There might be no greater need in the church today than the need of a growing number of believers living sent. People aren’t coming to us, so we’re going to have to go to them. Going to those who won’t come to us begins with loving where you live.

Ministry Changes

Shauna Pilgreen shares her journey of living sent in her book Love Where You Live (Baker Publishing Group, 2019). Born in the South, married to a Baptist preacher, Shauna’s family answered the call to move to San Francisco and plant a church. Overnight, everything changed. Rural turned to urban. Grass became concrete. Deep family connections gave way to strangers. The familiar gave way to the foreign. Shauna details many of the changes—some humorous, some heart-breaking, some shocking—while keeping in the forefront that all changes were divine opportunities to live sent.

We live in a world of change whether we see it or not. Many of those who once lived around the world now live across the street. Increasingly, those across the street have little or no interest in church, regardless of whether they grew up in Houston, Los Angeles, Islamabad, or New Delhi. It takes a pretty sequestered life not to see it. Love Where You Live helps the reader see these changes as divine opportunities to live sent.

Practical and Inspirational Help

The book also provides a variety of tools and practical examples. I found the chapters on mapping quadrants, circles, and hubs particularly helpful in understanding how God can use our normal pathways and life rhythms as platforms to build gospel-centered relationships. Nearly every chapter contains helpful examples that leave the reader saying, “Well, I could do that.”

Perhaps Shauna’s greatest contribution, though, is her ability to inspire believers to go in the love of God to those who aren’t going to come to us. Story after story shows how warm courage, welcomes, and redeeming love win in the face of fear, isolation, and brokenness. The book is at times painfully honest with failures and genuinely humble with successes. This book taps a deeper vein of joy and purpose found only in the mission of God.

Who Could Benefit from Reading?

Love Where You Live would be a good read for every church member and should be a must-read for every church leader. Nuggets from this book could greatly enhance a new member’s class. And this book is ideal for small groups, especially those groups that want to begin the journey to live sent. 

Additionally, I think the gentle and practical approach of this book could make a valuable contribution to fragile churches that are too inwardly focused.

This book also addresses an urgent need. The average American will move 11 times. Love Where You Live reorients church members to welcome with gospel intentionality those moving in and to send with gospel intentionality those among us moving out. Shauna helps us realize that in this changing climate, “It’s time for believers in Jesus Christ to awaken to our reality of being sent, not simply making a move.”

As the Senior Consultant for Sending Pathways, Cris Alley helps support the local church in thinking and acting like missionaries.

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