Eden: Thanks so much for being willing to talk today. I’m so thrilled I get to spend a little time with you and learn about what the Lord is doing in your life. I’ve been so encouraged by your husband’s ministry, and I know that behind every pastor is a really strong woman. I’m excited to get to know you today, too.
Kate Merrick: Well, thanks for inviting me. So fun to talk to you a little bit.
Eden: What are a couple of things that bring you joy?
Kate Merrick: Oh, man. I am a pretty simple girl. I love the sun, that brings me joy. If there’s a patch of sun, I’m like a cat. I will go and find it—lay on the ground in the patch of sun. And you know, here we are in the middle of January. I live in the Santa Barbara area, and so I’m such a wimp. I’m like, “That’s it, I’m moving! It’s too cold!” So, I just want to be in the sunshine. My garden brings me joy. I’m not very good at it.
Eden: What do you have in it?
Kate Merrick: What do I have in it? I have got some kale. I pulled some carrots yesterday, and I just felt like a superstar because I was pulling them. And they were different colors, carrots of many colors. So that was really fun. We have some herbs, some lemongrass, and currently not a ton, though, because it is the middle of winter and I’ve been lagging on the garden. So there’s that.
Eden: So, what is winter in California look like? Is it 50’s (degrees Fahrenheit)? Is it 60’s?
Kate Merrick: Like the colder days are in the 50’s. I live about three miles back from the beach, and so it gets a little chillier at night. So, it could be in the 30’s on the coldest nights—at my place, it is at least.
Like yesterday I think was just solid in the 50’s all day and we’re all kind of chilly and I’m at work at the shop that we have and we’re all like, “Ooh, it’s so cold.” On my way home I was driving, and I was like, “We’re so ridiculous.”
My son lives in Boise, Idaho right now, and he’s like, “I looked on my weather app and it said, nine degrees.” And I’m like, “Oh, we’re so cold here.”
Eden: Yes, that’s our life in Chicago here right now. It’s been really, really cold recently. But you know what? Whatever you’re used to that changes how you view the weather. If you’re used to sunny and 70, then 30 is terrible.
Kate Merrick: Yes, it’s all relative, right? It’s really just all relative. And I think that you prepare for it more when you’re in an actually cold place. You have actually warm clothes, and we don’t have warm clothes. It’s that weird space where you could wear like a big puffy jacket, but you’d be sweating. What are you going to do?
Eden: Well, I’d love to hear what your day-to-day life looks like these days.
Kate Merrick: Yeah, I’m all over the place. Well, I’ve got one child left under my roof. She’s nine and I homeschooled my kids for 12 years, I think. And she goes to a little Christian school. So that’s kind of a different pace for me, which is awesome. She goes to school and then I work.
My husband currently is working the family business, which is Channel Islands Surfboards. He is the head designer and shaper in the wholesale factory. And then I work in our shop that we have in Santa Barbara twice a week and I do the women’s buying, which is so fun. I just choose cute clothes and make it look good—that’s my job. I’m generally like the mom about the shop. I make sure that everyone is keeping it clean, and I get to love on those kids. I just love, love, love, the 20-somethings age group, and that’s who is working for and with us. So, a couple days a week I do that, and then the other days I’m all over the place.
Some days I’m doing stuff like this, maybe an interview. I haven’t been writing in a long time, but I have written two books and I’m taking a break from that for now and doing a little bit of life, but we see some hiking, some surfing, some cleaning up. I love to cook, so I cook dinner for my family every night, which is just my favorite thing. So we really try to have a slow pace where, you know, I tell all my friends I want to be home by four so I can start chopping onions.
Eden: So for many years, your husband served as the pastor of Reality Church, and now he’s working at Channel Islands Surfboards full-time. So how has this changed your scheduling? Because I imagine you were probably involved in a lot more church-things before now. Is life now comparable to then, or has your lifestyle really changed since coming out of that and investing more in the surf industry?
Kate Merrick: Yeah, I would say that there’s a lot of similarities. He still travels a lot. He always traveled a lot for work, so he was gone just about every week doing something somewhere else. And he’s currently doing that again, which is what we’ve been used to our whole lives together. We’ve been married for 26 years, so it’s just part of it.
