Sarah 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 now available for preorder (26 January 2027).

Sarah cofounded Evolving Faith, a conference and online community for people who are reimagining their faith with hope, and also writes a bestselling weekly Substack newsletter, Field Notes. She lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her husband and their four children.

Officially

Sarah's Books

On a more human note

Hello, hello. I’m so glad that you’re here. I’m Sarah Bessey. I’ve worn a lot of hats over years of public work/ministry but I’m most comfortable in my vocation as a plain old writer these days.

All the books! including international editions

My latest book is called Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World (Even When It Breaks Your Heart) and it is coming your way on 26 January 2027! You can learn more about that book - and preorder it! - here. Barbara Brown Taylor has endorsed it and no, I won’t be over that for another decade or two.

My 2024 book Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith was a USA Today, The Globe and Mail, Indie Book, McNally Robinson, Bookshop.org, and Publisher’s Weekly bestseller. That book has a guided journal that goes along with it, too.

A Rhythm of Prayer: A Collection of Meditations for Renewal (2021) was also a New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The Globe and Mail Bestseller. I’m also the author of the best-selling and critically acclaimed books Jesus Feminist (2013); Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith (2015); and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things (2019).

And I served as the editor/midwife for Rachel Held Evans’ Braving the Truth: Essential Essays for Reckoning with and Reimagining Faith which was an instant New York Times bestseller.

 

I write a weekly bestselling Substack newsletter called Field Notes with exclusive essays, devotional series, and more. You can sign up for Field Notes here. It’s been around since 2014 but thanks to being an early adopter of blogging, I’ve been oversharing on the Internet since 2004.

Photo by Allison Shirreffs, Evolving Faith 2020

Along with my friends, the late Rachel Held Evans and Jim Chaffee, I co-founded Evolving Faith. And I was also the co-host of The Evolving Faith Podcast with my friend Jeff Chu, which has been downloaded by millions of listeners worldwide. After seven years at the helm, I stepped away from that leadership role in 2024 but Evolving Faith is still going strong.

I was born and raised in the prairies and foothills of western Canada, specifically in Regina, Saskatchewan; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Calgary, Alberta. I lived in the USA (Oklahoma and Texas) for a short stint in my twenties and then British Columbia for a few years, but we happily make our home in Calgary (on the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in southern Alberta and the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3). It’s good to be home again.

My emotional support extrovert husband Brian and I have been married for 25 years.

Together, we have four beloved children, formerly known as The Tinies (that moniker gave way to the reality that they are all taller than me now, it’s fine) who range in age from university students to one last little middle schooler. I keep their lives offline but they are my greatest joy.

We also have a cranky old cat named Amy and a golden retriever named Lucy.

 

Also Good to Know

Pseudo-hermit bookworm

Textbook Enneagram 9w8 GenX prairie kid

Was once called an “evil leftist menace to the Gospel” but forgot to get that printed on the business cards

Enthusiastic - if basic - knitter

Loves a long drive, the Calgary Flames & the Boston Bruins hockey teams, daily walks, tea, and thrifting

Embarrassing fangirl for Doctor Who

Watches Anne of Green Gables (CBC version) once a year every year since 1985 and collects vintage L.M. Montgomery books

Sings along with pretty much every word of 90s country songs

Super Jesus-y but (trying to be) the love-your-neighbour kind. See also: overly earnest and sincere

Current favourite line in scripture: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11)

 

Find me on Instagram (now and then) @sarahbessey

Beloved friends who still love this Story even when it breaks your heart, may you be blessed in your faithfulness, even as you stand as witness to loss. Blessed are you who still claim “Christian” even with that angry wobble in your voic
26.01.27 ❤️‍🩹 (I'll be sharing a few snippets and quotes from Ordinary Altars over the coming months.)
Bless our stubborn refusal to quit caring. Bless our unreasonable hopes, our tenacious refusals to cave to the powers and principalities of our age, Let alone to be talked out of decency and resilience, and our faith in Love, despite evidence to the
Thank you to Publishers Weekly for this lovely review of "Ordinary Altars: How to Love the World (Even When It Breaks Your Heart). ❤️ (I've been oversharing on the Internet since 2004, writing/publishing books since 2013, and to this day I am n
Every child matters. 🧡🤍 Each and every baby MATTERS, then and now and always. Truth and Reconciliation Day is not a “day off” - it’s a day for learning and unlearning, for lament and even joy, for remembering and for holding vig
For the weekend: a reminder. May you stop confusing exhaustion and productivity with faithfulness. May you remember that your body is not an inconvenience to spirituality but, as Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us, your “soul’s address.&rdqu
May your delight become a small rebellion against the powers and principalities that benefit from numbness and exhaustion. May delight keep your imagination alive enough to believe that another world is possible and make you brave enough to help buil
This morning while I was driving one of our daughters to school, someone created an ordinary altar. We were stopped at a red light at a very busy intersection. And in the middle of the lanes of traffic, dead centre of the interchange was a baby bunny

You can also find my page on Facebook if you’re still there. I’m rather quick to archive and delete social media posts because of complicated feelings on the tech overlords and constant access (so if you can’t find something, sorry!)

If you would like to get in touch, please click here. (Please note that DMs on social media platforms are not a reliable way to get in touch as I’m afraid that I rarely read/check those inboxes.)