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Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World
Not yet published
Expected 26 Jan 27You don’t always get to change the world, but you do get to love it.
From “one of our most important progressive Christian voices” (Jen Hatmaker), an urgent invitation to actually love the world even when it breaks your heart
Many of us were taught to look for God in the in big callings, dramatic transformations, affirmations of constant achievement, or in lives that inspire millions. But what if that way of seeing has left us unable to recognize that God is also present in the everyday—especially now, when headlines are overwhelming, our systems feel broken, and hope seems naïve? What does it mean to actually live a faithful, meaningful life when the world is on fire and nothing turns out as advertised?
Drawing from her own story of faith, disillusionment, motherhood, and decades of work as a spiritual guide, Sarah Bessey believes there comes a time when you decide that being earnest and sincere is better than being defeated. She names what she calls “ordinary altars”: places and people where the holy and the commonplace meet, not as an escape from our daily lives but as full-bodied engagement with the questions of our time and an encounter with the God who is with us in it all. Blending rich storytelling and compassionate spiritual insight, Ordinary Altars is a declaration of choosing stubbornly, again and again, to keep loving your small patch of the world when it would be easier to shut down or walk away or even become what you despise.
For readers who are spiritually tired but still hopeful, deconstructed but longing to rebuild, grappling with despair but determined to make room in their spirituality for the ache in their chest, Ordinary Altars offers honest field notes for a sturdy faith that can bear the weight of the world—rooted in reality, loving defiantly, and being stubbornly faithful enough to make the world feel like home again.
From “one of our most important progressive Christian voices” (Jen Hatmaker), an urgent invitation to actually love the world even when it breaks your heart
Many of us were taught to look for God in the in big callings, dramatic transformations, affirmations of constant achievement, or in lives that inspire millions. But what if that way of seeing has left us unable to recognize that God is also present in the everyday—especially now, when headlines are overwhelming, our systems feel broken, and hope seems naïve? What does it mean to actually live a faithful, meaningful life when the world is on fire and nothing turns out as advertised?
Drawing from her own story of faith, disillusionment, motherhood, and decades of work as a spiritual guide, Sarah Bessey believes there comes a time when you decide that being earnest and sincere is better than being defeated. She names what she calls “ordinary altars”: places and people where the holy and the commonplace meet, not as an escape from our daily lives but as full-bodied engagement with the questions of our time and an encounter with the God who is with us in it all. Blending rich storytelling and compassionate spiritual insight, Ordinary Altars is a declaration of choosing stubbornly, again and again, to keep loving your small patch of the world when it would be easier to shut down or walk away or even become what you despise.
For readers who are spiritually tired but still hopeful, deconstructed but longing to rebuild, grappling with despair but determined to make room in their spirituality for the ache in their chest, Ordinary Altars offers honest field notes for a sturdy faith that can bear the weight of the world—rooted in reality, loving defiantly, and being stubbornly faithful enough to make the world feel like home again.
- GenresNonfictionChristianFaith
Kindle Edition
Expected publication January 26, 2027
About the author
Sarah Bessey
22 books2,268 followersSARAH BESSEY is the author or editor of eight books, including the New York Times bestseller A Rhythm of Prayer, Jesus Feminist, and Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for An Evolving Faith. Her new book Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World (Even When It Breaks Your Heart) is coming out on 26 January 2027 and is now available for preorder.
Sarah cofounded Evolving Faith, a conference and online community for people who are reimagining their faith with hope, and also writes a bestselling weekly newsletter, Field Notes. Bessey lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her husband and their four children. You can find her online at sarahbessey.com.
Sarah cofounded Evolving Faith, a conference and online community for people who are reimagining their faith with hope, and also writes a bestselling weekly newsletter, Field Notes. Bessey lives in Calgary, Alberta, with her husband and their four children. You can find her online at sarahbessey.com.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Author
I'm certainly not unbiased but I do think it's pretty good!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I did not begin reading Sarah Bessey with the book that made her a household name, at least within more progressively Christian households, "Jesus Feminist."
In fact, I've been trying to figure out exactly when I discovered Bessey. As I recall, I discovered Bessey first on social media as I began immersing myself more in what many would call "deconstruction" but I'd likely simply claim to be unmasking my own faith journey.
I believe my first Bessey reading experience was with "Miracles and Other Reasonable Things," a direct result of following her on social media. The Canadian Christian who lives in Calgary, Alberta, whose first book "Jesus Feminist" had a foreword by our beloved Rachel Held Evans was one of the earliest of the Christian writers to openly embrace full participation by the LGBTQ+ community in church life.