But now he’s following the championship surf tour all over the world. And then he was, you know, doing ministry all over the world. This is just a different kind of ministry. It’s a little more covert. So as far as the flow of our lives, it’s really, really close to the same. But I do get more of him now, which is awesome. He used to be gone and out of the house—he was up at 4:00 every single morning and weekends. I would say weekends are just a whole new world for us because Saturday was just pressure, sermon prep, spiritual warfare. He did Sunday at church and then would sleep all afternoon because he was just dead tired. And then Monday was a catch-up day. So, if anything, even if he’s working the same amount of hours, I do get more of him, which is really nice.
I don’t know if you were going to ask this, but I’ll just offer it. Let’s see, he started doing our college ministry two months after we got married. I was barely 23 and he was 25, and we took over the college ministry at our church. I think I was still in college, and I was still finishing college. And so he’s been preaching for 20-something years, nonstop all these years. And so that’s kind of all we knew. That’s kind of all our whole lives revolved around. And so having given that up, it’s such a different life, but I don’t regret a day of it.
And doing pastoral ministry—we gave it everything we had. We gave all of those years—from 25 to 45 for him or to 47 for him—to the church. And it was a huge, I would say, sacrifice, outpour. And we don’t regret a day of it. And it was time it was time to move on. It was time to pull out and say, Okay, I could keep going, but I’ve given everything I can give in this capacity. And now my walk with Jesus needs to look a little bit different, in a different capacity.
And I think a lot of people in ministry, in pastoral ministry or any other type of professional ministry, keep going and going and going and going until they crash and burn, whether that’s moral failure or something else. I think that’s just a manifestation of you gave too much because and you weren’t receiving enough from the Lord. That was a lack of intimacy with the Lord. And that was saying yes when you shouldn’t have said yes. And that was giving when you should have passed the torch. And so, it was a really big decision for him [Britt] to say, Okay, I’m going to.
And it wasn’t even about the family business, about Channel Islands, because that was a side thing that he was doing because he has always loved shaping boards and working with his hands, and it was something that really was life-giving for him. And he had been doing that just on the side. But that’s not why he retired from ministry. It was like, Hey, I, I’ve done it. I’ve given it all.
So there’s a lot of blessings like I get him more now, he’s not tired, he’s not sleeping on the couch in the afternoon all weekend because he’s dead tired. And we get to do amazing fun things together.
And we think, Wow! we feel like two people who climbed through the desert. And you get to the end and you’re like, we’re so thirsty. And I don’t know how people keep doing and going and going and going, but I mean, our story’s a little different, having lost our daughter to cancer. Also my husband is a next-level man. The man does not just plant a church. He plants nine churches. You know what I mean? That’s just the kind of man he is. He’s just next-level. Give, give, give, give, give, do the thing. I even said this morning to him like, “Wow, it was so heavy. I can’t believe we did all that. There was so much spiritual warfare. And we just experienced so much, you know, pain and growth and all these things. But I wouldn’t change a day of it.”
I’m also grateful that it’s time to have a different season and to pass the torch, because there are so many coming up behind us. We were the young bucks for so long, and now other people are young, and they’ve got the fire and dude, it’s like, “Ready, go, your turn, go for it!”
So now I just feel like it’s so sweet. Our ministry now is with mostly non-believers. And I can remember a time in my life when I was only around Christian women at all times—like all my friends with babies—and then this Bible study and that thing. I was a stay-at-home mom, and I was young and I remember thinking, I never even get a chance to talk to non-believers. What would I even say?
My life is so different, you know, from before I was saved. And now I am surrounded by non-believers, and I love it. I love it so much. I get to pour out and love these kids, and they’re not looking at us as pastors or any of that. They’re just like, “Oh, this is a person who loves me.” And then I can give them some truth and pray for them and hopefully lead them to the Lord.
Eden: I love how you’re in a season of refreshment. I think it’s so easy when we’re going through the hard things to think, Will this ever end? We read that “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Peter 5:10 ESV). What a gift from the Lord that he has brought you into a different season.
