This is my first-ever paid post!

👉 In May 2026: My concern for church planters’ unbridled enthusiasm, the administration of Pentecost, and bringing it all back to baptism (again!).

Church Planting Pep Rallies

Church plants are extremely difficult. That’s what I tell every person who asks me about discerning the possibility (which seems to be happening with greater and greater frequency). They take a long time, a lot of resources, and require incredible fortitude for the inevitable season(s) of what Eugene Peterson called “the doldrums”—times when there’s no wind in the sails of ministry, and no sign of the wind returning any time soon.

Read more

👉 In April: LOUD conferences, an inspiring book, and some GOOD news on the personal front.

Iowa Ministry NETWORK COUNCIL

Every year, Assemblies of God pastors in Iowa gather for two days in Des Moines for worship, prayer, voting on leadership and policies, and—most importantly—to ordain the next generation of pastors.

It’s a loud event.

There’s a lot of lights, booming worship music, enthusiastic preaching, and sporadic hoops, hollers, and cheers for those getting their ministerial credentials.

I’m not into the loudness. Like, I’m not being critical of it. I could just do without it and I think the event would be equally glorious.

I say this because the best part for me is the relationships that I’ve formed over the last decade here in Iowa. At the event, I found myself routinely skipping the songs (and sometimes more) to hang out in the lobby of the church to catch up with friends old and new.

Again: I don’t want to poo-poo anything else happening at the event (especially not the laying on of hands), but I’ve come to realize that the lobby time of Network Council is probably the most important part of the event. It’s the place where we pastors build each other up and hear one another tell of the goodness of God over the last year. We share secrets of God’s kingdom work that will never be told from the stage of the megachurch we’re meeting in—nor should they be.

It’s also the place where we talk about everything we perceive to be going in the wrong direction in the Assemblies of God. Don’t tell anyone, but that’s really important too. I promise it’s not complaining. It’s patriotism.

(I hope I don’t get in trouble for saying it’s okay to play hooky from service 😬)

Book Update (the first of the HAPPY news)

I sent my next book to the editors, and I already have it back with some minor adjustments. I’ve morphed the working title a bit to Tongue on Fire: Recovering the Spirit and Power of Pentecostal Proclamation.

Two things:

1. I really think Pentecostal preaching is not what it used to be. And that’s why I felt like I needed to write this book.

2. The book isn’t about preaching as such, but more broadly about the task of proclamation. Which means this book isn’t just for pastors, it’s for everyone who cares about witnessing to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

My editor told me he was entirely inspired and teared up reading the manuscript. That’s about the highest compliment a writer can receive, so I’m all the more excited to get it to the printing press.

The publisher says they’re going to get it translated into SPANISH for simultaneous release in both languages 🤓.

Subscribe now

Finally, more HAPPY NEWS

As many of you know from the last edition of this sub-Substack, I unexpectedly lost my job at Evangel, and they let me know so late in the academic year that deadlines for job applications in academia had already passed.

I’m still applying for jobs that I’m qualified for, but I’m increasingly feeling like God is calling me to a season of hustling. As it stands right now, it looks like I have FOUR part-time gigs lined up for the rest of the year. Some of those things are not set in stone yet, but I’m super excited about the prospects because they’re all about using my particular skill set of pastor and theologian together. That’s what I want my life to be about (which is why that’s what this Substack is about).

I’ll keep you posted on the deets.

For now, the HAPPY NEWS is that I’ve been entirely humbled by the outpouring of kind words, expressions of solidarity, and belief in my calling that I’ve received from so many directions in the last month.

Since announcing that I lost my job, I’ve really felt the meaning and reality of the body of Christ.

I cannot express my gratitude.

Don’t Forget to subscribe to me Slow Burn Christianity if you haven’t already:

Subscribe to Slow Burn Christianity

Leave a comment

In March 2026:

1. Taking a break from anti-intellectualism

2. Slow Preaching

3. And some big (and sad) news about Evangel (so make sure you read to the end)

   ---

First: The Society for Pentecostal Studies

Last month I wrote about the Center for Pastor Theologians Conference being the best gathering you’ve never been to. The other conference that you should most definitely attend is the Society for Pentecostal Studies. It’s the place where all the best thinkers in the Charismatic tradition get to take a break from the anti-intellectual ecclesial traditions to joyfully exercise the gifts of wisdom and knowledge given them by the Holy Spirit.

Matt Van Winkle and I road tripped it from Iowa through Springfield, MO (to hear Chris EW Green give lectures on beauty and Christianity), and continued on to Waco, TX where the conference was held. Road trips are for 90s music 👇👇👇

Subscribe to Matt Van Winkle

I was super excited this year to be on two panels. The first was a panel on my book, Resurrecting Worship: A Pentecostal Liturgy for Slow Burn Revival.

Chris Green, Brenton Fessler, Sam Scalf, and—most importantly—my pastor, Abby Anderson reviewed my work and spoke of its import for the local church. I’m glad to say the reviews were positive 😅

The second panel was for another book I contributed to: I Was A Stranger and You Took Me In: Pentecostal Responses to the Refugee Crisis. It was edited by my friend, Lois Olena, and has a moving introduction by (the Assemblies of God scholar Craig Keener’s wife) Médine Keener, who is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

For my part, I talked about how slogans like “Jesus was a refugee!” don’t really get us anywhere. We need to be Christians who, for example, know about the legacy of Oscar Romero and who enjoy the foods of other cultures. But we haven’t really done what Christ asks of us until we utter blessings over the owners of the local pupuseria when we stop in for lunch.

Share

Second: Slow Preaching for Voice of Christ at Harvest Land

I mentioned in my previous post on Pastoral Theology that I got to once again preach at Pastor Armel Fandohan’s bilingual, African-majority church in Iowa City.

One of the challenges of speaking in a bilingual church is that one must learn to pause in rhythm with one’s translator who relays in another language what you said for the congregation. I’d utter one phrase in English, and my translator would follow, repeating my words in French. Like a dance, preacher and translator must learn the other’s cadence. It’s a challenge and joy to feed off of one another to maintain the dynamism of the communicative act.

That, and it really gives new meaning to being one in Christ.

It’s also is a lesson in how one should preach even without a translator. Preachers often preach too quickly, and human ears—especially those who are hearing a spiritual lesson for the first time—can’t keep up. It’s easy to forget how much slower the ear is than the eye. The preacher has his notes, the congregation doesn’t. The truth is no one will ever complain about a preacher slowing down an idea and carefully annunciating each word (especially for the elderly and those with learning disabilities).

Share

Subscribe now

Finally: Some Sad (and Big) News

About a month ago, Evangel University informed me that I am no longer a part of their plans for the future. This came as a shock to me, and was most unwelcome news. I’d planned on being at Evangel for the long haul, having been convinced of the mission and values of the institution.

I haven’t been told why I was cut, except that there’s a “re-architechting” (sic, President Mike Rakes’s word) of the university underway and that they’re “fully embedding online delivery into the academic enterprise to expand access and engagement” (again, Rakes’s words).1

I’m deeply saddened by the news, not only because of my affection for my students and colleagues, but also because, having been caught off guard by the decision, I don’t know what’s next. The timing of my release has meant that I’ve already missed deadlines for the many jobs I would have been qualified for at other institutions beginning this fall.

I did my PhD in Luke-Acts for the love of Pentecostalism and the Assemblies of God. I’ve given all I have, and am not going to stop giving what I can to the Jesus’s church.

Pray for me 🙏

I’m indeed saddened by my departure, but I’m also extremely proud of what I accomplished as the Director of Theology and Global Church Ministries in the College of Online Learning:

• I created the most affordable and accessible accredited credentialing/ordination pathway in the Assemblies of God, starting a new pipeline of pastors for the Fellowship.

• I launched the first-ever accredited undergraduate theology program taught entirely in Spanish.

• I introduced biblical languages in an online format to prepare the next generation of Pentecostal scholars.

• I brought in 120 students in just the last 18 months.

It’s not so much a pastoral lesson as a life one, but I’ll say it anyway: Measurable success doesn’t always lead to recognition or promotion. Sometimes it leads to termination. It’s a hard pill to swallow, but that’s life. And through it all God is good, faithful, and true.

Jesus is holding my hand to lead me forward.

I promise that he’ll take yours too if you just open your palm 🫴

Share

Leave a comment

I’m of course playing on the idea of “Pastor-Penitent Privilege” in the section title, which refers to the pact clergy have with the state in western legal tradition. Similar to therapists, pastors can’t be compelled to divulge private conversations they had with congregants. This goes back to the confessional booth in Catholicism. What you confess to the priest stays with the priest.

“Pastor Privileged Monthly” will be the inverse of that: Me letting you in on the ways I have encountered victories, losses, challenges, and joys. Everything I talk about will touch on what it means to be a pastor and theologian.

My hope is that this becomes a piece of encouragement for pastors and theologians who experience routine isolation and disillusionment. So please do share with anyone you think might be built up by it.

Share Pastor Privileged

Polluted Health and Pulpit Fill

One of the persistent anxieties pastors face, especially in small churches, is the prospect of getting sick on Saturday and not having anyone to fill in on Sunday. I’ve woken up on a Sunday morning more than once unable to stand up, let alone preach, from an overnight onset of the flu. Having small children who pick up viruses like candy only concentrates the anxiety.

This February I had the great privilege of being a relief pitcher for a pastor in that precise situation. Bryan Newswander, pastor at Westside Assembly in Davenport, IA, texted me on a Saturday morning to say that he needed help. The flu had taken his family hostage, and he was the latest to be captured.

I had a few things to work out on my end. I was scheduled to lead kids church, but my lead pastor, Abby Anderson, was happy to make things work. Her husband, Kyle, volunteered to fill in for me.

This is a real lesson about the beauty of cultivating friendships between churches, and the importance of having “all things common” like the early church did in Acts (see 2:42-47). It was a joy to share my time and the church’s resources (which was me) with another church.

I asked my son, Lazarus, who is now 10, if he’d like to go with me. I remembered being able to do this with my father when I was 10, and it was exciting to relive it from the other side. I called him my “armor bearer” for the trip 😅.

I preached on baptism from Matt 3, which is what Pastor Bryan had planned on preaching. If there’s anything in life I want to be known for as a guest preacher, it’s for preaching the building blocks of Christianity. Like baptism, resurrection, the Lord’s Supper, and the cross ✝️

I don’t ask for pledges for subscriptions on this platform. So here I’d like to suggest you give a small offering to Westside Assembly to help them out. I suggest $5, or the cost of a St*rbucks drink. I can vouch for your donation going to kingdom use.

Give $5 to Westside Assembly

Ecumenism and Evangelicalism

How does one relate pastorally and ecclesiologically to other denominations? I’ve learned that too much theory really gets in the way. The best way of doing ecumenical work (i.e. building friendships and partnerships across churches and denominations) is to be like Nike, and just do it. You’ll be surprised at how easy it to make friends with people you disagree with on a number of theological, churchly, biblical, and practical issues.

The key to ecumenism is to work out differences from a foundation of prior friendship, not the other way around.

I got do this in a concentrated way this month by attending my first St. Iranaeus Fellows meeting at the Center for Pastor Theologians in Oak Park, IL.

We had devotionals, prayer, lectures, and roundtable discussions with a group made up of pastors from what the director of the CPT, Joel Lawrence, calls “Great Tradition Evangelicalism.” We had women and men, complimentarians and egalitarians, and pastors from the uttermost parts of the earth like Brazil, South Korea, and Clinton, MO.

Subscribe to Joel's Substack

We also had Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, and not a few Gentiles (!). Okay, that last part is a joke playing on the unexpected people included in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Acts. But I’m making a point: The CPT felt to me like the kind of unity in diversity that the early church was able to cultivate.

👉 I’m curious to hear anecdotes about unexpected friendships and collaborations across denominational difference. Tell me a good story in the comments or a restack, and I’ll be sure to amplify it.

If you want to be a part of what’s happening at the CPT, come to the conference with me October 19-21. This year we’re talking the identity of the church in a time of cultural crisis.

CPT Conference Info and Registration

Finally: Writing Update

If you haven’t heard yet, now you have: I’m writing a book on Pentecostal Proclamation. I’m really excited to let you know that I’ve completed a rough draft of the manuscript. The working title is Tongue On Fire: Pentecostal Proclamation in the 21st Century, to be published with Logion Press.

I find editing my own writing really painful. It’s astounding how many simple mistakes I make, and how often I think, “Mannnn, I have no idea what I was trying to say here” 🤣.

If you want to see the video updates on what I’ve been working on in Chs 1-4, here’s a link to first video. From there you can follow the progressive numbering of the book updates in my list of publications in my Pastoral Theology. There’s more to come!

Share Pastor Privileged

Subscribe now

Leave a comment