Melissa Fallen is a native of Richmond, Virginia, where she has resided most of her life. She spends her free time enjoying the great outdoors, spending time with friends and family, and following her niece’s and nephews’ sports endeavors. She also enjoys coaching high school basketball. Melissa is a graduate of the University of Mary Washington and received both her M.Div. and D.Min. from Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond. After working in both the local church and academia, she is currently serving as the pastor of Glen Allen Baptist Church.
How did you come to write a book centered on job loss?
I lost my job in June of 2018 and went through the hard journey of sorting out calling and figuring out next steps. The experience was filled with both grief, discovery, and hope.
I began writing about it as a way to process my own experience and realized others might benefit from a companion to their own experiences of loss.
What can a struggle such as job loss teach us about our faith?
I think job loss teaches us to move beyond bumper sticker theology – that one liner that says “God is in control.” While many of those bumper stickers may be true, a fuller expression of faith is when we have thrown all of our theology on the table, wrestled with God, and emerged with a deeper sense of the person God created us to be.