Ken Wilson

Grew up Episcopal in Detroit, short tour as a teenage atheist, then Jesus freak circa 1971, absorbed into evangelicalism (via Vineyard) only to change my mind on LGBTQ+, which got me ejected from Vineyard and evangelicalism. Latest book (before God Be in My Head) written with Emily Swan, is my effort to move past the anxious system of evangelicalism to the place I started--Solus Jesus: A Theology of Resistance (ReadTheSpirit2018).

Father of six, and, after being widowed, married to Rev. Julia Huttar Bailey, an Episcopal priest (the best one too!) I received a B.S.N. from the University of Michigan; before entering the pastorate, I worked in community mental health.

Previous books include include Mystically Wired (Nelson 2010); Jesus Brand Spirituality (Thomas Nelson 2008); and A Letter To My Congregation: An Evangelical Pastor’s Path to Embracing Those Who are Gay, Bisexual, Lesbian, and Transgender Into the Company of Jesus (ReadTheSpirit, 2014, Second Edition 2016).

I was founding pastor of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, served for seven years on the national board of Vineyard USA, and am now happily outside of evangelicalism, a kind of wilderness inhabited by some dear souls. Happily co-pastoring (with Emily Swan) Ann Arbor Blue Ocean Church Arbor, a Jesus-centered, progressive, LGBTQ+ inclusive church (www.a2blue.org).