Is there any way that God has particularly comforted you in this time since serving in the church?
Kate Merrick: Yeah, I would say I love that question because I guess I never really looked at it like that. But the answer I’m about to tell you is twofold.
Number one, a lot of stuff happened with our church after my husband retired, and then it was COVID, so he retired right before COVID hit. There was a lot of bummer stuff that happened. There was basically a church split, and it was super painful. And even though he had retired from ministry, it was like, “Hey, well, we’re not going anywhere. We love you guys. This is our church. Just because we’re not leading and teaching, we’re still here to serve and be part of this community.” It was a really rugged time for our church—a few years of a lot of tumultuous stuff happening. I think it was for a lot of churches with COVID. But there just happened to be a church split and a disagreement of theology and doctrine with the person that was hoping to move into that position.
Long story short, we’re in a sweet place at our church right now. We’re still at the church that we founded. My husband leads worship—or doesn’t lead worship. He can’t sing. He’s the worst singer ever. Terrible. He has a beautiful sounding voice too, which is hilarious. His speaking voice is beautiful. I’m like, “Babe, you should take lessons.” Anyway. He plays a mean guitar, so he plays lead guitar. And so, every Sunday that he’s not traveling, he is playing in the worship team and I serve coffee and we’re there. We’re happy to be included.
We love our pastor. He got saved at our college ministry all the years ago. And then he was on staff at our church in LA, Reality LA, and then he came up here with his family to take over the position.
So it’s super fun because after everything, after all the pain and hurt feelings and COVID and tumultuous disagreements and everything, we’re like, “Dude, this is what the body of Christ is. We’re together. This is awesome. We’re limping along together, and we serve the Lord together.” And so that’s one of the ways I really feel like that was the Lord and he allowed us to stay at the church that we founded.
And then the other thing [that has comforted us] is, our friends. I’m 49, he’s [Britt] 51, and we just have the best group of friends. And it’s funny because—some of our friends—we are 20 years older than them. I think we’re the oldest in our friend group. But our friend group is so tight. We’re so in each other’s business in the best way. And our kids are rad together. It’s something really special that not everyone has. And so I think that’s another major comfort, is that we can just be with all these sweet friends.
Obviously, God gave us another child, which is such a comfort. She’s nine and so she hangs out with all their kids and we’re all doing barbecues. It’s just a really sweet season of life. And we still have so much left to go.
But you know, I would just say to anyone listening who’s like, Oh man, when is this going to happen for me? When is that going to happen? Whatever this and that is, like the job or the ministry opportunity or whatever it is. Hold tight, there is so much to come and there’s going to be hard times and there’s going to be sad times. And actually, our pastor and friend said to me last Sunday—because he was teaching on Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac (Genesis 22)—he said, “I am so sorry that whenever I teach Scriptures like this or passages like this, I just always think of you guys and think of everything you’ve gone through with your daughter.” And for the listener, our daughter died of cancer when she was eight. And so that was 11 years ago, coming up this next month is 11 years. And he said, “You’re such an inspiration to the people who come to this church.”
And I said—Ah man, I wish I knew which scripture it was off the top of my head. But you know where Jesus is like, “Are you going to leave me too?” And Peter is like, “Where would I go?” (John 6:67-68). I’m not going to leave Jesus over this! I’m not the only person that this has ever happened to. My heart has been broken and smashed on the floor, but it’s not Jesus’ fault. He was there with me, holding my hand the whole way.
And I said, “Adam, where would I go? Not like what other church would I go to? I’m just saying, Jesus is it. Jesus is home. And thank you for having us.” You know, like, where would I go? I’m not going to leave the Lord because times are hard.
And so if you’re a listener or you’re in a hard time right now and you’re like, “Maybe it’d be easier if I do this or do that.” Don’t go anywhere, stay in the hard time, and Jesus will walk you through and walk you out of it. I promise you he will. Just give it time.
Give it time and do your part. You know, like the hard part of friendships is like you keep reaching out, you open your home. Maybe you hate your house. Doesn’t matter. They don’t care. Come outside. We’ll hang out on the patio, come over. You reach out. You open your heart. And you open your heart not only to the people that you do life with and community with, but mostly to the Lord. You have to keep opening your heart to the Lord.
