"Drawing deeply on her research as a participant observer and her engagement with resources from many different disciplines, and illustrated with many stories, Anna Ruddick offers a perceptive, challenging and encouraging reinterpretation of the complexity, struggles and joys of mission in marginal places. This book has the potential to help bridge the gap that is often present between missional practitioners and those who deploy and support them, and to help practitioners better interpret and value their own experiences." -- Stuart Murray-Williams

"This is a fabulous book of stories, new insights and challenges to our received way of thinking about mission. Anna tells us that mission does not work the way we so often think it does. Through compelling story as well as fresh and deep theological insights, Anna explores mission at the margins in an urban context. She finds that this is a place of new life where our ideas about God, mission and the world can be challenged and reshaped. “Messy, slow and complicated” – Anna courageously names and engages with the reality of mission today." - Cathy Ross, Church Mission Society

"Anna brings a gift to urban practitioners - the gift of being heard and understood - and offers a new language to use to describe our experiences. I would recommend this to practitioners, theologians, students and anyone who wants to get a glimpse into the realities of urban ministry, and the deep learning that is happening there." -- Chris Lane, St Mellitus College, UK 

"In a church where the words mission and transformation have become ubiquitous, Anna asks deep and searching questions about what we really mean by these words. Full of real life stories, sensitively and skilfully interpreted, this book has both affirmed me in my calling and ministry while also challenging my perspective on life and helping to grow my faith." -- Martyn Snow, Bishop of Leicester