When ordinary surrender amazes an extraordinary God
What kind of life makes God stop and look?
Hardcover, paperback, and Kindle. Eleven chapters, and a free 76-page study guide if your group wants to read it together.
The pattern
He doesn't marvel at religious activity either. Read Scripture carefully and you find him pausing over one ordinary person at a time, and saying something like look at that one.
Not one of them was extraordinary. Every one of them caught heaven's eye.
Why this book exists
That was never the problem. The problem is the gap — the distance between what you say about Jesus on Sunday and how you actually live the rest of the week.
You feel it. You have felt it for years. Most books meet that gap with more pressure. This one starts somewhere else: with the ten qualities Scripture says God responds to, and why every one of them is within reach of an ordinary life.
That gap is not your condemnation. It's your invitation.
Ryan didn't write this book from a distance. He wrote it from the middle of the fight.
Tim Holt — from the foreword
Seventeen years in the making. Not seventeen years of writing — seventeen years of living, on the mountain, in the valley, and more than once in the desert.
What's inside
Each chapter takes one quality Scripture says God marvels at, anchors it in a biblical witness, and ends with honest application and a set of discussion questions.
Every chapter also carries modern witnesses — Polycarp, Susanna Wesley, Brother Lawrence, Horatio Spafford, Lottie Moon, Joni Eareckson Tada and others — believers whose ordinary faithfulness matched the biblical figure's.
A Roman soldier says something to Jesus that Jesus had never heard from anyone in Israel. That's chapter one, and you can read the whole thing before you buy anything.
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Free for group leaders
Eleven sessions, built for a group that meets for ninety minutes and wants to actually change, not just finish a book.
Print-ready PDF · One copy per leader · Members need the book
How the book ends
Hebrews 11 is not a closed list of heroes to admire from a distance. Scripture says they were not made complete without us — which means the list is still open.
Get a copy
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For churches
Bulk pricing is available for churches, classes, and small groups, and the leader guide is free however many copies you order. Tell me how many groups you're running and I'll get you set up.
New — for preaching pastors
Ten weeks built on the book, with the messages already worked and everything around them finished. You bring your voice — the rest is done.
$147 during launch, normally $197. One church, yours to keep.
Pastor — A Fresh Wind Church, Elyria, Ohio
Author — Ministry Sync
Founder — Efficient Church
At home — his wife Joy and their four kids, Ty, Gavyn, Ellyanna, and Rhys
About the author
Ryan Hurd is convinced of that — and that no one has to stay stuck where they are.
That conviction shapes everything he does. Ryan pastors at A Fresh Wind Church in Elyria, Ohio, where his work can be summed up in a single line: leading people to discover more in Christ. Whether he is preaching, teaching, leading, or writing, the aim is the same — to help ordinary people move past a secondhand, going-through-the-motions faith and into the living wonder of actually knowing God.
He is also the author of Ministry Sync, a field guide that helps church leaders get their teams rowing in the same direction, and the founder of Efficient Church, where he helps pastors streamline ministry — maximizing their time, teams, and resources so they can reach further, faster.
At home, his favorite people are his wife, Joy, and their four kids, who keep him laughing, humble, and reminded daily that grace is meant to be lived, not just studied.
Before you ask
A book, written to be read straight through. But every chapter ends with discussion questions, so it works as an eleven-week study without buying any separate curriculum. The free leader guide is what makes that easy.
Eleven weeks, one chapter per session, ninety minutes per meeting. There's a twelve-week option if you want an opening week to hand out books, and a forty-five-minute version in the guide for Sunday morning classes.
No. Members need the book. One leader needs the guide. That's the whole system.
Yes, and better than most books would. The argument runs through ordinary human lives rather than insider language, so a spiritually curious friend can follow it without feeling like an outsider in the room.
No. Not one chapter ends there. Grace comes before obedience on every page — Noah was favored before he built anything, and Mary was favored before she was asked for anything. That order is the point.
The Christian Standard Bible (CSB), throughout.
Yes — there's a complete ten-week church-wide campaign kit built on the book. Preachable sermon outlines, congregation handouts, a small group guide, presentation and social graphics, six videos, and the promotion calendar to go with it.
Free sample
A Roman soldier says something to Jesus that Jesus had never heard from anyone in Israel. Tell us where to send it and the whole chapter is yours.
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Free for leaders
Seventy-six pages, eleven sessions, print-ready. Tell us where to send it and it's on its way.
Print-ready PDF · One copy per leader