The Power of Place

“I can’t recommend The Power of Place highly enough. Everyone needs to read it! It is beautifully written, compellingly argued, and urgently necessary for a rootless generation like our own. I particularly appreciate the way Daniel Grothe has earthed his message practically in the rich loam of friendships and the home. This book sits squarely in the tradition of the Greats, from Benedict of Nursia in Umbria to Wendell Berry of Henry County in Kentucky. As for Daniel Grothe, I consider him one of the most brilliant pastors of his generation, arising as a thinker and writer of rare talent.”

Pete Greig

“It is difficult to overstate the importance of this message for our culture right now. The nearly ubiquitous, frayed edges of our souls reveal that we are a profoundly uprooted people. With great wisdom and pastoral care, Daniel Grothe puts his finger on the precise sickness that ails us. My sincere hope is that Christians will read this with the urgency it warrants.”

Sharon Hodde Miller

“We’re settled into spaces given to us by God and those spaces are sacred. This book will help all of us put down crucial roots in the soil of our neighborhoods, our cities, and our churches. Pastor Daniel Grothe takes us on a beautiful journey to discover the power of place and the fruit that’s produced by remaining.”

Brady Boyd

“Daniel Grothe is one of my favorite pastors. He carries in him a spirit of deep wisdom, helping us pay attention to the reality of God’s presence right where we are. In this much needed book, Daniel offers a vision of stability for a world increasingly marked by distraction, transience, and rootless technological omnipresence. We were made to be present—to God, to each other, and to the rest of creation—and Daniel shows us how to do this through his life and a beautiful exploration of the Scriptures. As a pastor in a busy city, I desperately need this book to help me remain fully present to the gifts already before me.”

Rich Villodas

“The vow of stability and the life it creates are an appealing antidote to the restless longing of our age. But even more compelling is the man who invites us into it. I’ve known Daniel Grothe for over two decades, and I am proud to call him both a friend and a colleague. This book is not a collection of concepts harvested from other fields. It is filled with lessons that have come with scars and a calling that has been cultivated with intentionality and sacrifice. Grounded in theology and buttressed by the wisdom of Christian history, the principles and practices in these pages have the power to form deep roots for your soul and for the life of the world.”

Glenn Packiam

“We live in a digital age where so little of our life feels rooted to anything physical, things we can touch with our fingers or stub with our toes. We also live in an ambitious age where all of society’s energy prods us to move as fast as we can, as far as we can. Yet, amid all this, here’s Daniel Grothe with the audacity to suggest that it is often more courageous (and more human) to sit tight, stay slow, and go deep. Leave it to someone with a pastor’s heart and a poet’s pen to wake us up and provoke us toward goodness. If Daniel’s got the courage to tell us the truth, then I hope we’ll have the courage to listen.”

Winn Collier

“Centuries ago, one of the great luminaries of the Egyptian desert, St. Anthony the Great, gave a simple (and demanding) road map to holiness when he said, ‘Whoever you may be, always have God before your eyes; whatever you do, do it according to the testimony of the holy Scriptures; in whatever place you live, do not easily leave it.’ Human lives require stable contexts in order to flourish, which is why the ancient vow of stability is so important. Sadly, our culture has reversed this ancient wisdom, teaching us to see stability as at least a nuisance and at most a deep danger to the path of self-actualization. To the extent that we believe this, we are unwitting co-conspirators in the diminishment of our lives. It is time and past time that we take back our lives by recovering the ancient wisdom of stability. To do this, we’ll need wise guides schooled in the fine art of stability to help us. Daniel Grothe is one such guide. He is well qualified by training and experience to lead us into the picture painted by the psalmist: ‘That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers’ (Psalm 1:3). Well written and well argued, and packed with brilliant examples (ancient and modern) of what the vow of stability looks like in practice, The Power of Place is a book for our time.”

Andrew Arndt

“Eugene Peterson once remarked, ‘All theology is rooted in geography.’ I didn’t fully understand the weight behind those six words until I read this book. We are living in an age when jumping after bigger opportunities, platforms, and paychecks has become the norm. It’s even confused today as God’s favor. I’m grateful for how Daniel Grothe guides and reminds us that staying put in a specific city can actually produce a more deeply meaningful life in us and through us. The Power of Place is an essential read for anyone like me who struggles with wanderlust, or for anyone who believes the grass is always greener somewhere else. This book will help you discover the redemptive potential of where God has planted you!”

Steve Carter

“We live in a restless age obsessed with living our best possible life, and this has led to a profound disconnectedness and angst. Daniel Grothe gets to the heart of this angst by calling us to a deep rootedness that satisfies our souls. He invites us to deepen our sense of place, marriage, friendship, and spiritual community in a beautiful vision that calls us back to a better way. I’m grateful for Daniel’s voice. It is a voice forged from some hard-earned wisdom.”

Steve Cuss