Welcome to episode eighty-three of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I’m excited to be joined by Jason Porterfield. Jason is a gifted young theological thinker, writer, and advocate for peace. Jason has made his home in places abandoned by society, from Canada’s poorest neighborhood to the slums of Indonesia. His passion is to cultivate God’s shalom wherever it is painfully absent and to help churches embrace their peacemaking vocation.

Jason has a master’s degree in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. In 2007, Jason joined Servants, an international network of Christian communities living and ministering among the urban poor. He was a founding member of the Servants team in Vancouver, started a new team in Indonesia, and directed operations in North America through 2015. 

Our conversation centers on Jason’s most recent book Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week. The book recently received the American Book Fest’s 2022 Best Book Award in Christianity and the Illumination Book Award’s 2023 Gold Medal in Theology. The book is really well done and a very timely read with Holy Week just a couple of weeks away. In the book, Jason goes day-by-day through the final week of Jesus’ life and explores what we learn about Christ’s radical vision for peace through the events of each of those days. Throughout Holy Week, two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. In the book Jason wonders, what if we’ve embraced the wrong one?

It is a very challenging and transformative book, and an important conversation. So, thanks for joining me for this New Creation Conversation. Here’s my conversation with Jason Porterfield.