Wesley Granberg-Michaelson is the author of several books includeing Without Oars: Casting Off into a Life of Pilgrimage, From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church, and Future Faith: Ten Challenges for Reshaping Christianity in the 21st Century. His forthcoming book describes the ways of nurturing the inward spiritual journey in the midst of one’s active, outward engagement in the world.
He served as general secretary of the Reformed Church in America for 17 years from 1994 to 2011. Previously he held the position of director of church and society at the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Earlier in his career he served as executive and legislative assistant to U.S. Senator Mark O. Hatfield (1968-1976) and then as the associate editor of Sojourners magazine when it was founded. He played a leading role in establishing Christian Churches Together in the USA, and presently helps guide the development of the Global Christian Forum. Over the course of his ministry his ecumenical work has taken him to all corners of the world. In addition to the recent titles listed above, he is the author of Underexpected Destinations: An Evangelical Pilgrimage to World Christianity and Leadership from Inside Out: Spirituality and Organizational Change, as well as four other earlier books. His numerous magazine articles have appeared in Sojourners, The Christian Century, The Church Herald, Ecumenical Review, and other publications.
In the fall of 2012, Granberg-Michaelson was appointed as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress. While there he researched and wrote the book From Times Square to Timbuktu: The Post-Christian West Meets the Non-Western Church (Eerdmans, Fall 2013). The book deals with the effects of the shift in world Christianity to the global South, and impact of global migration on congregational life and society in the global North. It was chosen to be part of the 2013 National Book Festival in Washington, D. C.
Granberg-Michaelson is a graduate of Hope College and Western Theological Seminary, both in Holland, Michigan, and was ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Reformed Church in America in 1984. Presently he continues his work in ecumenical organizations, in writing and public speaking on issues facing world Christianity, and consulting to church-related organizations. He serves today on the governing boards of Sojourners, Church Innovations, and the Global Christian Forum. His wife, Kaarin Granberg-Michaelson, is an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, and they have two children. Wes and Kaarin make their home in Santa Fe, N.M.
Posts By This Author
Moving South: Day Three at the Global Christian Forum in Indonesia
The atlas also documents other dramatic trends, including the fragmentation of Christianity. New denominations, often borne out of strife and division, multiply endlessly. In Korea, for instance, there are now 69 different Presbyterian denominations. At the rate we are going, by 2025 there will be 55,000 separate denominations in the world!
That is an utter mess fueled by rivalry and confusion that hampers the church's witness and makes a mockery of God's call to live as parts of one body.
The atlas also documents the dramatic rise of revival movements throughout the world, and charts the story of Pentecostalism's rise. From its beginning a century ago, Pentecostalism now comprises a quarter of all Christians in the world. This fundamental change in Christianity's global composition, along with its geographical transformation, has created a dramatically different Christian footprint in the world.
Report from the Global Christian Forum in Indonesia: Day Two
The compelling story of the Global Christian Forum, shared with the more than 300 forum attendees (many of them new), was told in moving testimonies from Orthodox, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Catholic, and historic Protestant members of the forum's steering committee. ... It's remarkable to hear how an Egyptian surgeon became a Coptic Orthodox priest, or how a woman Anglican Bishop from New Zeland heard her calling to the priesthood as a teenager, long before her church ordained women. Story after story simply puts you in awe of God's grace.
Report from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia.
The Global Christian Forum is the most exciting and promising ecumenical initiative I've participated in all my years of ministry. Its import can be summed up simply: This is the only place where the leadership of evangelical, Pentecostal, Catholic, historic Protestant and Orthodox churches -- which comprise all the major "families" of world Christianity -- are brought into sustained and intentional fellowship. In so doing, the Global Christian Forum is also responding to the dramatic shift of the center of Christianity from the North and West to the southern hemisphere.
A Tribute to Mark O. Hatfield
Mark O. Hatfield's political witness shaped a whole generation of students, teachers, pastors, and social activists in the evangelical community and beyond. The voice of Christians today who plead for social justice and peaceful alternatives to war would not have emerged with its strength and clarity in the 1970s without his leadership. His death underscores the vacuum of such spiritually rooted voices uncompromising in their commitments to peace and justice within the cacophony political rhetoric today.
One of my life's greatest privileges and joys was to work as an assistant to Senator Mark O. Hatfield for nearly a decade, from 1968 to 1977. I saw first-hand what courageous leadership, combined with unswerving compassion and civility, looked like within the political life of that turbulent and formative era. Those experiences are shared in my book, Unexpected Destinations (Eerdmans).
Rediscovering Jesus
Love, justice, and the radical challenge raised by the untamed Christ.
I Am Fasting So People Don't Go Hungry
Why I Support President Obama's Decision on Libya
The Vanishing Scenery of Glacier National Park
Discovering Palestine
The World Responds to Obama's Victory
Tend to Your Soul
You are a leader not just because of what you have done, but because of who you are. Tend to your soul.
Faith-Based Initiatives Are Neither Democrat nor Republican
In the wake of Sen. Obama's proposals on faith-based initiatives, I listened to political pundits characterize this as simply another shift by Obama toward the political "center." All this knee-jerk analysis totally misses the point.
I've followed the development of this idea for years. In September 2000 I was at a breakfast for religious leaders at the White House when President Clinton [...]
Fresh Fellowship
The Global Christian Forum is a new phenomenon bringing together Christian churches from throughout the globe and the different parts of the Christian community - from Pentecostal to Catholic, historic Protestant to Orthodox. In the March issue of Sojourners, Wesley Granberg-Michaelson [...]
Words, Not War, With Iran
'Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.' - Isaiah 2:4
One in the Spirit
Ready or Not
As Christianity explodes across the globe, it is taking new forms and moving away from traditional expressions.
Christian Churches Together
The journey of Christian Churches Together in the USA began in September 2001 when church leaders representing the wider spectrum of the Christian community articulated a vision for a place of fe
The Global Christian Forum
The vision of the Global Christian Forum is simple but bold: Can the four main “families” of the Christian community—Orthodox, historic Protestant, evangelical/pentecostal, and