The Church We Carry
Loss, Leadership, and the Future of Our Church
Will Willimon’s oeuvre is well represented by memoirs and ecclesial histories, but The Church We Carry is a bit of both and neither: a true crime tale, a victim impact statement, an ordinary psalm.
The plot unfolds during the United Methodist Church’s disaffiliation window, those few years during which churches displeased with the denomination’s stance on LGBTQ inclusion could leave and take church property with them. The main characters are Willimon’s childhood congregation—the Buncombe Street (formerly United) Methodist Church—and the perplexing Spirit of God who moves through and despite the church.
The Church We Carry leads us first through the antechamber of saints who raised Willimon. Among them are Dr. R. Bryce Herbert, who assured a young Will that his belonging at Buncombe Street was not dependent on the way he looked or dressed; Mr. J. B. Orders, a mattress company founder who recognized Will’s homiletic talents and offered to pay for his future college tuition; and a primary Sunday school teacher, wearing a pink camellia pin, who taught young Will that God would be with him in every trial.
