Jaded: Hope for Believers Who Have Given Up on Church, but Not on God

by Angela J. Kiesling

Many young Christians feel close to God but struggle to find a church that feels like home. They find themselves disillusioned with churches that are focused more on programs than the good news and become discouraged with a church that puts forth a feel-good gospel in a world that needs the hard truth about sin and the Savior. Author A. J. Kiesling has felt such disappointment and shares her story and those of others who have felt "burned out" from their traditional church experiences. Far from being merely a pity party, Kiesling notes that God uses these times of spiritual darkness to bring believers toward a brighter light. She even advises readers on how to find a church home where they truly feel at home. Jaded will resonate both with those who have attended church on a regular basis for many years and with individuals who have never found consistent Christian community but are spiritually hungry.

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2004

Reviews

[Bob · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was written in 2004 but it sounds like all the stuff Christians were saying in 1994. The stuff they thought was 'edgy' then is just sorta bland and the ideas sound pretty foolish/lame today. This is a 'house church' book at its core. It, more or less, predicts that all the people who started leaving the institutional church (in droves) were going to go out and start funky, hip, house churches (and if they're really cool, those churches will actually be in nightclubs!).

But..they didn't. When people left the church, they pretty much just left the church. And that's it. To my knowledge there never was the predicted 'house church explosion'. There wasn't a 'new reformation' and the internet certainly didn't become a place people flocked to worship or 'have church' (as this book contends). The predictions are just bad and, to my 2021 ears, sound naive.

Look around these days and see what Christianity has become, how it supports disgusting (and racist) ideas and generally is just gross. They didn't change the world with their radically loving, grace-filled house churches. They became conspiracy theorists and anti-science nuts. Churches became cults. That's not the fault of this book, of course. But it shows just how wrong it's rosy predictions about the heart of man turn out to be.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting read!! I still regularly attend an IC but see and feel a lot of what the stories in this book present. It’s still the one place that I can find peace and stay ground but I feel outside looking in most of the time, watching and listening to others. Perhaps the non-church goers are not the jaded ones, but the ones that are buying into churchanity, and missing what Christ intended his church to be all along.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a collection of stories of people who have been burned out with the institutional church. . I thought it would be a focus on faith that stories that withstood injuries from the powers that be. Instead, there was a large focus on home church and other similar "small group church" movements. A few years ago, I would have been agreeing/relating with most everything--the frustration with legalism and spiritual abuse and/or spiritual shallowness in "the church." But now, it just made me exceedingly grateful for my own church that I now have.

[Toni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting stories, and some of the them hit close to home - but there were parts of the book that just seemed to drag. Not bad, but there were times it barely held my attention.