Andrew, I really appreciate the opportunity to talk!

First of all, Can you tell me a little bit about your book?

Streams in the Wasteland is an attempt to leverage the witness of the desert fathers and mothers to help us live more humanly in an inhuman time. I think the culture we are living in (including the church culture!) has forgotten (if it ever knew) what it takes to live in a genuinely human way, and as a result, we are seeing the fracturing of our society and the degradation of our humanity on an epic scale. In the early centuries of the church, there was a group of people known as the "desert fathers and mothers" who lived in a similar situation and dedicated themselves to recapturing the many ways that Jesus is the Way to social and individual wholeness. I think their witness still speaks.

What inspired you to dive so deep into such thoughtful issues?

Honestly, it was a personal crisis that threw me into it. About five years ago we left a church I thought I would die at. Having served as the lead pastor for 8 years, I had every intention of becoming an old man there. It didn't happen. And when we left, our departure triggered an identity crisis that left me feeling completely undone. At the behest of a friend, I started reading these radical Christians from the early centuries of the church - here were folks who SOUGHT OUT the very thing I felt like was being THRUST UPON me. Their words helped me identify where God was in my experience and gave a language for discipleship that was new and fresh and helped me immensely. So... I wrote a book about it :)

Do you want this book to resonate with everyone, or a particular demographic?

I wrote Streams with two audiences in mind. First, I want followers of Jesus to read this and find themselves provoked to a deeper and better imagination for what it means to live as citizens of the world that is to come in a chaotic time. But secondarily - and maybe that's not even right to say, because I am so desperate to have these folks read Streams - is the "spiritual but not religious" crowd. I think there are a lot of folks out there who are hungry and thirsty for the great Something but are standing at a distance from the church, for whatever reason. I hope they'll give a book about ancient spirituality a chance and find themselves drawn to the beauty of Christ and his people.

Fun story on that front. Some friends of mine preordered Streams months ago, and then moved to a new house. Streams showed up at their old house, and when the new owners (not Christians) got the package in the mail, they opened it and - drawn by the title - started reading it. They texted our friends: "We got a book in the mail. It's yours. But we started reading it, and we don't intend to stop. We'd like to pay you for it. And... can we come to church sometime with you?"

That just made my soul sing. I hope more folks like that will give Streams a chance.

Did you work with anyone to solidify your ideas thoughts and thoughts for the book? Is there another book you’d recommend reading in tandem?

Since that personal crisis a few years back, I've had a few books by my side almost on the daily. One is Benedicta Ward's Alphabetical Collection of the Sayings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers - an indispensable and comprehensive compendium of their sayings and stories. And then also Rowan Williams' Where God Happens and Henri Nouwen's Way of the Heart - both beautiful treatments of the essential elements of "desert spirituality."

How did your own journey shape the way the book came together? What were the hardest sections of the manuscript to write?

I think the hardest sections were those dealing with burning contemporary concerns. I wrote Streams during Covid-19, which means I wrote it at a time of GREAT social turmoil and instability. I think the DFs and DMs have a word to speak to all of that, but I didn't want to write anything that added heat but not light to the conversation. So... I sweated over those sections and talked to my editor a lot. I'm happy with where we landed.

What did writing do to you as a thinker and how did it give you time to reflect? Describe your writing space.

I have a big, brown leather "dad" chair in my office. I sink my buns in the seat and bang away on the keyboard for several-hour sessions a couple of times a week. When my time is up, I walk away. So far, that's served me well.

What is the most surprising thing you discovered while writing your book(s)?

Neither Streams nor my earlier book All Flame are memoirs, but they both arose out of deeply personal experiences. What surprised me was how much closure both books gave me around things that I wasn't really writing about. But I think that's the beauty of writing. Somehow or another, because it springs from such personal depth, whatever you're writing about, you're always really writing in some deep mysterious way about your own wrestlings. And when you say it just the way you want to say it, there is a sense of "finish" and closure that can really sneak up on you. Or at least it did for me with these two.

What would you like to suggest to the budding writers or authors?

Write all the time. You only get better by doing it. And show your work to people. It's the hardest thing to do, but at the end of the day, if your writing is going to be any good (and if you ever hope to get published) you have to get over your silly fears and vanities and show your work to the world. It will be better for it. And so will you. I promise.

andrewarndt.com