All Saints
Rev. Michael Spurlock’s first assignment as a new pastor was about as bad as it gets. All Saints Episcopal Church was down to 25 members and in financial stress. Debt. Division. Despair. These are toxic words for a church, and All Saints was dying. Then, nine months later, three travelers from the east showed up to worship Jesus, and everything changed. Hope was born. A holy family was created. New life began to stir.
All Saints (Bethany House, $14.99) is the true story of how three Sunday visitors were used by God to bring new life to a struggling Episcopalian church in Smyrna, Tenn. By welcoming the immigrants from war-torn Myanmar into their church, the congregation found a new mission in God’s Kingdom. With the influx of seventy-five Burmese refugees, All Saints became diverse rather than divided, a community of faith mirroring the multi-cultural kingdom of God. There were struggles, but there was also one blessing after another as God worked among them in wondrous ways.
All Saints reflects God’s design to break down ever wall and division which violates the unity of his kingdom. Jesus is our peace, and he has made all groups into one by reconciling us not only to God, but also to one another. In Jesus we become fellow citizens, brothers and sisters in God’s family, one body united in our faith. All Saints reminds us that when we see our neighbor as God sees them, God will do incredible things among us.
–Darrel Holcombe, Owner
Sanctuary Christian Books and Gifts
Colonial Promenade, Alabaster
