Kristin T. Lee is a writer whose work has appeared in Christianity Today and Sojourners, and a primary care physician serving Boston's Chinatown community. She writes about faith, culture, books, and solidarity at The Embers and is a contributing columnist to The Covenant Companion. Her passion is highlighting literature written by Asian and BIPOC authors via book reviews and reading groups on Instagram. Lee's work is informed by her experiences as an adoptive mother, host to refugees, and friend to those affected by incarceration.
Description
Introduction Part I Chapter 1 Home: The Gifts of the Immigrant Church Chapter 2 Burdens: Unpacking the Beliefs We've Carried Chapter 3 Control: How Western Normativity Distorted Christianity Chapter 4 Liberation: When Disillusionment Saves Us Chapter 5 Reintegration: How We Bring Our Full Selves to God Chapter 6 Rejoicing: What Our Identities Illuminate about Christ's Love Part II Chapter 7 Roots: How the Power of Family Shapes Us Chapter 8 Wounds: How We Reframe Intergenerational Dynamics Chapter 9 Healing: How We Stop Paying a Debt We Do Not Owe Chapter 10 Feuds: How None of Us Have Clean Hands Chapter 11 Mending: How We Repair Communal Rifts Chapter 12 Expanding: How We Choose Proximity to the Marginalized Chapter 13 Embracing: How We Love Across Divides Chapter 14 Living Lightly: How Being People of Exile Cultivates Solidarity Epilogue Acknowledgments Notes
"We Mend with Gold offers bold testimony and good news, particularly for Asians reared in American evangelicalism. Kristin Lee's brave curiosity and enduring love for God and neighbor shine through in these pages. By day, she's a medical doctor; in this book, she heals aching hearts. Her search for wholeness, belonging, and a deeper understanding of God's wide embrace isn't just a personal quest; it's also an invitation for readers to experience such goodness for themselves." --Jeff Chu, author of Good Soil and Does Jesus Really Love Me? "A brave and beautiful reckoning with what it means to inherit a fractured faith--and to mend it not by hiding the brokenness but by illuminating it. Kristin Lee writes with the meticulous clarity of a physician, the sweet honesty of a daughter, and the profound wisdom of one who has wrestled with God in the shadow of both immigrant churches and white evangelicalism. Drawing richly from her own story and the stories of others, Lee offers readers a vision of Asian American Christianity that is both deeply rooted and gloriously expansive. This book is not only a balm for the disillusioned--it is a theological invitation to all to rebuild with grace, solidarity, and shimmering hope." --Mihee Kim-Kort, pastor and author of Outside the Lines "We Mend with Gold beautifully articulates the inner work required to faithfully and soberly follow Jesus. As we spiritually mature from milk to solid food, we embrace the countercultural ethics and baptismal belonging modeled by Jesus in a world hell-bent on stratification, othering, and pitting us against each other. Kristin Lee offers us a prophetic gift in this book, ripe with boundless possibilities and a tangible blueprint for how we move forward together in solidarity." --Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of Subversive Witness and Rethinking Incarceration "Kristin Lee has given us both a love letter and a wisdom guide. With courage and clarity, Lee bears witness to the reality that coming to the end of ways of seeing and thinking that no longer work does not have to mean the end of the journey. Rather, it can be the beginning of a new journey toward more wholeness and beauty." --Drew Jackson, poet and author of God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth "Kristin Lee offers a distinctly Asian American Christian story, but also an authentically American church story. Many Christians exhibit anxiety about the future of the American church. The decline of the church in America is not simply a numerical decline; it is also a moral and theological decline. Unless we heed the prophetic voices of lament and renewal from the margins, the American church could face a bleak future. Lee does not hesitate to offer a prophetic pronouncement in this important and timely work. This book tells the truth of the harm that the church can do, but also the healing that the church can provide." --Soong-Chan Rah, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary and author of The Next Evangelicalism and Prophetic Lament "A fellow Hakka guest of God's gracious hospitality, Dr. Kristin Lee has beautifully crafted a piece of lived theology, accessible and relevant to all of us. In We Mend with God, she artfully weaves together the best of Asian American theology with real-life examples from Asian American followers of Jesus. Together, they offer us a compelling vision of what the kingdom of God looks like." --Dr. Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University and author of At Home in Exile