The Deeply Formed Leader: Favorites from 2025
Before we turn the page on 2025, here’s a look back at a few of my favorites from 2025:
My Favorite Book of 2025:
The Soul of Desire: Discovering the Neuroscience of Longing, Beauty, and Community by Curt Thompson.
The Soul of Desire was powerful for me because it named something I’ve felt for a long time but didn’t quite have the language for: our desires are not problems to be managed, but signals to be listened to. Thompson beautifully weaves together neuroscience, theology, and spiritual formation to remind us that transformation begins when we seek healing within the context of the loving presence of others.
My Favorite Daily Practice of 2025:
Over the past year, I’ve loved using the Lectio 365 App. It’s inspired by the ancient practice of lectio divina, and it provides daily rhythms (morning - midday - night) of praying the Scriptures, reflection, and prayer. The content is incredibly well done!
My Favorite Sermon of 2025:
Series: The Person of the Spirit - Sermon: The Beauty of the Trinity
We need more teaching in the church on the Trinity; not as a concept to master, but as a relationship to behold. At the center of the universe is not power or control, but the eternal, self-giving love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Before creation, there was communion, and from that communion flows all life, beauty, and meaning.
Favorite quote from this sermon: If someone were making up a god, they might invent a tyrant, a hero, or a distant judge, but never this: three co-equal persons, eternally delighting in one another and pouring out love and glory on the other. The beauty of the Trinity is so far beyond human imagination that it feels less like human invention and more like divine revelation.
Favorite Ministry Moment of 2025:
What might have looked ordinary to most felt profoundly holy to me. After preaching on a typical Sunday and gathering at the table, as we do every week at City Church, I stood at the back and watched the beauty of the body of Christ unfold: women gently caring for a saint whose dementia has progressed, a Love Tulsa team member worshiping alongside a man with severe mental illness, and another quietly helping a homeless man charge his phone while offering him dignity and care. In that moment, I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the quiet, faithful beauty of the church being the church. I took this picture just to remember the beauty of that moment.
Favorite & Most Read Substack Article of 2025:
The Lie That is Fracturing Our Nation: How a century of misplaced loyalties led the American church into a culture war — and how we can find our way back.
In this post, I trace the past century and the key moments that led the American church to lose its story and drift into a culture-war mindset marked by us versus them.
Random Favorites from 2025:
My Favorite Service: Outdoor Good Friday Tenebrae Service at Camp Loughridge
My Favorite Moment: Baptizing my son Jude on Easter Sunday
Some of my favorite people: Saying goodby to the Moss family after 15 years of service to City Church.
Favorite Getaway: An incredible Hawaii vacation with the family
Favorite Week: Our first Doctoral Residency at the Spiritual Life Center in Wichita, KS with my doctoral cohort. An incredible week of learning with an incredible community of people.
Favorite Moment I: Opening Sabbath House (a 3-year project) with some of our favorite - City Church Staff
Favorite Moment II: Celebrating the grand opening of House of Resurrection with three men who have meant so much to me.
Soul of Desire 💯 love it!