Gone to Carolina: Stories from a Coastal Church (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798988329343)

Do you delight in stories told by wise, warmhearted authors who take seemingly mundane snippets of life and with their words hold them up to the light like precious gemstones? In stories that are deeply human and deeply divine, they turn life as we know it this way and that, magnifying the good, the right, and the true until "the holy and hidden heart" of things (F. Buechner) shimmer forth.

Gleaned from David A. Shirey's near-decade as a young pastor finding his way in ministry and life at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the coastal city of Wilmington, NC, Gone to Carolina presents forty uplifting vignettes crafted with a pastor's heart, contemplative's eye, and gifted storyteller's art.

In league with poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, Shirey's writing witnesses to his belief that "Christ plays in ten thousand places," that there is indeed "a freshness deep down [in] things." Shirey's spiritual memoir glimpses grace in the many places inhabited by his congregation, telling their stories with a warmth, wonder, and self-deprecating humor that will draw you into a revitalizing reverence.

The people Shirey remembers in these pages he treats with affection and respect.

You will meet wonderful people:

- Harvey and Mike, the search team tandem who patiently waited during Midwesterner Shirey's bumbling effort to discern God's call to the southern locale ("I can't even understand these people").

- Two retired coaches, local and state Hall of Famers, who mentored Shirey not in sports, but in leadership, life, and love.

- Rosa, the church's longtime custodian, trash can on wheels as a walker, who introduced the young white pastor to her pastor, a wise, respected civic and civil rights leader who took Shirey under his wings and tutored him in Wilmington's racial past and present.

- Charles, afflicted with Parkinson's but intent on walking down the aisle at his daughter's wedding; 4-year-old Camdyn and 40-year-old Laura, participants in the church's cerebral palsy ministry and their steadfastly supportive families; David, orphaned at birth but adopted into the First Christian church family - the improbable priest.

- Feisty, funny Faye, proprietor of a farm of misfit animals ("Y'all come visit!") and the complementary cast of others blessed with the gift of holy humor.

All the above and "a holy host of others" help their young pastor navigate the satisfactions and exultations as well as the frustrations and desolations of ministry and life itself, including:

- Responding to a break-in and arson fire.

- Keeping vigil with men dying of AIDS shunned by the church.

- Confronting instances of domestic violence.

- Grieving during a "Year of Death" that robbed the church of numerous beloved leaders and Shirey of irreplaceable mentors and friends.

- Wrestling with the legacy of Wilmington's 1898 coup and race massacre.

- Taking cover while hurricanes make landfall on the Cape Fear coast.

People and pastors blessed by being part of vital congregations will read these stories with nods of recognition, laughter, and a few tears. Those hurt by the church, wary of organized religion and its professional caste, can warm to and trust this relatable pastor whose stories portray a God worth believing in and a church worth belonging to.

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