by Maggie Ford

From a Social Science lens, Cleveland breaks down some of the key points of division within the Christian Church and offers tools to overcome them. Some of these include the divide among "Right Christians and Wrong Christians", categorization, our personal "in groups" (close friends), bias, and culture. Cleveland comes from a place of observation, but also a deep love for the Christian Church. Through these key factors, Cleveland strives to teach us (as Christians) how to first address these divides, how to overcome them, and how to love each other better, just as Christ loves us.

Can you share a quote from the book that was meaningful to you?

"…The work of reconciliation is often excruciating because it is the work of the cross. If reconciliation work isn't painful, I'd venture to say that it isn't really reconciliation work. Reconciliation requires that we partner with equally imperfect individuals who are also clumsily scaling the cross-cultural learning curve, forgive those who carelessly wrong us, repeatedly ask for forgiveness, engage in awkward and unpredictable situations, and like gluttons for punishment, keep coming back for more…" (pg. 156)

What was a new thought or a key takeaway?

Within the book Cleveland offers many great ideas on how to bridge the different divides among our community/family of believers. I really appreciated her social science lens and how we can also apply it when needed. After I finished this book, I felt ready and better prepared to start the important work of bridging these gaps. She breaks it down so it becomes easier to digest and therefore effective for anyone who picks up this book and decides to start the work themselves. A great tool for churches everywhere.

What action will you take as a result of reading this book?

As a lover of social science, I plan to use that lens myself, but also begin to have some harder conversations and use them as opportunities to learn from others and assist them if they decide to have these conversations within their communities as well.