline who weren't perfect (obviously) but play incredibly important roles.
Here's just a couple of quotes that I'm going to leave here that I hope will inspire you to read the book. I'm having a "it's a really good book but I don't really know the best way to describe it to you to make you want to read it" moment.
-"Before you were a daughter, sister, wife, mother, you were a delight to God, who designed every facet and sent you to earth, a gift to all who would know you" . (I'm sure I'm not always a gift, haha)
-"I have chosen you, and my Son prays for you when you feel condemned" (Romans 8:33-34)
-"You are somebody's answer. You are something's answer. There is a problem out there only your presence can solve. There is a broken and wounded hear to which only you can administer healing. You are not a victim; you are an answer".
In summation: women are awesome, women are not perfect, women in the Bible are super important even if they don't look like "typical" Bible heroes,you personally are awesome and are capable of great things. 4 outta 5 stars!
QUOTE:
Hatmaker inspires women to take charge of their lives, but also to allow the Lord to work in their lives.
BW Reads: Understanding Ms. Understood
Lauren Moody, May 1, 2012
“Who does God say you are?” asks Jen Hatmaker in Ms. Understood: Rebuilding the Feminine Equation. As women, we must look to Scripture for purpose and meaning and Hatmaker attempts to answer this very question by exploring the women in the lineage of Christ –their lives, faith, and how God used them. Hatmaker highlights aspects of these women’s lives and identifies how God used them and graciously brought them in the line of Christ.
There are five women in the lineage of Christ that Hatmaker brings to the forefront, highlighting God’s work in their lives.
Tamar-While the author seems to cheer her on, she also acknowledges that Tamar did employ questionable methods. According to Hatmaker, even though Tamar took charge of her own destiny, the Lord used her in the lineage of Christ. The author concludes that God is the True Heroine of Tamar’s story. God took a woman in her sinful state and allowed her to be used for His glory.
Rahab-God used a prostitute to save two Israelite spies, and in His mercy covered her with grace and brought her into the Israelite family.
Ruth– A Moabitess – a foreigner – God gave Ruth the honor of being the great-grandmother of the future King of Israel.
Bathsheba-In spite of Bathsheba’s adultery with King David, God still redeemed her life and included her in the line of Christ.
Mary-Exuding a quiet, humble, submissive spirit, Mary trusted that God would care for her.
As the author points out, it is through these women’s weaknesses and frailties that God was glorified, and that God can use anyone today.
However, there are some pitfalls to be aware of. Hatmaker seems to believe that men and women can equally fulfill one another’s roles.
She advocates for women preaching in churches, and gives an example of her preaching at a Baptist Church in Houston. She also calls for mutual submission in contrast to Ephesians 5:22-33’s description of submission in marriage, saying, “The crazy idea of submission might seem archaic for this problem. Even as I type the “S” word, I hear you sigh…Jesus introduced mutuality to unlock a prison cell. Remember, He created them male and female and blessed them. He blessed them both equally…There should be a holy respect between men and women.” (55) If men and women can take on each other’s roles, women could be placed in authority over men in marriage relationships, and can cause some women to become defensive.
Hatmaker seems to believe that women have to continually defend themselves and their positions, but what about what Jesus has already done on the cross? He has already defended our position. We are to rest in Him because our honor has already been fought and paid for. The fight is not with men, but against spiritual enemies. Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Despite the book’s drawback, Hatmaker inspires women to take charge of their lives, but also to allow the Lord to work in their lives.
She gives an encouraging discussion on the identity of women, but falls short in correctly interpreting Scripture. Our sinful culture has written the feminine equation one way, and God has written it another. While our world may change, our identity in Christ never will. Just like the women included in the lineage of Christ, our lives can be redeemed and transformed into a beautiful story of God’s redemption.