Do you delight in stories told by wise, warmhearted authors who take seemingly mundane snippets of life and with their words hold them up to the light like precious gemstones? In stories that are deeply human and deeply divine, they turn life as we know it this way and that, magnifying the good, the right, and the true until "the holy and hidden heart" of things (F. Buechner) shimmer forth.

Gleaned from David A. Shirey's near-decade as a young pastor finding his way in ministry and life at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the coastal city of Wilmington, NC, Gone to Carolina presents forty uplifting vignettes crafted with a pastor's heart, contemplative's eye, and gifted storyteller's art.

In league with poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, Shirey's writing witnesses to his belief that "Christ plays in ten thousand places," that there is indeed "a freshness deep down [in] things." Shirey's spiritual memoir glimpses grace in the many places inhabited by his congregation, telling their stories with a warmth, wonder, and self-deprecating humor that will draw you into a revitalizing reverence.

The people Shirey remembers in these pages he treats with affection and respect.

You will meet wonderful people: