I recently enjoyed catching up with several supporters of my new freelance ministry work on a video call. You can watch the conversation by becoming a Patreon (and join in future calls too).

There was no agenda, just an open Q&A. Naturally, the first question was ‘Tell us why you moved on from Unbelievable?’. Well, it’s complicated. But in retrospect it has felt like a God thing. The space that a new start has given me has led to so many unexpected and exciting opportunities arising. Read on below for some of them.

It also means I can really focus on beginning to publicise my forthcoming book The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God (which feels like a full time job in itself!) I’ve been delighted by the early reception it’s had (e.g. these recent catch ups with Ryan Pauly and Truth Over Tribe podcasts). And I’ve now got round to putting the pre-order links on my own website… feel free to bag your copy.

Tim Keller: New York’s pastor to skeptics

I was also delighted to recently guest-host a conversation on the life and legacy of Tim Keller for the Maybe God Podcast.

Each of my guests - Collin Hansen, Max McLean and Molly Worthen had a personal connection with Tim. Collin is his biographer, theatre director Max considered him a friend as well as his pastor in NYC, and journalist-historian Molly says her own recent conversion was aided by Tim’s personal communications with her.

Naturally, Tim Keller was someone who knew thousands of people but had the ability to make each person feel like they really mattered to him. And it’s because they did. I experienced this myself during the several occasions that I interviewed Keller or brought him on a show to discuss faith with a skeptic. Whenever we emailed each other he was always genuinely interested in and encouraging of the work I was doing from across the pond.

One of Tim’s gifts was his ability to maintain genuine friendships beyond his own theological tribe and also with those who didn’t call themselves Christian at all. With his passing, that winsome and gracious spirit has been an example to me of what I would like my future ministry to look like.

Look out for more Maybe God Podcast interviews from me in future with Calvin Robinson, Martin Shaw, Andrew Klavan and others.

Re-Enchanting Season 1 concludes

We just wrapped up our first full season of the Re-Enchanting podcast. It has featured an eclectic mixture of guests. Someone asked me to define the mission of the podcast. I think it’s something like this:

“Talking to interesting people, both with and without faith, about the way in which the Christian story has shaped our world and whether a secular, post-Christian culture can be re-enchanted with the wonder and mystery of that story again.”

I particularly enjoyed hearing from Vishal Mangalwadi on our final episode of this season. He is an Indian intellectual who has written a fascinating account of the way the Bible transformed not only his own country, but the world.

We are about to start recording fresh episodes for Season 2 (broadcasting Sep/Oct) with some exciting guests to be announced!

Speaking in Portsmouth & the USA

I’m also delighted to say that I’ll be crossing the pond in late August and September to visit Minneapolis, Sioux Falls, Houston and Dallas to speak at various churches, events and conferences. I’ll publish a full schedule of activity in a month or so. It will be great to meet some friends old and new.

Firstly however, I’ll be contributing to the Confident Christianity conference in Cowplain, Portsmouth on Sat 15 July, here in the UK. I’ll be speaking alongside Andy Bannister and Sharon Dirckx. Do come along if you can - it should be a great day.

Best wishes and thanks for reading this far!

Justin Brierley

P.S. In these early months of my transition to freelance media ministry I really appreciate any support you can give to help me continue to produce resources for Thinking Faith. You can support directly via Paypal or via Patreon and receive lots of additional benefits too!