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Love Let Go: Radical Generosity for the Real World
Displays the amazing power of generosity to transform people and communities
When LaSalle Street Church in Chicago received an unexpected windfall, its leaders made the wild, counterintuitive decision to give it away. Each church member received a check for $500 with the instruction to go out and do good in God's world.
In Love Let Go readers witness how a church community was transformed by the startling truth that money can buy happiness—when we give it away. Laura Sumner Truax and Amalya Campbell show how this radical generosity shaped their community, exploring the reverberating impact of each act of generosity, and ultimately revealing how LaSalle's faith-filled risk snowballed into a movement beyond itself.
Throughout the book Truax and Campbell probe the connection of human flourishing to generosity and offer tools to help us reclaim our giver identities and live generously—to love and let go.
When LaSalle Street Church in Chicago received an unexpected windfall, its leaders made the wild, counterintuitive decision to give it away. Each church member received a check for $500 with the instruction to go out and do good in God's world.
In Love Let Go readers witness how a church community was transformed by the startling truth that money can buy happiness—when we give it away. Laura Sumner Truax and Amalya Campbell show how this radical generosity shaped their community, exploring the reverberating impact of each act of generosity, and ultimately revealing how LaSalle's faith-filled risk snowballed into a movement beyond itself.
Throughout the book Truax and Campbell probe the connection of human flourishing to generosity and offer tools to help us reclaim our giver identities and live generously—to love and let go.
215 pages, Hardcover
Published March 28, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 20, 2020
This was a thought provoking book about receiving an unexpected largess and how a church distributed it.
Many of the parishioners knew what they wanted to do with their part and for some it took time. And while thinking about what to do, many of them took a big step in faith.
This book is an amazing story of how money can change things for the better. Also, this book is too good to spoil. So read it and see the positivity that came from it.
Many of the parishioners knew what they wanted to do with their part and for some it took time. And while thinking about what to do, many of them took a big step in faith.
This book is an amazing story of how money can change things for the better. Also, this book is too good to spoil. So read it and see the positivity that came from it.
January 29, 2023
This little book was encouraging, hopeful, inspiring and teachable without guilt or shaming. I stayed interested in the storyline while also having the space to reflect on my giving/generosity practices. Would recommend.
December 13, 2025
I had high hopes for this book, but in the end the idea of it proved more compelling than the actual experience of it. Both the content and construction of this nonfiction tale left me wanting something else or something more.
Love Let Go tells the story of La Salle Street Church in Chicago, which received an unexpected windfall of cash from a long-term real estate deal, and had to decide what to do with the resulting seven figure gift. Rather than keeping the proceeds all to themselves, they chose to bless others - partially through giving each congregant $500 and asking them to give it away.
Written by one of the senior pastors at La Salle, Laura Truax, and long-time La Salle member Amalya Campbell, the book alternates between a narrative of the "Love Let Go" campaign and what might be styled as homilies - short spiritual lessons derived from the ideas of the campaign. The goal, it seems, is for the reader to understand the learning that occurred for the La Salle congregation as they grappled with their unexpected good fortune, and tried to be good stewards of the funds.
For this reader, the spiritual lessons were more interesting than the church's story, which surprised me. The step-by-step decision making process around the distribution of the money wound up being far duller than anticipated. I can't tell whether that is because this was largely a clerical, administrative process, with few hitches along the way, or if Truax and Campbell just recount the tale in a particularly dry way. It could also be because the story is chopped up rather than being told in a fast-paced and succinct way. Whatever the reason, the process story feels fairly uneventful. A few of the outcomes from the giveaways are pleasant, gratifying, or even exciting, but the final disposition of the funds are often mentioned only briefly. The focus remains on the process and the people at La Salle and how they made their choices. Which is probably as it should be, but I never felt like I got to know them well enough to be invested in the choices and the trade-offs they were forced to make.
The book speaks quite a bit about gratitude, generosity, and shifting from a scarcity mindset to a generosity mindset. This material was more consistent than the process content. I wonder if a book that simply focused on these issues and built a theological case for them might not have been a better choice; it could have been an ecclesial version of Adam Grant's popular Give and Take. Instead, we shift back and forth between the church's process story and these pithy spiritual lessons. As one reader wrote in another review, the digressions can feel like side quests.
