Shedding religion to find God

Jim Palmer, Author of Divine Nobodies: Shedding Religion to Find God (and the unlikely people who help you) will be my guest on the Writers in the Sky (WITS) podcast in February. I wanted to let you know about his recently released book with quite a long and interesting title.

What does a Hip-Hop artist, Waffle House waitress, tire salesman, and disabled girl have to do with discovering spiritual truth? What if embracing authentic Christianity is a journey of unlearning? Welcome to Jim Palmer's world! Amazon writes, "Don Miller meets Anne Lamott meets Brian McLaren in this tale of shedding religion and plunging into uncharted depths of knowing God. Jim Palmer shares his compelling off-road spiritual journey and the unsuspecting people who became his guides."

Putting a troubled childhood behind him, Jim earned a Masters of Divinity degree and was well on his way of becoming a top evangelical Christian leader. But when a series of setbacks left him heartbroken and wondering just exactly where God was, a string of chance encounters with ordinary folks changed almost everything Jim thought he knew about God."Perhaps God's reason for wanting me," writes Palmer, "is much better than my reason for wanting him. Maybe God's idea of my salvation trumps the version I am too willing to settle for. Seeing I needed a little help to get this, God sent a variety pack of characters to awaken me."

For all those hoping there's more to God and Christianity than what they've heard or experienced, each chapter of Divine Nobodies gives the reader permission and freedom to discover it for themselves. Sometimes comical, other times tragic, at times shocking, always honest; Jim Palmer's story offers an inspiring and profound glimpse into life with God beyond institutional church and conventional religion.

The book was voted “Top Pick” by Christian Retailers magazine and has received early reviews like this: "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Donald Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice . . . Divine Nobodies is a delight to read, and it was good for my soul to read it."
-Brian McLaren, Author of The Secret Message of Jesus

"You hold in your hands an amazing story of a broken man finding freedom in all the right places-in God's work in the lives of some extraordinarily ordinary people around him. You will thrill to this delightful blend of gut-wrenching honesty and laugh-out-loud hilarity, and in the end you'll find God much closer, the body of Christ far bigger and your own journey far clearer than you ever dreamed."
-Wayne JacobsenAuthor of Authentic Relationships

In addition to his theology degree and pastoral experience, Jim’s background also includes inner-city service and international human rights work. One of the chapters in the book recounts Jim’s experience traveling in South Asia with International Justice Mission confronting the tragic injustice of forced child prostitution. Jim and the book are currently being featured on explorefaith.org.

I look forward to having him as my guest on Writers in the Sky Podcast in February.