This book is a gift! Life isn’t as neat and clean as we might prefer. It isn’t always up and to the right or a straight line—even when we follow Jesus. We may try to pretend or power through, but the human and the divine, hurt and healing, joy and grief all run on parallel tracks. Through Bryan’s raw honesty and compelling storytelling, take a journey and discover how God doesn’t waste anything—and can redeem everything.

Aaron Stern, Lead Pastor of Mill City Church (Fort Collins, CO) and author of What’s Your Secret?

In Terrible Beauty, Bryan speaks to the evolution within us all, weaving our doubts, fears, triumphs, and glories into a narrative that reminds us that life, and anything worth pursuing, is both beautiful and brutal, a tension to manage, not to solve. The person we become in the process of our journey is as sacred and precious as the story we are writing, the battles we are fighting, and the life we are building. 

Tiffany Bluhm, author of The Women We've Been Waiting For and Prey Tell

Bryan Halferty’s Terrible Beauty is several things at once:  a how-to book about “planting” a Christian church, a frank interior journey, and a memoir told with heart-felt candor.  Because Halferty is a pastor, the reader might assume a lot of meringue on a lemon pie, but every page is deeply honest, astutely self-regarding, linguistically poetic.  He has a poet’s ear for language and metaphor.  He is less interested in that image of himself in the reader’s mind, than in getting what he feels and thinks on the page as accurately and honestly as he can.  Even if the reader is not particularly interested in planting a church, the artistic rewards of this book are in every chapter.

Joseph Powell, Poet and Author of Hard Earth

This book is a blazing invitation, it is a Wardrobe that you can pass through—or not—into Narnia land. Take the risk. Because the Good Life is not always the safe life.

Daniel Grothe, Associate Senior Pastor of New Life Church (Colorado Springs, Co) and Author of The Power of Place

Terrible Beauty is an honest look at the process of church planting and the necessary parallel process of a church leader’s spiritual formation, neither of which is frictionless nor predictable. It shows us that there is no broadly applicable x,y,z that results in a “successful” church, or church leader. That, in fact, even those with the best of intentions will fall into pits and disappoint the people around them, but that these “dark nights” aren’t meant to discourage us, but rather transform us. It’s a story about embracing the mystery of the Body of Christ (made up of fallible humans) by the Spirit. It’s about the necessity of eschewing technique, and resting in the realization that God is the active agent, and all we are called to do in this life is be receptive to the parts God wishes us to play. Near the end, Bryan writes that “The manual is never what you really need,” and I’m so thankful that rather than add to the pile of by-the-numbers church planting books, he decided to give us this beautiful, encouraging, and prayerfully wise book instead.

Joey Goodall, Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, Mockingbird

More "campfire" than "classroom," Terrible Beauty invites us into a story of the best kind: we find both humor and humility, wonder, delight and even heartbreak.  Bryan Halferty's prose is a lively read that surprises us with fresh metaphors and almost poetic sensibilities.  While the furniture of the memoir is starting a church from scratch, most anyone who has wrestled to know themselves and to know God, or to birth a new thing without fracturing their souls, will find familiar footing here.  I have the joy of knowing Bryan quite well, and on every page this delightful read rings true. 

Ian McFadden, Lead Pastor of St. Mo’s Church (Baltimore, MD)

This is a “how-to” manual in the same way that the Psalms are. The Psalms don’t provide a roadmap for how to praise. They give us freedom to be human. In the same way, Bryan Halferty has written a beautiful book that is honest about the struggles and triumphs of starting a church. But it’s not a checklist to follow, it’s an invitation to be fully human, in the fullness of our “Terrible Beauty”, as we  endeavor to do things great and small for God. We’ve got enough “how-to” manuals on church planting and ministry. This is a psalm of church planting that is raw, clear-eyed, and filled with hope. Reading this book you will be inspired to dare something new, and invited to be more fully yourself before God. 

Ian Graham, Lead Pastor of Ecclesia (Princeton, NJ)

It is considered enlightened by some to claim that no one ever really changes, that change is not even possible. But if you want to keep believing that, you should never read this book. If you want to keep believing that, don't let Jesus get a hold of you. Pastor Bryan Halferty has written a brutally honest, hopeful book about the flawed ways we think and act, and about how Jesus meets us right there in the mess of it all with love, compassion and grace. I'm grateful for this book, and I encourage you to read it and learn from it so that you might change, grow and become more and more a child of the kingdom.

Michael Wear, President and CEO, Center for Christianity and Public Life

Bryan is an incredibly gifted storyteller. He has a unique ability to bring you into the story. Terrible Beauty is vulnerable, honest, and inspiring. Whether you find yourself thriving or stuck in confusion, you will not want to put it down once you pick it up. 

Brian Owen, Lead Pastor of Grace City Church (Boston, MA)

I had to put Terrible Beauty down several times while reading, not because it wasn’t compelling but because it hit so close to home. This is more than just a memoir of a pastor; it is the journal of someone who has genuinely been with God. For anyone standing at a crossroads, looking back over the course of your life and asking, Was God there? I highly recommend you sit with this book. Because as you do, you’ll see that God was in the middle of all your Terrible Beauty.

Charlie Mitchell, Pastor, Founder of Maroon House, and Dir. Church United SWFL

When looking out on a risky venture, you often desire a guide in the those first steps or simply someone that has gone ahead of you. Bryan, in Terrible Beauty, authentically steps in as that guide who will authentically talk you through his, and maybe your, next steps. This book is not only a gift, but it’s beautiful. Enjoy!

Zachary Meerkreebs, Pastor in Residence at Asbury University and author of Lower