The Unfamiliar Name

The Vulnerable God

2026-09-26T12:00:00-08:00

On the Three Streams United podcast, Jesse sits down with his uncle, Fr. Kenneth Tanner — pastor of Church of the Holy Redeemer in the Detroit area — to talk about his new book, Vulnerable God: How Jesus Upends Our Assumptions About God—and Shows Us How to Be Human (Brazos Press, with a foreword by Brian Zahnd). The book releases Tuesday, September 29, 2026 — the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Jesse: Well, hello, Father Kenneth Tanner. I’m more used to calling you Uncle Ken personally, but I’ll stick with Father Ken for the sake of the podcast audience. How are you doing this morning?

Fr. Ken: Good. It’s good to be with you, Jesse.

Ten years in the making

Jesse: It’s pretty amazing following the trajectory of — what is it, about ten years you’ve been working on this book, The Vulnerable God, that’s coming out this Tuesday?

Fr. Ken: At least ten years. The idea goes back to ’09, ’10, when we were in the hospital a lot with Christian, this young man who was born with underdeveloped lungs at 27 weeks gestation. So he was in the NICU, and the ideas and concepts of the meditation go back to that event. And then I started working on various aspects of it throughout the decade, and a structure finally fell into place in 2018 around the sacred year. I was like, “Well, this is how to tell the story.” And then I signed a contract in ’21, I believe — I’d have to go back and look — but I started really working in earnest on it in the post-pandemic period, through the early fall of ’24, when we turned it in at 82,000 words. Then we went through three pretty intensive editorial processes through the spring of this year. So it’s been a long journey. It’s been a long process.

Writing at the sentence level

Jesse: Having been following your thoughts for many years — and obviously talking with you about various points and seeing you post — it’s really fascinating. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody write the way that you write, because it was almost like you wrote in social media posts. I was listening to Bishop Green — Bishop Chris Green — the other day on Speakeasy Theology. Check out that podcast; it’s amazing. And he was talking about how you wrote at the sentence level and then kind of went from the inside out. What was fun was following that progression on social media as you’d have these insights and you’d form them in these really condensed and really meaningful ways and engage with your audience. Did that play a huge part in how the book came about — the fact that you were speaking to real people all the time?

Fr. Ken: I think so. Sometimes — and this still happens — a sentence comes into my head, and I’m like, “Oh, that’s what I want to write about. I want to write about that thought.” So sentence writing — I’ve always really appreciated people who write like Annie Dillard and Frederick Buechner, sentence writers who just have incredible sentences. So these sentences will pop into my head and then I want to flesh them out. Where did that sentence come from? And you find that there are other words that are around that.

And then, yes, the social media dialogue was interesting, because some of it — not all the book, but probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 percent of the book — had a life on social media before it was part of this book. And so to put that up there and then to watch the way people were responding to things — sometimes it’s like, “Oh, I need to say more.” Sometimes, “Oh, this is exactly what needs to be said.”

So, yeah, I’m very interested in dialogue, and that goes back to the really long sabbatical in my priesthood between 1999 and 2005, when I was working in Chicago and taking the train every day, and buses and subways, to get to work and to come back, and just meeting people on public transportation who would learn that I was a priest. You learn there’s a crew on the train, and there are just people that you run into, and they know you’re a priest, and they’re reading the paper and they’re like, “Hey, what do you think about this?” or “This is what’s happening in my life,” or whatever. And I learned I had to have a vocabulary that wasn’t churchy, that didn’t assume that people knew everything or had the same experiences I had of Jesus. And so, how do I articulate this to them?

And so when I got here in ’05, to Detroit, to Holy Redeemer, one of the first things I did was start a Theology on Tap group at a local pub and invite young people that were at the parish to invite their friends. It was risky. You put yourself in an environment that’s not church, with people who don’t automatically assume your authority and who don’t necessarily know the faith, and then to be able to talk to them meaningfully about what we trust about the human God, about Jesus, within the context of what it means to live an ordinary human life — how do those things come together? You learn a language: how do I get this across to someone? So it’s a combination of those things.

And as I’ve told other people, a lot of this was written on my phone. I’m in a parking lot, or I’m in a waiting room, or at the hospital, or wherever I happen to be inspired — a coffee shop, or on the side of the road — because something hits me and I’m like, “I’ve got to write this out.” And then it would go from there into other writing spaces on my computer. And then there was enough of it that I began to say, “Oh, there’s a pattern here. Oh, I need to write something more sustained about this.” And so when 2018 came, the sacred year — it’s like, “Oh, this is a structure.” So I can write about the crucifixion, and I can write about the transfiguration, and I can write about baptism and temptation, all those feasts that we celebrate in the sacred year, the christological feasts. And I’d already written a lot about Christmas and had thoughts about that — but flesh all this out.

And then it was really late in the game — like late 2023, and really in 2024, ahead of that whole year — that a whole section of this book emerged that wasn’t in the original plan, which is section two, “A Human Life.” All those chapters just emerged from a realization that there wasn’t anything about Jesus living his life. And some of the key texts in the book — the last two, “Shepherd” and “Healer,” of that section, really at the center of the book — those emerged very late in the process, again just from a realization that we needed that to round out the book. So some of it’s pretty late.

And then, in the process, we turned in this 82,000-word manuscript in September of ’24. And in the first round of edits, we dropped three whole chapters. There was a chapter on the sacred year at the end of this book. There was a chapter on Ash Wednesday in the book. There was a chapter on the communion of saints in the book. Those are gone. The chapter on the communion of saints ended up in Mockingbird, and I think the other two pieces will find their way. But we cut somewhere around 10,000 additional words besides the three whole chapters that went away. And then we wrote probably in the neighborhood of just as many words again — at least 7,000 new words — in those three waves of process.

So it’s a very different book, in some sense, than the book that I conceived of in the beginning, for sure, and a very different book from the book that was turned in in September of 2024. The final version of the text occurred around October of 2025. And that text, which is the essential text, went through lots of minor revisions between October and May of this year. Right up to May, just before it went to press, we were still — the copy-editing process really ended up being way more rigorous, and the copy editors themselves were like, “I don’t think this is clear enough.” So I really had a whole beautiful team around me at Brazos that made the book what it is in the end.

It’s like if you had pieces of something you’re working on, and then you’re putting them together — it gets woven into this larger thing; it gets altered. Some people do just sit down and write a book from the first word to the last word. That would be one way to do it. I have friends that start with the things that are most inspiring to them, and then they piece it and put it all together and structure it. We moved chapters around in this book. It was very much analogous to what I’ve seen in making a record in a studio. We were remixing, and we were changing the order of the songs, right up to the last minute. But a lot of wisdom, a lot of good people who knew what they were doing, and I think the book is a lot stronger.

I had three people who were reading it really closely: Andrew Arndt — Streams in the Wilderness — Streams in the Wasteland, I can never remember the last word of that book — All Flame — Andrew Arndt from New Life in Colorado. And then Daniel Taylor, who’s the style editor for the New Living Translation, and a novelist, and he has that wonderful book about certainty that was so popular in the late ’80s. And then Chris Green. They read the whole manuscript and offered lots of input, especially Chris. And then the editors at Brazos. And I had maybe a half dozen other friends read portions of the book and give me advice. So it was a process.

A book in conversation

Jesse: I think that comes through in the book, because it feels like a book that’s in conversation. It doesn’t feel like a book that is, “I went on a mountain and I just thought deep thoughts.” It feels like something that really encounters the real world. And I think that’s really the freshness of the book: it really humanizes Jesus and deifies humanity, to borrow from the language of the book.

Fr. Ken: I think that’s Christianity. And so, yes, that’s another aspect. We’re really talking about nuts and bolts, but the aspect that we also want to say is that it emerges from actual pastoral life. These are reflections from someone who’s doing pastoral work — going to prisons, going to hospitals, preaching texts, preaching the Gospels, preaching the Old Testament, living with ordinary human beings trying to do the Jesus thing. It emerges from all that.

And one of the big surprises for me, and blessings for me, is to have people like my sister Mia, and our longtime friend Elizabeth Powell, my sister-in-law, read this book and say, “Wow, we thought it was going to be hard to read, but actually we’re really into it.” And that’s high praise. I’m not an academic writer. I’m not trying to impress anyone — not that that’s what academics are doing with their writing, but you know what I mean. There’s a place for that sort of writing, and you can glean a lot from it, but I’m just trying to tell the story in a way that is edifying for people who are in the academy, or leaders in the church, but also people who live busy lives taking care of their kids and grandchildren, working their jobs, saying their prayers, taking care of the poor. Anybody who’s trying to walk this life — I want them to understand these encounters I’ve had with the person of Jesus, and with the community of faith that has trusted in Jesus, and what I’ve learned about Jesus. I would want anybody to be able to pick it up, regardless of their educational level, regardless of their vocation, regardless of the kinds of places that they find themselves. That was an aim of the book, and I’m hearing, at least anecdotally from my family, that it is doing that. And that’s really gratifying to hear.

Jesse: Yeah. Well, that’s really what impressed me the most — the accessibility. But not just accessibility, because it doesn’t shy away from being profound. Not to blow your head up too much, but there are moments where you engage with the deepest understanding of the reality that we exist in. But it never leaves where we’re at. We still have our feet on the ground.

Fr. Ken: That’s right.

Jesse: And that’s a remarkable work. And I think it was this wrestling. If you wouldn’t mind me framing it this way: there was the social media stuff, which is so vast — anybody can be commenting and talking about it — and then there was your friends and family, and then there was that core group you’re talking about, doing the real work with, and then there’s your pastoral work. These ideas and these phrases were never not being tested. And so I think that’s what kept it grounded, let’s call it. It comes from struggle.

Fr. Ken: Yeah, absolutely. And grounding it in the stories, I think, is really helpful as well.

The God who falls with us

Jesse: The stories that you tell of love and loss, and places where you’ve encountered — the only thing that can make this situation redeemed has to be the crucified God. Would you talk a little bit about that? Because I know people really do struggle with the depth of grief that they encounter in their world and the suffering that they encounter in their world. How does the vulnerable God, how does the crucified God, meet us in those places?

Fr. Ken: By not being afraid. Courage. He enters into every experience of what it means to be human in order to share that experience with us — but so that we can experience the situation differently. Not in bondage. Anxious at moments, even angry at moments, but to redeem human emotions and to show us how to be angry without sin, how to be anxious without sin, how to be hungry without sin, and to point the way. But to actually enter the deprivation of hunger, the deprivation of thirst, the deprivation of pain, and alienation, and all the things — with us, and not just in his own life. And this is the mystery of Christ: not just his own life among us, but his share in all of our experiences, and every human being’s experience, right up until death, as only God can do. So there’s that real, particular way in which he, as a human being, suffers, and then there’s that universal taking on of what it means to be human for all of us collectively — all of our collective experiences of grief — and he makes them his own.

So it’s courage, and the actual voluntary participation. In the Son, God suffers. Jenson and others: in the body of the Son, God suffers. So he’s really with us in it and not outside of it. You get that with Dorothy Sayers and others. As she says, in the language of the mid-twentieth-century church — it’s really sort of British — when he comes among us, he plays the man, which means that he’s not a coward. And this would be true of a woman or a man — don’t get weird on me — but whether you’re a man or a woman, actually entering in and experiencing it in its fullness. Not medicated, not checked out, but actually involved.

Jesse: That’s right.

Fr. Ken: And so that’s a decision God makes — to share.

Jesse: Yeah. I wanted to read this quote that really gets into that. It’s one of my favorite quotes of the whole book. It’s actually pretty early on, but I just love it. You say:

Jesus descends into all our hells. The descent of Jesus is not slowed until he is beneath the deepest falling human, descending right to the edges of non-existence to rescue us. Any human who hits rock bottom lands on the body of Christ. There is no other place to land.

I love that. I think that’s just excellent, because it’s the only answer that makes sense. I was at a memorial service recently for a friend of mine that I was really close with in middle school and high school, and it was the first time I’ve preached at a memorial service, and it was just a lot harder than I anticipated. I preach a lot, and I love preaching, and it’s usually very energizing. But in that moment, although I was very moved, it was just so real.

Fr. Ken: Well, you’re feeling all the things that everybody else is feeling.

Jesse: Yeah, that’s it. And in that moment, though — the best moment that happened during the whole day, besides playing with her daughters (it was really beautiful to meet them; they just had so much joy, and I felt so much hope in what God can do, and redemption) — I was talking with her youngest sister, who I had never met, and she said, “What you said made a lot of sense. I’ve never been a religious person.” But basically what she ended up framing, which I thought was so beautiful, was, “The depth of suffering and grief that I feel could only be answered by resurrection and hope.” She’s like, “My worldview didn’t have a frame for this grief.” I’m putting words in her mouth, but that was the conversation.

Fr. Ken: I’m glad that she drew some comfort from the gospel.

Jesse: Yeah. And that’s what I think you elucidate so clearly as you talk through this: doesn’t this make sense of the world? The only thing that really makes sense of a world that could be full of what we might think of as meaningless suffering is a God who’s actually present in every suffering moment, who actually engages with us.

Fr. Ken: Yeah. I tell some stories around this in the book, and we’ll let people read the book. But I think this idea that he falls with us comes from Athanasius in Contra Gentes, the book that precedes On the Incarnation. It’s a two-part work, and Contra Gentes is the opening of the book. Contra Gentes has a lot of stuff that’s not terribly interesting, but there is a passage in it that’s absolutely key for understanding what he’s doing in On the Incarnation. I’m basically paraphrasing what he says in Contra Gentes. He doesn’t use the language of God falling, but he is saying that God extends himself in the incarnation, which is both his being born and his dying as a human being. So we have to hold those together. This descent is in order to lend us permanence. He sees that in death and in the grave we’re descending — the human race is descending towards non-existence, to just not exist anymore. And he says — this is Athanasius — God is not stingy with existence. He wants his creatures to participate in his permanence. And so — he uses this language a lot — it would not be in the character of God to watch his creation descend into non-being without putting himself on the line in order to rescue and lend his permanence to us, so that we don’t slip into non-being.

And that is where I got this image of the falling human being. And then I discovered later that von Balthasar uses the same — I think it’s in Heart of the World, or it’s in Love Alone Is Credible, one of those — he uses this image of Christ falling. And of course he’s saturated with Nyssa and Athanasius and all these people, but he uses the same image, that Christ is falling. But I use this idea — this idea came to me: what if someone hit rock bottom? What’s the bottom of that fall into non-existence? What would that be? And I was like, well, if what Athanasius is saying is true, we land on the body of Jesus. Balthasar says that he’s, like, below. So then the trick to me was, well, if we landed somewhere, where would that be? Well, it’d be the body of Jesus. And that just was like — boom. That’s it.

And so these influences come in, and then you ponder them on the basis of your real-life experiences, wrestling with people like you were wrestling with the sister of your friend who perished. And they come to, “Oh, that’s our hope. That’s the trust. That’s the reality.” Despite the great sorrow — your friend, and especially these little ones who are going to have to be raised without their mother — in the end, all of us who are falling will land on the body of Jesus, and that will be our rescue.

The structure of all existence

Jesse: That’s right. Well, I wanted to highlight the structure of the book as well, as I was thinking about that being a touch point. In grief you can miss a step, but Jesus is there to catch you. I had that kind of image as I was reading through all of that. But the whole book is framed around our existence. I’m more of a philosophical guy, so you start with the human God — well, that’s the base of everything. The foundation of the world is the human God. That’s not arbitrary. It didn’t just happen 2,000 years ago. It also happened before the foundations of the world — built on this at the throwing down —

Fr. Ken: That’s right. Yeah, the throwing down of the world.

Jesse: I love that. It’s all just bursting out of the love of the human God. Creation just gushes forth from him. And then it’s a human life, a human death, and a human future. And so all of our existence is kind of encapsulated in this structure. I love that your structure is based on the structure of all existence — not that you’re trying to tackle all of that, but if you look at Jesus, that’s what you get. You get the structure of all existence. You get the life, the death, the resurrection, the future hope. And I was thinking about the story of your stepdad, my grandfather — Papu, Archbishop Adler. He used to say, “Don’t get caught in the small story.” We’re called to be consumed, subsumed, in the bigger story — Jesus’s story, the structure of all existence. And I see that that’s what you’re doing in this book: you’re telling the big story and inviting us to be in that.

Fr. Ken: Yeah. We are story-driven creatures. And God tells a story. He’s inviting — that we exist is part of the fact that the Word has spoken us into existence. He spoke all things — human beings are handcrafted, but he spoke all things into being, and he’s constantly speaking, and his word is what sustains us and sustains the world. And so, yes, he is telling a story. And then there are these spiritual forces of darkness that are telling a lie. But the story — the humility of God in writing the story of the world. He is the author and the finisher of the world. So he’s going to tell a story that ends well. And that story that he’s writing of existence is recapitulated in the life of Jesus — from eternity, into the womb of Mary, into silence, then to learn to speak, to learn to crawl, to learn to walk, to exist among human beings as a human being. He comes to die. And it is his death that’s so life-giving. So he takes captivity captive. He converts the use of death. Without his death, death really is — all of us would just be nihilists, and should be. But his death has converted the deprivation of death into a good, as only God can do that.

And so the whole story is vital to understanding who we are. And if we enter into it, and we’re meditating upon his life among us, it not only shows us how to live and be a human, but, as you were saying earlier, how to participate in the way God is human, and to participate in the human God’s own divinity — as Peter says, to be participants in the divine nature.

Jesse: Yeah. And we need almost constant reminders of the story.

Fr. Ken: Yes. And so, to get back to sentences: I was talking with a young man who grew up in charismatic churches. He’s been attending Redeemer for about nine months. He was off on a military thing, and now he’s back. And he’s like, “What goes off in my head all the time is the words from the Eucharist that we repeat several times: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.’” He said “the sins of the earth,” right? But he’s hearing that over and over again in the liturgy, which is telling a story — telling this story in a different way. And the church year helps us tell all the different aspects of the story. Every Sunday morning, we’re recapitulating the story in the liturgy. These sentences get into us. They become part of the grammar of our lives, part of how subjects and verbs agree. And so we start to realize that we’re in the story of God. And these sentences, like “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” are a reminder. Why do we say it four times? I sat there and offered the Eucharist: why are we saying this four times? Because we forget. Not just week to week, but we forget between the sentences. We have to be reminded all the time. Behold the Lamb of God. The one who offers himself freely, voluntarily, takes away — doesn’t retain — the sins of the world. He takes away the sin: all that is not of love. And it’s of the world — all sin. Not just some sins, but all sin.

And that’s part of the story we’re walking through. But it doesn’t always seem like the Lamb of God is taking away the sins of the whole world. We live in a world in which there are a lot of counterfactuals to the story that we’re telling. And so we have to constantly be reminded that, in the end, the world is going to function on turning the other cheek. In the end, the world is going to function on going the extra mile. In the end, the world is going to function on love of enemies. Whereas today it all seems totally impractical and totally foolish and totally not the way it works, and we would just be dumb to follow the words of the Sermon on the Mount. But actually, the story God’s telling, and the reality of the world, is now not death but resurrection — not conflagration or war, but peace; not greed and envy, but generosity, in which we were all made.

So the story is so important — entering the story and understanding God’s written you into the story. What is your story? And as Archbishop Adler, our stepfather — your grandfather — would say, “Don’t get lost in the weeds” of the nitty-gritty of what’s happening in any given moment. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the big picture.

Remembering our stories

Jesse: Yeah. And it seems our culture is at that moment where we are remembering our stories. You look at the work of Martin Shaw, Malcolm Guite — or even Paul Anleitner calls this out specifically in his latest book, Based on a True Story. There’s something happening right now where our culture — I mean, we literally just had a blockbuster epic, one of the biggest movies of the year, and it’s The Odyssey. It’s like we’re looking for the stories. And I thought that one fell a little flat for me, The Odyssey, because it didn’t fully inhabit the Jesus story. But it’s definitely not as bad as the worst critics, and it’s definitely not as good as the people who lost their minds over it.

Fr. Ken: Yes. But I think it’s a sign. I think there’s a desire for — what is real, and what story are we in? And stories that interpret — as The Odyssey and The Iliad do, and The Aeneid — were interpretations of the Bronze Age, with their concepts and ideas: “This is the story of the world.” And in some respects, Homer and Virgil are right. But in some aspects, they don’t have the whole story. And that comes through. But there are things you can take away.

Jesse: Yes. Well, I love that this is happening in the realm of story, because, like you said, we’re story people. We’ve lost our way a lot, and I think our interpretation of Jesus — I’m working this around — was lost in the midst of losing our story. Because when you have these flat stories, these reduced stories, these commercialized stories, you cease to be able to engage at the level of meaning that I think Jesus challenges us to. He’s the most transgressive story ever told. It changes everything. And so I’m just excited to see this excitement around the King Arthur story, or the things that Martin Shaw is doing, or even Pageau — Jonathan Pageau — rewriting the fairy tales. There’s just this new animating spirit where we can engage, because Jesus is that big. He can fill all things.

Fr. Ken: A lot of energy around it, and a lot of interest, and a lot of people are drawn to it. And I think that’s because — all these stories that don’t mean anything — people have no appetite for that anymore. For the story that is just despairing. Paul Anleitner talks about the anti-hero, which breeds cynicism. But cynicism is like the water. And to realize that cynicism is deadly. Cynicism doesn’t give life. It doesn’t help anybody wake up in the morning and go about their world and their life with some hope. You can’t raise children on cynicism. They need hope. So it’s a beautiful moment, and I’m glad that we’re in it, and we get to experience some of the storytellers now. Storytellers coming back.

And in a sense, that’s what I am trying to do. In the book, I am telling the story. It’s a personal story. It’s a community story. It’s a story about my own personal journey. It’s a story about my journey with the community called the church — both Holy Redeemer and the people that are in my parish beyond the walls of the church — and with the church through the ages. And it is that central story of the human God. So I’m inviting people into all the nuances of it, because those nuances are a deep critique of the sorts of fallen ways — I don’t like to use the word fallen — the broken ways that our lives are being guided these days.

Allergic to cynicism

Jesse: Well, I think that’s one of the things I was trying to call out in the book: there’s just not an ounce of cynicism in it. It’s all just so genuine. And there’s no denial in the book.

Fr. Ken: That’s right. We’re facing the realities of the world. But I’m really allergic to cynicism, personally. I think it’s a false choice.

Jesse: I think cynicism is antichrist. That’s my quote; I’ll put it on my Twitter. I think Jesus is the one who hopes all things, believes all things — that’s what it says about love — and cynicism is the opposite. It questions all things. Not that questioning is bad.

Fr. Ken: No. I think discernment is important, and some skepticism. You don’t want to be naive, especially in the face of evil. But this kind of posture of cynicism is demonic — to just live in that.

Jesse: Yes. And that posture of cynicism leads to darkness and to evil. And the invitation of Jesus is just, “Come to the cross with me. If you’re feeling that weight, join me on the cross.” That heals cynicism — the self-giving, self-pouring, eyes-wide-open encounter with death that leads to life.

Fr. Ken: So there’s a critical mode, right? As a person, or as an academic, you’re criticizing a movie or a film or a book or whatever it is — an athlete, a sports event. And I think criticism in and of itself isn’t bad if the motive of criticism is love. So if you love something like painting, or you love football, or — and this is profoundly more important — you love your child, you’re going to have to engage critically with whatever it is, whatever you’re working on, whatever relationship you’re in. But it’s life-giving if it’s based in love. If hate is at the bottom of it, or just a kind of opposition, the criticism is not going to do the work that you are intending it to do. Tom Oden was really big on this: the foundation of all true criticism is love. So we want to see the best. We want to experience the best. We want the people that we love to know the good and to experience the good in their own lives. And so we will bring the critical aspects, the things that need to be said, but the foundation is charity.

Jesse: Yeah. It reminds me of T. S. Eliot’s Little Gidding, which is my favorite poem. He has that great line where he says, “Who wove that intolerable shirt of flame? Love. Love is the unfamiliar name.” And his whole point that he draws to is that we only live, we only suspire, consumed by either fire or fire. We’re all consumed by the fire of God’s love. What it burns away is everything that is not who we are, who we are called to be — that is not who we’re intended from the foundation of the world to be, where we’re false to ourselves, or we’re false to the story, or we’re false to the community, or we’re false before God. The promise — not the threat, the promise — is that it will be burned away.

Fr. Ken: That’s right. And so good storytelling, I think, instills hope, and also discernment. And it instills courage, and not fear.

Idol or icon?

Jesse: That’s right. Well, and I think in this book, what I wanted to get at too is that as you’re telling this story, it’s reintegrating who Jesus is, in the form of the way that you unpack what he did on earth and the stories you tell of your pastoral encounters. And I think you’re going to like this comparison. I was thinking about Talladega Nights, which is cinema — absolute cinema, as they say. In Talladega Nights — it’s the Will Ferrell movie —

Fr. Ken: It took me a minute. Okay.

Jesse: Yeah. John C. Reilly.

Fr. Ken: I’m with you.

Jesse: They’re around the dinner table and they say, “I like to see my Jesus as —” you know, the sweet baby Jesus. He likes to pray to the baby Jesus with wings at a Van Halen concert. All of those things. But it’s such a great critique, because, like many funny things, it absolutely gets at the heart of some of what we do with Jesus: we like to see our Jesus as these things. They use absurdity to draw it out into humor. But don’t we all like to see our Jesus as whatever our imagination can come up with? But when you really gaze upon Jesus — like you said that phrase, “Behold the Lamb of God.” What does that word “behold” mean? It’s more than just “look.” It’s “open yourself to attend to the person of Jesus.” And that’s what you’re doing in the whole book. As Brian Zahnd said in the foreword, you’re like an iconographer with words. You’re painting the picture of who Jesus is. You’re writing the picture of who Jesus is. And when you read it, it’s not quaint. It’s not dogmatic. It’s a picture. You’re painting a picture with the story. And hopefully, in the reflection of this, you’ll behold Jesus. You’ll see him. And that will allow us, instead of saying, “I like to see my Jesus this way,” to just say, “Oh, there he is. There’s Jesus.”

Fr. Ken: Brian — that foreword is a blessing. It has its own value as a kind of summary of what Brian has been trying to say about Jesus for a couple decades. Well worth it — don’t skip it. If you’re reading the book, make sure to read that. But I think he got it right. And I think there’s two things we can do. What you were addressing with Talladega Nights is, you’re taking aspects or bits of the story of Jesus, and you’ve really made an idol, not an icon. And so I’ve been thinking about this, especially in light of Philippians 2, which is — talk about story — verses 5 through 11. I mean, it could be a creed. You could say that every morning: “Have this mind in you which is also in Christ Jesus, who did not grasp for equality with God but lowered himself.” It’s the whole story in 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 — seven verses. It’s the whole story.

But thinking about it, it’s like when Moses ascends Sinai to receive the tablets of the law, the children of Israel down below, in their despair and in their cynicism, decide to make a golden calf and worship the golden calf. And I think some people in their imagination think, “Oh, that’s an Egyptian god, or maybe an Assyrian god, or maybe one of the gods of the Canaanites or something.” And it’s not. They were making an image of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — a bull. So they’re making an idol of the God who has addressed them and is their God. They’re making an idol of Yahweh — even though we’re not supposed to pronounce that name — of Adonai, of Elohim. The God, the Lord.

So I think there’s a real danger. I mean, it’s comic. Of course we laugh at Talladega Nights, and that’s beautiful and fun — bring all the humor on. But it’s a very serious matter to take Jesus, and take bits and pieces of the story, and start investing energy in creating something that’s not Jesus and worshiping it. So it was very much at the heart of what I’m trying to do in this book — to dispel false, idol aspects. People are making Jesus an idol. Usually we do that in order to underwrite or give excuses to attitudes, dispositions, actions, and words that don’t line up with the holiness, the beauty, the goodness of God. So we create a false Jesus who is blessing — and we could point the finger at ourselves, but, to be cartoonish, you’ve got Vladimir Putin lining up these Orthodox priests, in the mausoleum that they’ve made for the military, blessing missiles and planes and helicopters and all these kinds of things — which is an antichrist thing to do, to bless these weapons of war as if Jesus is in the middle of all that. And so it’s a false god, but not an Egyptian or Syrian or Palestinian or Canaanite god. We’re talking about the God. And I think it’s far worse. To make an idol of Jesus is worse than worshiping Isis, you know what I’m saying?

Jesse: Well, yeah. I mean, we both grew up in Sunday school cultures where taking the Lord’s name in vain meant you couldn’t say, “Oh my God,” right? But as you grow up, you realize taking the Lord’s name in vain is so much deeper than that. It’s to ascribe to the character of God something that’s not true of God.

Fr. Ken: That’s right. So to take the name of the Lord God in vain is to say that God is in something God would never be in. And so, yes — very positive motivation. It’s not driven by — and it would be okay if it were — a more polemical work, which would be to say, “We are absolutely going to avoid these idols.” But this book is more ironic, in the sense that it’s trying to draw the picture so beautifully that false pictures of Jesus just aren’t attractive. To inoculate the reader against accepting these false stories and images of Jesus that are used to underwrite our greed, or our fear, or our grasping for power, or whatever it is that’s not of love — to have it our way. And so that is a very positive motivation in the book. And it starts with the conversations on buses and subways and trains, and then it continues in conversation with parishioners and neighbors and on social media — and really to subvert a lot of what’s happening in social media into actual love and engagement around what matters. And so, shaping the wisdom that comes to us from the church over the centuries — in different cultures and different times and different languages, men and women who had these experiences with Jesus and wrote about them, that are such tremendous gifts to us as we traverse the real world of 2026 — so that we have companions on the journey that are helping us to see the fullness of Jesus. You’ve got a little piece of it, Jesse. And you mentioned Malcolm Guite — he certainly has a bit of that. And all the men and women — Julian of Norwich, and Irenaeus, and contemporary figures we might look to, like somebody like Beth Moore, or maybe Ann Voskamp — people who are voices today. And in the recent past, somebody like Alexander Schmemann. These voices that give us — and Shawn Copeland is a major influence on me, the Black female writer, when it comes to the cross. Fleming Rutledge, who I think I had in the back of my mind. All of these witnesses that help us to see Jesus well, and to remove false concepts — as cute or comical as they sometimes might be, also dangerous.

The master restorationist

Jesse: Well, and I think too, underneath a lot of this is fear, right? Most people who have a bad image of God, or a poor representation of God in their mind, in their spirit — and they’re responding to that — if your God is wrong, then there is a lot of fear. And what I love about your book, and what I constantly am thinking about, is that he’s just so much better than we know. We limit his goodness more than I think anything else we limit in him. And if you understood the goodness of God and the beauty of that — like Dostoevsky says, right, beauty will save the world. The beauty of the goodness of God is so much more drawing than the anger and fear that can be generated by any false idol.

Fr. Ken: Yes. And when we start with that — Athanasius says in On the Incarnation that part of what it means that God becomes human and dies — an aspect, an angle; these are infinite, this is just one angle — is that he comes as a master restorationist. Each of us is a painting, and the history — the harm we’ve done to ourselves, and the harm that others have done to us, and the experience of the broken world — has damaged the painting. There’s grime and smoke and all these things. And he comes not just to take away the buildup of sin but to restore the vibrant color of our being made in the image of God. So it’s always in reciprocity: we behold the face of Jesus, and then we are conformed to the image. And when we don’t limit the goodness of God, we begin to experience our created goodness, because of the Creator. It’s something that is inherent in us because we’re made in the image of God. And we begin to see our own capacity — despite the fact that we are fallen from love — our own capacity for goodness is far greater than we sometimes allow. And to the extent that we have said yes to the restoration that God wants to do on us, the greater and greater our capacity to participate in our created goodness.

And I think we sometimes put limits on how transformed our neighbor can be, or how transformed our child can be, or how transformed our friend can be, or how transformed our enemy — the potential that our enemy can be transformed by the grace of God to their original goodness, to a memory of who they actually are, so that they begin to understand that violence is not who they are, but healing. Like a great surgeon, you only wound to heal. You don’t wound to destroy. Or the essence, for the person who’s just self-seeking, greedy: greed is not the core of you. Generosity is. And so you’ve been given all of this in order to be a giver. Whatever it is. It is the core struggle for any human, and most of us have several of them. I say in the book that, within creation, human beings have done the most evil. I don’t think cows have — controversial. I don’t think trees have done the most evil. Oceans have not done the most evil. Human beings have. So we’ve made a mess of things. But our capacity for redemption and restoration, and to become in this life — to receive the likeness of the Creator — we limit the goodness of God, but we also limit the capacity, I think, of ourselves to be transformed by grace.

Our part to play

Jesse: Yes. And I’m just wanting to step towards receiving more and more of the fullness of his goodness, and to be made more and more in the image of his goodness. Well, I was thinking we could, heading towards exactly what you’re saying, maybe make our last idea this thought I’ve been thinking about in reading this book, and thinking about just how we image Christ. Because this book is an image of Christ. That’s the whole point of the book. But we are really the true image. And it’s like God is so big and so good and so multifaceted and infinite that the only way he could be displayed and made known on earth is through his people who he’s transformed, restored. And so the whole journey of the entire world — if, however many, eight billion people imaged Christ in their own way, then we might get a little bit of a picture of the goodness and the infinity of God. And we are adding to this day by day.

Fr. Ken: We would still have the problem of death. But other than death, both in the creation and in ourselves, we would be living in Eden again. We would be living in a world made well, if we were all participating in that fullness. And the animals and the creation would participate in all of that. The universe itself would participate in it. We’d still have the problem of death. And so in the end, no matter how converted even the totality of human beings are, it’s the act of God that has to happen. So I don’t think we say, “Well, we’ve just got to leave it to God.” Martin Luther King says that’s superstition: “Well, we’re just going to let God fix this.” We get to participate. Well, how does God show up right now? He shows up in and through us. So when the prisoners are visited, when the sick are taken care of — this happened in the history of the world, with the first Christians in the Roman Empire. There was a conversion of the empire away from its fatalism and its worship of false gods and its running from anybody in misfortune. And the church ran to people, not accepting this superstition that they would be infected with death, or infected with poverty, or whatever, by drawing close to the poor, or infected with criminality by drawing close to the prisoner, and so forth. It converted their whole mindset. And they built hospitals and orphanages. Rodney Stark and all the people — his name is not coming to me right now — the guy who wrote Dominion —

Jesse: Tom Holland.

Fr. Ken: Yeah. A lot of really fine people have studied this and shown that real transformation happened in the Roman Empire because of the church. And it would be the same thing now. And it has been the same thing, in waves.

Jesse: Yes, it has been. We’ve seen this occur in cultures.

Fr. Ken: And it doesn’t take anything away from any of those things. That’s the kind of church we want to be, the kind of human beings we want to be in the world — still knowing that, for all of our efforts, we all die, and then God brings us and the world back. And so we have to fall into death knowing, as we’ve said already, that when we land, we land on the body of Christ, and that the end is not non-being but resurrection, which is us and the world being made well again. And that is ultimately an act of God. So we don’t end up putting too much confidence in our concerted human effort, and we ultimately put our trust in God, who alone can disinfect the world from the scourge of death — and will, and has. At the death of Jesus, resurrection started breaking forth as the reality of this world, and there will be a day when the only thing that there will be is resurrection. We won’t have cemeteries anymore. The world will just be resurrection. In the meantime, we need to be reminded, and so that’s what we’re trying to do here, in our little part. And this is a show for people who are a part of the Charismatic Episcopal Church, and we have our part to play in this renewal. And I’m grateful for it. I’m grateful for this church. It’s not perfect, but it’s where I’m called and where you’re called — and if you’re listening to this, where you’re doing the work for God. And I think we can take joy in that participation. This is the place we get to do that work.

Jesse: Yeah. It’s such a beautiful picture. Nothing you do in kindness and love is too small to be a part of that great picture of hope and resurrection. It’s not wasted. It’s all part of what God’s doing.

Get the book

Fr. Ken: That’s right. And so one thing you can do is you can read this book — to do the marketing pitch at the end. It comes out on Tuesday. You can order it wherever you get your books.

Jesse: It comes out on Tuesday. It’s crazy.

Fr. Ken: It’s already showing up everywhere. Some of the early orders are already arriving — people are getting them. I think Amazon is the one that’s the most behind. Barnes & Noble, straight from Brazos Press, Bookshop, Thrift Books, and even independent stores have it. So it’s a lot of fun, and it’s been a long, long time coming, but here it is.

Jesse: On the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels, which is just such a cool thing.

Fr. Ken: I did not put those two things together.

Jesse: I did put the 50th anniversary of you two together.

Fr. Ken: Yeah, there you go. But I did not think about Saint Michael. Debbie, my wife, will be excited about hearing that it’s the same day. So do you guys have the feast on Tuesday, or usually Sunday?

Jesse: This Sunday. We’re going to have a burger truck come. And we’re at Saint Michael’s, which is the origin story for the CEC — the CEC came out of Saint Michael’s, and your participation in that — and so it seems really fitting, really providential. So yeah, we’ll have a big party here on Sunday.

Fr. Ken: Well, get the book, guys. Wherever you like to buy books, it’s there. It’s available. Just walk in and grab it. And shoot me a note. Send me a note. Tell me what you think.

Jesse: Absolutely. All right. Well, thank you for your time. It’s going to be awesome.

Vulnerable God (Brazos Press) is available from Brazos Press, Bookshop, Barnes & Noble, Thrift Books, Amazon, and independent bookstores.

Sermon: The One and the Ninety-Nine

2026-09-06T12:00:00-08:00

Lord, as we come together and we study your word, I pray that it would not just impact our understanding, but, Lord, that it would change our lives. We trust that you are working…

Sermon: We Are Going Where He Has Already Gone

2026-08-30T12:00:00-08:00

I apologize for the distraction here as we get going. I am talking today about the Gospel, which is a pretty central Gospel, as I'm sure you know. Anybody ever heard the phrase…

Witness

2026-08-20T12:00:00-08:00

I have had a truly incredible five months. From February through July, I attended the selection of the new Patriarch in Madrid, the Installation of the Patriarch in Paris, 3SI: The River conference, and the Patriarch’s Council in San Clemente, CA. I will borrow a phrase from Bishop Jason Epps to describe each experience, “It’s the same as before, only more.” At each of these amazing experiences, I have, mostly, been an observer and supporter. The proper word is witness. I have been a witness to that which God is doing in the CEC.

In Madrid, the Patriarch’s Council that met was the one that Abp. Bates had assembled. The unity among those members was remarkable. The first ballot, completely unanimous consensus decision to select Abp. Jones as Patriarch was a statement that God is leading our Church. The joy of the installation in Paris brought confirmation of the new thing that God was doing to revitalize our movement and our unity. It was a tremendous trip that included a healing conference led by Abp. Jones. As God does, the healing and the commissioning were happening in the same moment. Symbolic of the activity of God in the whole communion, we are in a season of healing and sending forth.

