My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I just loved Shannan's book. It is exactly what it says it is, ministry in the ordinary space of your every day life. I can completely identify with her story of selling her white picket fence dream home to move to a scary place that needed a lot of love.

These words are a breath of fresh air reminding us to keep opening the door. Keep inviting people to dinner. Keep reaching out to the addict, the imprisoned, the hurting. Your light is a lifeline. Will you get hurt? Absolutely. Keep pressing on.

Shannan's husband is a jail chaplain. She gives us a window into his life ministering to and loving inmates. It is a great encouragement to see people pouring out their hearts to love the unwanted of society. Thanks for being brave and sharing what you are learning.

hanna shares her experience of moving from the country into an urban neighborhood and what it looked like for her family to take root and really invest in their neighbors and neighborhood church. She shares the struggle of experiencing pain and heartache through the relationships formed but the also the high of sharing joy by living connected to those around her.

It is the right book for me right now as I am trying to navigate what it would look like to really love my neighbors and seek real relationships with them. This book has encouraged me that the hard work is worthwhile, meaningful, and will grow my relationship with God.

The Ministry of Ordinary Places
Waking Up to God's Goodness Around You
by Shannan Martin

Nelson BooksThomas NelsonChristianPub Date 09 Oct 2018I am reviewing a copy of The Ministry Of Ordinary Places through Nelson Books and Netgalley:This book by Shannan Martin offers tangible hope in a world where hope is dim and solutions seem complicated. We are encouraged to widen our circle and shut our mouths. Shannan Martin a popular blogger has offered a starting point for Christians who are looking s more meaningful life, and that is to learn what it is to loved and be loved right where God placed you. Christians are now living in an increasingly complicated world which often causes us to feel overwhelmed and that causes us to be uncertain of how we go living a life of intention and meaning us making us question where we even begin.I give The Ministry of Ordinary Places five out of five stars!Happy Reading!

I couldn't put this book down, literally. The writing was beautiful, the stories hilarious and heartwrenching, and the honesty was refreshing and convicting. I highlighted so many words in this one and even found myself saying "Yes!" out loud at some points. The way Shannan makes everyday, unglamorous life seem so important and beautiful in God's kingdom was well worth reading. Highly recommend!

I also love Shannan Martin’s writings. I admire her tremendous gift of hospitality and marvel at how she takes it beyond all expectation to reach out to those around her and show them love. She articulated her experiences so well, and I enjoyed this deeper picture of her life and ministry.

This is probably the best Christian non-fiction I"ve read this year. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the author's experiences and felt like she was able to relate her personal life to the lives of many diverse populations. I could apply the truths she learned to my own life, even though I don't share her experiences. It's beautifully written and one that I struggled to put down.

Title: The Ministry of Ordinary Places
Author: Shannan Martin
Genre: Nonfiction, Christian
Rating: 5 out of 5

Many people dream of big ministries in places they feel at home in, surrounded by people like them. Shannan Martin found that that sort of ministry wasn’t her destiny at all. Instead, she ended up in a working-class neighborhood in Goshen, Indiana—okay, a neighborhood where sometimes finding a job to work at is hard—an ordinary place, surrounded by ordinary people who might be wildly different on the surface, but who are alike at heart: struggling and in need of love.

Truly paying attention to both the big things and the small can open your eyes to the truth in the world around you, and Shannan built a home amidst people who were willing to do life together—no matter how hard that is at times. Sometimes, when God calls people to ministry, it’s not a Billy Graham-style of ministry. Instead, it’s smaller, quieter, and has a profound effect on the people around us, the people who make up our lives.

This book. This book. Usually when I read nonfiction, I can only read a few pages at a time, but I wanted to read large chunks of this at a time. Shannan’s writing is so powerful and evocative, full of truth that touches the heart and opens the mind to broader ideas of home—and what that can look like.

Shannan Martin is a writer and speaker. The Ministry of Ordinary Places is her newest book.

(Galley provided by Thomas Nelson in exchange for an honest review.)

I have fallen utterly in love with the calling to be faithful in the ordinary, so I was happily hooked on the idea of The Ministry of Ordinary Places. Having finished the book, I find myself fairly conflicted. There were things I loved. There were things I questioned. There were things that just didn't fit.

This book is beautifully written. Some sentences are as compressed and expressive as poetry, but the dense language is used sparingly enough that the reader isn't bogged down over a full book-length. The dense language is used to enhance the point. I was drawn along by it.

The overall call to living a caring life right where you are, with all the unlovable people around you, no matter what, was fantastic. I felt this call got stronger as the book went on, with the book gathering steam throughout. Even though I had quibbles, I was glad to have read this book.

