Why Shannan Martin Had to Leave Her Once-Beloved Church

The best-selling author has included the unique UMC congregation in her books. Everything changed when a lay leader turned out to be a registered sex offender.

Shannan Martin has written about her once-beloved church that’s a block from her house in her books (Falling Free, The Ministry of Ordinary Places, and Start with Hello). St. Mark’s in Goshen, Indiana, is unique, she said. “It’s very small, the pastor is bi-vocational . . . we really don’t have paid staff, we don’t have a youth group.” It counts many fo…