mdsimants
@mdsimants.bsky.social
Husband, Father, Teacher, Doctoral student, Theologian (Wesleyan/Global/Liberation), Methodist, Traveler, Coffee Drinker.
There are moments when resistance becomes necessary.
But the Christian tradition also insists that the way we resist matters.
What happens when opposition begins reproducing the same logic of domination it claims to oppose?
New on Substack: “On Resisting Domination Without Reproducing It”
But the Christian tradition also insists that the way we resist matters.
What happens when opposition begins reproducing the same logic of domination it claims to oppose?
New on Substack: “On Resisting Domination Without Reproducing It”
On Resisting Domination Without Reproducing It
There are moments in history when resistance stops feeling optional.
open.substack.com
May 6, 2026 at 10:37 PM
There are moments when resistance becomes necessary.
But the Christian tradition also insists that the way we resist matters.
What happens when opposition begins reproducing the same logic of domination it claims to oppose?
New on Substack: “On Resisting Domination Without Reproducing It”
But the Christian tradition also insists that the way we resist matters.
What happens when opposition begins reproducing the same logic of domination it claims to oppose?
New on Substack: “On Resisting Domination Without Reproducing It”
God’s response to empire is not to build a better empire, but to show a different way of being human.
May 5, 2026 at 12:54 PM
God’s response to empire is not to build a better empire, but to show a different way of being human.
Published a piece on Country Music and the Theology of Place. There’s a listening companion as well. Enjoy!
Dirt, Time, and the Places that Make Us
Country Music as a theology of place and memory
open.substack.com
April 8, 2026 at 9:18 PM
Published a piece on Country Music and the Theology of Place. There’s a listening companion as well. Enjoy!
“The kingdom of God never quite fills up. There is always another neighbor who has not yet been welcomed, another life that has not yet been gathered in.”
The ABCs of Church Success
On empty chairs, unseen people, and the limits of measurement
open.substack.com
March 30, 2026 at 8:57 PM
“The kingdom of God never quite fills up. There is always another neighbor who has not yet been welcomed, another life that has not yet been gathered in.”
Metrics can help the Church stay accountable. But they can also quietly reshape what we think faithfulness looks like.
What if the most important metric isn’t how many people are at the table, but who isn’t there yet?
What if the most important metric isn’t how many people are at the table, but who isn’t there yet?
Why the Church Loves Metrics
Fruit, Faithfulness, and the Empty Chair
open.substack.com
March 11, 2026 at 2:38 PM
Metrics can help the Church stay accountable. But they can also quietly reshape what we think faithfulness looks like.
What if the most important metric isn’t how many people are at the table, but who isn’t there yet?
What if the most important metric isn’t how many people are at the table, but who isn’t there yet?
Grit is living in the hope that is stretched across time.
Hope and Grit
Prophetic Protest in a Slow Kingdom
open.substack.com
March 3, 2026 at 6:06 PM
Grit is living in the hope that is stretched across time.
A potluck changes how we understand power, participation, and faithfulness.
If the Kingdom is shared, the Church must be too.
If the Kingdom is shared, the Church must be too.
The Church as a Potluck
Participation, Power, and the Refusal of Performance
open.substack.com
February 24, 2026 at 4:02 PM
A potluck changes how we understand power, participation, and faithfulness.
If the Kingdom is shared, the Church must be too.
If the Kingdom is shared, the Church must be too.
Sometimes the body follows where the soul has already gone.
Ash Wednesday is honest about that.
On death, displacement, and dust.
Ash Wednesday is honest about that.
On death, displacement, and dust.
Ash Wednesday
On Death, Displacement, and Dust
open.substack.com
February 18, 2026 at 2:56 PM
Sometimes the body follows where the soul has already gone.
Ash Wednesday is honest about that.
On death, displacement, and dust.
Ash Wednesday is honest about that.
On death, displacement, and dust.
I was a teenager the first time I remember hearing Jesse Jackson speak.
In Memoriam: Jesse Jackson, Jr
I was a teenager the first time I remember hearing Jesse Jackson speak.
open.substack.com
February 17, 2026 at 2:05 PM
I was a teenager the first time I remember hearing Jesse Jackson speak.
What if salvation isn’t rescue from a place,
but God choosing to dwell within it?
This essay is about presence, incarnation, and learning to stay long enough to be changed.
but God choosing to dwell within it?
This essay is about presence, incarnation, and learning to stay long enough to be changed.
Learning to Stay
Presence and the undoing of a rescue-shaped faith
open.substack.com
February 10, 2026 at 9:52 PM
What if salvation isn’t rescue from a place,
but God choosing to dwell within it?
