Sarah Bessey – författare

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * INDIE BESTSELLERNew York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans inspired a generation of questioning and evolving believers. This book offers a collection of her most impactful essays—in print for the first time.For a generation finding their footing in life after evangelicalism, Rachel Held Evans was one of the most trusted and beloved voices of our time. Stubborn in her hope, courageous in her questions, and devoted to inclusivity, her online writing was a sanctuary to the millions who read her words daily. Her death to a sudden illness in 2019 invoked a global outpouring of stories of her legacy and influence.Today, her words still speak, and now for the first time, fans old and new can experience her most viral and enduring essays in print—from those tackling patriarchy, white supremacy, and religious nationalism to those offering new interpretations of Scripture, freeing perspectives on doubt, and a better way forward. Braving the Truth is an anthology and keepsake collection letting readers borrow the bravery Rachel was best known for. Edited by New York Times bestselling author and Rachel’s dear friend Sarah Bessey, this special volume is interspersed with reflections from: Shauna Niequist on the practice of braveryGlennon Doyle on the decision to "stay and complicate"Jen Hatmaker on LGBTQ+ allyship and affirming theologyLisa Sharon Harper on fighting white patriarchy in the churchMatthew Paul Turner on the freedom of the "slippery slope" of asking questionsKaitlin B. Curtice on solidarity, kinship, and "tending the spiritual fire"And more from Candice Marie Benbow, Micha Boyett, Cindy Wang Brandt, Alise Chaffins, Shane Claiborne, Monica A. Coleman, Shannon Dingle, Peter Enns, Kathy Escobar, Kathleen Gleason, Austen Hartke, Peter Held, Carol Howard, Kristen Howerton, Zack Hunt, Emmy Kegler, Kathy Khang, Mihee Kim-Kort, Rachel Kurtz, Tanya Marlow, Sarah McCammon, Mike McHargue, Scot McKnight, Brian D. McLaren, Mason Mennenga, Osheta Moore, Amanda Held Opelt, Matthias Roberts, Winnie Varghese, Matthew Vines, and Kelsey Hanson Woodruff “If you want to understand the Church today, you need to understand Rachel Held Evans,” so writes Sarah Bessey. Thoughtful yet down-to-earth, immediate and timeless, this essay collection is a gift from the past to bring into the future—a treasury to revitalize, validate, embolden, and return to again and again.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * INDIE BESTSELLERNew York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans inspired a generation of questioning and evolving believers. This book offers a collection of her most impactful essays—in print for the first time.For a generation finding their footing in life after evangelicalism, Rachel Held Evans was one of the most trusted and beloved voices of our time. Stubborn in her hope, courageous in her questions, and devoted to inclusivity, her online writing was a sanctuary to the millions who read her words daily. Her death to a sudden illness in 2019 invoked a global outpouring of stories of her legacy and influence.Today, her words still speak, and now for the first time, fans old and new can experience her most viral and enduring essays in print—from those tackling patriarchy, white supremacy, and religious nationalism to those offering new interpretations of Scripture, freeing perspectives on doubt, and a better way forward. Braving the Truth is an anthology and keepsake collection letting readers borrow the bravery Rachel was best known for. Edited by New York Times bestselling author and Rachel’s dear friend Sarah Bessey, this special volume is interspersed with reflections from: Shauna Niequist on the practice of braveryGlennon Doyle on the decision to "stay and complicate"Jen Hatmaker on LGBTQ+ allyship and affirming theologyLisa Sharon Harper on fighting white patriarchy in the churchMatthew Paul Turner on the freedom of the "slippery slope" of asking questionsKaitlin B. Curtice on solidarity, kinship, and "tending the spiritual fire"And more from Candice Marie Benbow, Micha Boyett, Cindy Wang Brandt, Alise Chaffins, Shane Claiborne, Monica A. Coleman, Shannon Dingle, Peter Enns, Kathy Escobar, Kathleen Gleason, Austen Hartke, Peter Held, Carol Howard, Kristen Howerton, Zack Hunt, Emmy Kegler, Kathy Khang, Mihee Kim-Kort, Rachel Kurtz, Tanya Marlow, Sarah McCammon, Mike McHargue, Scot McKnight, Brian D. McLaren, Mason Mennenga, Osheta Moore, Amanda Held Opelt, Matthias Roberts, Winnie Varghese, Matthew Vines, and Kelsey Hanson Woodruff “If you want to understand the Church today, you need to understand Rachel Held Evans,” so writes Sarah Bessey. Thoughtful yet down-to-earth, immediate and timeless, this essay collection is a gift from the past to bring into the future—a treasury to revitalize, validate, embolden, and return to again and again.

