Addison Bevere

Addison Bevere hates the term Christian — and he doesn't care who knows it. The son of popular authors and speakers John and Lisa Bevere, Addison has no problem telling it like it is. That includes exposing lifeless religion and man-made pretenses about our relationship with God.

In his popular book "Saints: Becoming More Than "Christians"," Addison explains how followers of Christ aren't meant to be halo-wearing elitists; they're meant to be radical culture-shakers. Addison has the opportunity to live out this truth every day as COO of Messenger International and co-founder of SonsAndDaughters.tv. In this interview, Addison opens up about how God began stirring a Saints-focused message in his heart — as well as about his deep struggles, favorite resources and upcoming projects.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

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

Colorado Springs may be the land of Purple Majesty, but it’s also unaffectionately known as Chain City. I like Chipotle, but there’s only so much of it I can eat. My wife, Juli, is a foodie and despises chains, which always presents a challenge when planning our Tuesday date nights.

After scouting several “sketchy” sections of town, we’ve found some eateries that break the mold. One of our favorites is a hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant. Their Panang curry is, as my 11-year-old son would say, OP (over-powered)!

The décor is about what you’d expect, a half-baked fusion of Thai and American pop culture, so it doesn’t get any points for ambiance. In my weaker moments, I find myself questioning the place’s cleanliness and sanctity of its cooking practices, but when the curry finally arrives at the table, all my apprehensions dissipate with the steam from the fried rice.

The rickety tables can be a challenge to navigate, so we usually prefer a booth, which offers a private place for deep breaths and candid conversations. It’s been our space to lament, exchange strong words, make plans and adjust parenting techniques. When we enter the booth, time stands still, and we find ourselves connected with years of questions, disappointments, fears and, ultimately, answered prayers and demonstrations of God’s faithfulness. And, when we walk out of the restaurant, the view of Pike’s Peak isn’t half bad.

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests, but we tend to hide them. What do you love doing that might surprise (or shock) people?

I’m obsessed with books, especially old ones. Recently, I was sharing at a leadership forum hosted at this beautiful home in Boise. The owners gave me a tour of all the rooms and well-designed spaces. After a few minutes, one of my hosts noticed that I wasn’t paying much attention to the home — I was just stopping wherever books could be found. He told me, “You must really like books.” I responded, “You can tell a lot about a person by what books they have, and there are some amazing ones here.”

Sometimes when I get a day off, I plan a local book tour, which means I spend the day perusing books anywhere they’re sold, including our thrift stores. It’s the best treasure hunt ever. And I normally return home with a handful of gems.

I really like finding old used books. When I thumb through them, I try to imagine the other people who’ve read these very same pages and try to work out, based on their markings and such, what kind of people they were and what effect the book had on them. Through books, we get to meet people we’d never meet and go places we may never go, which just gets me going.

When I was in Sicily a few years ago, I purchased a copy of Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” in Italian — it’s one of my all-time favorite stories. My wife was like, “When are you going to learn Italian?” I most likely never will, but — man — that book looks amazing on my shelf!

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?

Back in 2014, I went through a traumatic season that is, in ways, still shaping my life today. A failed venture, a third child, a massive transition, a betrayal and health challenges all visited me within the span of a few weeks. It just became too much. Sleep became a pipe dream. For real. I would go days without getting an hour of sleep. I started considering more than four hours of sleep a good night. Anxiety and helplessness were always resting on my shoulder, just waiting for me to give them an ear.

It felt like so much of me died during the two years that would follow. My wife began to describe me as a shell of my former self. A mentor told me that I had stopped dreaming and needed to learn to dream and create again.

I’m humbled to say that through God’s grace and the love and patience of my wife, children and close friends, I found comfort in the pain and now find myself in a place of greater strength and peace. But there are still times when I forfeit sleep to the cares of life. In the dark hours, when I feel anxious or helpless, I am learning to acknowledge my weakness and unhealthy need for control, which brings me back to my centering Strength.

As a side note, I have found so much comfort in Paul’s most vulnerable letter (2 Corinthians), which speaks of his journey with sleepless nights, anxiety and hopelessness.

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?

I haven’t liked calling myself a “Christian” for over 20 years. It’s not that I’m ashamed of Jesus — I believe he is the one person who got this whole humanity thing right. What I can’t stomach are the stigmas and stereotypes that have become synonymous with “Christian.” Just Google “Christians are” and you’ll find results like judgmental, hypocritical, hateful, uneducated. I have a hard time reconciling the life, passion and work of Jesus with what many of his followers are known for today.

More and more people are referring to this world as post-Christian. It’s almost like they’re saying, “We tried that whole Christian thing and it didn’t work ... so now we’re moving onto humanism or DIY spirituality.”

My passion is finding fresh language to tell the ancient story that was written on our hearts. That deep narrative that makes us uncomfortable with cheap answers and sentimentalized religiosity. And when we look at Scripture, we find that “Christian” was not the identifier of the disruptive, culture-shaping early church. They were known as Saints.

The word Christian is used only three times in the New Testament; Saints is used over 60 times. Why? Well, the word “Saint” speaks to both the identity and the purpose of what it is to be human.

Despite what you’ve been told, Saints are not goody two shoes. They disrupt society’s ethnic, cultural and socioeconomic divides, sharing a message of hope, love, truth and reconciliation through their ordinary lives. They are people of the now and future kingdom.

If you want to learn more, I wrote a whole book on this called “Saints: Becoming More Than ‘Christians.’”

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?

Recently I was in STAPLES, doing a TSA pre-check interview. As part of the interview, the lady asked me what I do for a living. I told her a bit about what I do, and she responded, “Wow, that’s so cool. You get to do something meaningful — I just work at STAPLES.” Before I even knew what was going on, I heard this response come out of my mouth, “That’s the great lie of human existence.”

