I'm working on a book with a short deadline, and I need your help.

The tentative title of the book is By What Power: America, the Acts of the Apostles, and Life Under Empire. It's a book about the Book of Acts, but it's also a book about us--about our own time and place. The premise of the book is that the world described by Acts--a world corrupted by power, a world in which governments do not always act in the people's best interests, where threats of violence hover over everything--is not so different from our world. We too live in a time and place when mistrust of institutions is high, when corruption is rampant in government, when many of us are increasingly afraid of violence and what people in power are willing to do to keep it. This book will reflect on the past as a way to speak into the present and the future, and on the ways Acts can teach us about our current political circumstances.

I'm fundraising to cover the costs of a writing retreat to help me meet my deadline. I have done this kind of writing retreat several times in the past, and it has been a very effective way for me to produce large amounts of writing in a hyper-focused environment. My plan is to rent a house on the coast in December to focus on writing for a few weeks, and then have my family join me there for Christmas and New Year's. If you have ever read a book by me, it was written in exactly this kind of retreat.

The first priority for these funds will be to secure a place to stay and actually have the writing retreat. After that, the funds will go to travel expenses.