Jonathan Bailey
11 min read ⭑
“That’s my current obsession: helping people trade transactional Christianity for transformational Christianity. I want readers to feel the relief I felt: I could breathe. I could change. I wasn’t walking aisles anymore. I was walking a path.”
When Jonathan Bailey discovered the writings of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster and others throughout the centuries who have written about the journey toward Christlikeness, it changed the trajectory of his life. His desire to see others experience transformation in Christ led him and his twin brother to co-found Dwell, an audio Bible app that helps listeners build a daily practice of Scripture reading. He’s recently written a book called “Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation,” where he leads readers through three stages of lifetime growth in Christ. Jonathan also serves on the Board and Ministry Team at Renovaré, a nonprofit founded by Richard Foster, that helps people learn to abide in Jesus.
Jonathan has spent the last decade diving into the Christian transformative process, and he takes some time to share with readers the circumstances that ignited this passion, the resources that brought lasting change, and the personal challenges he’s faced along the way. From his love of Mexican Sugar — his family’s favorite restaurant — to his battle with workaholism, he graciously shares these insights exclusively with Rapt readers.
QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT
Food is always about more than food; it's also about home and people and love. So, how does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind your web bio?
Home is Frisco, Texas, a little north of Dallas. It’s where my wife, Kori, and I have raised our three kids — Gray, Abigail and Liv — and where a favorite Mexican restaurant has become part of our family’s story.
We’ve been going to Mexican Sugar for decades, usually once or twice a month. We have a familiar curved booth designed for five people, so it fits our family perfectly. The food is always good: fajitas, street tacos, queso blanco topped with a dollop of guacamole and a pork chop that is almost always cooked perfectly. My favorite order, though, might be one of their frozen margaritas with salt. The texture is amazing.
I remember when my kids were young enough to be entertained by a kid’s menu. We would play tic-tac-toe while waiting for dinner, marking Xs and Os between conversations and bites of chips and queso and salsa. Now, Gray is in high school and preparing to play football on the JV team!
I feel something similar about a coffee shop where a friend and I have met for years. There’s something grounding about returning to the same place with the same people over a long stretch of life. Longevity and stability matters a lot to me.
Se. Tsuchiya; Unsplash
QUESTION #2: REVEAL
What “nonspiritual” activity have you found to be quite spiritual, after all? What quirky proclivity, out-of-the-way interest, or unexpected pursuit refreshes your soul?
One of the ordinary things I enjoy is groundskeeping, especially caring for a few pots on our front porch and hanging baskets on the back patio. Right now, the pots are a mix of pentas, in purple, red, pink and white, along with English ivy trailing over the edges. Keeping everything alive for an entire year has become a personal challenge. I think carefully about which plants can handle full sun, which need partial shade, and where each one has the best chance to thrive.
It isn’t easy during a Texas summer. We sometimes endure weeks of temperatures above 100 degrees, and flowers that look healthy in the morning dry up by late afternoon. These pots and hanging baskets require attention, water and sometimes a change of location. I don’t always succeed in keeping them alive, but I love the work.
Most days, I work from home in front of a screen, so stepping outside to water the plants interrupts that rhythm in a good way. I feel the heat, notice the soil, inspect the leaves, and care for something organic. Unlike so much of my work, a plant can’t be hurried or solved with another tab, app or email. It has its own needs and timing. Caring for it pulls me back into the physical world, and I always feel better after that. This kind of caring reminds me to ask whether I’m tending my own soul. Am I paying attention to what gives life, pruning what doesn't, and am I remaining open to God's care?
QUESTION #3: CONFESS
Every superhero has a weakness; every human, too. We're just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re all broken and in this thing together. So, what’s your kryptonite and how do you confront its power?
My kryptonite is overwork, which is driven by the fact that I genuinely love my work. I’m one of the co-founders of the Dwell Audio Bible app, and I recently published my first book, “Dwelling in Christ.” These are meaningful projects, and I’m grateful to spend my days doing work I believe in. But especially over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed how easily that excitement can spill into workaholism.
A new opportunity usually triggers it. I tell myself, “I just need to knock out this one project, and then life can return to normal.” But another project always follows. Because the work is good, I can convince myself that continuing must be good too. Meanwhile, Kori and our kids miss opportunities to connect with me.
I’m not sure where the pattern began. Before graduating from college, my identical twin brother and I started our first company together. We were fortunate to build things we wanted to build (three companies so far), so I was excited to show up at the office on Monday morning.
All of this perfectly explains why Thomas Merton wrote, “All the gifts of God are good. But if we rest in them, rather than in Him, they lose their goodness for us.” I don't know if I rest in work, maybe? But I do know that I can let it consume too much of my time and headspace. I need to think more seriously about boundaries, especially Sabbath. I need to learn that rest isn’t something I earn after finishing everything — there will always be more to do!
QUESTION #4: FIRE UP
Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?
Right now, I’m most excited about my first book, “Dwelling in Christ.” It grew out of a question I’ve been asking for most of my life: How do people actually change?
When I was ten, I sat in an auditorium listening to a speaker describe the transformation that would come if I accepted Christ. I wanted it. With tears forming in my eyes, I raised my hand. I believed this would be the moment everything changed.
It wasn’t.
For years, I repeated some version of that experience: raise a hand, walk an aisle, say a prayer, make another promise. By high school, I had become exhausted by the cycle. During another invitation, I stood, shuffled toward the aisle, and walked out the back of the sanctuary. I hadn’t rejected Christianity; I simply couldn’t figure out how it worked.
In college, I discovered the writings of Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, and Christians across the centuries who understood transformation not as a single emotional moment but as a lifelong path. That discovery changed the trajectory of my life. So for the last ten years, I've been exploring what the Christian tradition calls the Threefold Way: purgation, illumination, and union. It is a kind of spiritual map for understanding how God prunes us, brings light into our lives, and draws us into deeper oneness with him.
That path is the heart of “Dwelling in Christ.” The book isn’t promising instant transformation. I’ve had enough of those promises. Instead, I hope it helps people recognize where they are, understand how grace is already at work, and participate more thoughtfully in becoming like Christ.
That’s my current obsession: helping people trade transactional Christianity for transformational Christianity. I want readers to feel the relief I felt: I could breathe. I could change. I wasn’t walking aisles anymore. I was walking a path.
QUESTION #5: BOOST
Whether we're Cashiers or CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need God's love flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it's God when it happens?
One of my favorite ways of recognizing the Holy Spirit’s voice is hearing it in the voice of my wife, Kori. She walked with me through every page, challenging ideas that weren’t fully formed, pointing out places where I wasn’t communicating clearly, and helped me say things with greater concision. Sometimes her encouragement helped me keep going. At other times, her critique required me to reconsider and rewrite. Remaining open to that is hard. Especially after I had put weeks into the writing.
But Kori knows me better than anyone. She understands my strengths, and she also knows my vices. I think that makes her my best critic. She isn’t merely evaluating the sentences; she is seeing me behind them. I really believe that's one of the important ways I hear God speaking to me. I look at what the words produce. Do they move me toward humility, clarity, love? Do they make the work more useful to others and less concerned with me? If it does, I try and pay attention. I guess what I am trying to say is that God’s guidance doesn’t always sound like a voice from somewhere beyond or within. Sometimes it sounds like the person who loves me. That’s why I dedicated the book to Kori. It carries her fingerprints on every page.
QUESTION #6: inspire
Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you in this season?
One of the practices I love most is keeping a daily diary. I don’t do it every day (I’m not a machine!), but I do it consistently enough that it has become a kind of conversation across time.
In the morning, I make a cup of coffee and settle onto the couch with my feet on the ottoman. I tap the timer on my Apple Watch for five minutes and begin breathing the Jesus Prayer in and out. I’d love to say that I immediately become present to God, but most mornings I am just distracted. My mind wanders, I notice it, and I return to the prayer. Then I get distracted and return again. That repeated act of returning may be the whole spiritual journey in miniature.
When the timer ends, I pull out my diaries. I use Moleskine Daily Diaries because each page is already dated; they’re the best format I’ve found. I keep two: this year’s and last year’s. In the current diary, I reread what I wrote yesterday. Then I open last year’s diary to today’s date. This allows me to look back in two directions — one day and one year — before writing today’s entry.
That combination gives me perspective — experiences that once felt overwhelming often look different a year later. Questions have been answered in ways I couldn’t foresee. Other entries reveal patterns I’m still repeating.
Then I write. Sometimes I record what happened or what I’m learning. Often I write out my prayers. The diary becomes a place where I talk with God, but it’s also a way of talking to myself. I know I’ll meet these words again tomorrow and a year from now.
QUESTION #7: FOCUS
Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed reality and changed your heart?
The first resource is Dallas Willard’s “The Divine Conspiracy.” One sentence from Dallas changed the trajectory of my life: “Grace is not opposed to effort; it is opposed to earning. Effort is action. Earning is an attitude.” Until then, grace had almost paralyzed me. I feared that any effort to grow spiritually would amount to trying to earn God’s love. Dallas helped me see that grace invites participation! I could train — not to make God love me, but because God already did. “The Divine Conspiracy” also gave me a compelling vision of the kingdom of God as something available to us now.
The second resource is Richard Foster’s work and the Renovaré community he founded. In “Celebration of Discipline,” Richard helped me understand that spiritual practices were actually available for me. They weren’t reserved for monks, pastors or unusually disciplined people. They were practical ways an ordinary person could become more open and responsive to grace. And then in “Streams of Living Water,” he taught me to embrace the beauty and balance of the Christian tradition rather than remaining confined to one narrow tribe. I began attending Renovaré events as a college student in the early 2000s, and it became a formative community for me. Renovaré helped me experience the kingdom of God as a present reality and understand what it means to become an apprentice to Jesus. Years later, I now have the privilege of serving on its board and ministry team.
The third resource is “The Rule of Saint Benedict.” Benedict showed me that spiritual formation needs a structure capable of holding a life. His rhythms of prayer, work, rest, hospitality and community gave me a kind of template for developing my own personal Rule of Life — not as a rigid list, but as a framework that helps me remain open to grace.
If I’m allowed to sneak two more books in, I’d mention George MacDonald’s “Diary of an Old Soul,” which gave words to my longing for transformation, and the writings and letters of Francis de Sales, whose emphasis on gentleness — especially gentleness with ourselves — continues to correct and encourage me.
Certain things can be godsends, helping us survive, even thrive, in our fast-paced world. Does technology ever help you this way? Has an app ever boosted your spiritual growth? If so, how?
I’m a little skeptical of technology, which may sound strange coming from the co-founder of an app. I know how easily devices can fragment my attention and consume time I intended to spend elsewhere. But I’ve also experienced technology as a helpful tool when I use it intentionally. Three of my favorite examples are Dwell, Audible and Apple Music — more specifically, a playlist I’ve been building for years called “Monastery Mood.”
Dwell is the audio Bible app I helped co-found with my identical twin brother. One reason we built it was to help people experience Scripture as something received through the ears, not just studied with the eyes. Listening changes the encounter, I think. A familiar passage can sound new when spoken aloud, and a phrase I might have skimmed on a page can land differently. The app is fantastic because sometimes I'm not able to open my physical Bible, yet it offers me the opportunity to dwell in the Psalms or Gospels or letters of Paul.
The Audible app serves a similar purpose with audiobooks. It allows good ideas and wise voices to accompany me beyond the moments when I can sit down with a book (I promise I read!). Again, audio expands the space in my life where learning and formation can happen!
The most personal — and perhaps most fun — is “Monastery Mood.” It’s a growing playlist of sacred music, mostly Gregorian chants sung by monks and nuns. I love it. In my world, which is filled with notifications, deadlines and Zoom calls, these ancient voices create a sense of spaciousness and margin. They remind me that I belong to a faith much older and larger than whatever feels urgent today.
QUESTION #8: dream
God’s continually stirring new things in each of us. So, give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?
I love writing. The process can be demanding, but I love taking ideas that have been forming over years and finding the clearest, most helpful way to share them. Having the opportunity to publish “Dwelling in Christ” has only deepened my desire. So I would love another chance.
For the past four years, I’ve taught at the Renovaré Institute, helping people cultivate a personal Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is an intentional framework for arranging our days around what matters most — prayer, work, rest, relationships and our ongoing life with God. It isn’t meant to be a rigid schedule or another tool for maximizing productivity. At its best, it creates the conditions in which we can remain receptive to grace.
Teaching this material has given me far more than a collection of lessons. The students have brought their real lives into it — their questions, resistance, discoveries and experiments. They have helped me see where the ideas connect and where they need greater clarity or gentleness. I hope that one day I can gather everything I’ve learned from teaching and turn it into a book that helps others develop a sustainable rhythm of life with God.
Jonathan’s passion is to help people “trade transactional Christianity for transformational Christianity.” Take a minute and reflect on your expression of faith and the practices you prioritize. When you look back over the last year, can you see evidence of growth? Can you see yourself transforming into a version of yourself that is more like Jesus? If not, ask the Holy Spirit for help, and ask yourself the questions Jonathan asks as he’s walking around his garden: “Am I paying attention to what gives life, pruning what doesn't, and am I remaining open to God's care?”
Jonathan Bailey is the co-founder of Dwell, an audio Bible app helping people rediscover the ancient practice of listening to Scripture. He wrote Dwelling in Christ: Discover the Threefold Path of Spiritual Transformation. He writes Three Weekly Lights, a newsletter that helps readers participate more deeply in their transformation. He also serves on the Board and Ministry Team at Renovaré. Jonathan lives in Frisco, Texas, with his wife, Kori, and their three children.