This loving yet fearless book urges today’s church to move beyond man-made restrictions and fully welcome women’s diverse voices and experiences.Sarah Bessey, through disarmingly intimate storytelling, tells how she grew to understand the story of God and the vastness of his work through women. Never one to shy away from the hard questions, Bessey engages critically with Scripture and church practices that are often used against full equality and shares how following Jesus made a feminist out of her.Filled with beauty, hard truth, and brave vulnerability, Jesus Feminist urges the Church to stop asking ‘man or woman?’ as a qualification for ministry and to start helping everyone find freedom in the fullness, hope, glory and work of Christ.

From the popular blogger and provocative author of Jesus Feminist comes a riveting new study of Christianity that helps you wrestle with - and sort out - your faith. In Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues - such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be - she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERFrom living rooms to church basements, Sarah Bessey grew up amongst prayer circles filled with women from diverse backgrounds who prayed in diverse ways. In A Rhythm of Prayer she captures the spirit of those prayer circles, bringing together a range of faith leaders, including Barbara Brown Taylor, Amena Brown, Nadia Bolz-Weber and many more, to offer daily inspiration for connecting with God. With thirty one original prayers for every mood – tiredness, anger and sorrow as well as hope, love and reconciliation – and journaling pages to add your own prayers to the circle, this is not just a devotional book, but a celebration of unique voices. It is also a warm, inviting invitation to renew and revitalise your prayer life, ideal for anyone who is looking for fresh ideas for prayer or for those just starting to explore prayer for the first time. Filled with wisdom, compassion and words of poetic beauty, A Rhythm of Prayer is a Christian prayer book that provides spiritual nourishment and guidance. It will leave you feeling connected to others who also walk with God and less alone in difficult, uncertain times.

A nurturing collection of practices to help an emerging generation of Christians reconnect to their faith, find inner healing and build spiritual community - from Glennon Doyle's 'favourite faith writer' and the New York Times bestselling author of Jesus Feminist and editor of A Rhythm of Prayer.It's hard to leave a faith that has raised us. Maybe even harder to stay. But what can feel impossible is living in the tension. Living with a faith that evolves.Sarah Bessey is an expert at faithfully stumbling forward. As a bestselling author and co-founder of Evolving Faith, the foremost community for progressive Christians, she has been trusted by thousands of people to pursue a reconstruction of faith centred on compassion, truth and inclusion. Bessey has found a deeply underserved and underestimated remnant in the wilderness of Christianity, who are still devoted to Jesus, deeply rooted in the gospel, fascinated with Scripture and committed to reimagining their faith.Field Notes for the Wilderness guides the reader through multiple principles to live by for an evolving faith, including:- Practising wonder and curiosity as spiritual disciplines- Mothering ourselves with compassion and empathy- Making space for lament and righteous rage- Finding good spiritual teachers- Discovering what we are for in this life, and moving in that directionIn this groundbreaking and hopeful book, Bessey has given us a table for our questions, a shepherd for our curiosity, tools to cultivate what we crave and a blessing for what was -even as we leave it behind.

Make the breakthrough you need to gently and creatively transform your faith, with this practical companion journal to Field Notes for the Wilderness, Sarah Bessey’s meditation on finding God in the mystery.Field Notes for the Wilderness is a nurturing and hopeful collection of practices for the emerging generation of faith followers—the wounded, the curious, the lost, and the miraculously hopeful.This guided journal companion to Sarah Bessey’s transformative spiritual guide walks you through practical activities, questions, and challenges following the principles for an evolving faith, including• practicing wonder and curiosity as spiritual disciplines• learning to mother yourself with empathy• making space for lament and righteous rage• finding good spiritual teachersTake the groundbreaking concepts from Field Notes for the Wilderness and encounter additional shepherding and viable wisdom to apply them intentionally and impactfully to your life.

You 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 extraordinary: in big callings, dramatic transformations, affirmations of constant achievement, or lives that inspire millions. But what if that way of seeing has left us unable to recognize where God is actually present—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 turned out as advertised? Drawing from her own story of faith, disillusionment, motherhood, and decades of work as a spiritual guide, 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 the 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, this is a story 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 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 is a guide to a sturdy faith that can bear the weight of the world—rooted in reality, loving defiantly, and stubbornly faithful enough to make the world feel like home again.

Rediscover sacred presence in the everyday with this practical and poetic companion to Ordinary Altars, Sarah Bessey’s invitation to encounter God right where you are—beneath the laundry pile, behind the steering wheel, or in the grief you never saw coming.Ordinary Altars: A Guided Journal offers a guided journey through the ordinary altars of your life—those unseen, uncelebrated places where holiness quietly waits. Through thoughtful prompts, reflection questions, storytelling exercises, and accessible spiritual practices, this companion invites you to apply the heart of Ordinary Altars to your real life: a life that may feel disoriented, disenchanted, or too mundane to hold divine presence. Whether you’re rebuilding faith after deconstruction, weary from performance-driven spirituality, or simply seeking a slower, truer way of being with God, these pages are your invitation to pay attention, to notice, to stay.Together, we’ll explore how to love our place, our people, and our limitations with courage. We’ll make space for lament, rediscover joy in the regular, and learn to see our own stories as sacred. Ordinary Altars: A Guided Journal doesn’t promise a formula for faith—but it does offer the humble, healing work of showing up to your life and finding that God is already there.

Written with poetic rhythm, a prophetic voice, and a deeply biblical foundation, this loving yet fearless book urges today’s church to move beyond man-made restrictions and fully welcome women’s diverse voices and experiences.A freedom song for the church. Sarah Bessey didn’t ask for Jesus to come in and mess up all her ideas about a woman’s place in the world and in the church. But patriarchy, she came to learn, was not God’s dream for humanity. Bessey engages critically with Scripture in this gentle and provocative love letter to the Church. Written with poetic rhythm, a prophetic voice, and a deeply biblical foundation, this loving yet fearless book urges today’s church to move beyond man-made restrictions and fully welcome women’s diverse voices and experiences. It’s at once a call to find freedom in the fullness, hope, glory, and work of Christ, and a very personal and moving story of how Jesus made a feminist out of her.

From the popular blogger and provocative author of Jesus Feminist comes a riveting new study of Christianity that helps you wrestle with—and sort out—your faith.In Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey—award-winning blogger and author of Jesus Feminist, which was hailed as “lucid, compelling, and beautifully written” (Frank Viola, author of God’s Favorite Place on Earth)—helps us grapple with core Christian issues using a mixture of beautiful storytelling and biblical teaching, a style well described as “narrative theology.” As she candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues—such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be—she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions. In the process of gently helping us sort things out, Bessey teaches us how to be as comfortable with uncertainty as we are with solid answers. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life.

“This book—the fullness, depth, and beauty of Sarah Bessey’s faith and artistic genius—is a miracle” (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior) and an unforgettable and life-affirming exploration of how trauma can strengthen your faith and miracles can be found in unexpected places. In the brief instant Sarah Bessey realized that her minivan was, inevitably, going to hit the car on the highway on the bright, clear day of the crash, she knew intuitively that it would have life-changing consequences. But as she navigated the winding path from her life before the accident—as a popular author, preacher, and loving wife and mother—to her new life after, inhabiting a body that no longer felt like her own, she found that the most unexpected result was how it shook her deeply rooted faith, upending everything she thought she knew and held so dearly. Weaving together theology and memoir, Sarah delivers “a well-written reminder of seeing the miracles in life’s highs and lows” (Library Journal). The road of healing leads to Rome where she met the Pope (it’s complicated) and encountered the Holy Spirit in the last place she expected. She writes about her miraculous healing, learning to live with chronic pain, and the ways God makes us whole in the midst of suffering. She invites us to a path of knowing God that is filled with ordinary miracles, hope in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and other completely reasonable things. Insightful, profound, and unexpected, “Sarah’s writing is so breathtaking, sometimes you think you are reading poetry. The story is so thrilling, sometimes you think you are devouring a novel. And the Spirit she describes is so compelling, you’ll swear you experienced a revival. You won’t put it down once until you close the last page” (Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author).

