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Rooted: A Spiritual Memoir of Homecoming
Christy Berghoef’s wise and welcoming memoir is a warm invitation for anyone who has left home, then wonders if they can return. Christy challenges conventional faith while affirming deep spiritual truths.
This true story of soul, soil and spiritual awakening follows Christy on a life-changing journey from a conservative Christian upbringing in rural Michigan to the halls of Washington, D.C., and back again. Along the way, she confronts the unraveling of her childhood faith, the complexities of parenting and ministry, and the spiritual power of rediscovering home. Rooted in the sacred ground of her family’s 40-acre farm, Christy explores themes of spiritual transformation, social justice, motherhood, the healing wisdom of the land, and the meaning of belonging. Rooted is a story of exploring the world, coming home, and learning to “bloom where we are planted.”
The best-selling author Brian D. McLaren, who wrote the Foreword for this book, describes Rooted this way: "There's a lot of madness overheating the world at this moment. I know something sane and savory that will help you survive and catch your breath. Christy Berghoef's new memoir, Rooted, takes you back to childhood, to adolescence, to your first job, your first child, your most awkward transitions, your moments of transcendence and triumph. Christy tells her story in a way that will help you get in touch with your own, and it will help you understand home as never before. Homespun yet beautifully crafted, Rooted will bring healing and a smile to the deepest parts of you."
With the curiosity of a pilgrim, Christy discovers that while the world wounds, the earth heals. She invites us all to root ourselves in love, land, and life as it is.
This true story of soul, soil and spiritual awakening follows Christy on a life-changing journey from a conservative Christian upbringing in rural Michigan to the halls of Washington, D.C., and back again. Along the way, she confronts the unraveling of her childhood faith, the complexities of parenting and ministry, and the spiritual power of rediscovering home. Rooted in the sacred ground of her family’s 40-acre farm, Christy explores themes of spiritual transformation, social justice, motherhood, the healing wisdom of the land, and the meaning of belonging. Rooted is a story of exploring the world, coming home, and learning to “bloom where we are planted.”
The best-selling author Brian D. McLaren, who wrote the Foreword for this book, describes Rooted this way: "There's a lot of madness overheating the world at this moment. I know something sane and savory that will help you survive and catch your breath. Christy Berghoef's new memoir, Rooted, takes you back to childhood, to adolescence, to your first job, your first child, your most awkward transitions, your moments of transcendence and triumph. Christy tells her story in a way that will help you get in touch with your own, and it will help you understand home as never before. Homespun yet beautifully crafted, Rooted will bring healing and a smile to the deepest parts of you."
With the curiosity of a pilgrim, Christy discovers that while the world wounds, the earth heals. She invites us all to root ourselves in love, land, and life as it is.
172 pages, Paperback
Published July 29, 2025
7 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 14, 2025
I've lived most of my life in metropolitan areas, though for a short time as a child, I lived in a small rural community. While I married a farmer's daughter, they lived in town and not on a farm. I've moved quite a few times in my life, having been born in Los Angeles before moving to San Francisco at nine months, followed by a move three years later to rural Mount Shasta City, and then to Klamath Falls six years later. Since then, I've lived in multiple cities before settling in the suburbs of Detroit. In other words, I'm not rooted in one place. This is my home, but there is no homecoming in my future. That said, I was intrigued by the possibility of reading and reviewing Christy Berghoef's memoir, "Rooted." This is a story of a life that returned home, to a family homestead, where roots are planted deep in the earth.
Christy Berghoef is an author, musician, and speaker who lives on a farm near Holland, Michigan. The name of this town is a good reminder that Western Michigan has a strong Dutch Reformed identity. Berghoef is married to Bryan, a United Church of Christ pastor who, as readers will discover, ran for Congress as a Democrat in a deeply red district. The Berghoefs have Christian Reformed Church roots and met while at Calvin Theological Seminary. This is a story of a transition from being deeply rooted in conservative, Reformed Christianity to a more progressive Christianity. This transition takes place even as the Berghoefs move from Washington, D.C., where they had planted a church, to make a home in rural Western Michigan.
Memoirs are difficult to review because, as a reviewer, I don't want to give too much away. The reader needs to imbibe the stories for themselves because each reader will experience the book differently. What we do experience in reading Berghoef's beautifully written memoir is that she found spiritual sustenance in return to the land where she grew up, on a portion of land that was connected to the land where she grew up. We read of her joys and her challenges as she has wrestled with her faith, especially as she and her family embraced a progressive form of Christianity and sought to live out that faith in a conservative corner of the state.
While I've spent much of my life in the city, as I read her memoir, I resonated with what she shared. In part, that is because I, too, transitioned from conservative evangelicalism to a more progressive form of Christianity. But I also resonated with her description of being connected with the earth. While I may not have the kind of homecoming she describes here, I think we all feel the need to put down roots, even if those roots are planted in the suburb of a major U.S. city. She writes in her first chapter a question that defines the message of this memoir. It's a question that many of us ask as we traverse life's changes. She writes of our concern whether "the place and people of my hometown [would] ever allow me to really feel at home" (p. 5). She asks that question because she is no longer part of the tribe. She acknowledges that her values hadn't changed, but the way she expressed them had, which put her at odds with the conservative community she would inhabit. That truth became very evident when her husband ran for Congress, something she describes in the book.
As we move through the book, Berghoef shares her tragedies and triumphs as her family made a life on a portion of a farm in an 800-square-foot cottage. She shares how she found spiritual sustenance in the land while creating gardens that allowed her to express her creativity and imagination. We are also taken back at points to her childhood on that very farm, connecting the two eras of her life. There is tragedy, including the death of her beloved father and the discovery of other life changes.
I will leave the description there. However, I do believe that people will resonate with her story. We all need to feel rooted, whether it's the old homestead or someplace new. I know that after living in this house in this suburb, I feel more rooted than ever before. I invite you, the reader, to pick up this beautifully written book and find your place of rootedness.
Christy Berghoef is an author, musician, and speaker who lives on a farm near Holland, Michigan. The name of this town is a good reminder that Western Michigan has a strong Dutch Reformed identity. Berghoef is married to Bryan, a United Church of Christ pastor who, as readers will discover, ran for Congress as a Democrat in a deeply red district. The Berghoefs have Christian Reformed Church roots and met while at Calvin Theological Seminary. This is a story of a transition from being deeply rooted in conservative, Reformed Christianity to a more progressive Christianity. This transition takes place even as the Berghoefs move from Washington, D.C., where they had planted a church, to make a home in rural Western Michigan.
Memoirs are difficult to review because, as a reviewer, I don't want to give too much away. The reader needs to imbibe the stories for themselves because each reader will experience the book differently. What we do experience in reading Berghoef's beautifully written memoir is that she found spiritual sustenance in return to the land where she grew up, on a portion of land that was connected to the land where she grew up. We read of her joys and her challenges as she has wrestled with her faith, especially as she and her family embraced a progressive form of Christianity and sought to live out that faith in a conservative corner of the state.
While I've spent much of my life in the city, as I read her memoir, I resonated with what she shared. In part, that is because I, too, transitioned from conservative evangelicalism to a more progressive form of Christianity. But I also resonated with her description of being connected with the earth. While I may not have the kind of homecoming she describes here, I think we all feel the need to put down roots, even if those roots are planted in the suburb of a major U.S. city. She writes in her first chapter a question that defines the message of this memoir. It's a question that many of us ask as we traverse life's changes. She writes of our concern whether "the place and people of my hometown [would] ever allow me to really feel at home" (p. 5). She asks that question because she is no longer part of the tribe. She acknowledges that her values hadn't changed, but the way she expressed them had, which put her at odds with the conservative community she would inhabit. That truth became very evident when her husband ran for Congress, something she describes in the book.
As we move through the book, Berghoef shares her tragedies and triumphs as her family made a life on a portion of a farm in an 800-square-foot cottage. She shares how she found spiritual sustenance in the land while creating gardens that allowed her to express her creativity and imagination. We are also taken back at points to her childhood on that very farm, connecting the two eras of her life. There is tragedy, including the death of her beloved father and the discovery of other life changes.
I will leave the description there. However, I do believe that people will resonate with her story. We all need to feel rooted, whether it's the old homestead or someplace new. I know that after living in this house in this suburb, I feel more rooted than ever before. I invite you, the reader, to pick up this beautifully written book and find your place of rootedness.
September 23, 2025
It was a disappointing read. I as expecting something more, something rooting me is life and grounding me. There were aspects of the book that seemed to be the writer’s self indulgent journey. While I accept the journey and gopher desire to share it, the book lacked the invitational connection with me as a reader. There were moments of beauty in descriptions, but it failed to give me the invitation I had hoped for into rootedness in my life.
August 7, 2025
Reading "Rooted" is like taking a life trip with a girlfriend. Christy's memoir follows her journey from the rural Michigan flower farm she grew up on, to a busy life as a faith leader and being the wife of a man of faith, to the busy political halls of Washington, D.C., and then back again to the flower farm. Christy's beautiful writing takes you along on the ride and guides you gently into reviewing your own life and the choices made.
Are you in a book club? This is a great read for your group. Each chapter will spark conversation and introspection. The publisher, Reformed Journal Books, has a discussion guide available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.refor...
Enjoy this wonderful read.
Are you in a book club? This is a great read for your group. Each chapter will spark conversation and introspection. The publisher, Reformed Journal Books, has a discussion guide available here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.refor...
Enjoy this wonderful read.
August 19, 2025
Christy takes the reader on a remarkable sensory pilgrimage to the 40 acres of her childhood. Her beautiful prose and imagery captures the unsettling blend of familiar and foreign for those who have left home and, in some way, tried to return. It is beautifully written, a Walden experience for 21st century readers.
August 22, 2025
Christy is a friend, but I didn't really know her until I read this wonderful, thoughtful, generous book. With all that she's encountered in her life so far, you might imagine, well, a much different book. Instead what we get is joy, wisdom, hope, faith, and of course a love for the land where she now lives and is "rooted." It's a lovely story, and I recommend it.
August 12, 2025
This book spoke to my heart and soul. Christy's writing is poetic. She is so good at painting a picture with her words. I would highly recommend this book for anybody, but especially those who have "come home".
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews