I discovered Sarah Bessey through A Rhythm of Prayer and had no idea she was among the many former evangelicals who, thankfully, chose an evolving faith. Without being a full-on memoir, Bessey weaves her own story into notes of encouragement (bolstered by theology, philosophy, and psychology) for those maybe a little earlier on their journeys of evolving faith.

I laughed out loud reading, “Sometimes one of the greatest gifts God gives to us is losing our religion,” because there is such truth to that. I became a Christian as an adult, so mine has always been an evolving faith, finding my way from nothing to something, instead of painfully realizing what must be left behind to make room for that something. I have witnessed the struggles of friends who believed what their families believed for generations and what their churches taught without ever even thinking to question it—until they had no choice but to question it and then felt utterly lost, and often rejected as well. Field Notes feels intended to assure people they are not alone and the journey is worth it. (It is! it is!)

Because my journey has been so different, there were times when I was acutely aware I am not the intended audience. Nevertheless, Bessey’s words have a universal ring, because we will all find ourselves in the wilderness. Beyond the wilderness of an evolving faith, there are the wildernesses of grief, trauma, broken or strained relationships, unfulfilled dreams, health challenges, times of transition, national crisis, and so much more. Whatever the context, Bessey’s realization remains true, “The wilderness wasn’t something for me to fear: God was already here, making a way.” Field Notes for the Wilderness is a loving reminder others have walked this hard path, there are companions along the way, and God is always with you.

Although I thoroughly enjoyed the book, as I read, I kept feeling something was missing even though I couldn’t quite articulate what that was. When I learned later there is a guided journal available to accompany the book, I realized that is what had been missing! Despite the concept of being a “field guide” and Bessey’s promise of sharing the practices that served her in the wilderness, she only mentions practices from her life tangentially or in broad terms, and doesn’t discuss any in great detail. I initially thought this was because Bessey was trying too hard to avoid being prescriptive, but then realized that content might be in the guided journal. I also realized she might be hesitating to offer specifics to avoid claiming expertise. Her only strong suggestion is to “find a companion—a qualified companion—like a therapist or spiritual director to walk this path with you.” As a spiritual director who has a therapist and is grateful all of my clients also have therapists, I’m on board with this suggestion! So, if you are in the midst of the wilderness of evolving (or falling apart) faith right now, I’d encourage you to check out the guided journal. And maybe look into spiritual direction, too. But the book absolutely stands on its own, and can be an encouragement wherever you are on your journey.

Thank you to the author, Sarah Bessey, publisher, Convergent, and NetGalley for the privilege of reading a DRC of this book. All opinions are my own. I also pre-ordered a hard copy to arrive on publication day!

To be quite honest, I requested the review copy of this book because I thought customers of our store might be interested in it. I did not expect it to hit so close to home for myself.

Sarah Bessey doesn't give instructions, only notes from her own experiences that she believes might help others in times of questioning or doubt, a term she calls the wilderness. When I first started reading it, I couldn't stop thinking that I needed this book twenty years ago.

As I kept reading, I realized that using the term wilderness fit where I'd been for the past twenty years. And since I've spent so long here, I wasn't uncomfortable with it. But I now was giving myself permission to ask questions I'd long dismissed as answered or no longer relevant. That's the beauty of this book. It reminds you that you can say you don't know. That you can wonder. That you can take what you want from it, that real faith is never a one size fits all proposition. These short chapters match about where you want to stop and reflect.

I recommend Field Notes for the Wilderness for anyone with questions and doubts who wants to stop feeling guilty for having them, or for those of us who've long abandoned our faith but looked back in nostalgia. Because you don't have to come away from this book with answers. You can keep seeking.

Thank you for the chance to read the ARC, but also, thank you, Sarah Bessey.

Field Notes for the Wilderness by Sarah Bessey is an excellent guide for anyone in the process of disentangling from a specific faith or theological structure. I have read Sarah's previous books and found them to be so enlightening and encouraging in my own questioning how to navigate a path forward. This book is definitely for people who still want to hold on to their faith and relationship with God and offers different avenues on how to purse that in a new way. I will absolutely be recommending this book to people in this specific season of life!

As someone who has read her other books, listened to the EF podcast and listened to the last 2 online conferences I felt I did not glean much new. It was a good review and would probably read different for someone new to her work.

“The wilderness is the place where you meet God face-to-face, with nothing between you.”

I’m considering a move to Calgary, where fellow Canadian Sarah Bessey and I will become BFFs and I can sew her quilts and she can pet my head and tell me it’s going to (eventually) be okay.

This book, a collection of essays (or love letters?) is exactly what I needed. She speaks truth in love…(with anecdote and scripture and research)..but not with that ‘love the sinner hate the sin’ bullshit, but actual, dirt-under-the-fingernails, hold-your-hair-and-rub-your-back-while-you-puke love.

The Guided Journal is a fantastic companion. Asking questions like, “When was the last time you were surprised by God?” and “What is an old version of you are you glad to leave behind?” as well as breath prayers, it’s the perfect way to work out what you’ve learned.

As you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, have no fear. Jesus (and Sarah) is with you.

Always live-giving.
Always truth-telling.
Always meaning-making.

Thanks to NetGalley and Convergent Books for this balm of an ARC.

Completely wonderful, wise, inspiring, and thought-provoking. Best yet from this author, who already has an impressive body of work.

Sarah Bessey’s Field Notes for the Wilderness is a book remarkable for its wisdom and “generous gentleness” (a lovely phrase from the first chapter). Field Notes offers comfort to those who wrestle with doubt, and hope for those who live with hurt and isolation, often at the hands of institutionalized religion. Bessey uses the metaphor of the wilderness as a way to discuss both suffering and seeking as she encourages readers to find opportunities in the ordinariness of life to pause, reflect, and trust in the slow work of spiritual growth and evolution.

I look forward to re-reading and sharing this book with others (I've already pre-ordered several gift copies!).

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC of the book and its equally exceptional guided journal.

There are few books that I read and instantly know that I will come back to time and time again like a reference manual to my own heart. And this is one of those.

Sarah Bessey has a way of writing that feels like coffee with an old friend. We’ve never met, and yet her books make me feel seen (I’d like to think this is the Spirit at work in her).

Church and faith for me have felt like wrestling matches with God the past few years. And not even the romanticized movie battles—I’m talking the nasty, staged and dramatized WWE-style knockdown, drag out fights. I have felt like I have no hope in winning. Yet here comes Sarah with words that clean off the dirt and bandage the wounds. The pain is still there, but the sting is gone.

After reading this book and Brene Brown’s Braving the Wilderness closely together, I highly recommend pairing them. These two strong women have reminded me over and over and over than I’m not fighting alone. My limp from wrestling with God isn’t shameful. My faith isn’t weak just because it doesn’t look like l was taught it should. God is here loving me despite it all, even (and especially) when I debate if I even believe anymore.

Thank you to NetGalley and Convergent Books for an advanced copy.

Sarah Bessey is such a valuable voice for Christian folks deconstructing experiences with the church and guiding those people who are “in the wilderness” closer to Christ. I love her style of writing and appreciate the usage and applications of the anecdotes. This level of analysis is an impressive skill, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this particularly because of that. Of course, the book is also full of insights, and Sarah Bessey approaches the issues in such a gentle way. I am so happy she presents the wilderness as a place that is eventually fruitful and emphasizes the invitation to wrestle with God. Even though I do not find myself in that kind of wilderness now, this will go in my “toolbox” if I do enter that season. Finally, I realize some people do not like the term “deconstruction” and instead favor “reformation,” but I hope anyone finding themselves in the process give this book a chance. Finally, I love entertaining footnotes - what a delight!

Thank you NetGalley and Convergent Books for this advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Weaving her own experiences of evolving faith through this hope-filled narrative, Sarah Bessey gently guides the spiritual misfits, edge dwellers, wilderness wanderers, the outcasts and lost to a sanctuary, a place where we belong.

As a sensitive fellow sister in suffering, one made wiser, kinder, and more understanding through it all, Bessey offers tremendous comfort and support.

She knows what it’s like to be hurt, and betrayed by the church. And she notices the small but vital signposts along life and faith’s slippery pathways, the ones that help us avoid danger and stay safe.

Bessey encourages the worn out, weary, and despairing heart by reminding us we’re not as cast aside, isolated or abandoned as we might feel. The wilderness is vast but there are a lot of us out there.

And whether we sense it or not, this place of pain and seeming brokenness, where our souls are seared and shattered, is actually a stretching and growing zone for our wobbly faith. It’s okay to lament, to own then move on from our grief.

It might not look right, or feel very comfortable in this place, but that’s a good thing. Like a caterpillar developing in its hardened chrysalis, we’re not quite ready yet to break free and spread our paper-thin wings.

But when we do emerge out the other side, blinking into the light, we will see things differently and the view will have glimpses of hope, joy, and beauty in it.

This is Sarah Bessey at her compassionate best. Read it if you’ve been stuck in the spiritual wilderness for weeks, months, or years. Absorb the glorious truth that you are seen, you are loved, and deeply cherished by God.

Or pass this superb, eminently quotable book on to those you know who are struggling like this, because doing so could well be soul transformative. Grateful thanks to Convergent Faith and NetGalley for the eARC.

Sarah Bessey is a wonderful communicator. In her book, “Field Notes for the Wilderness”, she gives beautiful, poetic and soulful language to so many ideas and feelings that are a part of a questioning faith journey. She navigates so many current challenges to a traditional Evangelical status quo with wisdom, warmth and hope. Her courage to reveal her painful journey inspires others to keep questioning, searching and making a way forward on a less travelled path. This is a book I will return to as a reminder that no one need be alone in their journey to follow Jesus.

Sarah is the spiritual mother/sister/friend we all need.
I know everyone is all about Cozy Fantasy at the moment but is there such a thing as Cozy Spirituality? Well, if there is, I vote for this book to be on the list.
The content isn’t easy, per say - Sarah is writing to those who have felt on the outside, whether through being left behind, doing the leaving or feeling pushed or just never really fitting in - but the tone is soothing and comforting. Sarah is a gentle voice and this book will be a balm for anyone who has sadly been wounded by Christianity or its gatekeepers.
My favorite chapter was Learn to love the world again, and of course the benediction - Sarah’s benedictions are incredible.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the digital ARC 😍
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

‘Jesus is our good shepherd on both sides of the gate.‘

I’ve enjoyed and been challenged by all of Sarah Bessey’s other books, but wasn’t sure if this one was for me…it was.

I think Field Notes for the Wilderness is probably aimed at those who are ‘deconstructing’ their faith. The metaphor of the wilderness understandably underpins the book, but it’s not one I particularly identify with. Neither have I been hurt or abandoned by a church community. Neither am I North American. Neither am I as theologically liberal/progressive as Bessey.

So for all those reasons, I wasn’t sure this was for me, particularly in the first couple of chapters. However I’m very glad I persisted.

After the initial chapters Bessey structures the book around practices, and this is where I felt there was a lot of wisdom and Scriptural insight. Each one has a different focus, like Tell the truth and learn to lament or Look for Good teachers, Learn to be for, not just against, and I found myself highlighting loads of Bessey’s words, as well as many helpful quotations from other writers and theologians.

Woven throughout the book is such evident love for Jesus that I think any reader seeking to follow Him will be drawn towards Him. God’s love is the overarching message of the book, lyrically captured in beautiful writing.

I don’t think I will recommend this book unreservedly, as I feel some readers may struggle to look past theological differences, and to be honest in places I found the emphasis on some topics a little heavy handed. However, I did learn from this book and will re-read it. In Chapter 15 Bessey argues that we should be peacemakers rather than peacekeepers - I highlighted the phrase;
‘We’ll learn how to listen to those with whom we disagree.’

I disagree with Sarah Bessey on a couple of things, but I’m grateful I listened to her voice in this book.

Sarah Bessey's writing is the equivalent of a hot cup of tea and a handknit sweater. Both take a great deal of craft and yet still feel casual and cozy. Thank you to the author, Convergent Books, and NetGalley for the eARC.

Perhaps the most helpful thing I can say about Bessey's latest is that I've already identified three people I am buying it for when it comes out. The writing is comforting, yes. But also challenging. The tone is friendly and supportive in the same way a loved one might ask if you've drunk enough water today, or eaten any vegetables.

Bessey and I swim in the same waters, we read the same books, listen to the same speakers, participate in the same activities. This feels like an accessible roadmap to spiritual growth through good questions and leaning into mystery. But I acknowledge this is my mother tongue so I might not be the best judge of that. I found the book to be both comprehensive as a whole and broken into manageable bite-sized concepts by chapter. There were practical suggestions scattered throughout which I immediately shared with friends. The jar of tears and bringing back prayer cloths in particular stuck with me. I found some beautiful hankies on clearance shortly after finishing Field Notes for the Wilderness and bought them.

I loved this book. I know many of my friends will too. Will it speak to random strangers? I don't know, but I hope they give it a try. We all need friends along the journey and Sarah Bessey has proven herself to be the best of companions.

