Deconstructed Do-Gooder: A Memoir about Learning Mercy the Hard Way: 7 (Missional Wisdom Library: Resources for Christian Community)

In a Christian culture driven by answer-knowing and movement-making we have largely become addicted to figuring out the way and ensuring that others are walking it as well in order to be counted faithful. An addict to this end herself Britney Winn Lee is no stranger to the question posed by the lawmaker in the story of the Good Samaritan: Teacher what must I do . . . ? Here she takes us through her journey of becoming every character in the parable--from Priest to Innkeeper from Robber to Wounded. Lee offers us an invitation to find ourselves in the story be that in conservative evangelicalism overseas missions new monastic communities cynical doubts or the pain of postpartum depression and ministries ending. Her complicated road of theological deconstructions (expressed through narrative) exposes the harm that can be caused by a deep desire to do good as well as the mercy that can be found when all of ones religious paths and purposes are lost. What does it look like to love one other after weve been stripped of pride and certainty or knocked down by exhaustion and grief? In Deconstructed Do-Gooder Britney Winn Lee invites us into her journey from bright-eyed optimism to holy hustle and ultimately to the acceptance that she is spectacularly human. Her story vibrates with tension and sparkles with ordinary life. In the end she reminds us that surrendering to the gospel can only mean surrendering to mercy. I wish Id read this decades ago. --Shannan Martin author of The Ministry of Ordinary Places and Falling Free This is a memoir of new monasticism a work of narrative theology a story of continual deconstruction and reconstruction. And in the end it invites the reader to think about their own roles in this the most famous story of Jesus. The hero the villain--or something in between? May you read it be encouraged and consider what it might mean to work towards entire systems that are built to take care of our most vulnerable. --from the foreword by D.L. Mayfield author of Assimilate or Go Home Britney Winn Lee is one of those rare voices in contemporary Christian discourse whose joyful truth-telling is as generous as her theology who doesnt withhold grace. We need more of her. --Sarah Arthur author of A Light So Lovely: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine LEngle and A Wrinkle in Time Britney Winn Lee is a writer and community arts director for a United Methodist church in Shreveport LA where she lives with her husband and son. Follow her on her blog at britneywinnlee.com.