3SI: The River brought another moment of unity, commissioning and direction for our communion and, specifically, our young adults. God is raising up leaders from among this generation. While the rest of the mainline denominations are worried about greying out, the CEC is looking to the move of God among our young people with faith and expectation. The purpose of God was furthered as well in the first recording of the Three Streams Collective band that played the conference. Made up of worship leaders from around the country, they played and recorded six original songs during the conference that will be released on their first EP in the coming months.

This all led straight into the Patriarch’s Council. The way had been prepared. The meetings were full of unity and encouragement.

What is the Patriarch’s Council? The Patriarch’s Council is the highest governing body of the ICCEC. The Patriarch selects his own council and they join in the governing of the ICCEC through consensus. To summarize consensus, the men on the council seek God’s will, not their own agenda. They share what they believe God is speaking and the first among equals, the Patriarch, then declares that consensus has been reached on a decision, or else they continue to pray and seek guidance. Sometimes issues are even put off due to a lack of consensus. As Bishop Jones often says, “I don’t have time to be in a hurry.”

The symbol of what the Patriarch’s Council does for our communion is illustrated most clearly in the consecration of the oils. The bishops all participate in blessing the Chrism Oil. This oil represents the anointing that is referenced in Psalm 133.2: “It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes!” The anointing flows from the Patriarch and his council to each bishop in each diocese to each priest in each parish to every member of the ICCEC. This is the oil that anoints every baptized member, every person confirmed in the communion, and every bishop, priest and deacon in their ordination. Not only a symbol of the proper ordering of God’s Church, we believe the oil is an effective element in the Sacraments where it is bestowed.

Just like the oil, we all participate in the Spirit that flows out from the Patriarch’s Council as God leads through these men. I take such encouragement knowing that I can trust that God is leading the ICCEC.

The members of the new Patriarch’s Council are Archbishop Charles Jones, Patriarch; Bishop Elmer Belmonte, General Secretary; Bishop Gregory Ortiz, Auxiliary to the Patriarch; Canon James House, Patriarchal Nuncio; Archbishop Ariel Santos, Primate of Asia; Bishop Michael Davidson; Bishop Prakash Yuhanna; Bishop Raymundo Abogatal; Bishop Brett Crompton; Archbishop Joshua Koyo of Kenya; and Bishop Francis Gogo of Uganda. Abp. Jones has selected Bishop Belmonte to be his General Secretary. This position is an esteemed and necessary help to the Patriarch. Bishop Douglas Kessler was the first General Secretary to the Patriarch and he had an amazing impact on the formation of the ICCEC. During the sessions, Bishop Jones, in consensus with the Council, named Fr. Jim House his Nuncio. The Nuncio means that Fr. Jim carries the authority to be the voice of the Patriarch. In particular, he is like a diplomat on behalf of the Patriarch as he speaks to his many connections inside the CEC and outside the CEC around the world. One additional role was defined as I was made the Global Director of Communications for the ICCEC. This continues and globalizes Three Streams United. This article is a direct result of the initiative to bring unified and clear communication of the message that God is speaking to the ICCEC and the ways God is moving in our midst.

Another significant decision was a clarification of the process of consensus for the Patriarch’s Council. Decisions made at the Patriarch’s Council will be taken by representative bishops to their own councils for their territories. These councils will be able to give feedback on the decisions. The following Patriarch’s Council meeting will consider any feedback and, barring any changes needed, confirm the decision. As such, the decisions made in this meeting that need to go through that process will only be announced as final following the next Patriarch’s Council gathering in March of 2027. This continues to allow our church to be woven together in unity around the consensus government we have been given.

It was increasingly obvious throughout the three days of the Patriarch’s Council that God was leading as the decisions were all made with an easy unity and the conversation was effective and constructive. Discussions that tend towards tedium or controversy were conducted with peace and clarity.

The prophetic gifts were on display as well with many sharing words that God had spoken to our patriarch’s council and for our communion.

Ultimately, the fellowship, the unity, and the prophetic Spirit of the gathering told the story of how God is moving far more than any particular decision. I look forward to my new role and being witness to the work God is doing in our Communion worldwide. I will continue to share from my experiences and hope that you are encouraged and connected through these articles to the revival we are experiencing day by day.

Jump in the River

2026-08-03T12:00:00-08:00

The Charismatic Episcopal Church is in a season of recovering who we always were. Believing in the active presence of the gifts, and seeing them practiced as normal Christianity is foundational to our understanding of the Holy Spirit and the Christian life. The two instructional Eucharists continued to reveal the three streams nature of our worship. And the call to bring the River to the nations underscored the outward thrust of our mission and vision.

Bishop Jones, our Patriarch, set the tone for the conference as he continued his life’s work, “Preaching the Gospel to Christians.” The “In Christ” life that we are invited into reveals the River as the life of Christ. This understanding makes the Christian walk simple: let Christ live His life through you. T. S. Eliot calls it “a condition of complete simplicity (costing not less than everything)” (Little Gidding). And Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2.20).

I had the privilege of following Bp. Jones. I highlighted the various influences of our culture. The ocean we swim in is constantly pulling us downstream of God’s purposes. The primary direction is towards a worship of self. In our culture, the Westminster Catechism has been inverted, “The chief end of man is to glorify and enjoy himself forever.” The invitation from Jesus is to drink from the River that comes forth from the east side of the true temple, Jesus. Just as his heart was pierced and the river of living water flowed out for the salvation of the world, we are called to be pierced and bring the salvation of God to the world.

Among the breakout sessions, our speakers spoke on discerning vocation, the ministry of the laity, raising kids, anxiety and depression, marriage, and reaching the world beyond our walls. Lila Rose led a special session on living the Pro-Life life. I had the opportunity to share stories from the formation of the CEC and she was thrilled to know that we were birthed out of the Pro-Life movement. We learned harrowing stories about the evil of Planned Parenthood. My greatest shock was learning that the majority of people who get abortions in America claim to be Christian according to current data. Our hope remains: “everything will live where the river goes” (Ezek 47.9). We are called to bring that life to a culture bound by death.

One of the highlights of this conference was the international presence. We had several young adults from Europe and three of our international bishops. Archbishop Ariel Santos brought the opening message on Thursday and, while it was salted with humor, it was rich with prophetic encouragement. “It’s time!” He exclaimed. Time to move with God, time to embrace the Kairos moment, time to walk into the purposes of God.

Bishop Jason Epps shared a powerful vision of the junk we allow to accumulate in our heart and Jesus’ ability to wash us clean. We are “Vessels of Honor” made to contain the River of Jesus’ life and presence. When we allow him to flow through us, all the shame, lust, anger, envy, fear, and all sin is washed away and who we are is revealed. Let Him dip you in the River and fill you up from its depths.

The coffee bars, lunches, and the closing refreshments were another path that God used to bring delight and fellowship to the conference. Whether the custom latte creations or the local favorite taco truck were your favorite, the gathering was facilitated by the excellent food and drink.

I had the best seat in the house for Fire Night. As the facilitator, I was up front the entire two and a half hours. The roar of worship and the felt presence was overwhelming. I was on a prayer team and we prayed for people from the moment the invite was given until the end of the night. There was faith and expectation in the room and God broke through in our midst.

Several young men were convicted that they were called to the clergy and received prayer for the discernment of their vocations. Around seven married women who had had difficulty conceiving received prayer for God to open their wombs. One of them, an attendee at last year’s 3SI, had received a prophetic image and prayer a year earlier, and had her baby just days before this conference.

The Fire Night marks an important beginning for a different reason. The band, now known as Three Streams Collective, brought six original worship songs to play throughout the conference. These songs were written by worship leaders in the group and workshopped together with the other members. During the Fire Night, those songs were recorded so that they could be professionally mixed and mastered later. I am proud to announce that Ron E. Mudd, famous for Vox Domine and other CEC recorded music, is mixing and mastering Three Streams Collective’s first EP. I have heard the beginnings of the mix and the live worship recorded that night is incredibly vibrant and energetic. Look for more information on this project in the coming months.

Kicking off day three, Fr. Jim House, one of the founding elders of the CEC, shared his testimony of being planted in the River. For 53 years, he has remained faithful to the church community of Saint Michael’s and the fruit of his faith is abundant. Through stories of God’s outrageous provision, Fr. Jim encouraged us all to be planted where God places us and trust His faithfulness over our own.

Bp. Belmonte followed this by illustrating to us the great freedom that comes when you give it up and go all in. The gift of freedom comes as we let go of control and go where the River leads. That became the through line this year: ditching distraction and jumping into the river. Bishop Jones summed it up: You may have gone ankle deep, but you were still in control. You may go knee deep, which is better, but you can feel secure. Even at waist deep, there is a hanging on impulse. But the invitation is to jump in and swim.

The Closing Eucharist continued the joyful expectation as Bp. Crompton shared on the difference between an internally focused network of churches and the movement we are called to: “A reservoir is built to store water. A river is designed to distribute it. The Lord never called the church to become a network of reservoirs. He called us to be the river.” The outward focus brought the conference to its launch point and the invitation to “jump in!” pertains to every day moving forward. Over and over, God has been encouraging our Communion to go from a moment to a movement, and that is the final encouragement from this year’s conference. For those who came and those who watch the videos from afar, for those who read this article or heard a testimony from a church member who attended, the invitation today is for you. God is moving in the CEC. Jump in the River and let it take you where God leads.

Sermon: Give Them Jesus

2026-08-02T12:00:00-08:00

...not to hear about you, but, Lord, you want to meet us here in this moment, to partake of you and your goodness. So, Lord, we pray that you would encounter us where we're at…

Sermon: Sustainable Revival

2026-07-19T12:00:00-08:00

...it's a beautiful day that you have given us. We thank you for the air we breathe. We thank you that we can come together and encounter you. Lord, I pray that you would impress…

Sermon: The Faith of the Fathers

2026-06-21T12:00:00-08:00

God, we thank you that you have called us here this morning to experience your healing power and to worship your holy name. We pray that you would encounter us in the words we…

Sermon: The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand

2026-06-14T12:00:00-08:00

Thank you, Lord. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Amen.

Sermon: Called With Power for a Purpose - 3SI 2026

2026-05-24T12:00:00-08:00

We're going to talk today about being called with power for a purpose: that all of us as Christians are called. And so as we talked through this, and as I was praying about the…

Sermon: Glory

2026-05-17T12:00:00-08:00

Lord Jesus, we pray that you would reveal yourself more fully to us today, that we would see you in all your goodness, and that it would change us. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon: Mothers Are Images of God

2026-05-10T12:00:00-08:00

...we declare your goodness. We stand and rest in your love. We pray that you'd open yourself to us this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon: Finding Jesus on the Way

2026-04-19T12:00:00-08:00

Lord Jesus, we pray this morning that our hearts would be set on fire as we study your word, and that we would recognize you in the breaking of the bread. Lord, we thank you that…

Sermon: Discipleship: Palm Sunday

2026-03-29T12:00:00-08:00

Lord Jesus, I pray that you would form us by the stories that we enact this Holy Week. I pray that we would be changed as we enact the goodness of God in these stories. In Jesus'…

Sermon: The Life of the Disciple

2026-03-15T12:00:00-08:00

So we're going to start with a little story time. I don't know if any of you have heard of a children's show that was all the rage in the '90s called Salty the Song Book.…

Sermon: Discipleship - The Well

2026-03-08T12:00:00-08:00

[Our collect] pointed out, "Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves." I don't know if you know this, but this is the reality we live in. We're…

Sermon: Discipleship: Salt & Light

2026-02-08T12:00:00-08:00

Lord, we pray that as we dive into your word, you would transform us, that you would encounter us, and that we would walk from this place with the light of Christ shining. In…

Art Is for Beauty

2026-02-03T12:00:00-08:00

A couple of thoughts.

Art is that which is made for its own sake. I find this definition compelling.

Art is also about beauty—genuinely so. There is a real distinction between self-expression and beauty, and confusing the two muddies the conversation. Not everything that expresses something is art, and not everything expressive is beautiful.

The clearest image I have for this is the crucifix. Probably the most painted, drawn, and sculpted image in history, the crucifix is transformed by art from a grotesque instrument of torture into something that can even become modern jewelry. That transformation is astonishing. I cannot think of a true counterexample—something that is genuinely art and yet not beautiful in some way.

Yes, images can depict ugly things or tell horrific stories. But when that happens, the image often functions primarily as storytelling rather than art as such. If a terrible scene transcends mere narrative and becomes art, I think what we are responding to is still beauty—perhaps a severe or tragic beauty—but beauty nonetheless, even when the subject matter is horrifying.

This distinction is important because it allows us to exclude propaganda and advertisements from art. They may be visually clever or emotionally manipulative, but they are made for a purpose beyond themselves. Their end is persuasion, not beauty.

So: art is that which is made with beauty as its center and is made for its own sake—not as a means to something else.

Consider stained glass windows. They are functional, yes, but the argument still holds. The window could have been merely a window. The art is the stained glass image itself. It does not depend on being a window to be art. The same piece could be mounted in a light box in a museum—as so many are—and nothing essential would be lost. The window serves a function; the art does not. The art exists for its own sake.

Sermon: Discipleship: The Beatitudes

2026-02-01T12:00:00-08:00

You are present with us now. We pray that you would transform our hearts, not by knowledge, not by might, but by the power of your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon: Discipleship: The Promises and Purposes of God

2026-01-11T12:00:00-08:00

Lord Jesus, we thank you that we can stand firm in your love: that no matter what's going on in our life, what baggage we bring, you took it all for us, Lord. And you have placed…

The Self-Improvement Gods

2026-01-02T12:00:00-08:00

Being very aware of our inadequacies, we are flooded with invitations, sales pitches, and demands to be better. In the age of algorithmic emotional manipulation, we can easily confuse the project of Christ with the grindset bros, the influencer girlies, and the self-help gurus. Do you feel too fat, too lazy, too poor, too sinful, too needy, too alone? Follow my commands, buy my merch, purchase my course and you will be satisfied. This should not be hard for us. We should just laugh at them and move on, except for one problem. These social media personalities are right.

We are too fat, lazy, poor, etc. We absolutely need salvation. In fact, if you follow these influencers, you might even become less fat, lazy and sinful. So why not? What’s the catch? You will trade any external gains for internal poverty. You might stop drinking, have better physical health, get more done, earn more money, but you will simultaneously realize that the god you serve cannot fix you. No amount of health saves you from death, no amount of money makes you less alone, no amount of productivity gives you the worth you crave.

Of course, we should absolutely learn from those who are farther along than us and many of these influencers are experts in their field. You will most likely learn more about running a business from Alex Hormozi than your parish priest. The problem comes when we buy salvation from the person who can teach us the best workout routine. It’s always a problem of ordered goods. “Seek first the Kingdom of God” is not just a pithy phrase. It is the organizing principle of our life. “All these things” flow from this one thing.

When Christ is not in the highest place, the foundation, and the center (all classical ways of marking the same idea), then the competing pressures of social media, cultural pressure, and inside our own deceitful hearts will inevitably pull us out of alignment. The process of forming an idol is as follows: when you give something or someone your attention, you will give them your devotion, when you give them your devotion, you will give them your worship, and what you worship, you become. This is why we look not to influencers in the Church, but to saints. We look to those who became icons of Christ. Those who we can say, like Paul, “become imitators of [them] as they imitate Christ.”

Keeping Christ our focus requires our attention, our devotion and our worship. This is one of the revelations of the Incarnation. Jesus became the image of the invisible God that we might give Him all our attention, all our devotion, all our worship. That we might become like Him.

We all fall short, we all fail, we all feel our frailty, our inadequacy, but two images have been comforting and encouraging me lately.

First, is the image of a ship. James makes use of this imagery when he tells us that the tongue is like a rudder, “Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.” (James 3.4) He goes on to say that whoever can manage his speech is perfect. Lord, have mercy! The image of a ship at sea is a common Biblical image. We can view the Christian life like this. We are the ship. We have been made seaworthy in our baptism, the Holy Spirit is the wind in our sails and our compass. As we navigate the seas of time we look to Christ that: “we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ...” (Ephesians 4.14–15)

Like a ship, we are constantly adjusting our heading to point to our North Star and our destination, Jesus. We might even take various routes that look like detours but are brought into proper alignment through repentance and the power of the Holy Spirit. Ships never start in perfect alignment with their aim and it is foolish to believe that we could do so. The complexities and storms of our life are constantly pulling us this way and that, but we trust the work of the Spirit to guide us to that true destination.

The enemy would love to make us believe that we can get there on our own strength, as if the wind and the compass were merely our abilities and our will, but Jesus reveals our weakness as the place of His strength. Surrender, repentance, and alignment with Christ are the ways to fulfillment and transformation.

The second great image of our discipleship to Christ is that of a guitar. We have been made of exactly the right stuff, we have been equipped and purposefully molded to fit a particular scale, a particular tonality, and a particular intonation. However, our life is played by the maestro, our story being pulled up into His. As we go through our individual and unique movements, we are constantly being tuned by the God of all beauty. We sometimes strike dissonant chords, we are often out of tune and we are being fitted into the orchestra of humanity to play the celestial hymn of praise to our God.

If you have ever tuned a guitar, you will know that this process is not glamorous. It can be unpleasant and defeating. One of the proper methods is to overcorrect and then come back to the center, stressing the string from flat to sharp and back in a dance of infinite play. The resonance and the harmonics of a well-tuned instrument can bring us to tears of joy in one moment and fall hopelessly into despair and atonality in the next. Our trust is not in our abilities to align with the Center, but in the hands of our Maker to tune us to Himself.

These two images help to insulate me from the pressures of the modern machine. Yes, I am not who I am called to be. But also, no, my deficiencies will not be solved by effort, education or money. They are all completed, restored, fulfilled in the person of Jesus. This is why Paul can write that inconceivable (yes, the word means what I think it means) verse, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12.9).

So as you are confronted endlessly by your own inadequacy, let us lean more into Christ and less on our own strength. Let’s look more to Him and less to them. Let’s trust the work of the Holy Spirit, even when the note we resonate is out of tune or the vector we sail is blown off course. We can trust His providence, His care, and His love.

Sermon: Should We Look for Another? The Kingdom Is Here

2025-12-14T12:00:00-08:00

Lord, we thank you for your promise this morning. We thank you that you have come that we might have life, and life abundantly. Lord, we pray that you would turn our hearts…

Sermon: Reject Despair and Distraction

2025-12-07T12:00:00-08:00

Jesus, we thank you that you are here with us, and we pray that you would guide us in this season of Advent to the coming of our Lord. In Jesus' name, amen.

Sermon: Paul in Rome: The End of the Beginning

2025-11-23T12:00:00-08:00

...open our eyes again this morning. Open our eyes to the reality of your love for each of us and the truth of your kingdom that you wish to speak to us. In Jesus' name we pray…

Sermon: AOTA - Living a Supernatural Life

2025-11-02T12:00:00-08:00

We come before you trusting that you know what you're doing. We come before you trusting that you love us dearly, and that everything you do is to draw us closer to you. So, Lord…

I Heard the Sound of Rushing Rain

2025-09-21T12:00:00-08:00

In the summer of 2023, several of the young adults from Saint Michael’s Church traveled from San Clemente, CA to Italy for HOST Con. There they became inspired by the gathering of youth from across CEC Europe. As Christian McGrew, Jane House, Michelle Madison, Christian Harris and Emma Powers began to pray about what God might be calling them to, they felt distinctly called to create a gathering of young adults for the CEC NA. While HOST was focused on youth ministry, they felt called to reach their own generation of CEC young adults.

These young leaders asked me to help them achieve this vision and I quickly recommended former CEC4Life Staffer, Sarah Neeley, to join us. For years, Sarah and I and several other leaders had been trying to create a conference just like this and we couldn’t be more excited to help.

Listening to the 3SI team during those early meetings, a clear vision emerged:

To connect and unite young adults across CEC-NA
To inspire, equip and activate young leaders in CEC-NA
To bring to light the reality of our wider communion among our young adults

Within a couple of months, I had the opportunity to present this vision to the House of Bishops during the week of Bp. Brett Crompton’s consecration. The plan for the first Three Streams Ignited conference was to hold it July 16th-18th, 2025 at Saint Michael’s Church. The HOB unanimously approved the conference and the 3SI team launched into planning.

All throughout 2024, we planned and prayed for the conference. Each decision was made with humility and prayer; everyone was truly open to whatever God wanted to do. As the conference speakers and worship leaders became finalized, the excitement for God’s purposes grew. The worship band was such an incredible mix from around the country. Worship leaders from Nevada, Michigan, Maryland, New York, Alabama and California came together and began meeting to discuss God’s vision for the music of the conference. I write all this to show just how much prayer and gathering preceded the conference. Truly, God speaks through his people, for Jesus said, ”whenever two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:19

Finally, the first day of the conference came. We opened with worship. Opening with worship established the proper focus and made room for God to move. One of the key emphases that emerged from our meetings was that this conference would not be focused exclusively on teaching. Throughout the schedule, we built in times for worship and response that invited the Holy Spirit to act. There was truly a sense that the Holy Spirit would dictate the pace and flow of the conference. We built the schedule but remained open to the guidance of the Spirit throughout.

Bp. Jones had the first teaching session and invited us to a greater understanding of the reality of living “In Christ.” Thomas Batterton, of Saint Michael’s, followed with an amazing teaching on the Wedding at Cana. It became clear that being “in Christ” meant being vessels for filling and transformation by His Spirit. The response time with the worship band and prayer teams launched us into that place where the Holy Spirit moved through our leaders, young and old, impacting and imparting and imbuing young adults with His power.

We had lunch and moved into our breakout sessions. Each session dealt with practical and applicable callings and activations. The first two sessions embodied the vision for the conference: “Hearing God’s Call: Finding Your Purpose” & “Unlocking Your Spiritual Gifts”. All of the breakout sessions followed a theme of calling and activation in ministry, work and family life. 3SI brought kingdom calling and vision to a generation of young people who are bringing revival to their communities around the world.

That night, the attendees enjoyed a bonfire next to the iconic San Clemente pier, building bonds of fellowship that connect them to their fellows from across the globe.

The conference continued with Bp. Jason Epps teaching that called us all to repentance. We had a small chapel room set up with attending priests available for the Sacrament of Reconciliation and this timely word led to dozens of confessions throughout the rest of the conference. I followed up Bp. Jason’s word with a teaching on the life of Joseph inspired by the claim of David in Psalm 105 that the Word of God “tested” Joseph. Everyone who attended this conference heard the Word of God and we explored exactly how Joseph was tested by that Word which resulted in him becoming the savior of the known world. Each and every one of us is called to bring the kingdom of God to our corner of the world in the same way. God has chosen to work through us to save the world.

During the response time following these words, we saw miracles of healing and personal ministry. Archbishop Jones shared that God had revealed to him that we were in a place of such expectancy that could only be likened to his experiences ministering in Africa. He had never seen such a spiritual atmosphere as that in the States. That afternoon featured more breakout sessions such as, “Faith in Action: Getting Involved in the Pro-Life Movement” & “Love Your Neighbor: Transforming Your Community for Christ.”

The expectation for God to move built throughout the afternoon as we headed into the Fire Night that evening. Opening with the Powell Trio from Michigan, accompanied by Auggie from Nevada, the room was thick with the presence of the Holy Spirit. In our pre-service prayer, our prayer teams shared prophetic words and images of what God wanted to do that night. Two separate people shared that there were dozens of angels around the room.

We have always opened our Fire Nights with the confession of sin and it always creates the atmosphere that allows God to break through into our hearts. Repentance is the narrow gate to the kingdom, and we understand that we are invited to enter in daily through that narrow gate. From the opening worship set, the roar of the singers in the room was supplemented by a heavenly reverb. It was incredible. Our prayer teams were primarily composed of our young adults. I have been prayed for by most of them throughout our Fire Nights, and there is a prophetic gift moving powerfully among them.

Throughout the night, we had the opportunity to hear prophetic words and testimonies from many people that raised the faith and resonated strongly throughout the room. One of our final words came from Selena Vargas of Church of the Intercessor in Malvern, NY. She reported seeing a vision of Jesus with His arms spread on the cross. As she looked, she saw the cross fade away and Jesus faced His Father in heaven with His arms now spread in worship. He turned and looked over His shoulder at Selena and said, “I am here worshipping my Father with you all.”

We ended the night with Fr. Powell, the rector of Saint Michael’s, declaring the benediction, “Remember the Gospel… God loves you, God is not mad at you, and God will never leave you nor forsake you…”

The final day of the conference started with Fr. John House sharing his testimony about being sent to Henderson, NV to serve our church there. Bp. Crompton then shared about the Holy Spirit in us spreading like wildfire and gave the conference its most memorable catch phrase, “Flame on!” After a lunch break, we moved into Bp. Jones’ “Message and Ministry” time. The prophetic words shared to transition from the teaching to the prayer and receiving primed the faith pump (for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God) and a line of people formed immediately to receive prayer. At least two more healings (a shoulder and a knee, separate people, similar stories of surgery without full recovery) came from this time of prayer as God continued to move. It was obvious that this conference was more about encounter than self-improvement and less about learning the truth than being changed by the Truth.

The closing Eucharist continued the pattern of incredible worship, powerful teaching, and anointed prayer time. Bp. Chris Moran preached on Isaiah 6, “Here I am. Send me.” And the response time was full of young adults who had heard the call of God in their work and ministry. Three of the young adults who came to receive prayer from Auggie and me asked for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and God activated the gifts in their lives. We closed out the Eucharist with a jubilant, dancing worship outpouring to the song, “The Blood.”

The fellowship following the closing Eucharist lasted into the small hours of the morning and no one went away from this conference without being changed.

The true significance of the conference came together for me around 4am on Friday morning following the Fire Night. I awoke to hear a sudden and violent downpour followed by thunder and lightning. Now this is not a common occurrence in Southern California, and I was instantly alert to God’s presence in the moment. This is not normal for me. I am usually the heaviest of sleepers and my wife has to wake me to anything happening in the night. I walked outside on my front porch, watched the storm, and asked God, “what are you saying?”

I was reminded of the story in 1 Kings 18 when Elijah told Ahab that he heard the sound of rushing rain. “43 And Elijah said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” And he went up and looked and said, “There is nothing.” And he said, “Go again,” seven times. 44 And at the seventh time he said, “Behold, a little cloud like a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” And he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot and go down, lest the rain stop you.’” 45 And in a little while the heavens grew black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.”

The CEC has had many prophetic voices promise the rushing rain, and the servants of the Lord have gone out and looked over and over again. At times they have seen a cloud the size of a man’s hand and even some isolated showers. But the Lord said, “No more will there just be small clouds or isolated showers. It is time for a downpour.” And this conference was the beginning of a downpour. Just like the storm which had torrential rain representing the falling of the Holy Spirit bringing life to dry ground, we will also have manifestations of God’s power which was the lightning. After the lightning, the thunder would strike and reverberate off the mountains and hills of Saddleback Valley where we live and it felt like the sound was rushing to and fro throughout the whole earth. There is a voice, a clarion call, of the CEC that God gave us. It is again going to reverberate like that thunder to and fro throughout the whole earth.

This is not a prediction of the future, this is a declaration of what God did in the Three Streams Ignited conference and what He is doing in our churches, around the world, right now. The young adults, clergy, and leaders at this conference are coming back to their churches to bring with them their fresh anointing, activated and equipped by the Spirit to spread like wildfire. This is normal Christianity. Flame on!

What Were You Made For?

2024-11-08T12:00:00-08:00

Billie Eilish is not who I expected to open a men’s retreat sermon with. But she wrote the theme song for the Barbie movie, and if you’ve seen the behind-the-scenes footage, you know the moment the song was born. She and her brother Finneas had been working for six hours. Nothing was coming. It was eleven o’clock at night, they were stuck, and then — out of nowhere — she opened her mouth and asked: What was I made for?

The whole song came out of that one question. Because it’s the question. It’s the one written on every human heart, whether we know it or not. Tonight I want to answer it — at least for us, at least for men.

You were made for four things: to be a son, a brother, a husband, and a father. That’s the whole sermon. Everything else is commentary.

The Hero’s Problem

Before we get there, let me borrow something from Baldur’s Gate. Yes, the video game. Bear with me.

Baldur’s Gate is one of those enormous open-world role-playing games. Hundreds of millions of copies sold. The reason it sells is because it does something brilliant: it puts you inside a story that matters. Wherever you go, there is meaning — experiences, items, plot lines, companions. The world was designed. Every pixel was placed to advance something. You never wander into a dead zone.

The world is like that, too. God designed it that way. Every person you pass in the grocery store has something for you and you have something for them. Every job you’ve had, every conversation that felt like a detour — it was all part of God forming you. The world is full of quests and adventures and storylines, should you choose to go on them. The saddest possible version of the game is the guy who sits in the cave on level one, watching the wall, drinking fake wine, going nowhere.

Now, when you start Baldur’s Gate, you’re stupid. You can be killed by literally anybody. You know nothing. You’re just trying to figure out how to open a chest. A lot of us sideline ourselves at exactly this point because we don’t feel ready — we don’t know how to do what we’re called to do. But here’s the thing: the men in this room who have the testimonies we all admire? They were stupid too. They didn’t know anything. That didn’t stop them. Growth only happens by going out and doing the things.

And you can’t do it alone. Baldur’s Gate is built so that you need companions — the fighter, the cleric, the wizard, the rogue. Everybody has different abilities. The man trying to do it all by himself isn’t a hero; he’s an idiot playing the game wrong. As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another (Prov 27:17). We were made for one another.

One more thing from the game: it’s an open world. There’s no single path. A lot of us assume that because our life isn’t on the trajectory we expected, we’re failing. I don’t think that’s how God works. He leads us all over the map. But every detour, every “I just want to get there and he’s sending me way over here” — that takes maturity, discernment, and wisdom. And you’ll never navigate without a map. Our map is Scripture.

All of this is to say: you are the hero of your own story. There are quests and adventures and real, significant work for you to do. Now let’s talk about who men actually are.

I. Son

The first and most foundational identity is son, and this is the one you absolutely must get right. Everything else flows from it.

When God created the world, it came from one cause: love. The love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit was so abundant that it overflowed into the creation of everything that exists — the sun, the moon, the stars, the oceans, the forests, the mountains, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, the sea creatures, and mankind. He didn’t create us because he needed something from us. He created us so that we could receive his love. That’s the point.

The problem — and we all know this problem from the inside — is shame. Because of sin, we feel our inadequacy deeply. Even people who have talked themselves out of believing in God still feel it. You can see it in how they live: punishing themselves every day for a guilt they can’t name. Each of us knows, somewhere beneath the performance, that we are not worthy of God’s love.

That knowledge is actually useful. Guilt is meant to point us toward our Father. That’s the only thing it’s good for. The prodigal son had the right instinct: Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son (Luke 15:18–19). You have to start there. You cannot go anywhere if pride or fear is blocking your ability to admit that you are not worthy.

But here is the astonishing part: God’s response is not what the prodigal expected, and it is not what any of us would do. The father runs. He doesn’t wait. He puts a robe on his son’s back, a ring of authority on his finger, and throws a party. He kills the fattened calf and celebrates. The son comes back planning to ask for a job as a servant, and leaves as a crowned prince.

That is the God you are dealing with.

And then John says it plainly:

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:16–19)

Your first job as a son is to come to know and believe the love that God has for you. Not just to acknowledge it in theory, but to actually live out of it. To walk into any room with the expectation that you are loved, because your Father loves you. What is there to fear? They can reject you — they rejected him too. But if you live out of love, you don’t have to claw for recognition and worth. You already have it.

And there is something more. When Jesus was baptized, the Father declared: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matt 3:16–17). That is the identity God wants to give you. You are his son. If you can’t receive that — if shame and guilt are still holding that door shut — you’ll spend your whole life trying to perform your way to worth you could have received for free.

Sons also receive identity. The name Johnson literally means “son of John.” Every Christian, in the deepest sense, carries God’s name. We share in something of the divine nature — encoded in our very being is the image of God. That changes everything: your authority, your confidence, your sense of what you’re doing here.

Sons are marked by growth. Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52). Growth is not optional for a living thing. Biologically, when your cells stop reproducing, you are dead. Spiritually, the same is true. There is no stasis. You are growing toward God or away from him. Every day, there is a choice.

And sons are marked by obedience — not the obedience of a slave who would revolt if he got the chance, but the obedience of a son who trusts his father so deeply that he looks for ways to fulfill his father’s will. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Rom 8:14–15). The ultimate mark of sonship is the Son in the garden: Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done (Luke 22:42). That is where we are growing.

II. Brother

The theme of brotherhood is that God is not just saving individuals; he is gathering a people. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom 8:29). Jesus himself is not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb 2:11). Our first brother is Christ, and he is teaching us how it’s done.

Here is what brothers actually do: they build the impossible together. Brothers built civilization. The roof over your head exists because men got together and built it. The electricity in these outlets exists because men service the grid. Hot water and flushing toilets — which I find deeply moving — exist because men laid the plumbing. Every time men gather with a shared purpose and a unified direction, they are participating in the God-given calling to build the city of God.

When Bishop retires and this diocese transitions, when Saint Michael’s leans into what God is calling it to become — these are not small projects. These are impossible tasks. They require brothers. Not men who show up occasionally when it’s convenient, but men who have been in the room for years building trust so that when the moment comes, they are ready to stand.

Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment (Prov 18:1). There is a spirit in our culture that celebrates the isolated individual — atomized, self-sufficient, the center of his own universe. I feel it too. There is an oppressive loneliness that comes from the way we’ve organized modern life. But the answer is not another streaming service or another hit of whatever numbs the edge. The answer is brothers.

What brothers do, ultimately, is this: Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). The ultimate mark of brotherhood is sacrifice — not always physical death, but the daily death of serving someone in a way that costs you something. You are meant to have men around you who will do that for you, and for whom you will do that in return.

III. Husband

Every man in this room is called to be a husband — even if you never marry. Let me explain.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. (Eph 5:25–27)

Jesus, who never married a woman, is the perfect husband — because we are the bride of Christ. The way he loved and led the church is the pattern. He cherished her, made her beautiful, poured his life out for her, and held fast to her. That is the calling.

If you are married, this is your vocation with your wife. The passage doesn’t say “tell your wife what to do and have dinner ready.” It says become the kind of man whose sacrificial love makes his wife more glorious, more mature, more herself. That is a high calling, and most of us, if we’re honest, have a long way to go.

If you are not married, the money and time and energy you would invest in a wife goes to the church. You are a husband in training. And if you want a wife — become a husband first. Find your mission. Serve the church. Get brothers around you. Stop waiting to be ready, because you’ll never feel ready; start becoming the person who could actually sustain a marriage. God has a lot of grace for men who are young and foolish, but grace is not an excuse to stay there.

One more word for the husbands and husbands-in-training: Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, and a man’s eyes are never satisfied (Prov 27:20). The pornography epidemic in our culture is not a side issue — it is a direct assault on the husband identity. Like hell itself, it is never enough. It just goes on and on. If you are caught in that, please hear this not as condemnation but as a plea: reach out. Get brothers around you. What God has for you in marriage — a depth of love and desire and beauty — is so much better than what you are settling for.

IV. Father

Finally, men are made to be fathers. And the father identity is really three verbs: build, name, and rule.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion… over all the earth.” (Gen 1:26). The first thing God said to the first man was: be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Fathers produce life. They make order out of chaos. They build a home for their family — and because a family can’t flourish without a city, they build cities. They build structure, and in building structure they build the kingdom.

Men think about building things constantly. The Roman Empire. Infrastructure. How things work. This is not a cultural quirk; it is a design feature. You were made to build. The question is what you are building and whether what you are building is oriented toward God.

Fathers also name things. That was Adam’s first job. He wasn’t having a naming party — he was seeing God’s reality clearly and calling it what it was. Naming is about recognizing truth and declaring it. In a world that has become genuinely confused about what things are, men who can see clearly and say so plainly are desperately needed. Call the good good. Call the evil evil. Name your children’s God-given identities. Call forth the best in your brothers.

And fathers rule. This is almost embarrassing to say out loud in our cultural moment, but it is astonishing in the best possible way: God wants to share his authority with us. He designed men to be co-heirs with Christ of his kingdom and all of reality. He calls us to dominion — not as tyrants, but as sons who have been shaped by love into the kind of people who can be trusted with power. If you’re still a child, you’ll never be that. But every step of growth as a son, a brother, and a husband is moving you toward it.

All of this — the building, the naming, the ruling — exists for the women and the children. I read a passage recently about “the happy days of sacred youth” and my heart broke a little. There is a culture that is in a hurry to strip childhood from children, to burden them early with the anxieties and ideologies of adults. Fathers draw the line. Fathers say: these children are going to be children. They are going to climb hills, look up at the sky, and feel joy. That protection is not incidental to your calling; it is the point of it.

The Problem, The Guide, and The Call

Here is the honest assessment of where most of us start: we are stupid, undisciplined, and malformed. Not as an insult — just as a fact. And the world has kindly provided us with counterfeits for everything we actually need.

Social media offers fake status and fake community. Pornography offers fake intimacy and fake pleasure. Gaming offers fake significance, fake community, fake romance — all the things you’re supposed to be building in real life, available on demand with none of the cost. Alcohol, weed, nicotine: regulation of the negative emotions you’re supposed to be taking to your Father. Streaming: escapism that keeps you in the cave while the world outside needs you.

C.S. Lewis saw this clearly:

What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could ‘be like gods’ — could set up on their own as if they had created themselves — be their own masters — invent some sort of happiness for themselves outside God, apart from God… God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. — C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

You were built to run on God. Everything else is trying to run the car on the wrong juice.

But here is the grace: God has not left you alone in this. You have a guide — the Holy Spirit inside you, the holy Scriptures as your map, and the Church, specifically your brothers, as the people who will sharpen you when you drift. As the story always goes: the hero is young and stupid, he meets a guide who tells him how it’s done, the guide gives him a plan, and the plan calls him to action.

The plan is the family — biological or spiritual or both. Have children, or multiply your church and have hundreds of spiritual sons and daughters. Either way, you are not sidelined. There is a role for you.

And there will come a moment — probably more than one — where following that plan is going to be hard. A fraternity president I heard about used to ask his struggling pledges three questions: Did you want to be here? Did you think it would be easy? Did you think it would be hard? And then he’d say: this is what hard feels like.

That is what God is saying to you at the fork in the road. Don’t you want to be a hero? Did you think it would be easy? Well — this is what hard feels like. Heat and pressure are how things get shaped. That is how God is shaping you.

Reaffirmation

You are loved. You are needed. There is a plan for your life, and it is better than you could imagine. Not because you are so impressive, but because the God who designed you for this is, and because he is not going to let you stay as stupid and undisciplined as you started.

Take yourself seriously. Stop acting like your particular role doesn’t matter — like nobody will notice whether you show up or not. Somebody is standing at the battle line looking to his right and to his left, and the brothers aren’t there. Be the brother who is there.

Walk down off this mountain and do something with what God said to you this weekend. Every one of us here should talk to someone in the next few weeks — a friend, a priest, a brother — about what God said and what the plan is. You are a hero. It is hard. And there is nothing that God cannot accomplish with men who say yes.