“This book—the fullness, depth, and beauty of Sarah Bessey’s faith and artistic genius—is a miracle” (Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior) and an unforgettable and life-affirming exploration of how trauma can strengthen your faith and miracles can be found in unexpected places. In the brief instant Sarah Bessey realized that her minivan was, inevitably, going to hit the car on the highway on the bright, clear day of the crash, she knew intuitively that it would have life-changing consequences. But as she navigated the winding path from her life before the accident—as a popular author, preacher, and loving wife and mother—to her new life after, inhabiting a body that no longer felt like her own, she found that the most unexpected result was how it shook her deeply rooted faith, upending everything she thought she knew and held so dearly. Weaving together theology and memoir, Sarah delivers “a well-written reminder of seeing the miracles in life’s highs and lows” (Library Journal). The road of healing leads to Rome where she met the Pope (it’s complicated) and encountered the Holy Spirit in the last place she expected. She writes about her miraculous healing, learning to live with chronic pain, and the ways God makes us whole in the midst of suffering. She invites us to a path of knowing God that is filled with ordinary miracles, hope in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, and other completely reasonable things. Insightful, profound, and unexpected, “Sarah’s writing is so breathtaking, sometimes you think you are reading poetry. The story is so thrilling, sometimes you think you are devouring a novel. And the Spirit she describes is so compelling, you’ll swear you experienced a revival. You won’t put it down once until you close the last page” (Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author).

You don’t always get to change the world, but you do get to love it.Many of us were taught to look for God in the extraordinary: 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.

UNA CANCIÓN DE LIBERTAD PARA LA IGLESIA.Sarah Bessey no le pidió a Jesús que viniera y desordenara todas sus ideas sobre el lugar de la mujer en el mundo y en la iglesia. Pero llegó a entender que el patriarcado no era el sueño de Dios para la humanidad.Bessey se compromete críticamente con la Escritura en esta carta de amor gentil y provocativa para la Iglesia.Escrito con ritmo poético, voz profética y una base profundamente bíblica, este libro amoroso pero intrépido urge a la Iglesia para que se mueva más allá de las restricciones hechas por el hombre y dé plena bienvenida a las diversas voces y experiencias de las mujeres.Es, a la vez, un llamado a encontrar la libertad en la plenitud, esperanza, gloria y obra de Cristo, y una muy personal y conmovedora historia de cómo Jesús hizo de ella una feminista."La escritura cálida e íntima de Bessey distingue a este libro de otros centrados en tópicos similares. Su aproximamiento y estilo ofrecen un aporte único a la literatura sobre el rol de la mujer en las iglesias cristianas". Publishers Weekly"Nunca estridente, en su lugar el enfoque de Bessey es sólido y claro… Una excelente elección". Booklist"Amo a las escritoras que son los suficientemente perspicaces como para ser cínicas, pero eligen no serlo. Amo los libros que me ayudan a ver cosas que nunca antes había notado (en la vida, en mí mismo, en otros, en la Biblia, en Jesús). Amo los textos que hacen disfrutable y fácil la lectura… Amo Jesús Feminista. No es un 'libro para mujeres'. De hecho, es el tipo de libro que ayudará a mujeres y hombres a ver cuán inútil es esa distinción". Brian D. McLaren, autor, orador, activista"Con gracia, humildad y confianza (incluso en lo desconocido), el Jesús Feminista de Sarah Bessey humaniza magistralmente uno de los tópicos más controversiales de estos días". Andrew Marin, autor de Love Is an Orientation"Con honesta vulnerabilidad y fuertes fundamentos bíblicos, Sara Bessey comparte su viaje personal e introspección con respecto a los roles y calificativos para las mujeres en el ministerio". Helen Burns, autora de The Miracle in a Mother's Hug