Broken Hallelujahs - by Beth Allen Slevcove (Paperback)

About the Book

The losses in our lives are both big and small. We leave home. We experience physical illness. We struggle with vocation. We may long for a spouse or child. We lose people we love to addiction or death. In this book spiritual director Beth Slevcove offers stories of loss from her own life along with distinctive spiritual practices that can guide us back to God.

Book Synopsis

IVP Readers' Choice Award

The losses in our lives are both big and small, and cover a range of experiences. We leave home. We experience physical illness and disabilities. We struggle with vocation and finances. We may long for a spouse or child. We lose people we love to addiction or illness and death.

All of these losses can build into questions and doubts about faith. We may experience depression or other mental health struggles. Where is God in the midst of our losses?

In this book spiritual director Beth Slevcove shares stories from her own life about losses and struggles. Along the way, she offers distinctive spiritual practices that can guide us back to God and, in the end, to ourselves.

Review Quotes

"Broken Hallelujahs is a book to keep nearby when sorrow intrudes and you need a friend to help. Beth Slevcove has walked the way of grief and tells the stories of a traveling companion who knows the way. Through her experience and expert reflective questions, Slevcove nudges the reader to step out in faith, honor the loss and trust that God is near the brokenhearted."

--Rebecca Laird, Point Loma Nazarene University, coauthor of Spiritual Direction

"All of us have experienced loss in some way, but too often we don't take the time to grieve that loss, and most of us, myself included, don't even know how to begin to process the loss so we can move toward healing. Beth's new book Broken Hallelujahs is a beautiful reflection on loss and love and finding God again after God's silence. Through her stories and the exercises and practices included at the end of each chapter, Beth gives us the tools we need to process our grief and help us connect to God and actually move on toward healing."

--Lilly Lewin, author of Sacred Space and founder of ThinplaceNashville

"In Broken Hallelujahs Beth Allen Slevcove gives us a beautifully written, deeply personal account of her experience of loss--its pain and its potential. As I read it, I began to see some of my own experience of loss through the lens she provided. Reading her story is a hopeful encounter, one I would wish for anyone struggling with loss. And at some point, that will be all of us."

--John Hambrick, Buckhead Church, Atlanta, author of Move Toward the Mess

"In Broken Hallelujahs, Beth Slevcove tells a brave, unsentimental and surprisingly redemptive story. She explores the way grief can both shatter and transform our hearts and offers spiritual practices that help readers authentically express and grieve their own wounds and disappointments. It's a beautiful, honest book."

--Jennifer Grant, author of Love You More and Wholehearted Living

"The beautifully fashioned sentences throughout Broken Hallelujahs summon deep contemplation and provoke a wrestling with the realities of our mysterious lives. What is truly refreshing about Broken Hallelujahs is the absence of sentimentalism. With a timely cadence, this book moved me to tears--tears of grief, loss and lament, but also tears of joyfulness and gratitude. Beth's willingness to be vulnerable and to call a thing what it is gave me permission to sink into the profound truth that Jesus Christ shows us it is truly human to sometimes cry out, 'My God, why have you forsaken me?' Broken Hallelujahs ministered to my soul like a balm of Gilead. I love this book and hope you will take care of your soul by reading this astonishing story."

--Mike King, president and CEO, Youthfront, author of Presence Centered Youth Ministry

About the Author

Beth Slevcove is a spiritual director, retreat leader, surfer and mother. She served as the director of spiritual formation for Youth Specialties for seven years and holds advanced degrees in theology and education. Beth is deeply rooted in her urban Lutheran congregation and is an oblate at a Benedictine monastery. She lives in San Diego with her husband and two young children.