"We toiled on computers seven days per week, rising as early as 4:00 a.m. to squeeze in spiritual quiet time before we both retreated to our respective laptops, typing the days (and weekends) away. Though I grew up keeping Sundays sacred, six years into our marriage, we'd fallen into the trap of using the Lord's Day to catch up. … At its worst, our church attendance was less than 50 percent. … I began, for the first time in my life, to understand why people don't attend church services."

—J. Dana Trent, chapter 1

The Rev. J. Dana Trent is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and professor of World Religions and Critical Thinking at Wake Tech Community College. An ordained Baptist minister and former hospital chaplain, she has been featured on Time.com, Religion News Service, Religion Dispatches, as well as in Sojourners and The Christian Century. Dana is the award-winning author of books on holistic wellness and multifaith spiritual practices: One Breath at a Time: A Skeptic's Guide to Christian Meditation, For Sabbath's Sake: Embracing Your Need for Rest, Worship, and Community, and Saffron Cross: The Unlikely Story of How a Christian Minister Married a Hindu Monk. Her fourth book, Dessert First: Beginning with the End in Mind, releases in September 2019 from Chalice Press. Dana is a certified group fitness instructor and teaches for the YMCA. She and her husband, Fred, are longtime vegetarians and live in Raleigh, North Carolina, with their orange tabby cat.