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Land of My Sojourn: The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found
In the years since leaving local church ministry, I've devoted an enormous amount of time and resources to examining the church's often troubled witness, its ongoing crisis of leadership, and the epidemic of narcissism, abuse, and cover-up that has continued to emerge year after year. This book is about my journey both before and undergirding that work—the shattering of dreams and the grace that restored a broken faith in the aftermath. It's a story about grace leading me home when I thought all was lost.
Taken together, my encounters with Peter, Elijah, and Jesus connected to indelible images from my time in Israel and formed a new spiritual landscape in my mind, one with enough gravity to draw my feet back to solid ground. My hope is that as I tell this story you might find echoes of your own. I pray if you're in the wilderness, you might find that though the territory is a mystery, you are far from alone. Most of all, I pray that you rediscover that Jesus is chasing you like a lover . . . right through heaven's gates.
Taken together, my encounters with Peter, Elijah, and Jesus connected to indelible images from my time in Israel and formed a new spiritual landscape in my mind, one with enough gravity to draw my feet back to solid ground. My hope is that as I tell this story you might find echoes of your own. I pray if you're in the wilderness, you might find that though the territory is a mystery, you are far from alone. Most of all, I pray that you rediscover that Jesus is chasing you like a lover . . . right through heaven's gates.
158 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 27, 2024
41 people are currently reading
2059 people want to read
About the author
Mike Cosper
17 books91 followersMike Cosper is the executive director of Harbor Media, a non-profit media company serving Christians in a post-Christian world. He served for sixteen years as a pastor at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Kentucky, and is the author of Recapturing the Wonder, The Stories We Tell, and Rhythms of Grace. He lives with his family in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
March 14, 2024
When I picked 'Land of My Sojourn' up off the doorstep, it felt like it belonged in my mailbox instead. Mike Cosper's story resonates uncannily with my own in ways that are both parallel and personal. Mike's travel memoir is a path that I have walked in legs and a path that in some ways I am still on.
In a minor way the story of dysfunction at the center of this book was one that I had a front row seat to witness. Around the time of Sojourn's re-org, I had begun spending a lot of time in the Lead Pastor's office - assisting in research, serving at elder's meetings, and smoking pipes on the patio. I viewed the pastor's model of ministry as something to imitate, a forward direction to march, until I was frozen on the couch - weeping and unable to move. The path to burn-out that I was on - if I hadn't already received some significant burns - seemed like a sure-fire way to go, until that lead pastor was asked to step away. It was the wake-up call I needed, and one that I would need to put on speed-dial.
The way Mike described his turning point might as well have been my own: "Our wounds, long masked by the momentum of ministry, began to surface, and the physical and psychological toll of spending years in a toxic culture caught up with me. I crashed. Physically and spiritually exhausted, isolated and brokenhearted, I saw a community I loved— one I had poured my heart and soul into on the verge of breaking apart.”
Still, the level of spiritual disillusionment I felt then was only a gradual step towards the sudden drop I was about to be confronted by in the coming years. Mike is right, "The very people who can help us meet and know Jesus are also the ones who can hurt us at the deepest levels." It is a dangerous thing to work at a church.
Mike has turned the reporter's mic on circles that I have run in, identifying the "ongoing crisis of leadership, and the epidemic of narcissism, abuse, and cover-up...a branch of the church that is image-conscious, charismatic, and contradictory." This is a leadership model that "incentivizes grandiosity." A vision for the future that wants to climb high heights, even if it needs to step on some backs to get there. I've seen countless friends in ministry experience a parallel form of complex trauma - death by a thousand paper-cuts. Toxicity - no matter it's level - begins to wear away at hope, until there is nothing left.
After years of staff dysfunction, many of us have lost the childlike faith that has "the audacity to speak your mind in a relationship where the asymmetry of authority and control couldn't be starker." Sadly, because of our high expectations for what the church can - and should - be, we overlook, and sometimes "want to overlook" symptoms of unhealth. It is "easier to cherry-pick reality than watch a dream die." Many ministers are in constant denial that 'it can still change' - we think we are one conversation away from turning things around.
Still, Mike's approach is to sober bloodlust. Throughout the book he is careful not to downshift into "revisionist oversimplification." It is hard - but important work - to recognize that "No one is just one thing, even the worst of us." No one is pure villain, or pure hero - as much as that would make the narrative more tidy. And that same 'line between good and evil' - as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said - runs through my own heart as well.