I went on to share how the most “mundane” parts of our lives are the birthplace of the miraculous. I told her why her contribution was valuable and how she, as a person made in God’s image, had only begun to discover the reason for her existence. After about three minutes of me sharing, she just sat there and looked at me. There was a bit of awkward silence, and then she said, “Thank you . . . I’ve never viewed my life like that. You’ve made my week.”

In that moment, I needed the grace to be creative. And it wasn’t creativity to write a brilliant book or execute a grand project — I needed grace to see God’s dynamic work in the life of a stranger.

For me, creative energy flows and grows as I see the sacred in the “secular” places and faces around me. I am developing what I call kingdom consciousness, the ability to engage with the Spirit in and through my every day. My constant prayer is that God would give me eyes to see my work, my family, my marriage and strangers not just as they are, but as they could be. This vision opens my life to the power of grace.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Some people divide things sacred and things secular. But you know, God can surprise us in unlikely places. How do you find spiritual renewal in so-called “nonspiritual” activities?

As you can probably tell, I’m not a big fan of the spiritual/nonspiritual distinction. Spiritual should simply mean energized by God’s Spirit, so why shouldn’t we invite and look for the greater Reality in our everyday lives? Scripture proclaims that we are God’s temple, which means everywhere we go, we are called to create thin places, microcosms where heaven’s Reality, defined as the beauty and providence of God, invades this dimension of time, space and matter.

With that being said, I love playing games with the neighborhood kids. I’m that dad who goes up and down the streets, recruiting kids and a few dads. We gather in a local cul-de-sac and go to town. Some nights we don’t stop until we can no longer see whatever ball we’re using. I’ve had so many opportunities to speak into the kids through the dynamics play creates.

As a family, we also play a lot of board games — Splendor and Cities and Knights are two of our favorites. Every once in awhile, I’ll sit down and play video games with the kids, but I’m not a big fan of them (unless it’s Super Smash Bros.). Side note for the parents reading this: My kids open up to me about anything and everything after I’ve spent a bit of time playing with them. Play in its pure form — free from the stranglehold of unhealthy competition — is cathartic for all involved. So get out and play!

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

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

Anything from George MacDonald is a must-read. Most of his works are fiction, but there’s some non-fiction, too. C.S. Lewis considered him the master, and Master MacDonald has reshaped and inspired my faith journey more than anyone else. Warning: If you read his stuff on a plane, you could end up crying next to a stranger. (Pretty much all of his books are available for free through the Kindle Store.)

Day One Journal is a great tool if you’re new to journaling or just need something that is intuitive and readily available. Basically, it’s an app that captures your daily thoughts and experiences. I’ve started using some of my bathroom time to record more highlights, insights and special moments — it’s been a great alternative to mindless scrolling.

I have so much respect for Gabe Lyons and the way he’s leading Christ-followers in this cultural moment. He founded an organization called Q that gathers thought leaders from diverse spaces, backgrounds and theological frameworks. QMedia is Q’s streaming service where you can find tons of great content for this cultural moment.

We all have things we cling to in order 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.

For me, it’s my ESV journaling Bible. I’ve had it for a few years, and because I mark up my Bible, it is loaded with special notes, highlights, prayers and insights. It’s my anchor because it connects me with prayers and moments from previous seasons. When I thumb through its pages, I feel grounded in my faith and connected with a story that’s far bigger than whatever I’m facing or feeling that day.

Fun fact, I actually use a credit card to make sure all of my lines are straight. And I keep my Bible in a box. I guess that’s two fun facts. My wife once got me a Bible bag, like one of those dorky ones you’d see in school, which I quickly returned. The box serves me well and offers much more protection. Plus, I keep all of my tools — i.e., pens, highlighters, old credit cards for the lines — inside of my box.

If someone stole my Bible — that’d be a weird thing to steal — I’d be devastated. For real, though, I won’t let the thing out of my sight. A few years ago, God told my wife to give her Bible to a stranger. After that happened, I told God that if he ever wanted me to give away my Bible, he would have to speak to me audibly through an inanimate burning object.

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 exciting about reintroducing the identifier “Saints” to a post-Christian world. I know this message is much bigger than me, and I’m starting to see others across the Body of Christ identify with this new, old term. The word “Saints” speaks to the largeness of eternity that was written on our hearts, so it’s no wonder the enemy of our soul has convinced us to relegate it to religious elitism.

Right now, I’m praying into what it looks like for me to steward this message well. I’ve had a chance to collaborate with other thought leaders, pastors, scholars and friends about what, practically speaking, it could look like to move beyond cultural Christianity and its limiting language. To be frank, as I mentioned earlier, I don’t even like the term “Christian” anymore (that’s another topic for another day).

In the years ahead, I will continue to write and share on why our world needs Christ-followers to become Saints, and I’m praying that God would give me wisdom on how to give this message away and invite more people into the mix. My first book on the subject, “Saints: Becoming More Than ‘Christians’” offered a vision of what this way of living could look like. And my next book, the one I’m working on now, will unpack how we practically pursue this higher form of being in today’s climate.

If this is something that interests/speaks to you, be sure to reach out to me. I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas. You can find me on Instagram @addisonbevere or through my website, www.AddisonBevere.com.

Have you found yourself falling into the seductive rhythm of religiosity? If so, what’s pulled you into that line of thinking? Perhaps, as Addison makes clear, it’s time to strip away any religious elitism and embrace the core of your identity in Christ — that of a Saint. Are you willing to lay down your need to be perfect and let Jesus define who you are and how you live? I hope so. Because as you do, others will see and want to do the same.