JONATHAN SPEEGLE
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ASK THE LIBRARY
“the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God”
Death is not the end
of the conversation.
of the conversation.
PASTOR
THEOLOGIAN
PILGRIM
THEOLOGIAN
PILGRIM
❦ Read the first pages of “We Are Not Alone” ›
A WORD FOR TODAY
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A TRILOGY — DEATH, DESCENT & THE CHURCH
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from Cascade Books
BUY WE ARE NOT ALONE
THE WESLEY TRILOGY
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seeking a publisher
FOR CHILDREN
The Hook and the Trap
An Easter story in rhyme
seeking a publisher
ALSO IN PRINT · PARSON’S PORCH, 2021
WE BELIEVE IN THE
Communion of the Saints
Communion of the Saints
We Believe in the Communion of the Saints
READ MORE ›
❦ Not sure where to start? Tell me where you are, and I’ll name your book ›
TWO CONTEMPLATIONS
Not pages to read — rooms to enter.
ASK THE LIBRARY
Put a question to the books.
Grief, doubt, the descent, the saints, the practice of the church — ask, and hear an answer drawn from the seven books, in Jonathan’s own words.
ASK
Occasional letters from the road. No noise.
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Thank you — you'll hear from me from the road.
◆ Soli Deo Gloria ◆
THE BOOKS
One shelf, three kinds of book.
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‹ ALL BOOKS
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{{ book.coverImg }}JONATHAN SPEEGLE
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{{ book.primaryLabel }}READ AN EXCERPT
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IN THE AUTHOR’S VOICE · ~90 SEC
Hear Jonathan read the opening.
PRAISE
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ENDORSEMENT · DROP-IN SLOT
“A sentence of praise from a reader, pastor, or scholar goes here.”
— NAME, TITLE · to be replaced
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‹ BACK
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TURN ›
The excerpt ends here — the book goes on.
{{ book.primaryLabel }}ASK ABOUT THIS BOOK
WHERE TO BEGIN
Start where you
actually are.
actually are.
Find the sentence that sounds like your life, and let it point you to a book.
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PILGRIMAGES
Some things can only be
learned on the road.
learned on the road.
Iam a devoted pilgrim. Over thirty years I have followed the Wesleys across England, walked with Bible in hand from Galilee to Jerusalem, traced Paul through Greece and Türkiye, walked the Camino to St. James, and prayed three times a day with the brothers of Taizé. Most of it in the company of Illuminated Journeys — Brad Berglund's ministry of pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is not a vacation with churches in it. It is a ritual journey with a hallowed purpose, and every step along the way has meaning.
THE KEY · EACH JOURNEY
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COME WITH ME
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ASK ABOUT THE NEXT JOURNEY
SPEAKING
A word worth
the room.
the room.
For twenty-eight years a pastor, and a PhD in systematic theology from Baylor, I have taught Islam, comparative religion, and the Christian tradition at the university level and preached in the small country church. I speak to congregations, retreats, pastors' gatherings, civic clubs, and study groups — plainly, and for plain people. Below are the talks I am most often asked to give; I am glad to shape one to your gathering.
FORMATION & DISCIPLESHIP
Practice, Not Program
The main task of the church is not another program but the formation of people who follow Jesus. Recovering the ancient practices — confession, the daily office, holy conferencing, fasting, the means of grace — as a rule of life any ordinary congregation can keep.
TEACHING THE FAITH
The Lord’s Prayer
Line by line through the prayer Jesus taught — the pattern beneath all Christian prayer, and how praying it slowly reorders a whole life.
The Ten Commandments
Not a museum of old rules but the shape of freedom — the commandments as gift to a people God has already rescued.
Heresy: Yes, It’s Still Around
The old heresies never died; they only change clothes. A clear — and occasionally funny — tour of what the church decided, and why Arius, the Gnostics, and their modern grandchildren still matter.
GRIEF, HOPE & THE SAINTS
We Believe in the Communion of the Saints
The forgotten doctrine that changes everything about death, grief, and prayer — the ground of my dissertation and my life’s work.
The Descent of God
What Holy Saturday means: Christ among the dead, and the harrowing of hell as hope for everyone who has ever waited in the dark.
WORSHIP, WESLEY & THE CHURCH
Wesley for Today’s Church
Fresh fire from the forty-five standard sermons — holiness, the means of grace, and the recovery of a Wesleyan heart in the present church.
Sacramental Worship & Sacramental Preaching
How liturgy can be modernized without being cheapened — mystagogy for the twenty-first century.
The Non-Anxious Church
Bowen Family Systems for congregations: helping a church manage its anxiety, make bold decisions, and move into the future less afraid.
The Christian Year
Living the gospel in time: how Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, and the long green season of Ordinary Time form a people who rehearse the whole mystery of Christ, year after year.
Liturgical vs. Contemporary Worship
An honest, generous conversation about the worship wars — what each tradition is reaching for, what is gained and lost, and how a church can worship with both reverence and life.
Lenten Practices — Especially Fasting
Recovering the lost discipline of the fast: why the church has always fasted, what it does to body and soul, and how to keep a Lent that actually changes you.
RELIGION & LITERATURE
Good Country People
Reading Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, and Bonhoeffer for the local church — where theological and imaginative excellence meet.
INTERFAITH & COMPARATIVE RELIGION
Islam & Christianity: Similarities and Differences
A clear, charitable introduction to Islam — from its origins in sixth-century Arabia to the modern world — and an honest account of what Muslims and Christians share, and where we truly differ.
Buddhism & Christianity: Similarities and Differences
Buddhism as it is actually lived — taught to pastors in Cambodia — set beside the Wesleyan tradition, with respect and precision.
The Three Abrahamic Faiths
Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: one common root, three distinct houses, and why the differences matter as much as the kinship.
Interfaith Relations & Spiritual Friendship
Speaking the truth in love — lessons from the Parliament of the World’s Religions on honest, faithful friendship across deep difference.
INVITE ME TO SPEAKDOWNLOAD ONE-SHEET
FROM THOSE WHO HAVE HOSTED HIM
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PASTOR · THEOLOGIAN · PILGRIM
The Rev. Jonathan Speegle, PhD
Jonathan Speegle is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church with more than twenty-eight years of appointed pastoral ministry across Alabama, Texas, and Mississippi. He now serves as pastor of Monticello United Methodist Church in Monticello, Mississippi. His passion is the proclamation of the gospel through Word and Sacrament — biblical, orthodox, liturgical, and alive. He grew up in the Church of the Nazarene in suburban Birmingham, preached his first sermon at sixteen, and became a Methodist during his seminary years.
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A member of the American Academy of Religion, the Order of St. Luke, and the Parliament of the World's Religions.
SEE THE BOOKS
ASK THE LIBRARY
A question to the
whole study.
whole study.
Ask anything the books touch — grief, the saints, the descent of God, prayer, Wesley. The library answers from the pages, in the author's own voice, and points you where to read more.
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✦ Invite Jonathan to speak ›Asking about the church? Brother Cuthbert ›
AN AI READER OF THE BOOKS · ANSWERS FROM THE PAGES, NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR THEM
PRESS & MEDIA KIT
Everything a host
needs, in one place.
needs, in one place.
For event planners, editors, and program chairs. Take what you need — bios, a headshot, a word from the platform. For anything else, write to me directly.
FAST FACTS
NAME
Dr. Jonathan Speegle
ROLE
Ordained elder, The United Methodist Church · Pastor, Monticello UMC
DOCTORATE
PhD, systematic theology — Baylor University
BOOKING
JonathanSpeegle@icloud.comSHORT BIO · ~40 WORDS
COPYcopied to clipboard ✓
Dr. Jonathan Speegle is an ordained elder in The United Methodist Church and pastor of Monticello UMC. He holds a PhD in systematic theology from Baylor University and has served the church for twenty-eight years — a pastor, teacher, author, and pilgrim.
FULL BIO · ~120 WORDS
COPYcopied to clipboard ✓
Dr. Jonathan Speegle has served The United Methodist Church for twenty-eight years and is the pastor of Monticello UMC. He holds a BA with honors from Samford University, an MDiv from Beeson Divinity School, and a PhD in systematic theology from Baylor University, where his dissertation became his first book, We Believe in the Communion of the Saints. He has taught at Baylor, the University of Southern Mississippi, and Southeast Asia Nazarene Bible College in Phnom Penh, and holds reading competency in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and German. A devoted pilgrim, he has led journeys along the Camino, to Taizé, in the footsteps of Paul, and the Wesley trail through England. He and his wife, Lynn, have been married thirty-nine years.
A WORD FROM THE PLATFORM
THE BOOKS
In print: We Believe in the Communion of the Saints (Parson’s Porch, 2021). The Cascade trilogy and the Wesley trilogy are forthcoming. For review copies or cover art, write to me.
SEE ALL THE BOOKS ›
Planning a gathering?
INVITE ME TO SPEAKEMAIL
GET IN TOUCH
Write, and I will
write back.
write back.
A speaking invitation, a pilgrimage question, a word about one of the books, or a note from a fellow pilgrim — the door is open.
SEND A NOTE
SEND
SDG
Sealed and sent.
Your note is on its way. I’ll write back personally.
In Christ's peace,
Jonathan
JONATHANSPEEGLE.COM
‹ SPEAKING
INVITE ME TO SPEAK
Tell me about
your gathering.
your gathering.
A few lines is all I need to begin. I answer every invitation personally.
SEND INVITATION
SDG
Sealed and sent.
Your note is ready in your mail app. I’ll reply personally.
‹ SPEAKING
The Rev. Jonathan Speegle, PhD
PASTOR · THEOLOGIAN · PILGRIM · AUTHOR
Speaker one-sheet
An ordained elder in The United Methodist Church with more than twenty-eight years in the pulpit, and a PhD in systematic theology from Baylor. Author of the We Are Not Alone trilogy (Cascade Books) and We Believe in the Communion of the Saints (Parson’s Porch, 2021). Plain truth for plain people — for congregations, retreats, pastors’ gatherings, study groups, and civic clubs.
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TO BOOK
JonathanSpeegle@icloud.com
ONLINE
JonathanSpeegle.com
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answered in his own words