Shannan Martin - The Ministry of Ordinary Places: Waking Up to Gods Goodness Around You

Contents

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Praise for The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Shannan knows life is about who we are truly with. Im so glad she wrote it all down for us. This book is for EVERYONE. You will love it!

Bob Goff, New York Times bestselling author of Love Does and Everybody, Always

This is the book we all need right now. If youre longing for authentic community but arent sure where to begin, Shannan and this beautifully written book are the perfect guide. I truly believe when we stand together we stand a chance. I cheered along with every word.

Korie Robertson, New York Times bestselling author

This is a message the world needs. So often we overcomplicate service or this elusive call to ministry when all the while ministry is right in front of us. Shannan reminds us of the simple, yet beautiful call to love our neighbor and what that could really look like today. We are reminded that extravagant love in ordinary moments does indeed lead to an extraordinary life.

Katie Davis Majors, New York Times bestselling author of Kisses from Katie

These are the days when we could all use a firm but gentle nudge to extend extra kindness to the people around us. Shannan reminds us to pay attention, look outside of ourselves, to lay aside our preconceived judgments, and stay put, bearing with each other, carrying each others burdens, and finding Jesus at the center of it all.

LaTasha Morrison, founder of Be the Bridge

Our nonstop consumer society seduces us into forsaking the ordinary. Even as believers, we are prone to aspire to do sexy ministry that garners headlines and warrants photo ops. But Shannan Martin helps us resist these impulses by calling the body to reclaim the sanctity and significance of ordinary places. Through personal stories, theology, and Scripture, she helps us discern Gods call upon our lives right where we are and illuminates why the most faithful ministry is oftentimes mundane, overlooked, and seemingly unimpressive. This book will help you thrive in your faith in practical and rooted ways!

Dominique DuBois Gilliard, author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores

Sometimes when reading a book, I think Ill recommend this to that group or this one goes go that community, but hand to heaven, I would put this book in every single pair of hands across ideology, camps, and tribes. Part storytelling, part prophetic, with dizzyingly wonderful writing, Shannan brings us back to the neighborhood, back to ordinary tables, back to a life we know in our deepest hearts is meant for us. I love her. I love this book.

Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author of 7, For the Love, and Of Mess and Moxie

I was terrified of being ordinary, and with that one sentence Shannan Martin sums up every single one of us. Certainly me. And then she deconstructs the clich of ordinary and puts it back together with pictures and stories and sidewalks full of people who will make you want to cry or sing or despair or dance or rail or just quietly whisper, amen. This book is a new pair of eyes. Go ahead, open them!

Lisa-Jo Baker, bestselling author of Never Unfriended and Surprised by Motherhood

Photographers often talk about the golden hour of each daythe hour just before the sun slips beyond the horizon. The light, they tell us, is perfect, then. Youve probably seen it? All of everything around us seems to glow with the murmur of heaventhe streetlights, the graffiti on the walls, the rainbowd puddles of oil-slicked water and the golden heads of wheat that bow to a gentle breeze. In these pages, Shannan Martin places a gentle hand on our shoulder and whispers quiet and profound words of truth, telling us the golden hour is hereright nowwith these people in this place at this moment. Now. Heaven is all around us, and this book invites us, as only Shannan can, to awaken to a life where every ordinary moment shimmers with gold.

Deidra Riggs, author, speaker, disco-lover

In a world where hope seems dim and solutions feel complicated and partisan, Shannan Martin offers us a starting point that is as radical as it is domestic: widen your circle, hush your mouth, and pay close attention. This book is the right book for this moment in time and I simply cannot get over it. I either laughed or cried on almost every page. We need these lyrical, prophetic words now more than ever before.

Emily P. Freeman, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Simply Tuesday

Through ordinary stories of mustard seeds, lost coins, and surly prodigals, Jesus taught that the kingdom of God has come near and we are called to be its ambassadors in our everyday lives. In the tradition of Jesus and all the best storytellers, Shannan uses her ordinary, beautiful, oh-so-relatable life to show us that we are called to embody the love of God in our communities and that God has equipped us with everything we need to be ministers right where we are. Full of grace, humor, and kindness, Shannan makes you believe that your voice, your gifts, your perspective are so needed to help mend our broken world, proclaiming that yes, even now, the kingdom of God has come near.

Osheta Moore, author of Shalom Sistas

The Ministry of Ordinary Places tears down the high and mighty calling weve often conjured in our minds about how the faithful serve God and instead invites us to see a sacred call in the faces of our neighbors, to smell the holy incense in ashtrays filled with crooked cigarette butts, or to see the broken bread set before us in a Burger King table for two. Shannan challenges who our neighbor is then offers a glimpse of what it might look like to stay put, stick around, and find that our best life is one where we simply pay attention to that common ache to be known and seen and loved, just as we are. In a book thats both challenging and down to earth, she leads us into a theology of ordinary places, of neighborliness, secondhand smoke, and the holy ground of discovering our way home is always together.

Alia Joy, author of Glorious Weakness: Discovering God in All We Lack

Shannans brilliance and grace invites us into the narrow way of Jesus, a path beyond walls, borders, and fences. God met me in fresh and unexpected ways through this book, and I believe Hell do the same for you.

Rebekah Lyons, author of You Are Free and Freefall to Fly

2018 Shannan Martin

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Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Nelson Books, an imprint of Thomas Nelson. Nelson Books and Thomas Nelson are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

Published in association with Yates & Yates (www.yates2.com).

The names and identifying characteristics of some of the individuals featured throughout this book have been changed to protect their privacy.