One Coin Found: How God's Love Stretches to the Margins
The stories of Scripture are for everyone. No exceptions.
Emmy Kegler has a complicated relationship with the Bible. As a queer woman who grew up in both conservative Evangelical and progressive Protestant churches, she knows too well how Scripture can be used to wound and exclude. And yet, the stories of Scripture continue to captivate and inspire her--both as a person of faith and as a pastor to a congregation. So she set out to fall in love with the Bible, wrestling with the stories inside, where she met a God who continues to seek us out--appearing again and again as a voice, a presence, and a promise.
Whenever we are pushed to the edges, our voices silenced, or our stories dismissed, God goes out after us--seeking us until we are found again. And God is seeking out those whose voices we too quickly silence and dismiss, too. Because God's story is a story of welcome and acceptance for everyone--no exceptions.
Kegler shows us that even when we feel like lost and dusty coins--rusted from others' indifference, misspent and misused--God picks up a broom and sweeps every corner of creation to find us.
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Emmy Kegler is a pastor, speaker, and author of One Coin Found: How God's Love Stretches to the Margins. As both pastor and patient, Kegler has an intimate relationship with mental illness and its complex connections to faith. She works to normalize the experiences of depression, anxiety, and a host of other diagnoses and symptoms, treating them not as proof of exclusion from God's grace but rather a common and expansive experience of the human condition in which God remains present and compassionate. She lives in Saint Paul with her wife Michelle and their two dogs and cat.
"What Emmy Kegler accomplishes in One Coin Found is stunning in its brilliance and subtle in its goals. By taking you through her journey with Christ, she invites you to take a look at your own journey. The real idea you are left with at the end is that if the Jesus you have isn't liberating good news for queer folk, then it may not be Jesus at all. It makes this book a must read for anyone who wants to ponder the church's place in the twenty - first century." --Rev. Lenny Duncan, Pastor/Developer, Jehu's Table, and author of Dear Church: A Love Letter from a Black Preacher to the Whitest Denomination in the US
"Emmy Kegler's memoir is a Nouwen - esque gift for all hungry souls. Her critical curiosity is fierce, yet her pastoral heart is deeply faithful in pointing us toward Divine grace. Theologically rich, devotionally elegant, One Coin Found is divinely memorable!" --Jennifer Knapp, singer/songwriter, author, and founder of Inside Out Faith
"In One Coin Found, Emmy Kegler tells us a story about struggling with mental illness, wrestling with faith, and rejecting human rejection in favor of God's infuriating grace. Her questions, her vulnerability, and her skill as a storyteller invite us into a place where we can be honest about who we are and be loved for it. One Coin Found provides that space for everyone, but especially for those of us who identify as LGBTQIA. This book is a balm for weary souls." --Austen Hartke, author of Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians
"In One Coin Found, Emmy Kegler breathes new, liberating life into the words and stories of Scripture that far too many have experienced only as tools of exclusion and oppression. As a queer woman who has been called to preach and to lead, Kegler's journey of faith has been a doubly difficult one, granting her a credibility and relatability among those who have been hurt by the church that is all too uncommon among religious leaders. This book is beautifully written, and Kegler's words will prove a balm to so many readers who barely knew how much they needed to read them." --Matthew Vines, executive director of The Reformation Project and author of God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships
"In the years I have known Emmy Kegler, I have found her to be everything you will discover in these pages: wise, nurturing, pastoral, anointed, strong, honest, and deeply loving. She has given us such a gift with this book. I found myself weeping, not in sorrow, but in gratitude and awe as she wrote of God and Scripture and story and the ones who are lost. Reading One Coin Found was like hearing the gospel for the first time all over again and remembering just why this story is so glorious. For those who are the lost coin, the prodigal son, or the lost sheep, Kegler is the pastor you deserved all along, and just wait, you're about to learn what it really means to be fully found." --Sarah Bessey, author of Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith
