Better Than Brunch

“Better Than Brunch is a fascinating study of the church growing in ‘the carcass of Christendom’ in Cascadia. Byassee and Lockhart tell these stories masterfully so we all can learn how to redescribe church for the new world coming. A surprising book packed with much inspiration. Read it and learn mission all over again.”


—David Fitch, Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary, and author of Faithful Presence





“Here’s a little book that is sure to have a big impact. Two of our best-connected theologians and experienced practitioners of the church’s mission—Ross Lockhart and Jason Byassee—together give us the theological rationale and the practical, encouraging examples we need to be a more faithfully missional church. Better Than Brunch (what a great title!) views the future through the lens of some of the most creative and faithful congregations of Cascadia to provide the rest of us just the boost we need to better work with Christ in leading Christ’s mission to his world.”


—Will Willimon, Professor of Christian Ministry, Duke Divinity School, and author of Who Lynched Willie Earle? Preaching to Confront Racism





“It is the cardinal rule for good writing: don’t tell, show. In this excellent piece of work, the authors do just that. They show us churches and church leaders who are embodying a new way of being church for a new time. Of particular value is the book’s focus on the Cascadia region of the northwest US and British Columbia. Christendom never had quite the foothold in Cascadia as it did in the east and midwest. While many have lamented this reality, Byassee and Lockhart see the opportunity in it.”


—Anthony B. Robinson, author of Transforming Congregational Culture and Changing the Conversation: A Third Way for Congregations and Their Leaders





“In Better Than Brunch, Jason and Ross articulate the unique grip that secular culture has over the Pacific Northwest and the challenges churches face. But far from merely naming the problem, they offer fresh solutions. Their compelling thesis that missional and unapologetically evangelical churches are the answer challenges both progressives and evangelicals alike. This makes the book relevant not just to their geographical context but across North America.”


—Matt Miofsky, Lead Pastor of The Gathering United Methodist Church, Saint Louis, Missouri





“In Better Than Brunch, Byassee and Lockhart share the treasures they discovered in interviews and site visits with church leaders and congregations in Cascadia. These treasures took the form of eight patterns, all of which are relevant to anyone in church leadership in Cascadia. Particularly helpful were the questions at the end of each chapter that congregations can use to begin their own treasure hunt as they seek to strengthen their ability to be healthy, faithful, and effective local Christian communities. I recommend the use of the book as a part of a facilitated process in churches that want to do a thorough examination of their common life and purpose.”


—Melissa M. Skelton, Archbishop of the Diocese of New Westminster, Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of BC and Yukon





“My friends Ross and Jason have written a troubling but encouraging book. Troubling because they expose the reality of where we live. With their flare for engaging, lively, punchy rhetoric, they take us into the post-Christendom mind—and lived experience—of the majority of those living in Cascadia, what one pastor they interview has dubbed ‘the carcass of Christendom,’ a world devoid of any living memory of the gospel, suffering the social and relational consequences of the deprivation, but hungering for the love of the Jesus they are about to encounter through his disciples. Or, are supposed to encounter. But encouraging. Ross and Jason set out on ‘a treasure hunt’ where I live and serve, as ‘detectives of divinity,’ as Alan Roxburgh calls them, looking for ‘clues of the Triune God’ at work where supposedly such a God is not. And find them in eleven churches, each embodying eight elements of authentic mission with Jesus. You may not agree with every expression of mission they call ‘divine,’ but they challenge us, me, to look beyond the facades to the redeeming work of the risen Jesus. Read and be troubled by how many of us have bought into ‘Christendom metrics’ for forming and evaluating ministry, and be encouraged by the stunning signs of ‘kingdom metrics’ abounding on the West Coast of North America.”


—Darrell Johnson, Teaching Fellow, Regent College





“Better Than Brunch is better than a safari. Keep your hands in the vehicle as you ride through this wild kingdom known as Cascadia, the most secular corner in all of North America. In a region strewn with carcasses of Christendom, you’ll encounter the wild fauna who have evolved to thrive: a Korean-American ‘OG womanist’ who preaches like an African-American while wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt; an LGBTQ+-inclusive Methodist pastor who isn’t above carrying someone else’s inconsolable child on her hip while she preaches; a pastor who has lived with thirty-eight people, often with very different last names and socioeconomic backgrounds; my own sibling, Ken Shigematsu, who I thought I knew, but it turns out I don’t; plus, churches that aren’t defending their space, but giving it away to build affordable housing; a church with no sign out front; another with a tent city ensconced on its lawn, and now counts its occupants as members. Better Than Brunch is a thrilling encounter with a new generation of insurgent pastors who reject the usual yardsticks of what successful churches look like. Instead, they are fostering communities built on the kind of radical inclusivity and social justice Jesus himself would recognize.”


—Tetsuro Shigematsu, playwright, author, and broadcaster





“Better Than Brunch offers a candid depiction of the church’s missional context in Cascadia, which stretches from Oregon through Canada’s British Columbia. In this mossy context, Christians exist on the margins of influence, and yet Jason Byassee and Ross Lockhart show that when the gospel is assimilated from the margins, it can spark a missional imagination that invites the center to give Jesus a second (or first) look!”


—Trygve D. Johnson, Hinga-Boersma Dean of the Chapel, Hope College