I’m excited to share this book with you because I know the hardest parts of my faith deconstruction journey were often the moments I spent completely drowning in indecision.
It’s my hope that this book will shorten your time in the wilderness as you untangle yourself from toxic religious culture and patriarchy.
Pastor and coach Stephanie WIlliams O’Brien keeps busy as the Co-Lead Pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis, MN; an adjunct professor of Preaching and Communication at Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, and producer and co-host of the Lead Stories podcast with fellow pastor and author, Jo Saxton. She and her filmmaker husband, J.D. have two Springer Spaniel pups with whom they are obsessed.
Stephanie’s latest book, Make A Move, focuses on getting out of stuck mode and finding out what lies on the other side of the big decisions we sometimes face.
In this book, Stephjanie gives step-by-step instructions on how to surround ourselves with people, processes, and tools to help us confidently move through indecision.
Building on ideas developed in her first book, Stay Curious, Stephanie encourages readers to create experiments in their lives to help navigate big decisions. If you (like me) sometimes find yourself completely stuck in indecision, this is a great book to read now before you face the next big decision. There are several new things you can implement now to create a system of support before you actually need it. Revolutionary idea, right? LOL.
She is a pastor so God and the author’s faith are woven throughout, but Make a Move is more a help manual for those of us who get stuck than a spiritual growth book. It could be an extremely useful tool for a ministry leadership team to work through together. Couples could also benefit from reading together and developing new processes together, especially if one or both have grown up surrounded by codependency. (Let’s be honest, haven’t we all?)
The best part about Stephanie’s books is that she is a strategic thinker who creates easy to follow processes to move us through the experience she describes.
Not every pastor can transition from preparing weekly sermons to writing a book, making the chapters feel so connected.
In addition to describing the processes, she provides a ‘Decision Making Tool Box” at the end of the book that includes 10 pages of resources and a link to access downloadable copies of the worksheets. The marble one is my favorite! I’ll be sure to use that one next time I feel indecision creeping up.
Bottom line for me is that it’s a great book for anyone faced with regular decisions that sometimes feel overwhelming. Additionally, I highly recommend Make a Move for business, ministry, and family leaders who regularly make big decisions that impact a lot of people.
You can grab your copy here:
These are a few of my favorite quotes from this book:
- “An experiment isn’t trial and error; it’s trial and learn.”
- “What if God is more interested in the way we make decisions than the final decisions themselves?”
- “I was fixated on not getting this decision wrong, and that is what led to my crippling anxiety.”
- “Our communication overload even causes us to miss out on God’s intentions for us in our daily lives.”
- “What we don’t want to miss is that Jesus is also suggesting you can see spiritually.”
- “God’s voice […] is like the way the water ‘speaks’ to the roots of plants.”
- “Fear, bitterness, and fatigue are the top of the list of what can hold us back from making the moves we need to make in life.”
- “The tough reality is that the pull towards complacency is often much stronger than the pull toward compassion.”
- “The hyperfocus on romantic relationships above all other types is a significant barrier to healthy relationships generally.”
- “Getting good at change is easier when we realize how much is consistent even though change is constant.”
Indecision can burn through so much physical and emotional energy. This book is a great tool to help you reduce that energy burn. If you’re in the midst of deconstructing your faith it’s key to manage your energy so that you have it when you really need it for the heavy lifting.
Did you read Make A Move? If so, hop over to Facebook and tell me what you thought about it!
Angela is a Faith Deconstruction Coach and host of The Deconstructing Faith Summit who helps people break free from toxic religious culture & empowers them to recover from #churchhurt. She has led online ministries for a decade, enjoys working with clients 1:1, in groups, and is a dynamic conference speaker. She’s a Lark’s Song Certified Life Coach who reaches thousands of people in 40+ countries each month on Facebook, IG, Twitter, Pinterest, and her blog.
She’s a firstborn, Enneagram 8, Gen Xer who loves to question everything. She holds a BA from Indiana Wesleyan and a Masters in Leadership from Wesley Seminary. Her graduate research project focused on leadership development and opportunities for Gen X women in the US church.
Angela and her unique online ministry are featured in Lyz Lenz’s 2019 book God Land: Story of Faith, Loss, and Renewal in Middle America. She has published articles in Hope for Women and HOPE is Now magazines. She has been featured in The New Republic, Publisher’s Today, and Religion News Service.
Her first book, Deconstructing Your Faith Without Losing Yourself, Will be published by Eerdmans in February 2023.
Angela is also a wife, mom to 5, and a proud resident of Marion, Indiana with her family when they’re not traveling the US in their RV.
