Chapter 17: The Church of Broken Windows – Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

A year after the affair, Harrison and Lauren keep their secret from their daughters and Harrison’s mother, confiding only in a few close friends. Harrison obsessively replays Lauren’s confession every night, hoping to drain it of power. He imagines Chad’s marriage collapsing and wrestles with the biblical command to forgive “seventy times seven times.” Their marriage begins to heal through date nights, vacations, and an intense period of physical intimacy that Harrison sees as an expression of wonder at forgiveness. But he senses their healing is incomplete—they lack full-hearted joy.

Harrison finds that joy in a new church community born from their St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. His friend Soren, a college minister, dreams of a church animated by hospitality, where you can drink a beer or leave your husband and not be shunned. Soren, Jimbo, and others start Christ the King, meeting first in a living room, then an art gallery, and finally a tiny sanctuary three blocks from Harrison’s home. The building shares property with a homeless shelter and has broken windows. Harrison becomes the drummer, often playing barefoot. The church blends high-church formality with frontier wildness: recitations, creeds, foot-stomping hymns, and a congregation that includes the homeless, tattooed vegans, and conservative Presbyterians. Harrison feels at home for the first time in years, realizing that love—not perfect obedience—is what saves a marriage.

Key Events

Harrison and Lauren maintain secrecy about the affair from their daughters and his mother, telling only a few friends.
Harrison ruminates nightly on Lauren’s confession, trying to forgive her over and over.
The couple’s marriage improves through date nights, vacations, and two months of intense physical intimacy.
Harrison’s friend Soren, inspired by the joyful chaos of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, proposes starting a new church.
Soren, Jimbo, and other families found Christ the King, a church that meets in a broken-down building shared with a homeless shelter.
Harrison agrees to play drums for the church, often performing barefoot in casual clothes.
The church community welcomes all kinds of broken people, creating an environment of radical acceptance and joy.
Harrison reflects on the meaning of love and forgiveness, concluding that love is what saves you.

Character Development

Harrison Scott Key: Moves from obsessive replaying of the betrayal to active forgiveness and participation in a new community. He finds a sense of belonging and purpose as a church drummer.
Lauren: Remains somewhat uncertain about the new church but supports Harrison. She goes back on tour with him, and they rebuild intimacy, though her inner thoughts are still guarded.
Soren: The college minister who acts on his vision for a joyful, inclusive church. He preaches with vulnerability, spoiling movies in sermons, and models how to stop being an “asshole” and throw a party for neighbors.
Jimbo: A friend who joins Soren in founding the church and sings with emotional intensity.
Chad and Lane: Appear only in Harrison’s imagination—Chad as the man he fantasizes about Lane running over, Lane as a nurse capable of “blood vengeance.” They underscore Harrison’s lingering anger and need for forgiveness.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Forgiveness as a repeated act: Harrison takes Jesus’ “seventy times seven” literally, forgiving Lauren every time he remembers a new betraying detail. Forgiveness is not a one-time event but an ongoing discipline.
Brokenness as sacred: The Church of Broken Windows—the actual building with shattered panes, one toilet, and a homeless shelter—becomes a symbol that true community does not hide imperfection. Brokenness is welcomed rather than sanitized.
Joy as a path to healing: Harrison realizes that forgiveness alone is not enough; they need “full-hearted joy.” The St. Patrick’s Day parade and the raucous church services represent a carnival-like embrace of healthy chaos that heals.
Love as the saving force: Harrison concludes that “love is what saves you” – love to confess failures and love to forgive them. The church embodies this love through radical hospitality.
The idol of perfect obedience: Harrison identifies that the only thing needing excommunication from his home is the idol of perfect obedience, both Lauren’s and his own.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter marks a turning point in the memoir’s emotional arc. It shows that the marriage is not restored by a single moment of forgiveness but by a long, messy process of repeated forgiveness and the discovery of a community that models the same grace. The founding of Christ the King provides a tangible, communal expression of the themes Harrison has been wrestling with: grace, vulnerability, and joy. It also sets up the ongoing role of this church in the rest of the book, making it essential for understanding the later chapters. The chapter reframes the narrative from a story of crisis and repair into one of transformation and belonging.

Study Questions and Answers

Why does Harrison repeatedly imagine Lane running over Chad with her car, and what does this reveal about his emotional state?
Harrison’s violent fantasy reveals his ongoing anger and desire for revenge against Chad, despite having committed to forgiveness. It shows that forgiveness is not yet complete in his heart; he still needs to process his rage before he can fully let go.
How does the St. Patrick’s Day parade inspire the founding of Christ the King, and what does the parade symbolize in the chapter?
The parade’s communal joy, feasting, dancing, and the turning of strangers into friends inspire Soren to create a church with the same spirit. The parade symbolizes a kind of holy chaos and inclusive celebration that Harrison’s previous church lacked—an atmosphere where broken people can belong without judgment.
What does Harrison mean when he says the “only thing that needed to be excommunicated from my home was the idol of perfect obedience”?
Harrison means that both he and Lauren had been trying to maintain an image of flawless marriage and religious devotion. The affair shattered that pretense. True healing came not from enforcing rules or pretending everything was fine, but from abandoning the idol of perfection and embracing the messiness of real love and forgiveness.