There is something about Bessey's presence that feels like an invitation into safety. It's how she writes, with great intentionality yet with quiet vulnerability. Bessey's literary voice really doesn't waiver, and yet she teaches more than preaches and seems to see people as ones who need to be loved more than be fixed. Bessey writes from a matter-of-factness that I can't help but believe is part her faith lens and partly that Canadian worldview.
I'm now realizing this is an awfully long introduction to my review of Bessey's latest, "Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World (Even When It Breaks Your Heart)." The truth is I think I've always found Bessey to be a little intimidating. This is not necessarily a bad thing in a world that tends to devalue women's voices - especially when it comes to faith, ministry, and all things Christianity.
And yet, there's some sort of lightbulb that switched on with "Ordinary Altars," a book that is both deeply wise and remarkably tender.
Bessey has challenged me before. She nearly always makes me think. And yet, "Ordinary Altars" made me cry. A lot. I mean, seriously. A lot. I'm not even sure I'm completely in touch with all that broke open with "Ordinary Altars," but it broken open. It started in the opening pages, and yet powerfully came to life in the chapter "Irreplaceable." This is a chapter that finds Bessey sharing the tangible ways in which she changed her life away from the "set apart" ministry that had always felt right and moved toward what I'd call a living ministry that is where we perhaps even moreso define her presence now. As an adult with a disability and a seminary graduate, I clicked with this chapter in a myriad of ways and finally felt affirmed for the ways in which my own ministry has twisted and turned, skipped chapters and written new ones.
I felt loved. That doesn't happen often in a book, but it was undeniably true and would continue throughout "Ordinary Altars," a book that gently nudges us to realize that we don't always get to change the world.
We can always love the world.
I have always considered myself a sort of micro-activist. I'm the guy tossing a starfish back into the ocean proclaiming "I made a difference for that one." And yet, so many of us, myself included, were taught to aim big and do more.
What if, for some of us, doing more is actually doing less?
And how can we recognize God in such a broken dumpster fire of a world?
"Ordinary Altars" is written in such a way that it reinforces Bessey's message - using a myriad of stories from her own life, Bessey guides us toward the ordinary altars in our own lives - people and places where holy meets commonplace and where we live full-bodied into the world(s) where we've been planted less concerned about accomplishment and more concerned about accompaniment.
As someone who has always been a bit of a lesser activist, I've always struggled with feeling under-accomplished. As someone with multiple disabilities that often remind me very loudly of the need to pace and self-nurture, I can easily feel like my body's not allowing me to live the life I so desperately want to live.
And yet, even when talking about her children here in a tone that is filled with maternal dignity and fierce respect, Bessey reaches this point of sharing that living into our faith and into our callings with sincerity rather than goal-setting allows us to live our lives more compassionately, more tenderly, and more attentively toward ourselves and one another.
"Ordinary Altars" is almost instantly my favorite from Sarah Bessey, a balm of spirit and nature for this desperate to serve but oh so spiritually tired soul who both wants to care for who I am while learning how to live a life of revolutionary love and presence so that the world, or at least the world in which I love, will feel like home for myself and others.
The world? It is going to break our heart. Sarah Bessey offers field notes for learning how to love it and love it again anyway.
In fact, I've been trying to figure out exactly when I discovered Bessey. As I recall, I discovered Bessey first on social media as I began immersing myself more in what many would call "deconstruction" but I'd likely simply claim to be unmasking my own faith journey.
I believe my first Bessey reading experience was with "Miracles and Other Reasonable Things," a direct result of following her on social media. The Canadian Christian who lives in Calgary, Alberta, whose first book "Jesus Feminist" had a foreword by our beloved Rachel Held Evans was one of the earliest of the Christian writers to openly embrace full participation by the LGBTQ+ community in church life.
There is something about Bessey's presence that feels like an invitation into safety. It's how she writes, with great intentionality yet with quiet vulnerability. Bessey's literary voice really doesn't waiver, and yet she teaches more than preaches and seems to see people as ones who need to be loved more than be fixed. Bessey writes from a matter-of-factness that I can't help but believe is part her faith lens and partly that Canadian worldview.
I'm now realizing this is an awfully long introduction to my review of Bessey's latest, "Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World (Even When It Breaks Your Heart)." The truth is I think I've always found Bessey to be a little intimidating. This is not necessarily a bad thing in a world that tends to devalue women's voices - especially when it comes to faith, ministry, and all things Christianity.
And yet, there's some sort of lightbulb that switched on with "Ordinary Altars," a book that is both deeply wise and remarkably tender.
Bessey has challenged me before. She nearly always makes me think. And yet, "Ordinary Altars" made me cry. A lot. I mean, seriously. A lot. I'm not even sure I'm completely in touch with all that broke open with "Ordinary Altars," but it broken open. It started in the opening pages, and yet powerfully came to life in the chapter "Irreplaceable." This is a chapter that finds Bessey sharing the tangible ways in which she changed her life away from the "set apart" ministry that had always felt right and moved toward what I'd call a living ministry that is where we perhaps even moreso define her presence now. As an adult with a disability and a seminary graduate, I clicked with this chapter in a myriad of ways and finally felt affirmed for the ways in which my own ministry has twisted and turned, skipped chapters and written new ones.
I felt loved. That doesn't happen often in a book, but it was undeniably true and would continue throughout "Ordinary Altars," a book that gently nudges us to realize that we don't always get to change the world.
We can always love the world.
I have always considered myself a sort of micro-activist. I'm the guy tossing a starfish back into the ocean proclaiming "I made a difference for that one." And yet, so many of us, myself included, were taught to aim big and do more.
What if, for some of us, doing more is actually doing less?
And how can we recognize God in such a broken dumpster fire of a world?
"Ordinary Altars" is written in such a way that it reinforces Bessey's message - using a myriad of stories from her own life, Bessey guides us toward the ordinary altars in our own lives - people and places where holy meets commonplace and where we live full-bodied into the world(s) where we've been planted less concerned about accomplishment and more concerned about accompaniment.
As someone who has always been a bit of a lesser activist, I've always struggled with feeling under-accomplished. As someone with multiple disabilities that often remind me very loudly of the need to pace and self-nurture, I can easily feel like my body's not allowing me to live the life I so desperately want to live.
And yet, even when talking about her children here in a tone that is filled with maternal dignity and fierce respect, Bessey reaches this point of sharing that living into our faith and into our callings with sincerity rather than goal-setting allows us to live our lives more compassionately, more tenderly, and more attentively toward ourselves and one another.
"Ordinary Altars" is almost instantly my favorite from Sarah Bessey, a balm of spirit and nature for this desperate to serve but oh so spiritually tired soul who both wants to care for who I am while learning how to live a life of revolutionary love and presence so that the world, or at least the world in which I love, will feel like home for myself and others.
The world? It is going to break our heart. Sarah Bessey offers field notes for learning how to love it and love it again anyway.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I have always loved Sarah Bessey and this book is one of the reasons why. In a time where there are fewer reasons to believe with our eyes that there are still sacred places and that the world is worth loving, Sarah gently reminds us that every place is a place where God dwells and that every moment can be just as holy - whether you’re raging against the blatant evils of genocide, corruption, and greed or you’re fawning over the giggle of a toddler. Her writing has a calming effect on my spirit and nervous system. Loved this.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Sarah Bessey has written before about her spiritual journey, the work of deconstructing the version of Christianity she grew up with, the work of reconstructing a faith that is more expansive. In this book, she continues to write about her own discipleship. In recent years, she's made important decisions: the decision to spend less time in public spheres (both in person and online), to spend more time with her children, to drink less, to move from one part of Canada to another, to return to local congregational life (as a participant more than leader.). She writes about those decisions and others in this lovely book about the ways in which ordinary life (when lived intentionally and thoughtfully) can be sacramental. She writes about knitting a giant prayer shawl as a way of processing her grief/rage about the violence in Gaza and Israel. She writes about marriage, rest, work-life balance. A few quotes: "Sometimes the work is to keep loving, to keep the part of us that cares and rages as sacred." "Ordinary work brings order to my soul. The regular tending of my every day life makes me love the world again."
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Received this book as an ARC from NetGalley!
Sarah's voice is so important in the church world today, and I am grateful for her commitment to writing and learning and helping others in their growth! Overall this was a quick and easy read. I enjoyed her stories, found multiple "ahh yes!" moments and many challenging moments, and am glad I read her work. I don't know if the tagline really prepared me for what the book would be, but she is quick to explain in her intro that this is mostly a book about learning through her own life experiences. It's not quite one that made me learn something brand new, maybe more helped me to reflect on my own life experiences. I would recommend if you already like the author or if you're a more memoir type person.
Sarah's voice is so important in the church world today, and I am grateful for her commitment to writing and learning and helping others in their growth! Overall this was a quick and easy read. I enjoyed her stories, found multiple "ahh yes!" moments and many challenging moments, and am glad I read her work. I don't know if the tagline really prepared me for what the book would be, but she is quick to explain in her intro that this is mostly a book about learning through her own life experiences. It's not quite one that made me learn something brand new, maybe more helped me to reflect on my own life experiences. I would recommend if you already like the author or if you're a more memoir type person.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Wow - what an amazing read and challenging in so many ways! Thank you Sarah for being willing and vulnerable to put all of that down in writing and for the gift of allowing me to read it and to continue discovering God!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
loved the chapter about knitting as a response to suffering, making prayer shawls, and keeping our relentlessly breaking hearts open. grateful for her stories and perseverance.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews