About

“A person who preaches in the open air, especially a nonconformist or dissenting sermonizer.” 

Much has changed since the days of Whitefield and Wesley, but two conditions still apply. First, in the post-Christian era, the remains of the institutional church still attempting to get along with the culture often compromise the Gospel. Second, given the near collapse of mainstream Christianity in the West, most people are unlikely to hear the Gospel preached or even witness the Gospel being lived out in the world.

Today we live in a world of exponential population growth and runaway consumption economies where the self is worshiped and glorified through never-ending consumerism and materialism. We live our lives surrounded by sterile human fabrications devoid of any real contact with the created world. Our exploitation of the earth's resources on such an industrial scale in the so-called Anthropocene Age has led to a time where human activity is argued to have the greatest impact on climate and the environment than any natural process. In this world, the poor are often most affected by environmental degradation. Economic justice and environmental justice are directly linked. 

Against this backdrop a new consciousness has emerged. More and more people are waking up to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and well-being implications of modern life. As environmentalism and social justice concerns become mainstream and governments become serious about reshaping how we live, many are re-discovering the creation care mandates clearly expressed in Genesis and throughout the rest of Scripture. Sadly, many people today have become indoctrinated into the religion of atheistic humanism and understand this call as an expression of political ideology. Others describe this draw as some syncretistic new age pantheism whereby the creation is worshiped rather than the Creator.  

Like many times in the past, the model of local church that served previous generations so well for so long is less suited to the 21st century post-Christian West. Church attendance appears to be in terminal decline with entire generations missing from many congregations. Since 2000, the median church attendance has halved within the United States. As church attendance continues to fall, the ministry landscape is transforming. More and more churches no longer have access to full-time or even part-time clergy. A recent study predicts that doing nothing different, all current churches within the United States that are smaller than 100 (that is 69 percent of all current congregations!) are likely to be gone by 2040. Even more concerning is this is based on trends before the Pandemic and so 2040 might be much sooner.

Yet smaller congregations need not be a time of inevitable decline. Many small churches are re-imagining the established model of church. New models of church and pastoral ministry are evolving that resemble the biblical model of church more so than the model of church that most of us grew up with. In some cases, small but vibrant congregations are turning from an inward focus to an outward one. They are reengaging their communities and shifting from being consumers of church to practitioners of ministry. Vital ministries are emerging that meet the unique needs of the community in which the congregation is embedded within. The Holy Spirit is always an agent of change.

To achieve Christ's mission for His Church in our age, circling an ever-decreasing number of wagons is not the answer. The Church must leave the building...

I am called to help churches respond to the preaching needs of our time which often includes reclaiming the model of the early church by supporting entirely lay-led congregations. Through my wilderness ministry I also feel called to help people encounter God in the wilderness and to worship God in the sacred spaces of creation as well as those built by human hands.