Official Review: Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home

[Stephanie Elizabeth]

I like that the book explores the differences of opinion regarding faith without bashing anyone. I hear about this happening more and more about one's church changing its ideals. It's an interesting premise for a book. Thanks for the wonderful review!

[April Ruvs]

Very detailed review. Autobiographys can be very life altering reads and from the review that seems to be the case I look forward to reading it.

[mcsneezle]

What a great review! Unfortunately, this is an all too common occurrence these days. It is also very difficult to move to a new area and try to find a home church. A lot of them seem very unwelcoming and clickish, and some I had a problem with what they were teaching. I must admit it is kind of a good thing though. I have learned the difference between being spiritual and being religious.

[woz303mom]

This sounds like an interesting story line. I dont usually read this type of book. But, since it was free, I may read this one. Editing errors not withstanding, it sounds like it richly deserves BOTD. Congratulations to the author. Finding a new church home is never easy.

[Emy Katherine]

This book follows the story of a Christian couple, Amanda and Gordon Farmer. They fall into a faith crisis when they realise that the church they served for 25 years had, over time, stealthily changed its core ideologies.

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A well-written, detailed memoir that will surely appeal to fans of the genre. Unfortunately, I am not the target audience; therefore, I will pass on this one. However, I am glad you enjoyed it immensely even though it is a pity about the minor grammatical errors. Thank you for the detailed review!

[Florence Nalianya]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home" by Amanda Farmer.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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I’d liken Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home by Amanda Farmer to a church stained glass window. It is haunting, and its transparency gives it a certain kind of beauty. This book follows the story of a Christian couple, Amanda and Gordon Farmer. They fall into a faith crisis when they realise that the church they served for 25 years had, over time, stealthily changed its core ideologies. After dedicating their faithful service to their local church, the couple found themselves systematically marginalised, shamed, dismissed, and gaslighted by the same leadership they had helped bring into the church. The situation got worse when they attempted to voice their concerns about the doctrine being taught and the new authoritarian practices put in place. These practices were slowly hierarchising a church wherein all members had hitherto had their voices heard and their safety and wellbeing looked after. The author identified Calvinism and Complementarianism as the source of the problems she and her husband encountered.

This book is not simply a wistful autobiography, describing an isolated and atypical incident. The author believes that others, too, are confused and hurt by the paradigm shift that is shaping thousands of modern churches. She seeks to provide some words of reassurance for those distressed by these shifts or going through a faith crisis, as well as provide a note to new church leaders to help them run happy, secure churches.

This book is incredibly detailed. I was originally a bit put off by how much the author extrapolated upon the small particulars of her life, feeling as though she was giving me too much information without any real point. I thought that maybe she was one of those authors who believed that little factual nuggets were the point of a book. Towards the middle of the story, however, I realised that this wasn’t the case. The connections were being drawn, albeit slower than I expected. I found myself enjoying the book immensely. The narrative spanned multiple years, and with the amount of factual information the book had, the context for the story was set in the most sturdy way possible. The unexpectedly pleasant outcome of this was that by the end of the book, you felt like you had always known the couple, the pastors, and the church. You could immediately and viscerally feel the nuances of their emotions, without it having to be an effortful intellectual process. Never had a book invited me so openly and vulnerably into the author’s stark indignation, uncomplicated happiness, or crushing disappointment.

Something I deeply admired about the author was her keen self-awareness and dedication to keep all the facts of the story as objective as possible without resorting to bitter slandering or unnecessary virtue signalling. The story was riddled with opportunities where she could have seriously damaged the reputation of the people that caused her so much pain. Instead, she simply stated her own strong feelings about certain ideological issues or attacked arguments she didn’t agree with in a rigorously logical manner.

Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home is written in first person and present continuous tense, and I believe that the reader may need a little time to get used to this style of narration. Oddly enough, this gave the book a thorough and polished feel, as though you were watching a motion film instead of looking at a photo album of random and varied snapshots. The story didn’t feel ephemeral. It felt real, relevant, and accessible. You stood with her as she grew older in front of your eyes. Even if there were temporal leaps in the story, you felt like you were part of everything in between that was left unsaid. It was a very clever choice of tense.

One of the features of this book that confused me was the fact that some seemingly significant details of her life were left out, while some of the more mundane ones were expounded upon at great length. An example of this is that there was noticeably little mention of her daughter, Erin. I suppose she was not relevant to the story of their church life, but it was still a bit strange that Erin was only mentioned in a disproportionately clinical manner. The author simply stated her daughter’s age or the fact that she was going to get married. It felt as though the author, who had become an intimate and candid friend over the course of the book, was keeping secrets. It was especially puzzling in light of the things she did choose to share. On many occasions, she disclosed multiple letters in their entirety, full of information about things like window placement and church fees. However, I did not mind this particular quirk very much, as by the end of the book I was convinced that it was charming in its own way.

I would have gladly given this book a 4 star rating, had it not been for the profusion of minor grammatical errors I found in the story. They did not detract from my reading experience, but there are too many errors for me to pretend that the book does not need some editing work. This is why my rating stands at a solid 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend this book to Christians who have experienced shame, hurt and confusion in relation to the church authority and are seeking either answers or solace. I would also recommend this book to anyone who wants to be privy to the experiential wisdom of a faithful church-goer, or anyone who wants a close friend who is accessible by way of a book.

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Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home
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There seems to be a lot of controversies in churches today.What happened to the strict Christian doctrine we observed sometimes back??God help us.congratulations for this informative piece.

[ObsessedBookNerd]

Based on the review this book is not something that I would enjoy reading. I will not read books with religious content or beliefs. I will pass on reading this book.

[Gracedscribe]

This is the second time I'm seeing that sticking through with a book might yield an enjoyable experience after a slow or irksome start. This is such an honest and thorough review! I give it a 4 out of 4 star rating .

[Omega2001]

This is a book about a couple who starts questioning everything they´ve learned and been taught in church. It´s a really interesting story that teaches you the power of your belief system and how, if you don´t question it, people and religions can manipulate you as they please. I know that this is happening more and more, and it´s good and important that everyone questions what they´ve been taught throughout their lives.
As a non-religious person, and someone who specially doesn´t like the Christian Church, I think is really important that people read this kind of books to learn to question everything, and for me I´ll read it as a reminder to challenge and consider my beliefs.
Definitely going to my to-read list.

[leiabutler]

I love this review and the fact you weren't afraid to lower your overall rating due to some quality issues. This review tells me a lot about the book and I think the detail is amazing.

[ccundall2130]

This book sounds very interesting it is sad to feels betrayal like that. It sounds like the author rises above it and states the perspective instead of stooping to cause damage. Though the review is comprehensive, less use if the thesaurus and unnecessarily large words will get the same point across. It is well written, though.

[Alys Sterk]

The changing of a church's ideas are never easy to deal with, for anyone. It seems like it would be very difficult for anyone to write such a book that is subjective because of the emotions involved with religion. There must have been some deep relationships within that church that were put to the test!

[Sanju Lali]

An isolated and atypical incident is depicted in the book "Once An Insider, Now Without a Church Home" by Amanda Farmer, which follows a Christian couple, Amanda and Gordon Farmer who served a church for 25 years, and finally realize that leadership they had helped bring into the church stealthily changed its core ideologies. The autobiography seems quite heat touching.

[Chelsy Scherba]

This is interesting and makes me curious to learn more about how the churches are changing and what doctrines they are coming to embrace. Nice review!

[Adedayo+23]

This sounds like a truly touching story, and much Kudos to the author on being able to pen down such an objective narrative of the unfortunate event(s). Thank you for your compelling review.