One of my biggest complaints about the book is actually the layout though. It has large font on small pages, with lots of sidebars. It looks like it was designed for magazine publication or for online reading, where the callout quotes are set up so you can repost them to social media. I found reading this tedious because of the redundancy of those callouts, and the overall clunkiness of the layout. This book should have been shorter, simpler, cleaner, and more direct.
La Salle Street Church did a great thing, but this book doesn't give their faith journey the quality depiction it probably deserves. The lessons of generosity and stewardship are well worth contemplating, but the packaging of those stories in this book proved a letdown.
Love Let Go tells the story of La Salle Street Church in Chicago, which received an unexpected windfall of cash from a long-term real estate deal, and had to decide what to do with the resulting seven figure gift. Rather than keeping the proceeds all to themselves, they chose to bless others - partially through giving each congregant $500 and asking them to give it away.
Written by one of the senior pastors at La Salle, Laura Truax, and long-time La Salle member Amalya Campbell, the book alternates between a narrative of the "Love Let Go" campaign and what might be styled as homilies - short spiritual lessons derived from the ideas of the campaign. The goal, it seems, is for the reader to understand the learning that occurred for the La Salle congregation as they grappled with their unexpected good fortune, and tried to be good stewards of the funds.
For this reader, the spiritual lessons were more interesting than the church's story, which surprised me. The step-by-step decision making process around the distribution of the money wound up being far duller than anticipated. I can't tell whether that is because this was largely a clerical, administrative process, with few hitches along the way, or if Truax and Campbell just recount the tale in a particularly dry way. It could also be because the story is chopped up rather than being told in a fast-paced and succinct way. Whatever the reason, the process story feels fairly uneventful. A few of the outcomes from the giveaways are pleasant, gratifying, or even exciting, but the final disposition of the funds are often mentioned only briefly. The focus remains on the process and the people at La Salle and how they made their choices. Which is probably as it should be, but I never felt like I got to know them well enough to be invested in the choices and the trade-offs they were forced to make.
The book speaks quite a bit about gratitude, generosity, and shifting from a scarcity mindset to a generosity mindset. This material was more consistent than the process content. I wonder if a book that simply focused on these issues and built a theological case for them might not have been a better choice; it could have been an ecclesial version of Adam Grant's popular Give and Take. Instead, we shift back and forth between the church's process story and these pithy spiritual lessons. As one reader wrote in another review, the digressions can feel like side quests.
One of my biggest complaints about the book is actually the layout though. It has large font on small pages, with lots of sidebars. It looks like it was designed for magazine publication or for online reading, where the callout quotes are set up so you can repost them to social media. I found reading this tedious because of the redundancy of those callouts, and the overall clunkiness of the layout. This book should have been shorter, simpler, cleaner, and more direct.
La Salle Street Church did a great thing, but this book doesn't give their faith journey the quality depiction it probably deserves. The lessons of generosity and stewardship are well worth contemplating, but the packaging of those stories in this book proved a letdown.
November 11, 2017
The rating is more of a 3.5.
When the LaSalle church in Chicago realized that it would receive a surprise $1.6 million windfall, its members decided to take their time determining what to do with it. But the first thing they decided to do was to give each member a check for $500 (the first 10% - tithe- of the whole amount), with the mission to go do something good in the world. How this unfolds is the heart of this book, with the individual stories alternating with the authors' growing understanding of stewardship, generosity, and what it means to be God's presence in the world.
The book can get preachy, but I have to say that I continue to think of what it means to give freely and how I can be better at it. In our book club, we discussed many small ways that we can make a difference (there are a LOT of them!) and how the idea of intentional philanthropy can help us learn more about where our passions really are.
If you on the journey to be a force for good in the world, you could learn quite a bit from this small book.