As is common in "unhealthy, idealistic churches" a minister's identity - and to my shame, sometimes my own - gets wrapped up in serving in a particular place, so that anxiety about leaving keeps a person stuck, marginalized, burned up, or burned out. Just like Peter who was afraid of the death of his dream, we are paralyzed and unable to move on.
But, like Peter, what we need is a cold dip in the water. It is 'sinking' that washes away illusions and helps us to see with clearer eyes. It is hunger and weariness, "where healing begins." The only way to get out of the land of sojourn is through. And, to get through, we need guides like Mike to say it's safe to be "an angry and doubting person" here. Unexpected ministers who are unafraid to point out the 'cracks in the veneer.' Fellow sojourners who are willing to ask the hard questions: 'Why are you here? What are you after?' In an environment of constant instability, we need a place to stand that doesn't move. And this book - and Mike's story - is not the place itself, but more like a pirate's map of how to get there. And, though I can't say I've found it yet, I still believe that the rumors will be true: when we get to the place where the 'x' marks the spot, we'll come to find out that the 'x' was a cross all along.
In a minor way the story of dysfunction at the center of this book was one that I had a front row seat to witness. Around the time of Sojourn's re-org, I had begun spending a lot of time in the Lead Pastor's office - assisting in research, serving at elder's meetings, and smoking pipes on the patio. I viewed the pastor's model of ministry as something to imitate, a forward direction to march, until I was frozen on the couch - weeping and unable to move. The path to burn-out that I was on - if I hadn't already received some significant burns - seemed like a sure-fire way to go, until that lead pastor was asked to step away. It was the wake-up call I needed, and one that I would need to put on speed-dial.
The way Mike described his turning point might as well have been my own: "Our wounds, long masked by the momentum of ministry, began to surface, and the physical and psychological toll of spending years in a toxic culture caught up with me. I crashed. Physically and spiritually exhausted, isolated and brokenhearted, I saw a community I loved— one I had poured my heart and soul into on the verge of breaking apart.”
Still, the level of spiritual disillusionment I felt then was only a gradual step towards the sudden drop I was about to be confronted by in the coming years. Mike is right, "The very people who can help us meet and know Jesus are also the ones who can hurt us at the deepest levels." It is a dangerous thing to work at a church.
Mike has turned the reporter's mic on circles that I have run in, identifying the "ongoing crisis of leadership, and the epidemic of narcissism, abuse, and cover-up...a branch of the church that is image-conscious, charismatic, and contradictory." This is a leadership model that "incentivizes grandiosity." A vision for the future that wants to climb high heights, even if it needs to step on some backs to get there. I've seen countless friends in ministry experience a parallel form of complex trauma - death by a thousand paper-cuts. Toxicity - no matter it's level - begins to wear away at hope, until there is nothing left.
After years of staff dysfunction, many of us have lost the childlike faith that has "the audacity to speak your mind in a relationship where the asymmetry of authority and control couldn't be starker." Sadly, because of our high expectations for what the church can - and should - be, we overlook, and sometimes "want to overlook" symptoms of unhealth. It is "easier to cherry-pick reality than watch a dream die." Many ministers are in constant denial that 'it can still change' - we think we are one conversation away from turning things around.
Still, Mike's approach is to sober bloodlust. Throughout the book he is careful not to downshift into "revisionist oversimplification." It is hard - but important work - to recognize that "No one is just one thing, even the worst of us." No one is pure villain, or pure hero - as much as that would make the narrative more tidy. And that same 'line between good and evil' - as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said - runs through my own heart as well.
As is common in "unhealthy, idealistic churches" a minister's identity - and to my shame, sometimes my own - gets wrapped up in serving in a particular place, so that anxiety about leaving keeps a person stuck, marginalized, burned up, or burned out. Just like Peter who was afraid of the death of his dream, we are paralyzed and unable to move on.
But, like Peter, what we need is a cold dip in the water. It is 'sinking' that washes away illusions and helps us to see with clearer eyes. It is hunger and weariness, "where healing begins." The only way to get out of the land of sojourn is through. And, to get through, we need guides like Mike to say it's safe to be "an angry and doubting person" here. Unexpected ministers who are unafraid to point out the 'cracks in the veneer.' Fellow sojourners who are willing to ask the hard questions: 'Why are you here? What are you after?' In an environment of constant instability, we need a place to stand that doesn't move. And this book - and Mike's story - is not the place itself, but more like a pirate's map of how to get there. And, though I can't say I've found it yet, I still believe that the rumors will be true: when we get to the place where the 'x' marks the spot, we'll come to find out that the 'x' was a cross all along.
April 11, 2024
Let me start by saying that my 3-star rating is in the minority of early reader reviews (and the lowest at the time of writing this review). So, feel free to take my review with a grain of salt.
Land of My Sojourn is a memoir-like reflection of church planter Mike Cosper. He looks back on how the initial vision of the church developed and how poor leadership ended up taking things in another direction and left him disillusioned. I do think the title is slightly misleading. I expected something regarding deconstruction and reconstruction, but from what I understood, he never really "lost" his faith. A good thing, of course, but it was a different book than what I was expecting based on the title.
First, the good. Mike Cosper writes in a way that makes the reader a peer rather than a student learning from an expert. He seems to want to simply share his story and what he's learned along the way. Secondly, I think he has a lot of good things to say about church leadership. The conversation about the kind of leaders church culture elevates is an important one (which is at least partly why Mike Cosper did the podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill).
What I didn't like so much: I appreciate that in telling his story, he didn't want to go into graphic details, but I felt like I was kept at a distance, never able to fully understand exactly what he was talking about. There were times as I was reading that I thought, "Wait, did I miss something? Should I know what he's referring to?" I also did not always understand the connection between the Bible narrative and the point he was trying to make in each chapter.
I did highlight a decent amount of quotes that made me think or nod in agreement. Here are a couple:
"But we are in grave danger when avoiding being troubled becomes a goal."
"I think that the leadership model we have in our evangelical world incentivises grandiosity."
Thank you to Netgalley and InterVarsity Press for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.
Land of My Sojourn is a memoir-like reflection of church planter Mike Cosper. He looks back on how the initial vision of the church developed and how poor leadership ended up taking things in another direction and left him disillusioned. I do think the title is slightly misleading. I expected something regarding deconstruction and reconstruction, but from what I understood, he never really "lost" his faith. A good thing, of course, but it was a different book than what I was expecting based on the title.
First, the good. Mike Cosper writes in a way that makes the reader a peer rather than a student learning from an expert. He seems to want to simply share his story and what he's learned along the way. Secondly, I think he has a lot of good things to say about church leadership. The conversation about the kind of leaders church culture elevates is an important one (which is at least partly why Mike Cosper did the podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill).
What I didn't like so much: I appreciate that in telling his story, he didn't want to go into graphic details, but I felt like I was kept at a distance, never able to fully understand exactly what he was talking about. There were times as I was reading that I thought, "Wait, did I miss something? Should I know what he's referring to?" I also did not always understand the connection between the Bible narrative and the point he was trying to make in each chapter.
I did highlight a decent amount of quotes that made me think or nod in agreement. Here are a couple:
"But we are in grave danger when avoiding being troubled becomes a goal."
"I think that the leadership model we have in our evangelical world incentivises grandiosity."
Thank you to Netgalley and InterVarsity Press for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.
April 3, 2024
I don’t have words to describe how meaningful this book has been to me in this season. I’ve watched so many of my friends walk away from the Lord, and Cosper just gets it. This book is cathartic, grieve stricken wisdom. Best book I have read this year. Jenna will be happy to not have to deal with me crying on the living room floor anymore.
It’s something like a modern Dark Night of the Soul with more Seinfeld and Larry David references.
It’s something like a modern Dark Night of the Soul with more Seinfeld and Larry David references.
April 17, 2025
I picked up this book because it sounded like it could be a response to what so many of us feel: betrayal by a U.S. church that has traded the teachings of Jesus for politics/power. I appreciate Cosper’s tone and humility, and he gets at some of this. I can understand his desire not to get into the specifics, but it was hard to follow at times as a result. Weaving in the scripture teaching points felt like it took away from the story at times (both are good but it was hard to hop back and forth).
As an aside, I resonated with his reflections on grief at the end.
As an aside, I resonated with his reflections on grief at the end.
May 6, 2025
I was hesitant to read this, but at a friend’s recommendation I picked it up…. And didn’t put it down until I finished it. Beautifully written, it hurt and helped a lot. It gave me language for things I’ve been processing, not first and foremost about my time at Sojourn, but my own experience of loss and trauma. It came to Jeremiah and me at an important time. I’m grateful for Mike Cosper’s ability to tell his story in an honorable way, and how it helped me process my own story.
October 11, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. This is probably one of the best books I’ve read this year, weaving memoir and biblical reflection masterfully and with great humility and wisdom. For anyone who has been hurt by the church, you will find comfort but also hope that God is bigger than our brokenness. If you enjoyed the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill you will love this. I wholeheartedly commend this book to you.
July 10, 2024
Sometimes you just need to be reminded that the gospel is true and good, and that it indeed is your satisfaction in this life. Cosper’s raw honesty and vulnerability about the need for a renovated spirituality that is truly and only Christ-dependent to sustain you amidst failures and disappointments on this side of eternity is a needed corrective to evangelical triumphalism. A theology of the cross comes by understanding that a theology of glory was never even an option to begin with.
August 27, 2024
This was a pretty personal read for me because Sojourn church has been very influential on me from afar; and I’ve especially appreciated Cosper’s work and writing for years, for many reasons. I suppose there’s always more one could say if you’re telling a story like this, and it’s easy to criticize if you’re not the storyteller. I’m glad he wrote this…equal parts sad, sobering, hopeful.
March 7, 2024
Thoughtful and honest. I could relate to his story. He put such good context and words to a complicated and painful experience.
June 1, 2024
“What's most maddening is the way loss introduces uncertainty and doubt in your mind. You look back at a devastated spiritual landscape on the other side of grief and wonder, Was it ever real? Did it ever mean anything at all?” P. 114
I resonated with so much of this book, and I am grateful for its grounding in scripture. It’s not the kind of book that leaves you more amped up and disoriented than when you began. There’s a place for that type of book—but it’s not the place I need to be right now. This book is grounded and hopeful while acknowledging the deep grief that comes with disillusionment in a loved faith community.
I resonated with so much of this book, and I am grateful for its grounding in scripture. It’s not the kind of book that leaves you more amped up and disoriented than when you began. There’s a place for that type of book—but it’s not the place I need to be right now. This book is grounded and hopeful while acknowledging the deep grief that comes with disillusionment in a loved faith community.
April 11, 2025
honest and hopeful 4.5 stars
March 22, 2024
Memoir is my favorite genre, especially when the author finds a way to expand his own small narrative in ways that intersect with the big story of scripture. Certainly, the topics of church hurt and broken faith are everywhere, and it’s bracing and reassuring to read that disappointment with God is not solely a 21st-century phenomenon.
Author and podcaster Mike Cosper is well-known for his reporting on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Now, Land of My Sojourn reveals that his personal journey has informed his gritty truth-telling. He lived the reality of the hope that keeps a church member coming back week after week, believing that the fellowship he loved was “only one good conversation away from getting it right and making things healthy.”
With Elijah from the Old Testament and Peter from the New as traveling companions, Cosper affirms the biblical connection between suffering and glory alongside the crushing reality that even good and godly dreams may die. In disillusionment, we also may be wondering: “What have I been giving my life to?”
Following “The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found” may not be light reading, but it’s a story that honestly expresses the ups and downs of a following life in company with other fallen followers of The Way. In the land of my own long sojourn, I appreciated the reminder that I have not been traveling alone.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
Author and podcaster Mike Cosper is well-known for his reporting on the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Now, Land of My Sojourn reveals that his personal journey has informed his gritty truth-telling. He lived the reality of the hope that keeps a church member coming back week after week, believing that the fellowship he loved was “only one good conversation away from getting it right and making things healthy.”
With Elijah from the Old Testament and Peter from the New as traveling companions, Cosper affirms the biblical connection between suffering and glory alongside the crushing reality that even good and godly dreams may die. In disillusionment, we also may be wondering: “What have I been giving my life to?”
Following “The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found” may not be light reading, but it’s a story that honestly expresses the ups and downs of a following life in company with other fallen followers of The Way. In the land of my own long sojourn, I appreciated the reminder that I have not been traveling alone.
Many thanks to IVPress for providing a copy of this book to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.
December 31, 2024
Put aside all your preconceived notions of what a book like this must hold, and just read it. Savor it. Sit with it. Weep with it. Let its wisdom touch your soul.