In her book, Field Notes for the Wilderness, Sarah Bessey encourages us to “look for good teachers” on the journey of an evolving faith. I’ve known for a while now that Sarah is a good, good teacher. One of the best God has placed in my life. Sarah’s books, blogs, newsletter, her preaching, and her speaking have borne good fruit in me and so many others.

Field Notes for the Wilderness is a collection of reflections, written as letters, for those of us at different points in our journey of an evolving faith. Sarah reminds us that we are not alone, and that there is goodness and joy in the journey that can at times feel so lonely and sorrowful. I’ve read enough of Sarah’s writing by now, and seen her speak plenty of times, to recognize that this book is such an honest reflection of her heart. It’s absolutely dripping with her signature heart and humor, making it incredibly accessible while at the same time pushing and challenging the reader. I’m so grateful for Sarah and the way God has used her in my own journey of evolving faith.

I voluntarily read a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Sarah Bessey provides a guide to those who are deconstructing their faith and are wanting to know they are not alone. Her book is tender and thoughtful.

I am a huge advocate for people really deconstructing everything they have been taught about faith. Examine the different aspects. What feels true to you? What is hard? The United Methodist Church examines scripture through a lens of reason, experience, and tradition. And that makes sense in a broader way as well to find your path to saving grace.

In doing so, there is a danger of feeling lost. If everything you thought you knew about Christianity is stripped away, you can feel lost.
And that’s where Sarah Bessey comes in. She doesn’t leave you alone but comes alongside and makes you aware of God alongside you in the journey of what she calls evolving faith.

Christians often find themselves in a spiritual wilderness, where the old answers are no longer adequate but new answers have not yet emerged. Sarah Bessey offers herself as a guide through those troubling times. She views them as an opportunity for change and renewal. Her chief recommendation is that we see ourselves as having an evolving faith.

I particularly enjoyed her chapter on repentance, which she sees not as an inadequate and passive event, marked by apologies and sad faces, but as a change of mind followed by changing your life. Sin is described as ultimately a turning away from Love. Repentance is a turning back to Love. We can begin again, over and over throughout our lives. It is a process not a singular event. It was a beautiful way to examine repentance.

I enjoyed this book and recommend it to those who are struggling with their faith or are just ready to face the prospect of change in their faith. I received this book from Netgalley and Convergent Books in exchange for an honest review.

Field Notes For The Wilderness by Sarah Bessey--I loved this collection of letters to the reader as a guide to navigating the faith wilderness. It is great for anyone with changing beliefs, with feeling outside of community, with hurt or anger or pain. Bessey's writing is full of grace and care for her readers. It was lovely and soothing to read this book which releases on Feb. 20. Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance digital copy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am honestly a little baffled about composing a review for this title. Sarah Bessey has been a guide and mentor for me on my own journey through the wilderness - through social media and her other books. She doesn’t know me, but I feel like I do her. Her creation of Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith in the epistolary form does nothing to lessen that. Her conversational tone (eh?) welcomes the reader lovingly. Sarah taps into her most difficult life and faith experiences and creates a guide for others, creating a beautiful metaphor of a journey through the wilderness. She creates a conversation using these metaphors that elevate her words to a kind of poetry. She doesn’t offer certainty, but rather gently suggests practices that might help others who find their faith changing as well - just like a friend might.

Along with the letter style, I appreciate how Sarah uses each chapter to reclaim the aspects of faith that many whose faith may be changing feel that they might be losing. She focuses on peace, love, hope, lament, sacrament, and repentance among other things. Often, it seems, when people are finding a new way to experience worship, others will tell them they are less worthy, perhaps, to receive love and experience hope - that perhaps they are in more need of repentance than ever. Words and ideas that have been woven into the fabric of faith are being torn away or abused. For me, I love how Sarah helps the wanderer reclaim these. Sarah’s assurances are rooted in scripture and study. As a retired English teaching librarian, I love a book supported with a good set of research and references.

She challenges the reader to move through the journey even while recognizing that the journey might never end. I think even before this book, I was grateful to Sarah for meeting me there. I could easily stop in a world where I am focused on what I am against. I value the profound reminder to remember to be for something. Such a reminder requires forward progress. Sarah focuses on faith, but offers insight for all kinds of changes. I am navigating many right now, and her words bring me comfort as I walk. Field Notes for the Wilderness is a book to read, mark up, and reread.