The Ministry of Ordinary Places

I feel sure that I have highlighted more parts of this book than I've left unhighlighted. It's just that good! Reading The Ministry of Ordinary Places has changed me in a way I didn't know I needed to be changed. It has reminded me of the value of paying attention and loving my neighbor— those who cross my path on this journey we call life. The book has given me eyes to see and a heart to love people like I never had before.

I realized early on, in the very first chapters of The Ministry of Ordinary Places, that my calling wasn't to somewhere I haven't arrived yet, my calling is right here where I am. This place, this ordinary place—this is my calling and everything up to this point in my journey has prepared me for it!

"If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me. 'I will be found by you.' says the Lord." Jeremiah 29:13-14

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​Learn how to love and be loved right where God has placed you.

"I went about my life believing God had more plans for me, wrought with mystery and nuance, hidden just outside my line of vision. Quite honestly, it was easier to soldier forward in my pursuit of being a good, Christian woman and just hope it would all shake out in the wash.

Somewhere on the path toward the weird way of Jesus, where conventional wisdom is replaced with foolish love and unpopular alliances, I uncovered my calling. It wasn't new. It had always been there. But now, I was ready to see it. And because I'm your friend to the end, I'm here to save you the trouble: It's your calling too.

As Christ-followers, we are called to be long-haul neighbors committed to authenticity and willing to take some risks. Our vocation is to invest deeply in the lives of those around us, devoted to one another, physically close to each other as we breathe the same air and walk the same blocks. Our purpose is not so mysterious after all. We get to love and be deeply loved right where we're planted, by whomever happens to be near. We will inevitably encounter brokenness we cannot fix, solve, or understand, and we'll feel as small, uncertain, and outpaced as we have ever felt. But we'll find our very lives in this calling, to be among people as Jesus was, and it will change everything. The details will look quiet and ordinary. They will exhaust and exhilarate us. But it will be the most worth-it adventure we will ever take." —Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Do you ever feel forgotten, like you are floundering in the vast sea of life alone on your journey? We are not forgotten, not alone, and God has you right where you are for a purpose, for a reason— minister there! Take roots there. Own it! 

"We believe God hasn't forgotten us and that He has a plan to renew the beauty lost in the weeds. We are mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. We want the younger generations to thrive in a new way. We want the older generations to feel seen, heard, and valued." —Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

I found the chapter Locking Eyes With the World We're In particularly compelling. Most of us seem so connected to social media—with faces constantly buried in our smartphones, yet we are so disconnected from the three square feet around us!

"Barbara Brown Taylor wrote, 'It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first. Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate.' Simply put, we cannot love what we do not know. We cannot know what we do not see. We cannot see anything, really, until we devote ourselves to the lost art of paying attention....

Slowly, I began to understand that what God was asking of me was indeed a very small thing. In His kingdom economy, most great things are. Today, in a small city in Indiana, I continue to be schooled in the ways of seeing—really seeing—my place and her people. This unlikely education is born of repetition, hyperawareness, and the audacity to believe God is already at work around me in the shadows and cracks." —Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

This book really hit home with me, especially in it's attempt to make me focus on the here and now! Sadly, I find myself so incredible attached to my smartphone. I remember one particular vacation, I found myself on a small island in the Caribbean, where I had no cell service and no Internet. Upon arrival, I placed my smartphone in the hotel safe and didn't retrieve it until the end of the week when we were leaving. The first day or so was difficult as I refrained from tweeting every random thought that popped into my head, but by the end of the week I had found a freedom I lost in the early 90s. I found a freedom to just BE—to be in the moment with the people that surrounded me. I found the freedom to just enjoy the three square feet around me without having to document it, to love and be loved without having to take a selfie. It was priceless!

"...we have to reimagine ourselves as students of the invisible practice of mindful hearing. We have to reacquaint ourselves with quiet and minimize distraction so that our ears can be tuned. Here's how I try. I make space each day to intentionally choose silence, going about my business without the drone of music, podcasts, or television. I also leave my phone at home whenever possible, particularly on walks. It seems like such an unremarkable choice, we're tempted to dismiss it. There are times I suffer a wave of lowest-grade panic that I'll miss out on capturing a beautiful moment without a camera in my pocket. Yet what I lose in my ability to document the visible I gain in the audible, that vibrant world that blends os seamlessly into the physical, waiting to be heard. There, in the quiet, my place comes alive. It's priceless."​ —Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

The Ministry of Ordinary Places not only reminded me to put down my smartphone and pay attention, it taught me how to love, and how to be loved. It taught me that what I put a high value on is not what Jesus puts a high value on.

"In the book of John, as through all the Gospels and the entire New Testament, Jesus promised the opposite of what the world offers like a prized show pony. He held up things like smallness, humility, suffering, poverty, and the guarantee of outsider status, as though they were His best offerings..." ​—Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

Jesus says in John 10:10, "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly." He wants us to have a meaningful, abundant life, right where He has placed us, and that might mean smallness, humility, suffering, poverty, and outsider status, but that's ok. 

"Here's what's hard to understand about us humans: Jesus couldn't have made Himself clearer about the inevitability of hardship, yet we are shocked when His promise rings true. When one of the gifts I'm handed looks like sadness, a lost opportunity, or something much worse, like suffering....

Jesus was a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief (Isaiah 53:3), yet Western Christians, on the whole, remain emotionally allergic to sadness and discomfort. We do anything we can to avoid it....

All throughout His time here on earth, Christ camped among the hurting. He didn't flee discomfort. He walked straight into it, then took off His shoes and stayed, accepting all of it as gift and nourishment." ​—Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

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"For Christ-followers living in an increasingly complicated world, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to live a life of intention and meaning. 

Where do we even begin?

Shannan Martin offers a surprisingly simple answer: uncover the hidden corners of our cities and neighborhoods and invest deeply in the lives of people around us. She walks us through her own discoveries about the vital importance of paying attention, as well as the hard but rewarding truth about showing up and committing for the long haul, despite the inevitable encounters with brokenness and uncertainty. With transparency, humor, heart-tugging storytelling, and more than a little personal confession, Martin shows us that no matter where we live or how much we have, as we learn what it is to be with people as Jesus was, we'll find our very lives." --goodreads

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Who is your neighbor?

"I have long understood the American concept of neighbors. They are the ones who live next door. The ones we wave at, now and then. The ones we might gift with cookies during the holidays. They are the nice people who keep a comfortable distance. It's likely we might never learn their names. But maybe the American idea of neighbors doesn't match God's idea. He invites us to something deeper, calling us to join Him in loving each other and promising it will be worth the vulnerability it's sure to cost us. He points us to the heart of the matter: aligning with our neighbors will change our lives if we let it. But before we can offer them anything, we first have to be mindful students in the uncomfortable art of receiving." ​—Shannan Martin, The Ministry of Ordinary Places

If I am honest with myself, most of the time, I actually find it easier to give than to receive, even when it involves sacrificial giving. I personally have a difficult time asking for and/or receiving help from others. I'd rather be the helper than the helped.

Shannon covers this in her book as well. Not everyone we meet needs our help, though many may. Many times God brings people across our paths not because they need help, but because He knows they can help us. Learn to recognize the difference. 

In learning to recognize the difference we then open ourselves up to being a blessing in a whole different way. So often we think to be a blessing we have to be the giver. If you realize what a blessing it is to give, then you must also realize what a blessing it is to the giver when you become the recipient of the gift. Be willing to be needy. Be willing to receive.

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What people are saying about The Ministry of Ordinary Places

“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

“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

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I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

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Have you read The Ministry of Ordinary Places? If so, how has it changed your life?