I leave it feeling seen and known, and a tiny bit more whole.
No more words. Just tears.
I leave it feeling seen and known, and a tiny bit more whole.
No more words. Just tears.
February 22, 2025
For the reeling and wandering, the wounded and weary. This book helped me process some past experiences, and gave me hope for the present as I search for the communion of the church while reckoning with my disillusionment.
May 12, 2024
Mike Cosper’s influence through music, podcasts, churches has affected my life. His thorough and powerful storytelling in the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast series will likely go down in modern church history as the rendering of this moment.
But while Cosper’s writing is sharp, this book just felt like he didn’t quite have some central piece for storytelling—the structure, the audience, the denouement… something. I just kept thinking I was missing something (though more or less familiar with Sojourn’s story). Perhaps holding back out of respect and avoiding a gossipy tell-all watered down the specificity of the story. And yet, there wasn’t quite enough here for the spiritual side of the metaphor he kept trying to draw out between the days of Elijah and the last days of Jesus.
The Gethsemane and Mount Sinai chapters were quite strong, but there are just better books out there that do what he’s trying to do here. Overall, this book could probably have used a few more years of distance in the hopper. Listen instead to his April 2024 episode on The Russell Moore Show and you’ll get the gist in less than 45 minutes.
But while Cosper’s writing is sharp, this book just felt like he didn’t quite have some central piece for storytelling—the structure, the audience, the denouement… something. I just kept thinking I was missing something (though more or less familiar with Sojourn’s story). Perhaps holding back out of respect and avoiding a gossipy tell-all watered down the specificity of the story. And yet, there wasn’t quite enough here for the spiritual side of the metaphor he kept trying to draw out between the days of Elijah and the last days of Jesus.
The Gethsemane and Mount Sinai chapters were quite strong, but there are just better books out there that do what he’s trying to do here. Overall, this book could probably have used a few more years of distance in the hopper. Listen instead to his April 2024 episode on The Russell Moore Show and you’ll get the gist in less than 45 minutes.
October 12, 2024
If you enjoyed The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill, I recommend reading this book. Mike Cosper shares his own experience with narcissistic pastors and church leaders, as well as the disappointment with the American Evangelical church’s idolatry of politics and power.
I am thankful that we have authors like Mike who take a stand for what is right, calling out what is wrong, and giving us hope that faith can endure.
I am thankful that we have authors like Mike who take a stand for what is right, calling out what is wrong, and giving us hope that faith can endure.
July 24, 2025
“Maybe the true gift of suffering is tuning our ears to hear God's whisper even when pain is shouting.”
August 30, 2025
A wonderful book - part memoir, part travelogue, part theological reflection - and poignant tonic especially for those who have been burned in Christian ministry. Honest, hopeful and wise.
October 21, 2025
A strong teaching/reflecting/pondering memoir that touches many themes and struggles and questions I've encountered in my life and work.
October 29, 2023
5 stars
Land of My Sojourn
Mike Cosper
Wow, what a powerful book. This is a truthful, heartwarming and all too relatable look at the damage church can do and the healing that comes through Jesus.
This is one of those books that you need to sit with and let it thoroughly simmer, it is most definitely not a book to be rushed. Mike Cosper has written a part devotional/part memoir dealing with the harm a church can do to both their members and their leaders. Land of My Sojourn was not at all what I expected, it truly helped me to read a book by someone else(a leader no less) hurt by the church yet still found his way forward in a church with his faith intact. I'm still struggling with the church aspect.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.
Land of My Sojourn
Mike Cosper
Wow, what a powerful book. This is a truthful, heartwarming and all too relatable look at the damage church can do and the healing that comes through Jesus.
This is one of those books that you need to sit with and let it thoroughly simmer, it is most definitely not a book to be rushed. Mike Cosper has written a part devotional/part memoir dealing with the harm a church can do to both their members and their leaders. Land of My Sojourn was not at all what I expected, it truly helped me to read a book by someone else(a leader no less) hurt by the church yet still found his way forward in a church with his faith intact. I'm still struggling with the church aspect.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.
June 30, 2024
Five stars because it was a gift to me to read this book. Thank you, Mike Cosper. Thank you, Jesus.