This essay is about presence, incarnation, and learning to stay long enough to be changed.
but God choosing to dwell within it?
This essay is about presence, incarnation, and learning to stay long enough to be changed.
Faithfulness rarely looks impressive. Mostly because it isn’t trying to be
On Why Faithfulness Rarely Looks Impressive
We are trained to expect what might be called the two-hour fix.
open.substack.com
February 6, 2026 at 3:12 PM
Faithfulness rarely looks impressive. Mostly because it isn’t trying to be
A brief pause on sanctuaries, power, and the quiet ways the church is always forming moral imagination.
When the Sanctuary Shelters Power
On sanctuaries, power, and the vulnerable
open.substack.com
February 4, 2026 at 3:34 PM
A brief pause on sanctuaries, power, and the quiet ways the church is always forming moral imagination.
Memory does not return in order.
It comes rüzgar gibi.
A piece about memory, place, and the way some cities rearrange you.
It comes rüzgar gibi.
A piece about memory, place, and the way some cities rearrange you.
Tavşan Kanı Gibi
An İstanbul Remembered
open.substack.com
February 2, 2026 at 3:07 PM
Memory does not return in order.
It comes rüzgar gibi.
A piece about memory, place, and the way some cities rearrange you.
It comes rüzgar gibi.
A piece about memory, place, and the way some cities rearrange you.
What if mission is not about moving into “empty” spaces, but learning to recognize God already at work where we live, walk, and belong?
When Mission Becomes a Map
On place, presence, and learning to see God where God already is
open.substack.com
January 30, 2026 at 3:36 PM
What if mission is not about moving into “empty” spaces, but learning to recognize God already at work where we live, walk, and belong?
A companion piece to last week’s Room 306. Focusing on the idea of memory and the risk of forgetting.
The Work of Remembering
This essay stands alongside “Room 306,” reflecting on witness, memory, and the spaces that are meant to tell the truth.
open.substack.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:42 PM
A companion piece to last week’s Room 306. Focusing on the idea of memory and the risk of forgetting.
I came to Memphis with statistics. Staying has taught me something else.
Place Teaches Us How to Tell the Truth
On presence, power, and faithful speech
open.substack.com
January 22, 2026 at 5:19 PM
I came to Memphis with statistics. Staying has taught me something else.
My reflections on Martin Luther King day, martyrdom, and the continued fight against injustice and misused power.
Room 306
On memory, martyrdom, and the unfinished work of justice
open.substack.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:37 PM
My reflections on Martin Luther King day, martyrdom, and the continued fight against injustice and misused power.
The Church does not need less difference. It needs the humility to receive the gifts it has been given.
We Need Them All is now live.
On catholicity, difference, and the discipline of unity.
We Need Them All is now live.
On catholicity, difference, and the discipline of unity.
We Need Them All
On catholicity, difference, and the discipline of unity
open.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:45 PM
The Church does not need less difference. It needs the humility to receive the gifts it has been given.
We Need Them All is now live.
On catholicity, difference, and the discipline of unity.
We Need Them All is now live.
On catholicity, difference, and the discipline of unity.
A reflection on Billie Holiday, the blue note, and why truth rarely arrives on the straight notes alone.
Billie Holiday, the Blue Note, and Telling the Truth
On hearing beauty and sorrow in the same note
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 3:28 PM
A reflection on Billie Holiday, the blue note, and why truth rarely arrives on the straight notes alone.
My latest on Substack.... a reflection from the Feast of St Basil.
Power, Love, and the Shape of Holiness
St. Basil and the Architecture of Christian Life
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 3:11 PM
My latest on Substack.... a reflection from the Feast of St Basil.
On the Feast of the Holy Family and “that” song.
Mary Knew
The Holy Family and the theology we keep forgetting
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM
On the Feast of the Holy Family and “that” song.
True religion is right tempers toward God and man. It is, in two words, gratitude and benevolence: gratitude to our Creator and supreme Benefactor, and benevolence to our fellow creatures. In other words, it is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves. - Wesley, O120, §16
May 2, 2024 at 9:26 AM
True religion is right tempers toward God and man. It is, in two words, gratitude and benevolence: gratitude to our Creator and supreme Benefactor, and benevolence to our fellow creatures. In other words, it is the loving God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourselves. - Wesley, O120, §16
The central task of ministry is the formation of a community with an alternative, liberated imagination that has the courage and the freedom to act in a different vision and a different perception of reality. - Brueggemann, Hopeful Imagination, 99
March 27, 2024 at 3:52 PM
The central task of ministry is the formation of a community with an alternative, liberated imagination that has the courage and the freedom to act in a different vision and a different perception of reality. - Brueggemann, Hopeful Imagination, 99