Land of My Sojourn: The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found
"At some point in every Christian's life, God intervenes to show us that what we thought to be our home isn't―and sometimes, only a lifetime later does one see that this was actually good news. [...] If you've ever felt the pain of losing home―and if you want to learn how to long for something better―this is the book for you." -- Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today
In the years since leaving local church ministry, I've devoted an enormous amount of time and resources to examining the church's often troubled witness, its ongoing crisis of leadership, and the epidemic of narcissism, abuse, and cover-up that has continued to emerge year after year. This book is about my journey both before and undergirding that work--the shattering of dreams and the grace that restored a broken faith in the aftermath. It's a story about grace leading me home when I thought all was lost.
Taken together, my encounters with Peter, Elijah, and Jesus connected to indelible images from my time in Israel and formed a new spiritual landscape in my mind, one with enough gravity to draw my feet back to solid ground. My hope is that as I tell this story you might find echoes of your own. I pray if you're in the wilderness, you might find that though the territory is a mystery, you are far from alone. Most of all, I pray that you rediscover that Jesus is chasing you like a lover . . . right through heaven's gates.
In the years since leaving local church ministry, I've devoted an enormous amount of time and resources to examining the church's often troubled witness, its ongoing crisis of leadership, and the epidemic of narcissism, abuse, and cover-up that has continued to emerge year after year. This book is about my journey both before and undergirding that work--the shattering of dreams and the grace that restored a broken faith in the aftermath. It's a story about grace leading me home when I thought all was lost.
Taken together, my encounters with Peter, Elijah, and Jesus connected to indelible images from my time in Israel and formed a new spiritual landscape in my mind, one with enough gravity to draw my feet back to solid ground. My hope is that as I tell this story you might find echoes of your own. I pray if you're in the wilderness, you might find that though the territory is a mystery, you are far from alone. Most of all, I pray that you rediscover that Jesus is chasing you like a lover . . . right through heaven's gates.
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Mike Cosper is the director of podcasting for Christianity Today, where he hosts The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill and Cultivated. Mike also served as one of the founding pastors at Sojourn Church in Louisville, Kentucky, from which he launched Sojourn Music, a collective of musicians writing songs for the church. He is the author of several books, including Recapturing the Wonder and Rhythms of Grace. He lives in Louisville with his wife and two daughters.
"In this riveting account of the rise and fall of a church full of artists in Louisville, Kentucky, Mike Cosper, as their sojourner founding pastor, chronicles the longings of 'the particular lives of particular people' to reveal the deep rifts of culture-wars dysfunction in the evangelical communities of our times. Mike's honest introspection through this revelatory writing is a healing balm for our own journeys of exile, to remind us that even in such painful experiences of brokenness of faith communities there is yet grace present. Like Elijah under a broom tree, we are led out of our utter despair and debilitation into a place of sustenance and hope, to look up and see that we are not alone."
--Makoto Fujimura, artist and author of Art+Faith: A Theology of Making"There are a lot of Christians--like Mike Cosper and like me--who have experienced a lot of grace in church, and who have also been deeply wounded in that same place. Through telling his own story, Cosper grapples deeply with the religious PTSD that is all too familiar to so many, and he describes how he has come through brokenness and despair. He's not in a rush to fully heal. He's still invested in a local church, but with a moderated emotional attachment. I think many Christians put too much hope in the idea of church and in their religious leaders. Cosper's book shows why that's a mistake, and it traces a path toward a more balanced approach."
--Jon Ward, author of Testimony and Camelot's End
