Kevin Burrell
11 min read ⭑
“I believe there’s loads to learn about our God when we’re creationally attentive, and so it seems like a good idea to pick some aspect of his handiwork and simply notice it. Really notice it.”
An avid birder, Kevin Burrell was sure God was going to lead him into an environmental science career. Instead, God led him into full-time ministry. During the pandemic, Kevin combined his two passions to create a blog, “Ornitheology: The Gospel According to Birds.” Since its inception, his blog has grown to attract bird fans from all around — both committed Christians and hungry seekers alike. His new book, Considering Sparrows, examines various birds, their habits and what they can teach us about the book of Philippians.
Today, Kevin shares why bird-watching is more than a way for him to relax, why the pulpit is an easier place to hide than people think and the many ways the Holy Spirit moves in his life (hint: it’s rarely in the same way twice).
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?
On the north side of Charlotte, the restaurant scene is mostly suburban sprawl. But I’m grateful that one of Charlotte’s mainstay pizza places, Hawthorne’s, saw fit to add a location here. At Hawthorne’s, the tables are spacious, the servers don’t need a pen to remember your order, and the atmosphere is usually quiet enough for a good conversation — which has made it a great place for pastoral one-on-ones, as well as a favorite family-night-out option with my wife and three teens.
My consistent order is a nine-inch buffalo-wing pizza that was recently renamed “The Inducer” for its alleged benefit of assisting pregnant women into labor. Do not underestimate the Inducer. Believe what you will, but our thirdborn arrived prematurely the night after my wife and I paid a visit to Hawthorne’s. Correlation or causation?
But to answer the question — hopefully without getting too metaphysical — I’d like to think that The Inducer says, “I’m willing to accept the consequences of my actions.” It says, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (see Acts 14:22). It says, “Yes, I know there are salads on the menu, too, but life is too short for that.” It’s a culinary defibrillator.
But more likely, it probably just says, “This native Upstate New Yorker appreciates a familiar taste of home, in a place quiet enough to have a real conversation.”
Aedan Peterson
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?
It wasn’t easy to admit, at age twentysomething, that I’d developed early-onset bird-watching. At the time, birding was a game for the old, like bridge or bingo or shuffleboard. But times have changed, and birding is trending. At this point, no one would be surprised to discover I’m a pastor who bird-watches; I’ve been writing about birds for over five years at Ornitheology.com and leaning into bird-themed illustrations in my sermons, teachings and, most recently, my book “Considering Sparrows: What Birds Teach Us About Who We Are, Where We’re Going, and the Joy of Following Jesus,” which walks through the book of Philippians bird by bird.
Bird-watching, for me, has become a sort of window to the creative character of the God of the Bible. This world is overtly meant to declare God’s glory and proclaim his handiwork to us, and yet we too often settle for 10-foot ceilings and a good HVAC system. What are we missing as a result? I’ve enjoyed the opportunity in the blog and book to share some of the spiritual illustrations that specific birds bring to mind for me. A chickadee tells me what to do with fear, a mallard duck challenges my contentment, and a killdeer tells me what it means to take a hit for my congregation.
If “the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Ps. 19:1), I want to look up more often. Yes, that also means I invite myself to a total stranger’s house with a pair of binoculars to see the Townsend’s Warbler on their back porch. Admittedly weird. But it would be weirder for us to miss it altogether, wouldn’t it?
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?
I’ll let you in on a pastoral secret: the pulpit is an excellent place to hide. Even when I’m vulnerably bleeding my sin out onstage to my congregation, the truth of the matter is I’m still the one controlling the narrative and scripting the monologue. Yes, I try to put my failure on display weekly to set the example of a grace-dependent sinner. But I’m also (to paraphrase Paul David Tripp) a prideful man who’s been around the language of grace long enough to know how to sound humble. Or to quote Doc Holliday in “Tombstone,” “My hypocrisy knows no bounds.”
So if I had to name one place where I try to hide, it would probably be my ongoing longing for approval and acceptance. We minister out of who we are, and who I am, too often, is a scrawny 15-year-old kid trying desperately to fit in. Despite all the joyous realizations of my acceptance in Christ, that idol of approval still lingers.
But here’s where a merciful God draws straight lines with crooked sticks: he’s redeemed my desire for belonging by giving me the pastoral role of helping others belong. My ministry involves creating community, orienting new people, helping people feel included, circling people up. My own past experiments in fitting in also motivate me to help others discover those “I belong here” moments in the life of our church. So every Sunday, despite my approval-idolatry, you’ll find me hiding in plain sight, wandering the sanctuary and the foyer to meet the new person or the outsider and help them feel welcome and connected.
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?
Vocationally, I’m part of a team pastoral model, and my half includes our church’s preaching, connections and congregational care. These are the things I most love to do, so honestly, I’m in my sweet spot right now.
About five years ago, during the forced routines of a shelter-in-place, I started writing about birds as faith metaphors on a blog I call “Ornitheology: The Gospel According to Birds.” Honestly, it came from my own curiosity on two fronts. The first was the birds themselves, doing research as a resuscitation of my long-discarded biology degree. The second was wondering if anyone who wasn’t blood-related to me (or under duress) would be interested in reading.
Eventually, the posts started gaining some traction, as bird-curious Christians and faith-curious birders began to surface. More recently, this “toil” hatched a book manuscript and the fun ride of publishing “Considering Sparrows.” The writing, both book and blog, has been a nights-and-weekends side-project, not my main ministry, and yet it’s been a big part of this fulfilling “sweet-spot” season of life.
Why should Rapt readers share my bird obsession? Well, maybe they shouldn’t. But more generally, I believe there’s loads to learn about our God when we’re creationally attentive, and so it seems like a good idea to pick some aspect of his handiwork and simply notice it. Really notice it. You pick: stars, gardening, butterflies, Bonsai trees … I don’t think it matters, but pick something, for the love of all that’s holy (I mean that in the literal sense). And maybe birds are a good place to start. After all, wise people bird-watch (see 1 Kings 4:33).
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?
There aren’t any formulas with God, and as I try to answer this question, I realize that when the Spirit shows up in my work and life, it rarely looks the same way twice. Sometimes it’s the nudge to keep going, to ask one more question, or to stop right now and pray. Sometimes it’s the sudden wake-up call at 3 a.m. (very uncharacteristic of me, I assure you; under normal circumstances, you could probably vacuum the bed and not wake me up) — someone’s name on my heart to pray for, follow up with or reconcile with. Sometimes it’s the sermon outline that finally comes together in a joyous “Thank you, Jesus” moment. Sometimes it’s watching my measly ember fanned to flame as the Lord brings others along to champion the same cause. It’s a consensus unexpected, a peace unexplained, a provision unsolicited, a challenge untangled.
Mostly, in ministry, it’s been my experience that the Holy Spirit makes himself known when lives change. At StoneBridge, we try to clearly emphasize that ministry success isn’t measured in numbers but in stories. We look for stories of God undeniably at work, stories of transformation, stories of darkness to light. It’s those stories that keep me in ministry, that encourage my heart with another ebenezer: “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (1 Sam. 7:12).
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?
In a busy house, I can’t ever take a quiet moment for granted, but a family-room sofa beckons after the kids are off to school (or sometimes far earlier, before they wake up). Coffee and iPad are at the ready.
In recent months, I’ve been loosely following a morning script from the Celtic-inspired Northumbria Community, where I confess my ultimate desire to “dwell in the courts of the Lord” (Ps. 27:4), my helplessness apart from him (“Where else would I go? You have the words of eternal life”) and my need for Christ to surround my heart above, below and around me — a variation of St. Patrick’s “breastplate prayer.”
Often in those simple steps, the air is electric. I don’t know how else to describe it. The Spirit is present, filling my lungs, giving the peace that passes understanding. Scripture reading follows — often thanks to a plan in the YouVersion app — and then some prayer for the needs of the day. The Lord is good to meet me in those moments. But in this current season, it’s honestly the approach more than the destination that has been filling my heart — the simple Celtic repetition of longing, trust and the realities of a Savior who is a shield about me.
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?
A faithful friend in my spiritual journey has been “Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions.” Often, my prayers meander in the same circles, traversing the same ground. Some weighty things don’t get prayed for simply because I would never have thought to pray them. Eugene Peterson said that often in prayer, the well is deep, and we don’t have a good enough bucket. The prayers of the Puritans give me a better bucket to draw deeper from the well. They provide fresh words for a worn-out heart.
Another similar resource is the “Every Moment Holy” series of liturgies for daily life. These thoughtful prayers and liturgies (both individual and communal) find the holy in the ordinary. And while describing them on the surface might sound trite or humorous (like the two liturgies for changing a diaper or the one for brewing morning coffee), each prayer is actually a profound means of seeing the Lord faithfully at work in the space between. And yes, there’s a liturgy for bird-watching in “Volume III;” in fact, I received permission to include a portion of it as the first page of “Considering Sparrows,” as a prayer of preparation — bird-attentiveness leading to neighbor-attentiveness, equipping us to better see the gospel needs of the world around us. That’ll preach.
I’ve read lots of books that have shaped my calling as a pastor, but one particularly useful one has been Zack Eswine’s “The Imperfect Pastor” (and its precursor, “Sensing Jesus”), especially in his encouragements on the limitations of ministry. As a person with a fear of disappointing people, taking on the task of congregational care and being the church’s “chief comforter” seemed overwhelming — until Eswine and others reminded me that the job description had already been filled by the Holy Spirit.
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 once did a day retreat at a monastery, and used part of the day to finish reading Paul Miller’s “A Praying Life.” In his final chapters, he discusses his system for keeping track of prayer points by using index cards that he keeps in his pocket. Although I was duly inspired, I thought to myself, “Index cards? There’s got to be an app for that.” I got on the monastery Wi-Fi (yes, they had Wi-Fi) and sleuthed around until I found a tool that’s been a devotional game-changer for me ever since: the PrayerMate App.
In my experience, prayer lists can be overwhelming. I want my prayer time to go beyond the reactive prayers of the moment, to something more intentional and methodical, but it’s hard to keep up with all those requests. PrayerMate has lots of features to upgrade those index cards, but my favorite one is this: I periodically upload an updated church directory into the app, and it creates a prayer card for each family unit. Then every morning, the app randomly selects five families for me to pray for. As a pastor, I love this means of praying for my flock: not just the ones asking for prayer but everyone. I’ve used this tool in spurts, never as consistently as I hoped to when I read that Miller book, but it’s still been my consistent default for praying for the flock.
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?
Most days, I think my heart has found a good balance between new challenges and deep contentment. What that looks like, as a pastor serving my suburban-Charlotte church, is this pervading peace (even on the tough days) that I’m right where I’m supposed to be, doing just what I’m supposed to be doing, serving my church in whatever way the Lord calls me to. But I often ask myself: How do I maintain steady faithfulness without stagnancy? We regularly encourage our staff to dream bigger, to risk the possible failure of hatching new things. But innovation for the sake of innovation is a ministry of hyperventilation. Instead, I’m going to hang on to Jesus today and tomorrow and the next day, resting in him and trusting him to give me what I need to (in baseball terms) swing for the fence.
In my author alter-ego, I’ve been praying through potential new projects, still camping out on the birding-and-faith theme for now. I did some praying and noodling on a retreat recently and was excited to see the beginnings of a second book outline coming together. Of course, the best way to a sequel is a solid showing on the first book, so if you’ve read this far, I hope you’ll give “Considering Sparrows” a read and tell a bajillion friends about it. But there are about 11,000 bird species on the planet, and 65 more books of the Bible, so I don’t anticipate running out of material any time soon.
“Look at the birds of the air,” Jesus said to a crowd of anxious men and women, young and old. “They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matt. 6:26,27, ESV).
Our heavenly Father delights in the birds — even more than devoted birders like Kevin Burrell do. If Kevin’s interview today inspired you to pay more attention to our feathered friends outside the window, we hope they remind you of this unchangeable fact: your God delights in you even more.
Kevin Burrell is the co-lead pastor of StoneBridge Church Community in Charlotte, North Carolina. An avid birder, Kevin’s pastoral heart and avian interests united with the formation of his blog, Ornitheology, where he utilizes birds as illustrations of the Christian life. Prior to his current role at StoneBridge, Kevin served churches in Athens, Georgia, and Orlando, Florida, and is a native of upstate New York. He lives in Charlotte with his wife, Beverly, three children and five birdfeeders.