In a world familiar with many unhelpful ideas about Christian witness, this book revisits ideas of faithful witness as embodied by early church people and communities in select stories in Acts. The book is an engagement with Acts, the call of Jesus to faithful witness, and ideas for today. Includes discussion questions and suggestions for implementation. Available here from Wipf and Stock.

“Unanswered Invitations to the Way of Jesus: Open-Ended Stories in Luke’s Travel Narrative (Luke 9:51–19:44).” Currents in Theology & Mission 51.4 (October 2024): 8–13. Many parables and teaching interactions in Luke’s Gospel are open-ended. The lack of closure throughout these stories makes for invitations, to both narrative characters and hearers today, to encounter Jesus’ teachings and to respond to his call.Available for download here.

“The Time It Takes: Prolonged Pace in Luke’s Travel Narrative (9:51–19:44).” Journal of Biblical Literature 144, no. 1 (2025): 147–66. This article considers the Travel Narrative’s pace, examining the relationship of its geographical progress to its content and form, with an eye to its thematic significance. The Travel Narrative portrays discipleship as requiring significant time, transpiring in the shadow of the cross, and casting following Jesus as a way for life. In these ways Luke’s Travel Narrative underscores the importance of the journey of discipleship as a focus and way of life.

“The Ending of Luke Revisited.” Journal of Biblical Literature 140.2 (2021): 325–46. A revisiting of the concerns and considerations to hearing and reading the ending to Luke’s Gospel. Available for download here.

In view of the many who experience harm from scriptural interpretations which endorse violence and oppression, the gospel calls readers of Scripture to offer interpretations with a clear eye to their impact on the lives and livelihoods of people and their faith, so that it may truly be good news for all. Available here.

“Prayer and Ethics in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount.” Word & World 40.3 (Summer 2020): 227–35. A discussion of how prayer and ethics undergird the very structure of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. Available for reading and downloading here.

As a church, where we came from truly matters to where we are going. Based on that conviction, this book explores questions about church and ministry today from the lens of the earliest NT church communities. Includes discussion questions and suggestions for application. Available here from Fortress Press.

“Salvation ‘Today’ in Luke’s Gospel.” Currents in Theology and Mission 45.4(October 2018): 6–11.

“Toxic Theology: A Pastoral Response to Bible Passages Often Used to Justify the Abuse of Children or Prevent Them from Seeking Care,” Currents in Theology and Mission 45.3 (2018): 56-60. Available here.

“Slow Sailing in Acts: Suspense in the Final Sea Journey (Acts 27:1-28:15),” Journal of Biblical Literature 136.4 (2017): 949-68. Available for download here.

“A Spirituality of Studying Scripture (Exegesis).” Word & World 42.4 (Fall 2022): 344–51

A study of the ending of Acts, asking quite simply “How does it end?” The book asks this question from the viewpoint of ancient readers, in order to approach a clearer sense of how Luke’s hearers would have heard one of the most famous endings in the New Testament. Available here from Mohr Siebeck.

For a fuller list of my academic pursuits, see my CV (curriculum vitae) here.