In her bestselling writing, Kate Rademacher explores the ways that we can listen for and respond to God’s call. She grew up outside of Boston and now lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with her family.
Kate’s debut memoir Following the Red Bird describes how she came to embrace a relationship with God after maintaining a pick-and-choose approach to spirituality for many years. Married to a devout Buddhist, Rademacher was sitting on a cushion at her husband’s meditation center one day when Jesus appeared unexpectedly in her consciousness and called her to follow him. She was baptized a year later to the day.
In her memoir, Kate draws from her readings of some of the great faith and spirituality giants such as C.S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Thomas A. Kempis, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. She also finds inspiration in the work of modern authors like Elizabeth Gilbert, Kathleen Norris, Barbara Brown Taylor, and Parker J. Palmer.
Kate’s second book, Their Faces Shone: A Foster Parent’s Lessons on Loving and Letting Go was released in August 2020. She is currently working on her third book, Reclaiming Rest: The Promise of Sabbath, Solitude, and Stillness in a Nonstop World.
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Following the Red Bird
"Rademacher’s memoir is an honest portrayal of the confusion of discernment and the comfort of abiding and trusting in God."
– Publishers Weekly
"Not only has Kate been found (by God), but she has been given something to do in service to the Kingdom. Hopefully this book will be read by believer and unbeliever alike because it is an honest narrative of a person of faith."
– Dr. Stanley Hauerwas, Time Magazine's "America's Best Theologian" (2001), Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Divinity and Law at Duke University, and author of Hannah's Child: A Theologian's Memoir
In Following the Red Bird, Kate Rademacher describes how she came to embrace a relationship with Christ after maintaining a pick-and-choose approach to spirituality for many years. The image from the book’s title becomes a metaphor for the ways Rademacher unexpectedly began to experience God in her life and how she slowly learned to follow the breadcrumbs that God seemed to leave out for her.
Part memoir and part meditation on Christian teachings, Following the Red Bird explores not only the why of Christianity but the how. How do we learn to listen for God’s voice? How do we develop and sustain a relationship with Jesus? How do we apply Christian teachings to everyday life? Rademacher describes her journey of discovering answers to these questions one step at a time as she stumbled into a new life in the church. Both the searcher and the long-time believer will benefit from Rademacher’s experience and insights.
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Their Faces Shone
"Their Faces Shone is a riveting, candid and thought-provoking account of one's family journey through fostering. -Erica C. Witsell, award-winning author of the novel Give
“I need help,” I whispered, not sure if I was talking to myself or to God. “I don’t want to let her go.”
After her daughter was born, Kate Rademacher desperately wanted another child, but her husband did not. Following years of negotiation, the couple decided to become foster parents. What began as an uneasy compromise turned into an authentic calling and a deep love for their two-year-old foster daughter. When the girl transitioned back to her biological family, Kate thought she had learned the lesson in loving and letting go. But when an unexpected crisis occurred, Kate realized the lessons in how to love, accept, surrender, and forgive were only just beginning.
In this poignant story, the author explores the question of where family begins and ends, and how things change when we invite strangers—with complicated stories and baggage—into our lives. For people who have considered becoming foster parents, many worry about the emotional risks involved. Before Rademacher’s foster daughter arrived, she shared these concerns; she was deeply afraid of the heartbreak that seemed likely, and she worried that fostering could threaten her own family’s peace.
Rademacher’s story is an insightful and ultimately hopeful examination of whether it’s possible to love and let go without bitterness. With self-effacing humor and honesty, Rademacher describes how the experience of fostering impacted her marriage and her biological daughter and changed their lives forever.
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