The last six months of 'Draw Near With Faith'

A thank you & an appeal

Just over six months ago, I let you all know that I hoped to do more with my Substack: I wanted to write more regularly and in greater depth about church history, contemporary Anglicanism, and the intersection of the two. I said then that I had decided to open up paid subscriptions, because I would need financial support to enable me to do this, given the other demands on my time as a PhD student and nonstipendiary priest.  

And now, six months later, I want to say a huge thank you to all of you, and especially to those of you who are paid subscribers. It means more than I can say that I have found a platform here. I so appreciate those of you who have let me know that you have found my writing edifying, and I’ve really enjoyed the conversations I’ve had with many of you stemming from my writing here. I have learned a lot from you all!

Specifically for paid subscribers, I want to talk about what your financial support has enabled me to do. First and foremost, it has enabled me to write a great deal more. From May to October 2023, I have published 18 pieces here (8 of which have been paid-subscriber-only). I’ve been running this Substack for 2.5 years, and in the first two years I published 25 pieces here. This means that in the last six months, I have almost doubled my Substack writing, and have been able to meet or exceed the writing commitments I laid out in my April announcement. Secondly, it has enabled me to put more time into researching and writing. I’ve moved beyond primarily doing posts that are stream-of-consciousness reactions to whatever I happen to be reading or thinking about at the time (or, I confess, reactions to the social media contretemps du jour) to writing pieces like my interview with Fr. Everett Lees about his experience leading one of the fastest-growing Episcopal churches in the country (“Church Growth, Discipleship, and the Gospel of Grace”). This interview was my most-read piece over the last six months, and it would not have existed without your help!

That piece really was an especially fun one to write. Fr Lees and I had interacted online for some years, and I have long admired his ministry, but it was such a treat to actually have a conversation with him. Existing as I do in a church environment where decline is even more dire than in the US, it was so inspiring to hear about a church that is bucking the trends, that is growing not in spite of but because of its combination of the proclamation of the Gospel of grace and reverent prayer book worship.

Another piece that I particularly enjoyed writing was “What the Reformation Teaches Us About the Pastoral Nature of Doctrine,” which took up Lutheran articulations of justification to argue that the common mainline move of pitting doctrine against pastoral care is utterly disastrous to Christian discipleship. This was a good chance for me to practice something that matters deeply to me: connecting my scholarly work in Reformation history to the daily lives of contemporary Christians. I love studying church history for its own sake, but as a priest I’m always also thinking about what I’m studying has to do with people’s lives of faith today. This piece seemed to strike a chord with people, and I was glad to give a couple of podcast interviews – one for Doth Protest Too Much and one for the Broken Vessels Podcast – on the topic.

A last piece that I want to reflect on a little bit is “How the Daily Office Changed My Life.” Here I went a little more personal, even confessional than is my wont on the Substack. I talked about how the daily office taught me to pray again after a period in which I had a very desultory prayer life, and about how it remains the foundation of spiritual life. I felt a little bit vulnerable putting this one out into the world, but I was thrilled by the response, especially people who said that it convicted them to either pick the office up again after a period of disuse or try it for the first time.

Together, I think these pieces reflect well what I am trying to do here: to hold a conversation bringing together the history of the church, an analysis of the contemporary mainline, and personal reflections about the Christian life, all centered in (what I hope is) a generous classical Anglicanism. If you find my writing here helpful – if that conversation is something that sounds exciting to you – please consider supporting what I do! If you have the means, I would so appreciate your becoming a paid subscriber (I’ll add that I remain committed to keeping the bulk of my writing here unpaywalled). There are other ways to support ‘Draw Near With Faith’ too! We are currently just 21 people shy of 1000 subscribers; if you have people in your life who you think would appreciate what I’m doing here, please recommend this Substack! And comments, questions, and other forms of engagement, whether in the Substack app/website or in other social media sites where my pieces get shared, are also so helpful and encouraging for me – I’m doing this not just to put my words out in the ether but to spark conversations.

Let me conclude where I began, with a word of thanks. I am so thankful for each of you and for the way you have supported my work over the last six months (and, in many cases, long before that!). I have some exciting ideas for the next six months and beyond. To give you a little preview: I’m hoping to do more interviews with people doing promising ministry in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada; I want to reflect more on the history of deconfessionalization in Anglicanism (and especially in the Anglican Church of Canada); I have a piece planned later this month on the fiftieth anniversary of the Leuenberg Concord between the Reformed and Lutheran churches of Europe; I’ve been asked to reflect on the intersection between inclusion and orthodoxy in the contemporary mainline. If this sounds good to you, I hope you’ll stick around for the conversation. I hasten to add that if you have other topics you’d like me to write about, please don’t hesitate to let me know. And once again: thank you!