Tim Suttle is a pastor, writer, and musician. His latest book is called Shrink: Faithful Ministry in a Church Growth Culture (2014). Tim often writes for the Religion Section of The Huffington Post, and his work has been featured at The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Sojourners, Immerse Journal, and other media. Tim is the author of An Evangelical Social Gospel? (Cascade Books, 2011) and Public Jesus (2012). Tim is also the founder and front man of the popular Christian band Satellite Soul, with whom he released four major records, and toured for nearly a decade. Tim has a BS from Kansas State University, and an MDiv from Nazarene Theological Seminary. Tim has planted three flourishing churches over the past fifteen years and is the Senior Pastor of Redemption Church in Olathe, KS. He and his wife, Kristin, live in Kansas City with their two boys, Nicholas and Lewis.
"There is a dreadful pattern evident in church history where we continually overcompensate where our Christianity has become imbalanced. We exaggerate the truth that has been neglected, and we keep ending up with a lopsided faith . . . then we wind up with Jesus-lovers that forget justice and justice-lovers that forget Jesus. It is my hope that this book helps cure our bifurcated 'either/or' mentality that keeps separating things that must be held together-loving God and loving people, the great commandment and the great commission, a God that is personal and a God that is social . . . may the pages of this book remind us that Jesus and Justice must kiss, and that loving God and loving people are like the blades of scissors-they've got to stick together."
-Shane Claiborne
author of The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
"An Evangelical Social Gospel? is a joy to read because Suttle is so deadly serious about matters that matter. The book is filled with delightful surprises, not the least being the recovery of Walter Rauschenbusch to challenge the individualism of evangelical Christianity. But this book is more than critique, it is a wonderful imaginative attempt to develop a folk theology that is faithful to the gospel."
-Stanley Hauerwas
author of Working with Words: On Learning to Speak Christian (Cascade Books)
"This is a down-to-earth account of how the thinking of a young Evangelical changed his understanding of the Gospel from a message that addressed individualistic sin management to a holistic Gospel that includes a strong emphasis on justice. He makes the teachings of Walter Rauschenbusch accessible to all readers, but undoubtedly this book will have a special appeal to youth who are going through the same growth process that marked the author's life."
-Tony Campolo
author of Red Letter Christians: A Citizen's Guide to Faith and Politics
"Tim Suttle's first book, An Evangelical Social Gospel?, brings a message of balance and challenge needed by us all. This gifted new writer helps us rediscover one of our most-misunderstood old writers from a century ago. Highly recommended."
-Brian McLaren
author of A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming the Faith
"Combining elements of history, theology, and autobiography, Tim Suttle has written a thought-provoking book that serves as a fresh assessment of Walter Rauschenbusch for the twenty-first-century church. In an age when many Christians use labels such as 'evangelical' and 'liberal' in an uncritical fashion, Suttle calls upon his audience to reflect on how a recovery of the past can lead to a fresh understanding of Christianity today. While written primarily with an evangelical audience in mind, Suttle's study provides a welcome perspective not only on Walter Rauschenbusch and the social gospel, but on how Christianity in America might unfold over the course of the next several decades."
-Christopher Evans
author of Liberalism Without Illusions: Renewing an American Christian Tradition
"An Evangelical Social Gospel? is a probing and passionate call to Christians and churches to move beyond our one-sided individual relationship with God to equally include relationship with others and responsibility for the wider community. Suttle, using the writings and life of Rauschenbush and his own disquiet as a pastor, stirs us to discomfort at our self-centered complacency and co-option by culture, and moves us to redefine 'thy Kingdom come on earth as in heaven' as a call to relationships and transformation of our communities. Transformation goes beyond charity to seeking change in the unjust social structures (public education, prisons, etc). An exciting, challenging, biblically based read that will change your faith, thinking, and action."
-Mary Nelson
Founder, Bethel New Life, CCDA