Mapping the Cultural Landscape

An update of sorts

A quick note: It’s lovely to be back and welcomed into your inboxes weekly. Here at “Beauty Leads the Way” expect thoughtful articles on faith and learning, imagination and the church, on ideas and formation. As this is a free labor of love, I appreciate you subscribing, sharing, and supporting my work in other ways. —AH

---

Part of the fun surprises of this season of my life is seeing an increased partnership between myself and my husband, Bryce Hales. I mean we both do the dishes and make the bed and raise four lovely human beings. But we’re also starting a think tank, Willowbrae Institute, and now we’re hosting a podcast, The Cartographers.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen the American church lose itself to the culture wars; we’ve seen an apocalyptic revelation of the sad state of discipleship; we’ve seen pastors and leaders burnt out and emotionally unhealthy; we’ve seen the sort of cultural flailing around issues of abuse, justice (and the lack thereof), and the weakening hold of Christianity as a cultural force. We’re not longing for some lost “golden age.” We don’t think such a thing really existed. We are interested in naming the changing cultural forces and challenges for Christians in this moment in time and doing something about it.

The church is not the life-giving cultural presence it is called to be. But it could be. It’s at that intersection of realism and hope where Willowbrae seeks to work and act.

While there is a strong need to begin the disentangling faith with other forms of cultural expressions and power, this often seems to result in an increasing number of deconversions, or at the very least, a very troubled relationship with “church.” There are no easy or quick answers. That is clear. We need to figure out how we got here. And, we need to think clearly about where we’re going. Both a deconstructive and a reconstructive impulse are needed. Not an either/or. Not a Jesus-is-a-CEO or happy clappy version of Christian institutions, nor a Jesus is my Homeboy will work in this post-pandemic age.

The work of Willowbrae Institute then will seek to not only name the ecosystem of how we got here, but also seek to build a resilient Christianity with some practical and substantial handholds of what it looks like — to be, in James Hunter’s phrase, a “faithful presence within” the context in which we live. We will work by researching, publishing and equipping.

Part of our publishing looks like popular resources, such as The Cartographers podcast, where we’re helping Christian leaders map this changing cultural landscape. We don’t have all the answers, but as a pastor and PhD, we’ve got some inklings and we’re keen to have thoughtful conversation partners.

For now, expect some thoughtful conversations around topics of individualism, spiritual formation, and this changing cultural moment. We’ve released episodes with David Zahl (on the human person), Chris Bruno (on wisdom, character, and age), and Douglas McKelvey (on formational liturgies in Every Moment Holy). We’ll release episodes bi-weekly and then after Easter will do a more dedicated series. As this is a labor of love at the moment, if you take a moment to subscribe to the podcast and have a listen, that is extremely helpful. Share an episode with a friend. Use the podcast as a point of discussion in a small group. Or subscribe to this substack. All of it helps us talk carefully about this cultural shifts and what it looks like to follow Jesus.

Here on Substack, I’m looking forward to returning to my series on the therapeutic as soon as I get a writing deadline turned in!

Let me know in the comments what questions you might have, what sorts of things are noodling around in your brain with these topics. Or, if you have the Substack app, in the chat thread. Or, as always, hit reply in your inbox and I’d love to start a conversation.