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You Can't Be That
“You Can’t Be That” is the story of a rural, aging Southern Baptist congregation that calls a young woman as their pastor and then works with her to find new ways of understanding and showing God’s love in the modern world.
The audience for this novel includes church members everywhere who are faithful servants to denominations who have not made a lot of changes in who they serve. It is those Christians who have some fear of looking at issues in new ways. It is that group who honestly believes they understand everything the Bible tells us and how it applies to life today. It is a lot of people in our world.
The church members in this story are very real and honest in their struggle to be inclusive and affirming of all God’s children. It is not easy for some of the members to change how they have always looked at certain issues.
This is not a theological book but instead one that is written for the average church member who is struggling to accept new ideas in the Christian community as well as from society as a whole.
The audience for this novel includes church members everywhere who are faithful servants to denominations who have not made a lot of changes in who they serve. It is those Christians who have some fear of looking at issues in new ways. It is that group who honestly believes they understand everything the Bible tells us and how it applies to life today. It is a lot of people in our world.
The church members in this story are very real and honest in their struggle to be inclusive and affirming of all God’s children. It is not easy for some of the members to change how they have always looked at certain issues.
This is not a theological book but instead one that is written for the average church member who is struggling to accept new ideas in the Christian community as well as from society as a whole.
336 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 10, 2020
I just reread this book which I first read in 2013 when it came out. It was written by an acquaintance of mine so I was excited to read it. I liked it then and loved it this time through. There are reasons for that.
I spent the last couple years as president of a teacher organization and as part of my biennium, I asked members to read four books. This book, You Can't Be That, was the book I chose to represent strong women. When I first read the book, I read it just looking at the main charater, Annie, who had always dreamed of being a pastor at a Southern Baptist Church. This is pretty much unheard of in Southern Baptist Churches but it is slowly changing. So, I read the book a few years back looking at Annie and the strength, conviction, and deep faith it took for her to serve as the pastor of this small church outside of Charlotte, NC. I liked the idea that she helped bring change to the church.
AS part of the follow-up in my organization, we had book discussion groups with each state meeting in which we would discuss these books. Upon hearing the discussions coming from this book each time, my eyes were opened even more as to all this book meant. We had people who were raised Southern Baptist who made it clear that this book upset them because women were not suppoed to be pastors in their church. These ladies had a difficult time accepting this book. This surprised me because all the members in our group are supposed to be the best of the best in the teaching profession so I guess I assumed that also meant open minds; not so.
Then I was told of the people who were upset about the fact that this church was opening its doors to people of different races (misxd race marriages), undocumented immigrants, same-sex marriages, criminals in rehab, etc. These members in my group had a problem with accepting people different from them. I found it interesting because when I read the book the first time, I read it looking at Pastor Annie and being impressed with her strength even though she would be the first to admit she was totally human. The idea of inviting people who were "different" into a church didn't even phase me especially when the author brought in specific Biblical verses. The emphasis throughout the book, as the deacons began their planning, was to behave as Jesus would, to accept people the way they felt Jesus would expect them to do.
Another thing I did like about this book was that Annie, the preacher, was just like any other person. She had a love life at the beginning of the book which fell apart when she accepted the call to Covenant Southern Baptist as its interim pastor. She admitted to having feelings and sexual desires which at least for me, I never thought ministers had when I was growing up. We always placed them high above normal people but as I learned in adulthood, ministers are like the rest of us....they have emotions; they get angry; they feel frustrations; they have affairs;they drink;they curse....gee, they are humans who look to their God for guidance and forgiveness. Anyway, Annie dates and has the normal feelings for a young woman, who just happens to be a pastor, to have.
I did know the author of this book who planned three books in the series. Two of the books were published when Susan became ill and passed away. There is a third book planned and her family has hopes of getting it written as she left noted for it. I look forward to reading the next two books.
This book is a good one to help open the eyes of people who might find themselves prejudiced against certain groupls of people they feel might be sinners becasue of life choices. It was written in a way that different people were given a voice and those voices are ones to which we should listen.
I spent the last couple years as president of a teacher organization and as part of my biennium, I asked members to read four books. This book, You Can't Be That, was the book I chose to represent strong women. When I first read the book, I read it just looking at the main charater, Annie, who had always dreamed of being a pastor at a Southern Baptist Church. This is pretty much unheard of in Southern Baptist Churches but it is slowly changing. So, I read the book a few years back looking at Annie and the strength, conviction, and deep faith it took for her to serve as the pastor of this small church outside of Charlotte, NC. I liked the idea that she helped bring change to the church.
AS part of the follow-up in my organization, we had book discussion groups with each state meeting in which we would discuss these books. Upon hearing the discussions coming from this book each time, my eyes were opened even more as to all this book meant. We had people who were raised Southern Baptist who made it clear that this book upset them because women were not suppoed to be pastors in their church. These ladies had a difficult time accepting this book. This surprised me because all the members in our group are supposed to be the best of the best in the teaching profession so I guess I assumed that also meant open minds; not so.
Then I was told of the people who were upset about the fact that this church was opening its doors to people of different races (misxd race marriages), undocumented immigrants, same-sex marriages, criminals in rehab, etc. These members in my group had a problem with accepting people different from them. I found it interesting because when I read the book the first time, I read it looking at Pastor Annie and being impressed with her strength even though she would be the first to admit she was totally human. The idea of inviting people who were "different" into a church didn't even phase me especially when the author brought in specific Biblical verses. The emphasis throughout the book, as the deacons began their planning, was to behave as Jesus would, to accept people the way they felt Jesus would expect them to do.
Another thing I did like about this book was that Annie, the preacher, was just like any other person. She had a love life at the beginning of the book which fell apart when she accepted the call to Covenant Southern Baptist as its interim pastor. She admitted to having feelings and sexual desires which at least for me, I never thought ministers had when I was growing up. We always placed them high above normal people but as I learned in adulthood, ministers are like the rest of us....they have emotions; they get angry; they feel frustrations; they have affairs;they drink;they curse....gee, they are humans who look to their God for guidance and forgiveness. Anyway, Annie dates and has the normal feelings for a young woman, who just happens to be a pastor, to have.
I did know the author of this book who planned three books in the series. Two of the books were published when Susan became ill and passed away. There is a third book planned and her family has hopes of getting it written as she left noted for it. I look forward to reading the next two books.
This book is a good one to help open the eyes of people who might find themselves prejudiced against certain groupls of people they feel might be sinners becasue of life choices. It was written in a way that different people were given a voice and those voices are ones to which we should listen.
April 13, 2017
Enjoyed this book very much. Characters and situations are easily related to. Looking forward to the next book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews