Joshua Ryan Butler

Joshua Ryan Butler isn’t one to shy away from controversial topics. Hell, holy war, God’s wrath, sex — he’s written all about it (plus plans for books about politics and gender). But instead of simply adding another perspective to the mix, he seeks to only say and write words that flow from a firm foundation of God’s Word and his goodness.

Today, we’re talking to Joshua about what inspires his creativity, what books and podcasts build up his faith, and what helps him rest and hear God’s voice at the end of a busy day.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

Paul, Ben and I are best friends. “PB+J” (our initials) was our affectionate name for our weekly hangout, but our meals are much more than peanut butter and jelly. For my 40th birthday, for example, we went with our wives to Toro Bravo, a Spanish tapas-style restaurant, in my hometown of Portland, Oregon. It was a prix-fixe (“fixed price”) meal, where the chef sent out plate after plate of his favorite dishes to be shared family style by our whole table. The meal lasted four hours. These “fixed-priced,” hours-long meals are our go-to for special occasions.

I love long meals with good friends, so honestly, the location itself is very flexible for me. When I worked internationally for years, such unhurried family dinners were the norm. When I lived on the Navajo reservation, our average meal was three to four hours long.

Today in our home, my wife and I seek to cultivate nourishing conversations around the table with family and friends. Even when the food is simple, the conversation is delicious.

I like to take my time. Work is busy, and life is busy, but meals are slow. My wife jokes that waiters always try to take my plate away, as I pull it back, explaining, “Oh I’m not done yet — just taking my time.” As a child, my brothers always urged me to finish my two McDonald’s cheeseburgers quickly so we could go play, but I stubbornly took my time — one bite at a time.

So the hallmarks of my go-to meal are good friends, unhurried time and (when possible) great food!

Night sky over trees — David Solce; Unsplash

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activities do you love and help you find spiritual renewal?

My nightly walks are a highlight of my day. Every night, after my kids go to bed, I walk for about 45 minutes to an hour and a half through our neighborhood. I struggle to connect with God by sitting down with eyes closed and hands folded. It’s much more natural for me when I’m walking, eyes wide open, in the outdoors.

I do different things during these times. Sometimes, it’s pouring my heart out to God in prayer and listening quietly in response. Sometimes, it’s calling a close friend to catch up on the deep things of life. Sometimes, it’s putting on a favorite worship album, looking out upon the horizon in silence or catching up on a podcast I’ve wanted to listen to.

My only criteria are: a) it’s life giving and b) it’s moving my body. After all, I spend much of my day stationary: sitting in meetings, reading or writing. When I make time to move my body, it reinvigorates me and connects me to God with a fuller sense of who he’s made me to be. I find clarity, perspective and gratitude with these times attentive to God’s presence.

I also spend much of my day attending to my responsibilities as a husband, father and pastor. I love these; they’re powerful and important. But my nightly walks are a time carved out to move me from “giving” to “receiving,” from “have to” to “want to,” and from “doing” to “being.” They orient me toward my heavenly Father in a posture of gratitude and grace.

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 broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite and how do you hide it?

I’m a bad listener. I really am. My family, friends and co-workers joke about the zoned-out look I get in my eyes when I’m smiling and nodding along as they’re sharing something with me, but they can tell my thoughts are really elsewhere. And they’re right. I’m often physically present but mentally somewhere else. While they joke about it and are patient with me, it’s an obstacle that can keep me from better loving those around me by being fully present.

Why do I do this? I love “the big picture” of concepts and ideas, but I can miss the joy of “small talk” and its subtle cues of attentiveness that help bond people together.

I enjoy deep conversations and solving problems, but I can bypass a delight in the simple everyday things that cultivate intimacy with others. I can be preoccupied with my own projects, and miss the people God has blessed me with. I can fail to trust God with the broader challenges I’m navigating in the season so I can be fully present with the person in front of me.

Spiritual growth for me lately has involved becoming a better question-asker, paying better attention to the person I’m with, cultivating the “ministry of the ear” (listening) and being as curious about the details of their lives as I am about the projects and ideas I’m working on.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your obsession? And why should it be ours?

My newest book is “Beautiful Union: How God’s Vision for Sex Points Us to the Good, Unlocks the True, and (Sort of) Explains Everything” (Waterbrook/Multnomah, April 2023). It’s a powerful call for Christians to understand sex as a window into God’s story of redemption and a validating guide to living with authentic love in a changing culture.

I’m so excited! I’ve been working on this project for five years. I want to help readers rediscover the beauty of the traditional Christian theology of sex by framing it within the greater things it’s designed to point to. As our culture’s values and expressions of sexuality shift, there’s a growing tension between the casual way everyone seems to be doing it and historic teaching about the sacred beauty and dignity of the body, which affirms sex as diversity in union, of marriage as faithful love and of procreation as life-giving presence.

The big theme of my work is paradigm-shifting: helping people who wrestle with tough topics of the Christian faith by confronting popular caricatures with the beauty and power of the real thing. Over the years, I’ve written on topics like hell, judgment, holy war, sacrifice, wrath and atonement — all from the lens of God’s goodness.

Two upcoming projects I’m also working on are about: 1) politics (exploring the four “political religions” many are converting to today and how to live faithfully to Jesus in our polarized context) and 2) gender (exploring the beauty of God’s vision for this often confusing and volatile conversation surrounding gender).

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace 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?

I love reading. I find God often inspires me through the writing of other people. Books are amazing. We have the opportunity to sit and listen to historic voices (dead people from across centuries) and global voices (people from other cultures around the world). What an amazing opportunity!

God often encounters me as I listen to his people. When I sit down with a good book, I often envision myself sitting across the table from this person I’d never meet otherwise, listening to their deepest reflections and insights. Often, when someone took the time to write a book, they’re condensing insights gleaned over years of their life experience — and I have access!

The Holy Spirit often inspires me in the reading process, with epiphanies and insights that “leap off the page.” But it’s more than the words of the author. I often sense God illuminating truth to me in a fresh way, taking things further to connect with my own experience, drawing me toward wonder and delight in intimacy with him.

Later, usually on my nightly walks, fresh epiphanies and insights will often spark, building upon things I’ve been reading and reflecting on. I’m energized when I see connections and ideas that illuminate the truth, beauty and goodness of God’s design and heart for the world.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied actions that open our hearts to the presence of God. So, spill it, which spiritual practice is workin’ best for you right now?

One of my favorite practices these days is listening prayer. My wife and I often use a format where we first ask God about the lie or fear. We pray, “Jesus, what lie is the enemy speaking to me, or what fear am I living under?” We then take about 30 seconds to a minute to listen and see if anything surfaces. Then we’ll ask him about the truth and pray, “God, what is the truth you want to speak into that?”

For example, I recently woke up one morning with the thought blaring in my head: You’re going to die soon. I was incredibly confused, but I couldn’t shake it. So I went for a walk and prayed, “God, what is the lie or fear?”

I sensed God pointing out that I had just finished my book, a project I’d been working on for years, and the lie was that “God doesn’t need you now. He was just using you to get this book done. Now that it’s finished, you aren’t useful anymore. So you’re going to die soon.”

I brought that lie before God and prayed, “What is your truth?” I sensed God saying, “You are my child, my beloved son. I didn’t call you to use you so much as to love you. I’m your heavenly Father. I’m with you; I’m for you. You can rest in my love, not in your performance, knowing that all I have is yours and you are mine.” That truth set me free.

The pressures of leadership can attack my identity, but listening prayer keeps me grounded in God’s love.

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Our email subscribers get free ebooks featuring our favorite resources — lots of things that have truly impacted our faith lives. But you know about some really great stuff, too. What are three resources that have impacted you?

When I first became a Christian, Brennan Manning’s book “Ragamuffin Gospel” really impacted me. It still moves me just thinking about it — how it’s not about us going out to find God so much as God coming to find us with an overwhelming and unrelenting grace that encounters us in the messy mistakes, failures and brokenness of our lives.

Later, St. Augustine’s “Confessions” had a big impact on me. He offered a big vision of God yet encountered the Lord personally with honest self-examination, bringing all of himself before God.

I’ve become a bit of an Augustine nerd as I’ve read many of his other works, too, but this one has shaped my devotional life as I seek to live in humble awe before a massive God.

Lesslie Newbigin’s “Gospel in a Pluralist Society” was another game-changer for me, providing an intellectual and philosophical framework for how the gospel engages the unique challenges of our pluralistic society. It’s a bit more heavy lifting academically, but well worth it if you’re into that sort of thing.

We all have things we cling to to survive (or thrive) in tough times. Name one resource you’ve found indispensable in this current season — and tell us what it’s done for you.

I love BibleProject’s podcast. I usually listen to it with my kids on the drive to school. I love how they dive into deep biblical themes but in a really accessible way.

They also make free animated videos and other resources to help you experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus. Tim and Jon are old friends, and the work they do is amazing. Check them out at BibleProject.com.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is 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’m really excited “Beautiful Union” is releasing in April! I’ve been working on this project for five years, so it’s fun to see it coming to fruition. I pray the book and study guide helps equip followers of Jesus with the beauty of God’s vision for sex and sexuality so they can live with authentic love in a changing culture.

I’m also now working on two other book projects. The first is on politics: I want to help us navigate the increasing political polarization and craziness in our society. Every church I know, including ours, has experienced fracturing along political fault lines over the last seven years. I’m co-writing this book with Jim Mullins (we co-lead our church together), based on a “King of Kings Campaign” we did during the 2020 election season that our people found so powerful.

We want to help followers of Jesus recognize and resist the ideologies and idolatries of our day (on both the left and the right), and live faithfully by pledging their deepest allegiance to Jesus the King of Kings. “The Party Crasher: How Jesus Disrupts Politics as Usual and Redeems Our Partisan Divide” is set to release on September 26, 2023.

Second, I’m also completing a book on gender. I want to equip followers of Jesus with the beauty of God’s vision for this often confusing and volatile conversation. If “Beautiful Union” is about the sexual union of male and female, this book is about our sexed identity as male and female in relation to our bodies, our families and the church. It’s tentatively scheduled to release in fall 2024.

With the rise of desk jobs in our modern day, most people find they spend less time being active — and more time sitting. In fact, over 25% of Americans sit down for more than eight hours a day and are inactive, according to a 2018 study.

And yet numerous studies imply we do our best thinking and get our best ideas when we move (plus the added benefits of having more energy, better moods and reduced stress). So it’s no wonder that Joshua finds it easier to receive and hear from God during his nightly walks.

It might seem hard to make time for quiet walks with Jesus — especially in our busy schedules. But why not start small, like taking a short walk during lunch or after putting the kids to bed? After all, God can meet with us anytime, anywhere.