F. Remy Diederich's Blog: F. Remy Diederich

I solicited feedback from a number of people for my new book addressing the pain of getting involved in a toxic church. I've heard back from about eight people. It's interesting to see the similarities in their stories.

There are three responses that stand out the most:
1. People joined the church because of its promise of community and connection.
2. When they tried to share their concerns about what they saw going wrong, others minimized it and attacked them.
3. Now that they are out of the church they have become very distrusting and cynical toward the whole idea of organized religion.

My goal in writing the book is to help people in a toxic church to identify what's wrong and either confront the problem or leave. I also want to help them salvage their faith and reenter a healthy church. They are out there.

If you would like to be a part of this team, let me know. I will be sending out the first draft of my book to people within a week or two.

I'm beginning to work on a new book. It's not a topic that I relish: toxic faith. But I've seen too many people hurt by church and toxic people, so I want to write about how to escape or confront a toxic church experience.

It's so sad to see how these toxic situations suck the life out of people and cause them to lose so much trust. I want to help people reclaim the joy of knowing God.

I plan on pulling together a number of blog posts I wrote two years ago in the wake of a church gone bad near me. Those posts will form the core of my work and then I'll fill in what's missing.

I've asked people for input on this work. You might want to do that yourself. I plan on sending out drafts of the book for advice. If you'd like to be a part of this team, please contact me.

I just released my fourth book and realized that I should start thinking like an author! That means engaging with my readers. I thought Goodreads would be a good place for that.

I have a separate blog at readingremy.com that will get pulled into this blog when I post. But I hope to make shorter posts here specifically related to my books. I hope you'll interact with me and share with your friends.

Looking forward to it.
Remy