God's Scorekeeper and Other Stories
Ebook
Overview
Quick. What do these characters all have in common? An anguished ghost whose interest in measuring mountains led to his premature death. A retired educator who takes a part-time job inside the cozy confines of Wrigley Field's manual scoreboard. An obsessive orthodontist known to evangelize his prone patients. A bipolar father whose zany day includes an encounter with the police. And a victim of identity theft, reconsidering his vocation. They're all pastors, of course. Join storyteller Frank Honeycutt on a roller coaster ride inside the flawed lives and vivid imaginations of sixteen ministers struggling to keep and make sense of their faith. At times humorous, surprising, sad, and even warped, this fictional peek into the private lives of clergy sheds angular light upon the complicated theological motives guiding those called to lead God's people.
“If I ever spent time with the pastors in Frank Honeycutt’s
great collection of stories, God’s Scorekeeper, then I
probably wouldn’t be such a heathen. Honeycutt has created a passel
of big-hearted, curious, oftentimes befuddled, oftentimes
mischievous protagonists needed now more than ever. Reading his
stories is like attending a spectacular, comfortable class
reunion—and those are rare events. These stories should be read on
Sunday mornings, plus Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday . . .”
—George Singleton, Staff Picks
“With sardonic wit, irreverent humor, and pitch-perfect turns of
phrase, Frank Honeycutt explores the interior lives not only of his
misfit pastor protagonists but also of anyone trying to negotiate a
faithful life. He reminds us that demons of one kind or another
haunt everyone: the overzealous and the cynic, the self-righteous
and the guilt-ridden, the unstable and the smugly intellectual—all
deeply flawed, all in need of grace.”
—Nancy L. Tuten, Professor of English, Columbia College
“Drawing on more than three decades of pastoral work, Frank looks
deep into the conflicts of the human soul that work themselves out
in the mistrustful and backbiting world we humans create daily. We
sense the slipups of the tongue that wound, the boorish choices
that hurt family and stranger, and the premeditated wishes that
threaten the feigned harmony among neighbors and community leaders.
Yet grace emerges, if but for a second, in a smile, in a prayer,
even in the boundaries established in difficult conversations.
Frank's stories come alive and we await the end of each narrative
to play with the prescient hint of life itself. God's
Scorekeeper is an act of grace, a reaffirmation of faith, and a
metaphor of hope.”
—Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, Dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale
Honors College, University of Mississippi
Product Details
- Title : God's Scorekeeper and Other Stories
- Author: Honeycutt, Frank G.
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2019
- ISBN: 9781532675539
Frank G. Honeycutt, an ELCA pastor, is the author of numerous magazine articles and ten books, including Sunday Comes Every Week: Daily Habits for the Busy Preacher. He has recently completed a 4,200-mile cross-country bicycle trip along the Northern Tier route from Puget Sound to the coast of Maine.