It All Counts: Finding God Everywhere They Told You Not to Look

by Natalia Terfa, Jeff Chu (Foreword by)

Overview

What if I told you that whatever it is you are doing, if it is done with love, is enough?

It All Counts is a fiercely compassionate and deeply personal exploration of faith, doubt, and the sacredness of everyday life. With humor, honesty, and theological insight, pastor and podcaster Natalia Terfa invites us to reimagine what it means to live a spiritual life—especially when it doesn't look like the version we were taught.

Through stories of grief, joy, digital ministry, nature, rituals, and rage walks around the lake, Terfa challenges the idea that faith only "counts" when it fits inside institutional boxes. Instead, she offers a liberating vision of spirituality rooted in authenticity, curiosity, and love. Whether you've been told your questions are too big, your worship too unconventional, or your body too broken, this book insists: You still belong. You are not alone. And yes—it all counts.

For spiritual seekers, deconstructing Christians, and anyone longing for a more expansive, inclusive, and embodied faith, It All Counts is both a balm and a rallying cry. With each chapter, Terfa dismantles shame—based theology and replaces it with grace, reminding us that God is not small, stingy, or confined to buildings—but present in every breath, every doubt, and every messy, beautiful moment of being human.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798889836834
Publisher:	Augsburg Fortress, Publishers
Publication date:	07/21/2026
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Natalia Terfa is a Lutheran pastor, co—creator and cohost of the Cafeteria Christian podcast, and the writer behind the popular weekly e—devotional The Friday Uplift. She is the author of Uplift: A Little Book of Promises to Give Hope and Uplift Your Soul and a contributor to The Deconstructionists Playbook. Her work has been featured on Church Anew and Our Bible App, where she writes with an accessible, expansive, and inclusive theology for the sake of being human. She lives in Minneapolis with her family, two cats, and a large number of plants.

Jeff Chu is an award—winning journalist and editor—at—large at Travel+Leisure. He is the author of Good Soil and Does Jesus Really Love Me? and the co—author, with the late Rachel Held Evans, of the New York Times bestseller Wholehearted Faith. Chu is a former Time staff writer and Fast Company editor whose work has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, and Modern Farmer. He lives with his husband, Tristan, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Doubts

Baggage

Feelings

Bodies

Church

Curiosity

Nature

Growth

Belonging

Helpers

Milestones

All ≠ Everything

Conclusion

Acknowledgments

Notes

Editorial Reviews

"Natalia Terfa writes like she speaks and befriends and pastors. She is a fierce matriarch who loves to play by the rules, unless those rules stifle beauty and truth. Her theology is a knot untied, a door flung wide open, a plant pruned and turned toward the light. Maybe you figured it all counts, but it's another thing to receive it proclaimed, unapologetic good news declared by someone who means it. Natalia means it. This book is filled with beauty and truth that's been looking for you." —Meta Herrick Carlson, author of the Ordinary Blessings series, Speak It Plain, and We Remember Your Baptism

"If dogma or doctrine, bruises or baggage have locked you out of faith and belonging, Natalia Terfa's invitation is clear: It all counts. Her stories soften the corners of tightly held traditions to encounter the God who is opening doors and beckoning belonging. As someone who has had to carve out a place to fit my faith into church, Natalia invites me into seeing simple acts of ritual, belonging, care, and courage as practices of a living and evolving faith." —Rev. Matthew Ian Fleming, author of The End is the Beginning: Revelation, Hope, and the Love that Lit the Stars and director of Church Anew

"You know that friend who just speaks your same language, sings your same song? That friend you go to for warmth, belonging, and safety? Natalia Terfa is that friend. It All Counts is that belonging. With her poetically conversational writing and the generosity of spirit that leaps from the page, Natalia holds your hand and beckons you to deeper intimacy with God." —Erin Hicks Moon, Publishers Weekly bestselling author of I've Got Questions: The Spiritual Practice of Having It Out with God and co—host of the Faith Adjacent and Shelf Respect podcasts

"This is the book we need right now and forever, a true balm straight into the veins. Refreshing, hopeful, and utterly delightful, in It All Counts, Natalia Terfa reminds us of the simple yet profound good news that there is no such thing as more holy or less holy. There is just holy. Terfa became the pastor she needed when she was young, and now here in this absolute gem of a book we get unfettered access to her abundant and contagious wisdom, insight, curiosity, and encouragement. Terfa breathes life back into worn—dull bibles passages with refreshing exegesis and weaves living theology with stories that interrupt and break open with their beauty. Gift it to yourself, everyone who has been told by the church that they do faith wrong, and everyone else, too." —Ellie Roscher, author of Fair Game, The Embodied Path, and co—author of 12 Tiny Things

"I read It All Counts straight through and immediately wanted to begin again. I'm a person who struggles with authority, which has made my relationship with churches challenging. With this book, Natalia Terfa assures me that God is big enough for my rebellion. Come for the "confessions of an unsure pastor;" stay for the fresh takes on old stories (I also now stan a petty Jonah); leave feeling understood, loved, and challenged to make sure you're making space for it all to count." —Beth Silvers, co—host of the Pantsuit Politics podcast; co—author of I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening) and Now What? (How to Move Forward When We're Divided about Basically Everything)

From the Publisher