Tish Harrison Warren on Her Accidental Church Plant, What Grows in Weary Lands, and Numbing Out, Flaming Out, or Going Deep
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In this conversation, Jason sits down with Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest, former New York Times columnist, and author of What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience. Tish opens a window into her life in Austin, Texas and she shares about how she and her husband accidentally planted a church after inheriting a grieving group of parishioners. Jason and Tish talk about her years writing on faith for The New York Times, and the strange work of context switching between public discourse and the pulpit.
In the back half of the conversation, they turn to What Grows in Weary Lands, a book born out of Tish's own season of weariness, spiritual dryness, and disorientation. Drawing on the Desert Fathers and Mothers, John of the Cross, and a long line of old friends from church history, Tish explains why she refused to write a Christian self-help book and the importance surrender plays in christian maturity and formation. She and Jason close by unpacking three unique paths that we can take in the face of pain: numbing out, flaming out, or going deep.
Tish offers a hopeful reminder that in the hands of a creative and good God, nothing is wasted.
Jason and Tish discuss:
How she and her husband came to lead an accidental church plant,
Writing on faith for a broad, often skeptical readership at The New York Times, and the personal cost that came with it,
Tish's season of weariness, spiritual dryness, and God's seeming distance, when the good things in her life were wearing her down,
Why the desert is a necessary stage of the spiritual life, and why trying to hurry through it can mean missing its gift,
How the desert exposes our sin and need for control while deepening our understanding of grace,
The three paths of numb out, flame out, or go deep, and how workaholism can make numbing out look holy,
and how going deep with God prepares us to go deep with the people around us.
Tish Harrison Warren
Tish Harrison Warren is a writer and an Anglican priest based in Austin, Texas. She is the author of Liturgy of the Ordinary, named Christianity Today's 2018 Book of the Year, Prayer in the Night, Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year and the 2022 ECPA Christian Book of the Year, and most recently What Grows in Weary Lands: On Christian Resilience. For two years she wrote a weekly newsletter on faith for The New York Times, publishing more than 100 pieces. She serves as the C.S. Lewis Theological Writer-in-Residence for The Anglican Episcopal House of Studies at Baylor's George W. Truett Theological Seminary and is a senior fellow with the Trinity Forum. She lives in Austin with her husband, who serves as rector of the church they started, and their three children.
