Saving Face: Finding My Self, God, and One Another Outside a Defaced Church

May the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you… — a blessing many are familiar with, but seldom have considered deeply. 

In Saving Face, Byrd explores what it means for believers to rediscover their identity — “to find their face” — in a church she argues has become “defaced” by spiritual abuse, loss of imagination, and empty rituals. Through a blend of personal stories, memory, journal entries, and Scripture meditations, she challenges readers not simply to reform doctrine, but to restore the values of beauty, contemplation, and genuine community. 

The book encourages seeking the presence of Christ — not only in doctrine, but in our own selfhood and the faces of those around us.