December 14, 2024
Mike Cosper was one of the founding pastors of Sojourn church in Louisville, KY. What started as a dream church with a group of like-minded young pastors turned into a toxic situation that eventually fired Cosper via a reorganization chart (he was left off - that's how he found out he was fired). So, how did he get there? What would he do without vocational ministry that had been his entire career to that point? Add into the mix the huge division within many churches and Christians over the 2016 election and Donald Trump and you have a recipe for being in the wilderness. In this book Cosper correlates some of his Christian wilderness experiences with physical places that were important in Scripture and re-examines some of those places through a wilderness lens.
I agree with some reviews I read that while he was trying to not name names in relation to the issues at Sojourn, it sometimes felt like a lot of necessary information was left out. You did get the general gist and saw his struggles when his ministry and church turned against him. While I did like aspects of the book, it felt a little incomplete. But if you've ever been burned by a church, then you can definitely relate to the overall message here. I can't say it's amazing or that I would highly recommend it though.
Some quotes I liked:
"The persecution narrative merely justifies the militarization of the faith. It turns out that everyone wants to be a martyr, but no one wants to die. We want a revolutionary. We want a fighter. We want a Savior with a sword, not a cross. A pastor with a bully pulpit. A president who will shoot his enemies in the middle of Fifth Avenue." (p. 65)
"The harder question for me, though, is why was what I experienced as deception toward the entire staff not enough to make me leave?" (p. 75)
"I looked back at the seventeen years leading up to that season. We had such a profound sense of community and purpose that guided us. It felt like it would last forever...But slowly, then all at once, the spell had broken. I felt a tiredness and brokenness that I cannot, even years later, put into words." (p. 92-93)
"But when Russell [Moore] began to surface and highlight problems with sexual abuse in the SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] in 2018, I saw a groundswell rise against him - something I don't think I'll ever understand. In the years that followed, survivor advocates like Moore and Rachel Denhollander - the whistleblower in the USA Gymnastics sexual-abuse scandal and an attorney and advocate herself - were branded enemies of the church. Somehow sexual abuse became a kind of partisan issue, and the dividing lines happened to match those that separated Trump supporters and never-Trumpers in the SBC. (That doesn't seem coincidental, given the allegations surrounding Donald Trump.)" (p. 102)
I agree with some reviews I read that while he was trying to not name names in relation to the issues at Sojourn, it sometimes felt like a lot of necessary information was left out. You did get the general gist and saw his struggles when his ministry and church turned against him. While I did like aspects of the book, it felt a little incomplete. But if you've ever been burned by a church, then you can definitely relate to the overall message here. I can't say it's amazing or that I would highly recommend it though.
Some quotes I liked:
"The persecution narrative merely justifies the militarization of the faith. It turns out that everyone wants to be a martyr, but no one wants to die. We want a revolutionary. We want a fighter. We want a Savior with a sword, not a cross. A pastor with a bully pulpit. A president who will shoot his enemies in the middle of Fifth Avenue." (p. 65)
"The harder question for me, though, is why was what I experienced as deception toward the entire staff not enough to make me leave?" (p. 75)
"I looked back at the seventeen years leading up to that season. We had such a profound sense of community and purpose that guided us. It felt like it would last forever...But slowly, then all at once, the spell had broken. I felt a tiredness and brokenness that I cannot, even years later, put into words." (p. 92-93)
"But when Russell [Moore] began to surface and highlight problems with sexual abuse in the SBC [Southern Baptist Convention] in 2018, I saw a groundswell rise against him - something I don't think I'll ever understand. In the years that followed, survivor advocates like Moore and Rachel Denhollander - the whistleblower in the USA Gymnastics sexual-abuse scandal and an attorney and advocate herself - were branded enemies of the church. Somehow sexual abuse became a kind of partisan issue, and the dividing lines happened to match those that separated Trump supporters and never-Trumpers in the SBC. (That doesn't seem coincidental, given the allegations surrounding Donald Trump.)" (p. 102)
February 4, 2024
I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.
I've followed Mike Cosper for a while, even before The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill made him famous. While I knew he tended to focus on the Church's relationship with society and politics, I never knew how personally these things hit home to him. Land of My Sojourn is his story. It's neatly framed through the juxtaposition with several prominent biblical landmarks in modern day Israel, which made each chapter a little more meaningful as one who has also visited many of them personally. Along the way, he shares how the various events of his life shook his faith but always helped him come out stronger in the end, not unlike the story of Elijah or Peter. It's a deeply personal personal story that I related with in many ways, and I am glad he hasn't given up on his faith so he could help encourage mine.