When the LaSalle church in Chicago realized that it would receive a surprise $1.6 million windfall, its members decided to take their time determining what to do with it. But the first thing they decided to do was to give each member a check for $500 (the first 10% - tithe- of the whole amount), with the mission to go do something good in the world. How this unfolds is the heart of this book, with the individual stories alternating with the authors' growing understanding of stewardship, generosity, and what it means to be God's presence in the world.
The book can get preachy, but I have to say that I continue to think of what it means to give freely and how I can be better at it. In our book club, we discussed many small ways that we can make a difference (there are a LOT of them!) and how the idea of intentional philanthropy can help us learn more about where our passions really are.
If you on the journey to be a force for good in the world, you could learn quite a bit from this small book.
April 30, 2022
Wonderful story about Lasalle Street Church receiving a financial windfall and discerning, as a church body, how to process. The story is used as a backdrop to speak to the power of generosity. I really enjoyed reading, partly because I have been attending Lasalle and it was great to read about its history and see familiar names mentioned. Encouraging read about normal people making a difference!
February 13, 2023
The book made good points but seemed like we were constantly going on side journeys. Seemed like a magazine where you are paid by the number of words, so you put in everything that related to the subject. And I really did not like that every few pages they would repeat a key phrase on the page in a side block on the page
February 14, 2023
I picked this one for book club. It was a wonderful story about a church and their journey to redefine the way they understand generosity and resources. In our culture where we very most things through the lens of scarcity and abundance, they really gave me a lot to think about.
April 8, 2017
What does a church do when it receives a windfall? Partly give its members 500 bucks a piece to see how God will multiply it. Stories about giving and a theology of generosity.
April 8, 2017
This book is a lovely read. Whether you are a Christian or not, this book will inspire you to want to live your life more generously. I will definitely reread this book when I am feeling like I need to appreciate all that I have. Love Let Go is a call to action without judgment, and shows you the real struggles we all go through when deciding whether we have enough in our lives to give to others. Truly a life changing book!
April 11, 2017
LOVE LET GO by Laura S. Truax & Amalya Campbell
In September of 2014 four churches in Chicago received a windfall -- almost two million dollars each! One of those churches was LaSalle Street Church. With just 350 members and a budget $50,000 in the red, this was a miracle. But what happened next was REALLY a miracle. Each member was given a check for $500 made out to them personally and told to “go do good”. The $160,000 represented a “tithe” or ten percent of the 1.6 million the church received. How the remainder was to be used was collectively decided in a year long process.
LOVE LET GO tells the result of that step in faith and how the church as a body, and each member individually, reacted to the windfall. Told in clear prose the stories of what happened to the cash and what happened to the recipients of such generosity are startling in their counter intuitiveness.
Well written and touching without being maudlin, the book will affect you long after you finish reading. Some takeaways – the “poor” are as, or more, generous than their “wealthy” neighbors, generosity breeds more generosity, people are surprising, sudden “wealth” is disconcerting, abundance is in the eye of the beholder,…..
5 of 5 stars
In September of 2014 four churches in Chicago received a windfall -- almost two million dollars each! One of those churches was LaSalle Street Church. With just 350 members and a budget $50,000 in the red, this was a miracle. But what happened next was REALLY a miracle. Each member was given a check for $500 made out to them personally and told to “go do good”. The $160,000 represented a “tithe” or ten percent of the 1.6 million the church received. How the remainder was to be used was collectively decided in a year long process.
LOVE LET GO tells the result of that step in faith and how the church as a body, and each member individually, reacted to the windfall. Told in clear prose the stories of what happened to the cash and what happened to the recipients of such generosity are startling in their counter intuitiveness.
Well written and touching without being maudlin, the book will affect you long after you finish reading. Some takeaways – the “poor” are as, or more, generous than their “wealthy” neighbors, generosity breeds more generosity, people are surprising, sudden “wealth” is disconcerting, abundance is in the eye of the beholder,…..
5 of 5 stars
April 16, 2017
Great book on generosity...................
Did not agree with everything but I agree with the spirit of generosity
Did not agree with everything but I agree with the spirit of generosity
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September 3, 2017Generosity and giving back are always the rewards to self fulfillment!
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews