About Will I Sing Again?

John's latest book is a collection of poems and reflections entitled Will I Sing Again? Listening for the Melody of Grace in the Silence of Illness and Loss.

Using the metaphor of music, John gives voice to the myriad emotions of despair and hope, doubt and faith while living with chronic illness.

This book is written for all who experience loss -- through illness, death, broken relationships -- for family members and caregivers, and for all who struggle to articulate the experience of loss.

Ordering information, the table of contents, excerpts, and brief reviews of Will I Sing Again? can be found at Augsburg Fortress.

The book is a part of the Lutheran Voices series.

Reviews

“Pastor Bade's writing penetrates deep into heart, mind and soul.  His journey experiencing illness and loss are always shadowing our own journeys in one way or another.  We gain much from his experiences and from his proclamation of trust in God's promises.  I am pleased to endorse this book as a companion on your own journey in life.”

- Bishop Paul J. Blom, Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, ELCA

“John Bade’s ‘mind-stretching, soul-searing, gut-wrenching’ work, to borrow a phrase from Robert Shaw, moved me from tears to hopes. I will often re-read  Will I Sing Again? And often recommend it to others before ‘I shuffle off this mortal coil.”

'The Sea of Faith was once full,' wrote Matthew Arnold in his melancholy Dover Beach. In contrast, 'The Sea of Faith is full,' for John Bade in his Parkinson's.

Provocative, in-depth, lucid, theological, pastoral, all true. No vapid, feel-good spirituality here. All visceral, like a spirited, Kentucky thoroughbred.

In Will I Sing Again? the chronically-ill ministers to the chronically-ill and, I predict, to many of us who consider our health a divine right.

Though John Bade is the subject, he names Another as Object. How could it be otherwise? In his Parkinson's John Bade contends the Object is, as in all else, the Center, the crucified and risen Christ."

-Paul W. F. Harms, Emeritus Professor of Homiletics, Trinity Lutheran Seminary and Director, Trinity Lutheran Seminary Theatre