Where would I go? He’s the best thing I’ve got going. Like Jesus is the actual best, only, forever. And I’ve been a Christian for 30 years and I can still tell you he’s the best. That’s it. That’s what you’ve got going for you.
Eden: Yes. Amen to that. And I think it’s so powerful coming from someone that has walked through significant pain, because when you’re in the pain and the questions start coming, that temptation is real, especially for people that have not been through significant suffering yet. When that suffering first comes, it can be so difficult to cling to and run to Jesus. But it’s so encouraging to hear, “Stick with him. And he sticks with you and he’s holding you all the way.”
I would love to hear a little about the book that you wrote—your book And Still She Laughs. What inspired you to write that? And for someone that’s new and that maybe is going through something tough explain what it’s about and how that might encourage them in their suffering.
Kate Merrick: So like I said, 11 years ago my daughter passed away from cancer and she had been diagnosed three-and-a-half years prior. So for three-and-a-half years when she was five years old, we were, you know, all the things cancer treatment, surgeries, untold surgeries and chemos and radiation and everything, everything, everything. And we even went to Israel for three months to seek alternative treatment at the end, came back three months later, and she was in heaven within like six weeks. And so we were obviously super devastated and I just had to live in that space.
And my faith never wavered. I never was like, “Where are you God?” You do feel like he doesn’t hear you. I just want to say that if you feel like God doesn’t hear you and there’s only silence— yeah, that’s real, that’s a thing. And it feels really real. And it’s really painful. My faith didn’t waver like, God’s not a thing because my child died, because logic says, well, people’s kids die every single day. So I liked God before my kid died. It would be really illogical for me to not like God after my kid died.
And I just say that in a very blunt way. I’m kind of a blunt person—a very nice person! People are like, “you’re so sweet.” I’m like, “I know, and sometimes I’m so blunt.” So I can be blunt. So anyway, forgive the forgive the bluntness, but I found myself in an inwardly bitter kind of way. And so I just stepped back from really anything. I wasn’t doing any guest speaking. I was pulling back. There was a blog I used to write. It’s still online. It’s called prayforDaisy.com if you want to go back and look at that. But I used to write that blog. I quit. Nope. Not having any more words. I was inside in my thoughts, and I realized, like, hey, there’s a bitterness in me. So it wasn’t a lack of faith. It was this sneaky bitterness inside me.
And it took about three years after she went to heaven to process these things with the Lord and go through all those stages of grief and fear and questioning and get to a place where I felt like the Lord was leading me in the Scriptures to just bring me to a place of—what’s the opposite of bitterness?—joy. Right? So that book sprung from that. It’s called, And Still She Laughs: Defiant Joy in the Face of Suffering.
So that’s where that book came from. And it’s a journey of taking the reader with me—not a whole lot of what happened. There’s a couple chapters of what happened because I didn’t want to camp out there. I remember there were passages that I would write that I would have to really check my heart about and say, I could really make this passage more painful because it was. Yeah, but what’s my motive? Is this because I want the reader to feel sorry for me? Like that was a real thing. I remember him being like, that’s not the Lord. It doesn’t feel like God wants me to write just so the reader would feel sorry for me. So, there’s definitely enough pain in the passages that the reader understands that this is the terrible thing that happened, but I didn’t want to camp out there. So I went into a place of like, okay, this is how the Lord brought me. This is how I figured out, wow, your heart’s pretty bitter. And this is how the Lord brought me to a place of joy in that depths of suffering and how I could move on.
And it’s pretty honest. A lot of people have reached out and said, “thank you so much for being honest and for not sugar coating everything.” And I think that one of the most painful things after losing her [Daisy] were Christians who would be really happy-clappy. And some really painful things were said to me, and I actually write them in the book (not too many of them, because that’s another thing I’m like, no, I’m not going to camp out here because that’s just going to feed my bitterness.) But I think Christian culture over the last couple decades has been very…”All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). And I’m like, okay, that’s not what that verse means. (Learn about what Romans 8:28 means).