I've followed Mike Cosper for a while, even before The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill made him famous. While I knew he tended to focus on the Church's relationship with society and politics, I never knew how personally these things hit home to him. Land of My Sojourn is his story. It's neatly framed through the juxtaposition with several prominent biblical landmarks in modern day Israel, which made each chapter a little more meaningful as one who has also visited many of them personally. Along the way, he shares how the various events of his life shook his faith but always helped him come out stronger in the end, not unlike the story of Elijah or Peter. It's a deeply personal personal story that I related with in many ways, and I am glad he hasn't given up on his faith so he could help encourage mine.
April 21, 2024
I received a copy from IVP to review.
I 1sr heard if Mike Cosper due to the mars hill podcast. I listen to his current podcast the bulletin.
The book is compulsively readable as I finished in one sitting. There are stories weaved with scripture. With a focus on Elijah and Peter.
If you have suffered a loss of relationship, church hurt, grief, at loss for what is going on in the church, this book is for you. It ends on hope, but it’s not a neat tidy story.
I 1sr heard if Mike Cosper due to the mars hill podcast. I listen to his current podcast the bulletin.
The book is compulsively readable as I finished in one sitting. There are stories weaved with scripture. With a focus on Elijah and Peter.
If you have suffered a loss of relationship, church hurt, grief, at loss for what is going on in the church, this book is for you. It ends on hope, but it’s not a neat tidy story.
December 4, 2024
I probably need more time to digest this little book than just a few minutes before writing a review. I most likely have read too many books about people of faith losing their church community partly due to the political climate of recent years (myself included).
Happy for Mike that he found community again and has been able to find his footing and the grace to move forward. I am just not to that point yet. It would be interesting to hear what Mike has to say about the most recent election as his book was written prior to the election cycle.
Happy for Mike that he found community again and has been able to find his footing and the grace to move forward. I am just not to that point yet. It would be interesting to hear what Mike has to say about the most recent election as his book was written prior to the election cycle.
September 21, 2025
This book is a thoughtful gift to not reconsider our faith but I think consider our faith with more thoughtfulness and attentiveness. Cosper’s work and vulnerability continues to bless and inspire my own faith journey. I like how his memoir examines Biblical stories with candidness and a desire to really see who Jesus is and find deeper love there. And I did. ♥️
July 21, 2024
Thankful for how Mike Cosper shares stories, including his own. What the 180 characters culture of communication has done to sharing nuanced experiences (especially those regarding faith) has made me a bit tired, so this was really refreshing to read for me (it is still a manageable length though). Mike Cosper is thoughtful, patient, and honest in his processing and I enjoyed that. This book also did a great job of not rehashing drama, but working through the impact of traumatic experiences in the church and faith. I would recommend this as reading for any Believer. My only thought is that it would probably be a better experience if you went chapter by chapter with someone else- would be so good to discuss.
September 2, 2024
What a great book. Part Bible study, part autobiography, it covers a part of Mike's life as a staff member at Sojourn. The Bible writers call the church the Family of God, and no one can hurt an individual like a family member. When we enter into a community with a local church, there are good times and bad. Mike looks a the life of Peter and shows us the expectations he had and the dreams that were unfulfilled and how we can continue to walk in the community after broken dreams and relationships. A must-read for everyone who has been through spiritual trauma.
March 23, 2024
I appreciated this more than I anticipated. Especially for anyone who's experienced church hurt or disenchantment, Cosper's thoughts are helpful.
February 17, 2025
Gritty & Hopeful
I found this book to be very real and gritty, and I enjoyed the exposition on Elijah's great victory, followed by his disillusionment and disenchantment. God carried him through, revealing that He was still in control and that things were not as they seemed. Yes, God uses our trials and difficulties to shape us and grow our faith. And through it all, we need each other and a community that will walk with us through our doubts and disappointments.
I found this book to be very real and gritty, and I enjoyed the exposition on Elijah's great victory, followed by his disillusionment and disenchantment. God carried him through, revealing that He was still in control and that things were not as they seemed. Yes, God uses our trials and difficulties to shape us and grow our faith. And through it all, we need each other and a community that will walk with us through our doubts and disappointments.
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