Christopher is a Lukan, dedicated to liturgy, sacramentality, and service among the marginalized.

He spent more than a decade as a parish minister in non-denominational, Church of the Brethren, and Mennonite Church USA congregations before receiving Holy Orders in the Progressive Christian Alliance. He also taught seminary courses as an adjunct professor in worship and the arts. In his early years in ministry he discovered something disheartening: churches spend too much time focused on self-preservation rather than helping the world.

So, he left the work that helped Christian institutions preserve themselves at any cost. He didn’t leave faith, or ritual, or service. Instead, he’s living into a Christianity that is not just for those on the margins, but of the marginalized. He has been influenced by the work of Walter Wink (20th century pacifist and theologian) as well as Gustavo Gutierrez, who said, “If there is no friendship with them and no sharing of the life of the poor, then there is no authentic commitment to liberation, because love exists only among equals.” For Christopher, being a progressive Christian means abandoning the ways of American capitalism, nationalism, and militarism in favor of the bold and borderless religion of Jesus.

In addition to this work and his day-job running a ministry that provides transportation for at-risk individuals, he is a life-vowed member of the Order of Saint Luke, a dispersed quasi-monastic religious order that focuses on liturgical scholarship and sacramental spirituality with those on the margins. He serves as the Order’s Chaplain-General and the Companion for the Central Plains province. He is on the Progressive Christian Alliance leadership council, and he is also a certified conflict mediator with training through the Lombard Mennonite Peace Institute.

He holds degrees in applied music, ministry leadership and postmodern theology, and a doctorate in liturgical studies. He is the author of numerous articles and two in-progress book projects tentatively entitled Their Eyes Were Opened: Worship and the Witness of Christian Community and Jesus in the Badlands of Empire.

You can read Christopher’s substack – Christianity Against Empire – here.