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 formerly incarcerated people as members and prides itself on providing a ministry of second chances.

Last summer, the Martins learned that this grace-forward approach had been wrongly and dangerously applied in their church home.

A prominent leader at St. Mark’s had abused a 14-year-old in his former role as pastor of a Michigan church. A registered sex offender, he was now leading Sunday School classes where children and other vulnerable people were present. Then, the Martins learned that top church leaders knew, but had allowed the man to keep serving while not telling congregants of his criminal record.

Over several painful months, Shann…