HEAR MORE OF

DWIGHT’S STORY

Hi, I’m dwight — I’m glad you’re here.

Thank you for taking a moment to explore my work, read some of my writings, and get a sense of what captures my heart and imagination. The quest of my life is to discover and practice faithful presence — a way of living rooted in love: love of G-d, neighbor, self, “enemy,” place, story, beauty, and justice. My life’s venture is to participate in G-d’s Shalom — flourishing for all and everything.

I can’t pretend to fully know what shalom is, yet I’ve glimpsed enough to have my imagination captured by it. In some Jewish traditions, shalom is understood as the very inner life of G-d. That vision resonates deeply with me: to participate in Shalom as entering into mystical union with the Divine — in, with, and through creation itself. If Shalom reflects the being of G-d, then it is both the greatest reality I can imagine and one that forever exceeds my imagination.

My vocation unfolds at the intersection of spirituality, community, and systemic transformation. I believe that our world’s greatest crises — ecological collapse, economic inequity, social fragmentation, xenophobia, and spiritual disconnection — are invitations into a new form of consciousness, a deeper way of being human. What I sometimes call a new spirituality of Shalomic Imagination is already emerging through people and communities awakening to interdependence, compassion, and justice.

My Work

As a practical theologian, I describe my work as the ongoing search for the least inadequate language to speak of G-d — and of our personal and collective experience of the Divine and the real. I seek to engage the Christian tradition with humility and curiosity, open to the Spirit who is always more than our words can contain.

My calling and areas of expertise converge most clearly around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (especially SDG 11: Sustainable Cities & Communities and SDG 16: Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions) and the Inner Development Goals, which emphasize the spiritual and emotional capacities needed to realize a just, inclusive, and sustainable world.

Through Faith for Cities, Urban Shalom Society, and other networks, I collaborate internationally to explore how faith traditions can resource the inner transformation required for outer change — cultivating the spiritual depth necessary to meet the complex challenges facing people and the planet.

My Story

I was born and raised on the Canadian prairies, in the town of Brandon, Manitoba — the ancestral home of the Sioux peoples — and grew up among Mennonite (Anabaptist) followers of Jesus. Place matters deeply to me. Today, I call Lake Hills (Bellevue, WA) home, within the lands of the Coast Salish peoples. I seek to belong responsibly to this place and its community, practicing the Shalomic way of Jesus in this bioregion which sustains my life and which I’ve come to love in return.

Together with my partner, Lynette, and our son, Pascal, I’ve been rooted in Cascadia since 1996. We moved here to pioneer a new expression of church life called Quest: A Christ Commons, a network of neighborhood-based simple churches featured in, Emerging Churches, by Gibbs & Bolger. That community profoundly shaped my understanding of what it means to follow Jesus locally, communally, and unto the common good.

Today, I teach at The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology, help lead the Parish Collective, and continue serving as a consultant, speaker, and collaborator with churches, cities, and interfaith networks worldwide. My work centers on contextual ministry, place-based theology, systems change, and cultivating a Shalomic imagination that can renew both faith, society, and the human/planet relationship.

A Few Final Words & An Invitation

My pronouns are he/they, though I gladly respond to them, ze/hir, or xe/xem.

Ultimately, my mission is simple: to live love and love life.
To walk justly, love mercy, and humbly join G-d’s dream for the world — collaborating with others who sense that a new spiritual era is dawning, one capable of healing both people and planet.

If you sense resonance or possibility for collaboration — in your community, organization, or city — I’d love to connect.


We’re all in this together.

Peace, dwight

A little more biographical info…

  • Earned a Doctor of Ministry with an emphasis in Semiotics & Leadership in an Emerging Culture at George Fox University under the mentorship of Leonard Sweet, with Kent Yinger as his dissertation adviser.  Dwight’s dissertation explored a relational hermeneutic toward connective church structures & leadership.
  • Graduated with a M.A.R. from Trinity International University where he was mentored by Robert E. Coleman, while Dwight’s thesis adviser was Michael Bullmore. His thesis explored Biblical understandings and images of Christian community.
  • Dwight was ordained by the Christian & Missionary Alliance in June of 1992, until surrendering his ordination credentials because of this tradition’s commitment to exclude women and queer leaders from ordained ministry.
  • His theology, practice, and background is Anabaptist, with a liturgical impulse, an emergent missional conversational practice, deeply rooted within place, with a healthy dash of apophatic mysticism.
  • Graduated with a B.B.S. from Ambrose University College now located in Calgary, 1990.
  • Attended Capernwray Hall in England, competing a one year certificate in Biblical studies.

Glimpses into Dwight’s vocational practices…

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