New book. After a few years on the road, I have written this Road Tramp Theology — Love Big or Go Home. … More Love Big or Go Home. New Book on the Inherent Nomadic Nature of the Gospel is Live!
I’ve been a Christian since 1980, and a Pentecostal/Evangelical pastor since 1985. I’ve been a pastor on both coasts of the continental United States. First, in Carlsbad, California: a beach city in North San Diego County. Then in the infamous and beautiful New England port city of Salem, MA. I’ve ridden the waves of the … More The Diminishing Returns of the Evangelical Movement
A Brief History of 20th Century Evangelism Activities: Personal Soul-Winning Tools: The American Tract Society: At the turn of the 19th century, short gospel tracts were being distributed for a quick readable presentation of the gospel. In Boston and New York City, societies were established for the printing of gospel tracts. The two organizations merged … More Too Earthly Minded to be any Heavenly Good – Part 4c (evangelism techniques)
Alan and his wife Deb and I met at Burning Man in 2010. Since then we have rubbed shoulders a number of times, but most frequently it has been in a missional space at Burning Man. That is a minor part of this conversation. The topic at hand is Alan’s disenchantment with much of the … More Wild Theology live Podcast with Alan Hirsch on post-COVID-19 Christianity
This episode of the Wild Theology Podcast covers the subjects of why I believe it is important to be an enigmatic/mysterious Christian, and why I wrote the recent blog post asking if the Evangelical Church has sold it’s soul for a Trump presidency.
I have been working on a book entitled Love Big or Go Home over the beginning of this year. It is a theology of mission based upon the idea that the Gospel is inherently nomadic, and that this nomadism informs how we approach the world. By saying this I do not mean to assume that … More Love Big or Go Home nears completion
You can stay at home and go out for the purposes of the Great Commission at the same time. Not recognizing this potential limits our capacity to touch the world, I talk about this potential in Wild Theology Podcast #25 Wild Theology Podcast #25 – Love Big or Go Home. You can go into all … More Wild Theology Podcast #25 – Go Local
Today, I was reading an article from the BBC about the recent letter from Burning Man CEO Marian Goodell. There is nothing new in this BBC article (except the letter from Marian), and in fact, the information is a number of years old. We were already talking about this stuff at my first Burning Man … More Burning Man, Growth Struggles, Cultural Course Correction…
Premier Christianity Magazine in the UK, and the Church Mission Society have posted a couple things from me in the last few days. The Church Mission Society posted an interview about Halloween, Burning Man, Witches, and festival work. I was a speaker at their conference about “Mission among People who are Spiritual but not Religious”, … More Halloween Blog Post and Interview in the UK
Burning Religion is certainly my most ambitious literary project to date, but it would not have been conceived without the long hard years of working as a pastor in the rather (in)famous little city of Salem, Massachusetts. Almost 20 years of monthlong Halloween entertainment and outreach projects, and befriending the Witchcraft community in Salem helped … More The Reformation of Halloween: Where Burning Religion Began
“Who are you?” said the caterpillar. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I-I hardly know sir, just at present- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then,” said Alice. “What do you mean by … More The Problem with Finding Ourselves: Lessons from the Desert Fathers
The last two weeks, I have spent time in two deeply spiritual locations: Land’s End in Cornwall, and Avebury – at one of the famous stone henges. These locations have afforded opportunities to develop relationships with people from other faiths and to engage in spiritual discussion and gatherings with them. In Saint Buryan at Land’s … More Land’s End and Avebury: engagement with other faiths
Phil and Priscilla arrived in Dayton, TX at the home of Paul and Joy Burwell at the end of February. The plan was to stay a month in Texas. First stop was north of Houston with the Burwells. The second stop would be Austin, and the final stop would be Brownwood with the Browns, but … More Adventures with Priscilla in Texas
After leaving the Ocala, Florida Rainbow Gathering, I was told to watch out going through Mississippi. The hippies told me that Mississippi was known for Missing Hippies. To the contrary, I am still here, and having a great time. Don and Amy Rylander have a Thursday evening gathering in a Coffee House in Brandon, MS, … More No Missing Hippie in Mississippi!
The above video is a clip of the Brown family from Brownwood, TX. Below, Sandi and the girls share their stories about being involved in festival ministry in Salem, and at the Stonehenge Solstice. From Sandi: I have been involved in several different streams of Christianity, from Baptist to Charismatic, to now not really affiliating with … More Thoughts from the Browns about Festival Outreach
Burning Religion 