I actually had someone say, “Oh, that’s actually good that she died before she could make any big mistakes in her life.” So a lot of things like that were said or just, “Don’t grieve, don’t…” And I just think that’s from the pit of hell not to grieve. I mean, Jesus cried over Lazarus, and he was about to resurrect him (John 11:35). I don’t know if he knew he was going to resurrect him or not, but he wept over Lazarus. Jesus experienced human feelings and created human feelings before I was even a human. So I think that there’s so much benefit and fruit when we dive into those feelings, but then when we don’t let them sweep us away. And he says to weep with those who weep and to laugh with those who laugh or rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15).
And Proverbs 31:25 is the catalyst. So that’s the idea behind the title of the book, And Still She Laughs, because it says that “She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future” (Proverbs 31:25 NLT). And I thought, I want to be like a woman who can laugh without fear of the future. I want to be like that. How do I get there? And I remember being like, wow, Lord!
So we know that passage is describing the Proverbs 31 woman. We’re not sure exactly who wrote the passage, but it’s speculated by some Bible scholars that it was written by Bathsheba, the wife of David, to her son. And I thought, well, okay, if Bathsheba wrote this, that’s a woman who has experienced pain. So much pain—I mean, you could say rape, the death of her child, family drama, murder of her husband, who was an awesome guy (2 Samuel 11). It’s not like he was some schmuck. We know Uriah was a good guy. So I’m like, okay, a lot of scholars think it could be her.
If it was her and she’s saying to her son, “this is the kind of woman you want to look for.” She’s saying, “this is this is what is good and right to be a woman.” Often I would cringe at Proverbs 31. I’ll never measure up to that. The Proverbs 31 woman is just like, hey, this is a good rubric of like of what being a woman can be. And she’s telling her son, “this is the kind of woman you want to go for.” So I just kind of put two and two together and it just led me down this beautiful rabbit hole of many people, women especially, in the Bible, who suffered and how they walked through that suffering and how they carried themselves afterward.
And we’re all given the choice, right? We all have free will, how we’re going to deal with suffering. Like in culture, Christian women culture, at least, we think this is the way. But like, no, no, no, no, God created me to be me. He created you to be you. We’re very different people. Every single person is so different from the other. We’re not to be cookie-cutters of each other. I’m not to be exactly like Mary, mother of Jesus (Matthew 1; Luke 1). And I’m not to be exactly like Deborah, judge of the Hebrews (Judges 4-5). I’m supposed to be me, Kate, and what God’s given me in the way that I can walk through these things in a way that is healthy and righteous as much as it depends on me.
Eden: Yes. Amen to that. And you said that it took about three years, for the Scriptures to speak into that pain. Was it those specific passages and seeing women in the Bible that the Lord used to comfort you? Or would you say there were some other specific passages that God used to heal you of that bitterness?
Kate Merrick: Yeah, it started there and then it went to Genesis 18 with Sarah and Abraham and all Sarah’s pain that she went through with being barren and with Hagar. But ultimately her laughter was bitter when the three strangers come. And then they say, basically the Lord says, “Your wife is going to have a baby by next year.” And she’s eavesdropping, which I love (Genesis 18:10). I think it’s so classic that she’s eavesdropping, like just pretending. And then she’s like, “Yeah, right.” The Scripture tells us she laughed (Genesis 18:12). And then the Lord said, “Why did you laugh?” (Genesis 18:13). Then he’s like, “Oh no, you laughed” (Genesis 18:15). And I’m like, oh! That shows me God is seeing my bitter heart. God was seeing every time that I was like, why would I ever have a blessing again? God ripped all this out from under me. Why would I ever…? And I had that same bitter heart as Sarah because there was so much pain and loss and waiting and I felt like God was calling me out, like, “No, you’re bitter. You’re laughing in a bitter way, and I want you laughing in a joyful way.”
