Book It

We begin to ask ourselves: 

“Why do I spend so much of my life trapped like this, on the outer circumference of the inner richness of my own life? 

Why do I spend so much time unaware of that which alone can fulfill my heart?” 

This aching or longing is our teacher. It helps us to realize that we are called to something infinitely beyond what any egocentric pursuit can offer us. And then in obedience to that teacher we set out on this path.
James Finley, The Contemplative Heart (2000)

This month, we are back in Michigan, celebrating the release of Tom's book Descending Like a Dove: Adventures in Decolonizing Evangelical Christianity. It is available on Amazon.com here. The book project has been a full-time labor of love over the past two years. It recounts growing up in Evangelical circles and some of the nurture we received there, as well as chronicling the many ways we became disoriented by that movement as we journeyed through, and eventually out the other side of it over time. However, most of the book is a series of stories about people we've met along the way, and the ways that a more critical and compassionate faith speaks to the issues of our world. And to us. We commissioned our sister-in-law Casey to do the art and design for the cover (see more of her work and hire her for a project or event here).


We will be in the Midwest until mid-November and, some of our work will be organizing and facilitating book gatherings in churches, coffee houses and living rooms. These will consist of 15-20 minute readings and an extended time of sharing. We believe that Spirit speaks through the diverse experiences, struggles, pain, hope and joy of people. This moment in history, we believe, offers us an opportunity to take inventory of the ways that Christian fundamentalism has been harmful and destructive, and what it can look like to journey together in Recovery from all the harm. We are both deeply grateful for the Evangelical pastors and leaders who introduced us to faith and prodded us to harness the power of love and reject the love of power. But these past fifteen years have been a journey of discovering more inclusive, just, and transformative ways of following Jesus within our particular American context of ever-widening gaps of inequality, racist violence, and extreme militarism that grind down the poor and marginalized, while exploiting and destroying the Creation that supports us all, to increasingly horrifying degrees.

We will be be on the West Coast in late November, as well as most of January and February. If your faith community or bible study or friend network is interested in hosting a book reading, send us an email and we will put it on the calendar! What a great excuse to re-connect!

Pictured Below: a few dear friends across North America who've recently purchased and received the book, and whose consistently encouraging, prodding, inspiring, and empowering presence in our lives has energized and sustained our spirits in countless diverse ways--breathing life into us as we continue to sprint, skip, and stumble our way along the twists and turns of a sometimes precarious and lonely, often invigorating and challenging, always transformative and healing decolonizing faith journey!