There were a few small places I wanted to question points made in the book. Early on one friend of the author's is quoted as saying "this changes everything." I think Mike Horton has a great caution in his book Ordinary not to making being "ordinary" another way of being "radical." It's OK to do the ordinary, wonderful things this book calls the reader to - pay attention, listen, show up, stay in place even when it's hard - without it changing everything. It still matters even if you don't get to see the results or they are tiny and painstaking. It might matter even more. Also at one point to discuss the need for a listening ear, the book quotes Jesus in Luke telling his disciples to listen up. As a horrible listener myself I was startled and went to go find the context in my Bible. What I read seemed to be not Jesus telling us to listen in general, but to listen to him at that moment. I agree that we need to listen; I especially need to work on my listening. I apologize regularly to those around me for my poor listening. But I didn't get the connection between the verse used and the point made.

I also thought that the mix of memoir and challenge to the reader was a tricky combination. Martin lives in an urban context. A lot of what she illustrates is going to be really tricky for a suburban or rural reader. A lot of her background and the assumptions she grew up with might not be shared by all her readers. The way the book weaves all these memoirs as example makes sense, but yet makes it hard for readers in different circumstances.

Thanks to Nelson Books and NetGalley for an eARC of this book.

The Ministry of Ordinary Places should be read by anyone and everyone. This is the kind of "look right in front of your face to change the world" philosophy that is we are all desperate for right now. Fred Rogers would be proud of Shannan's approach to living, loving, and being rooted in her neighborhood

Shannan Martin wrote The Ministry of Ordinary Places after moving from her “dream life” as an upper middle class married mother in the country to living in a low income neighborhood in the city. After her move she gradually discovered that her purpose was “to love and be deeply loved right where we’re planted, by whomever happens to be near.” The sub-title for her book is “Waking up to God’s goodness round you” and it aptly sums up the book’s purpose. This book is about loving with intention the people that are around us. It is a wonderful memoir-with-a message book.

Martin’s book was helpful to me right now as I am dealing with some life transitions. I am seeking to learn more about how God wants to use me now. Martin’s book encourages me to pay attention to what is around me and learn more about the people that I encounter. She encourages us to be quiet and minimize distractions.

In contrast to many in America who preach a health-and-wealth gospel, Martin reminds us “we aren’t supposed to live dry-eyed. No, we were made to feel pain. It rends us from ourselves. It smudges our view, hides us away.” As I have been volunteering at the local crisis pregnancy center over the past 18 months, some of Martin’s reality has also been mine. She found that living among the poor caused her to fanaticize less about having more. She now sees her gifts as tool’s for God’s kingdom to be share with all of those around her. That is how I aspire to live my life too.

The Ministry of Ordinary Places is an inspiring glimpse into one family’s life of sharing God’s kingdom with the world around them. I highly recommend this book!

All quotes are from The Ministry of Ordinary Places. I received a complementary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this book. It's one filled with finding hope and love among your neighbors, she writes honestly and has a wonderful voice.A good reminder that you don't have to do big or go home , just offer what you have and let God make it large.

A wonderfully written invitation to do ministry right where you are, in your own neighborhood and with people you encounter each and every day. This young woman and mom of several kids tells how her own concept of "ministry" changed after she moved to a low income urban area. She urges everyone to go and seek out neighbors - and ministry - among the forgotten corners of their own cities and towns. Excellent for church discussion groups and women's book and Bible study groups.

This is the first book I have read by Shannen. The book is about establishing relationships with our neighbors. It is about community. It is about family. Family reaches beyond just blood and people in your home. Shannen challenges the status quo. She makes you think about even the things we do thinking we are helping others and then walking away back to our comfortable lives. We need to get in the mess with our neighbors. We need to love and live where they are. Community is more than just the relationships that are easy, it is the ones that are messy and real. It is failing together and winning together.

I appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was provided a free copy of this book from the publisher for my honest review.

Lately I have felt rushed, bogged down, and pulled in all directions- while wondering what more can I do. Am I making a difference, and I making enough of a difference. And then I was accepted to receive an early copy of this book and it was like a prayer had landed in my lap.

The tone of this book is simple as well as the words and the answers for some of us; just keep doing the little things. It isn't about all the huge things. Pausing for a neighbor, paying it forward, reaching out to a friend we haven't spoken to in awhile. Ministry is all around us. It doesn't have to be in donating hundreds and thousands or going on trips yearly to build and clean and do the hands on.... We can minister in our back yard. Be present be available. Take in a breath and see what is right here in front of us.

I love Shannan's take on life in these times... I appreciate her vision and sweet demenaor for the tough things and how we might handle them.

Even just glancing at the cover, I'm reminded that a simple cup of tea or coffee can lead to ministry in the day to day, the simple, the mundane, the ordinary.

My tattered copy will continue to give me peace and help me to remember that those ministry moments might not be big whoops wows or firecrackers but instead in the quiet and simple and easy things I may just need to slow down and take notice of today and tomorrow.