And so it just took a long time, but it ultimately it was Jesus on the cross. And not like, well, the atoning of my sins. That’s all amazing. It was the night before when he’s like, “ah, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do this!” (Matthew 26:39). And he asked his Father if he could not. And the answer was, no. “No, you’ve got to do this.” And I’m like, wow. Jesus’ answer to his biggest prayer was No. That gave me an attitude adjustment. Like, who do I think I am? Like, this is what the Lord had for us. I mean, we had hundreds of thousands, even maybe up to a million people praying for my daughter’s life to be saved. And it wasn’t. And so I kept going, why, why, why, why? And ultimately what I landed on was like, well, whatever the answer is—Two things.
Number one, I trust the Lord. That’s just how it how it was going to be because he’s sovereign. But number two, I don’t think any answer that God could give me would be good enough. And I’m just being blatantly honest. Like if he said, “Well, you know, there were five people who got saved from reading her story and praying for her.” I don’t care, like this is the real me. I don’t care. I’m not going to sacrifice my daughter. They can go get saved a different way. So if you told me, if God said, “Okay, I have all the reasons why,” I’m not going to understand them. I’m not even on the same planet, plane, anything, as the Maker of the universe, and so I’m not going to understand it. I have to honor God as God. It is what it is. And I’ve chosen to say that I am so blessed because God gave me eight years with a beautiful young woman, and she was mine to call mine for eight years, eight-and-a-half years. And not everyone gets to have a baby. Not everyone can have a child live up to eight years. Not everyone gets that opportunity. And so I just had to make a several attitude adjustments, but go in the way of like, Nope, nope I’m going to stop looking at what I don’t have and what I’m missing, and I’m going to look at what I do have. And that brought me so much joy and I have to continue in that way even now.
I can tend to get bummed out about her sometimes still. I’m so blessed. I got to have her for eight years and I’m going to see her forever and ever. And almost every night when we pray, we always say, “And say hi to Daisy for us.” And I love it because she lives somewhere beyond the veil. She’s not gone. She’s gone from Earth, but she’s still alive. When people—strangers—ask me, I don’t tell every stranger. And I talk about that in the book. I don’t tell every stranger what happened to us because it’s pretty sacred. And they’re going to look at me horrified and like it’s contagious or something like that. But I often say, “Well, I have three kids. One lives in heaven. One lives under my roof, and one lives in Idaho currently.”
Eden: And the Lord says that whether we are at home in the body or away, that we are always with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:6-8; 1 Thessalonians 4:17). And now she is with him, and it will be so fun to meet her.
Thank you so much for sharing. It’s so wonderfully encouraging to hear your attitude now and get to see how the Lord has answered all those prayers and brought you out of that bitterness. You know, as I look ahead at fears in my life—the Lord can give us the confidence to face things with him without fear. And he can conquer that bitterness and that fear in our hearts. Everything you said is so encouraging to me personally and hope will bless someone that’s listening.
I love to end interviews hearing about some resources that have transformed your walk with Jesus, trying to help people build their bookshelf. And so is there a book or a resource that has been instrumental in your walk with Christ.
Kate Merrick: Recently or over the years?
Eden: Either.
Kate Merrick: Wow. That’s like saying pick a favorite child, or a favorite food. I can’t do either. Well. This might sound silly, but The Jesus Storybook Bible is amazing. It is so good. If you’re listening and you’re an young parent, or if you want to be…I think every person should own The Jesus Storybook Bible and read it for fun to any child who walks through the door or to yourself. I absolutely love The Jesus Storybook Bible. There were so many years as a young mom that I just didn’t have time for anything else. And so I was so nourished by The Jesus Storybook Bible.
Girl, I wish I could say I have this one shining star of a book. I would just recommend reading widely to the listener. And don’t be afraid to add a book to your library. If you read it and it’s not a blessing and it’s not serving you, then get rid of it. But don’t be afraid to read old dead guys, new guys, women, of course. Don’t be afraid to read complementarian, egalitarian. Don’t be afraid to read some Calvinist stuff. Don’t be afraid to read Armenian stuff. Don’t be afraid to read anything. I say read it. Ask the Lord, “Teach me what you have. Do you have anything for me in this book?” And I know that he will 100% teach you.
And I think that we need to learn as believers to eat the meat and spit out the bones. We’re all human beings. So unless it’s the actual inspired Scriptures, Word of God, Holy Bible, there’s going to be stuff in there that’s like, hey, maybe don’t worry about that. I would also—okay, so here I am. I’m not giving you a specific title; I’m just giving book advice. This is what I’m doing, book advice.
