In 2015, I was invited to attend an event featuring Carl Tuttle. Carl was speaking at Sanctuary, a local Vineyard Church in Lancaster, PA. Unfortunately, my schedule did not allow me to make the event, but thankfully, I was able to join with Carl Tuttle and some others at Mick's All American Pub, after the worship gathering. It was a refreshing and memorable night for me.

Allow me to offer an introduction to who Carl Tuttle is. Carl has been a well-known pastor and worship leader for decades. He also has been known for equipping worship leaders and pastors. However, his claim to fame is probably around the many worship songs and modern hymns he composed, which include, ‘Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna to the King of Kings’ and ‘Open your eyes, see the Glory of the King.’ Several songs composed by Carl have been recorded, charted, and even appear in modern hymn collections. Carl’s story starts as a kid in a rough situation in southern California. It was there that he became a follower of Jesus after encountering some individuals from a Southern California Quaker Church during the mid-1960s. Specifically, his journey to faith was the result of a relationship with and an invitation from John Wimber, a musical guru who had worked with artists such as the Righteous Brothers. By the mid-1970s, a small group of those Quakers and other individuals started meeting in the house of Carl Tuttle’s sister. Carl Tuttle quickly emerged as the worship leader of this group, and as the group grew under the leadership of John Wimber, this group would become one of the earliest and most important foundations of what would become the Vineyard Church movement. It was here that God’s heart was pursued intimately and intentionally. Throughout the next twenty years, the Vineyard Church movement spread out across the globe with much of this same DNA – a desire to touch the heart of the Father with intentionality and intimacy. In this movement, Carl Tuttle would evolve from worship leader to church planter, to pastor and right-hand man of John Wimber. As Wimber began to release ministry, he then named Carl Tuttle as his replacement as Pastor at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship of Anaheim.

If you are not aware, my journey brought me into the Vineyard Church movement in 2003, through the Lancaster Vineyard Church. I had intentionally de-churched myself some years prior, after some experiences of disillusionment, and was skeptical of anything to do with the church. The Vineyard Church movement looked, acted, and smelled different for me. So, after attending our introductory membership classes, I found myself to be intrigued and interested in researching the crazy stories and humble beginnings of the Vineyard Church movement. I went on to read any book I could find on the movement. I studied theologians that shaped its theology, and I quizzed anyone who could share with me some firsthand accounts of those beginning years. Early on in this journey, I encountered the name, songs, impact, and story of Carl Tuttle. While completely different people, his story always resonated deeply with my own. However, at best I always had second-hand information. As a side note, my experience in the Vineyard Church movement has been one of the most forming, discipling and shaping experiences in both my life and faith. Though I am currently not in a Vineyard Church, you can see why I jumped at this chance to meet and converse with Carl Tuttle.

Let me share that I still hold fond memories from that night of meeting and conversing with Carl Tuttle. I still celebrate the encouragements that I received that night from Carl Tuttle. Carl was extremely humble and transparently honest about his personal story and struggles. That night, I encountered his gentle spirit that readily encourages others. As we conversed, Carl gave glimpses to us about the book he was authoring on his journey, a book in which he was calling, Reckless Mercy.

Now, his book, Reckless Mercy is readily available. In this book authored by Carl, I find him even more open and transparent about his story and struggles. While this book is short and simple, and perhaps far from exhaustive, it is a humbling but amazing, informative and challenging look into the early years of Carl Tuttle’s life as well as the Vineyard Church movement. Unfortunately, what too many know of Carl Tuttle is not his music or his faith, his encouragement or his equipping, but rather the fall from grace in which he experienced as the pressures of life, ministry, and his marriage came crashing down simultaneously. Many inside and outside of the movement watched in judgment, horror, and confusion. However, Carl’s story is one in which shows how God redeems our broken, bruised, battered, and banged up realities for the glory of the Kingdom of God. In His reckless mercy, God took the story of Carl from broken to beautiful. This book captures the ways God has continued to chase after Carl and love on him in some dark and troubling years. In doing so, Reckless Mercy serves as a contagious, courageous and consistent reminder of God’s deep and compassionate mercy for us, despite however our brokenness tries to define us.

Let me say that I highly recommend this book. In addition to posting a few reviews online, I have personally recommended this book to many. Historians will enjoy seeing the Vineyard Church movement’s history through the eyes of Carl Tuttle. Church leaders will resonate with how life, ministry, and the throes of life can unhealthily weigh on us. Those who struggle with anxiety, insecurity, and identity will resonate with Carl’s struggles, and they will be encouraged by his redemption. I think all readers will be amazed and encouraged by the way that God created a way for this banished servant to both be returned to and reconciled with his people. I love this story of Carl’s journey, and how God took him out of the desert, physically and spiritually, and placed him back into the movement that not only changed his life but the movement he helped shape. I think God is up to something in the Vineyard Church movement, and I find that hope encouraged in Carol Wimber’s introduction to this book.

In Reckless Mercy, Carl Tuttle writes, “My world came crashing down around me in 1997. It was entirely my fault. While it was an utterly devastating experience, followed by equally devastating years of slow rebuilding, I also realize that it was a beautiful act of God’s reckless mercy toward me that brought me to such a place.” While we are quick to say, “Jesus is enough,” Carl’s book will encourage and challenge us to understand that in new ways. Reckless Mercy will encourage and challenge us to rediscover what defines us. I think Carl’s story will encourage and challenge us to rediscover Jesus. This book helped me to see that the best chapters of our story are yet to be written. Perhaps even the best chapters in the stories of Carl Tuttle and the Vineyard Church movement are also yet to be written.

Once I started reading Reckless Mercy, I couldn’t put it down. I highly recommend this read. I found myself laughing, crying, and constantly amazed through this book. More importantly, I reflected as this story brought out encouragements and challenges to my journey. I am confident this book will bring out these same emotions, encouragements, and challenges in you if you are willing to pause, to listen, seek, and to be reshaped. The “Broken shards of a life can be reassembled into a story of love and mercy that needs to be told,” writes Carl Tuttle. God’s mercy is reckless because it pursues after us even when our lives and situations seem unredeemable. God brought Carl back to the movement in which he had been seemingly banished from years before, what might he do for you? ( )