Eden: That’s great. That’s great. We’ll take it.
Kate Merrick: Okay. Also, I would just be wary of whatever’s hot and fresh and new, you know what I mean? So, there’s been a lot of times where something was like number one bestseller in Christian publishing and it’s trash. So don’t read trash. I say read widely, you know, eat the meat, spit out the bones, but don’t read trash. Don’t be a raccoon. It’s going to be a waste of time.
We have like an entire room full of books. Literally not even kidding. Like every single wall is covered and there’s commentaries and there are so many kinds of books, so many old books and new books. We even would read sometimes the controversial books. So when the whole emergent church movement came like 20 years ago or so, we got a Brian McLaren book and a Rob Bell book to be like, okay, well, why are people all up in arms over this? And we’re like, yeah, this is garbage. There’s not a whole lot of meat here. It’s mostly bones. I would be careful of that. Be careful of authors. What author are you reading and what credentials do they have? Not that they need to have a seminary degree—I don’t—but I mean, more street credit. So does this woman who’s giving parenting advice have a child older than two? If she doesn’t, I wouldn’t read her book.
I love Christian publishing, but it’s a business and it has to be. You know, some people might say, “Oh, it’s so slimy. It’s just about what sells.” And I’m like, “well, do you eat food? Because I do, and food costs money. So we have to make money to eat food. And so let’s not throw the whole thing under the bus. Just be wise. And so they are going to publish things by famous people who are going to write a very subpar book because that book’s going to make a lot of money and sell a lot of copies. And you know what? Let’s just think of those things as that keeps the industry going so that deep, good, beautiful books that don’t sell a ton of copies can get published.” So that’s why I’m not anti-those. I have so many friends in publishing, I have so many author friends, and one of my dear, dear friends is VP of HarperCollins Christian. I admire him so much. And so I do love Christian publishing. But it is an industry and like every other industry, you have to make money.
Yes, but I would go back over and if you find an author that’s amazing, then dig through their backlist. I would say read some Brennan Manning where your heart’s going to rip wide open listening to his words and hearing his truthful journey from alcoholism and addiction and walking with the Lord.
Yeah. There’s just so many good books out there. I love books so much.
And I would just say again to dig a little deeper than what is being marketed toward you right now or toward your age group right now or your demographic. I would say no, no, no, no, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more! So happy reading, listeners. Go to a used bookstore, a Christian used bookstore. I would find book lists on platforms and ministries that you trust and love or at least know something good about like The Gospel Coalition. And again, don’t just read reformed people, don’t just read this certain denomination. So read widely. That was such a long answer.
Eden: That gives me some food for thought and makes me want to go read a lot of different things.
Kate Merrick: I’m reading—okay, just specifically though, and if you do read it email me—I’m about halfway into The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus by Brennan Manning. It’s so beautiful. Yeah. So beautiful.
Eden: Okay, I need to pick that up. The tenderness of Jesus has been a big theme in my life over the past few years. That’s something that I tend to struggle with believing, and he has been slowly, gently affirming to me in a thousand different ways, “Eden, I am always tender towards you.” So that might be a really welcome book. Thank you. Also, recommendation. If you love The Jesus Storybook Bible, have you heard of Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing?
Kate Merrick: Yes, we have that one. It’s so sweet. It’s so sweet. Yes. And it’s so beautiful.
Eden: It’s the devotional version of The Jesus Storybook Bible. Well, thank you so much for your time today. It was such a joy to talk to you and learn from you and get to know you. We’re just so thankful for your faithfulness to Jesus and your continued love for him. So thank you!
Kate Merrick: That’s so cool. That’s so kind.
Eden: Thank you so much for listening to our podcast today. If you enjoyed our conversation, I would encourage you to like or subscribe to our podcast so that you can hear the next conversation. And if something that you heard today spoke to your heart or got you thinking, I would encourage you to not let the day go by without talking to God about what’s on your mind. We believe that he loves you and that he’s pursuing you today out of that love.