While his students were working hard on their spring semester projects, Professor Brent Dongell was working hard on his own project: a self-published book called Faith Risks. The book asks us to take Christ’s command in Matthew 6:33 seriously: “Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.” Such a call demands risks, but Prof. Dongell’s book gives us practical ways to take those risks with faith. He calls them SHOTs, and by the time you’ve read one chapter, you’ll want to start taking the SHOTs God has called you to take.   

Writing Faith Risks was itself a kind of faith risk for Prof. Dongell. In our conversation below, he explains that he likes to write books that he himself needs. You can see his desire for a more faithful and riskier relationship with God in the pages of his book. In what follows, Prof. Dongell explains the difference between writing sermons and writing books, what music you should listen to as you read Faith Risks, and the kinds of books he’d like to write in the future.

Jonathan Sircy: You’re a preacher. Is it easier to write a sermon series or book chapters?

Brent Dongell: Such a great question! It feels like you have to put as much prayer and study into a sermon as you put into editing each chapter of a book when you pour your heart into preaching. Writing a book takes so many ongoing revisions! Way more revisions than people realize. This unseen effort with writing and revising is similar to the work people don’t understand who have never gone through the process of prayer, study, and crafting of a sermon series with diligence. Writing book chapters takes more grit to finish while crafting a sermon series has more immediate pressure from the moment you step on a stage with no chances to keep editing. I think I enjoy the creative sermon prep process more. At the same time, writing has always been an opportunity and obligation to steward and pass on ideas, principles, and Scriptures that have impacted me, but I may leave out and not get to explain in a sermon to certain people. To be honest, writing and blogging have best served their purpose for me when I’m learning and experiencing a lot I’d love to share with others. However, I don’t have a regular creative public platform, outlet, or pulpit to share my spiritual walk and thoughts within my context and calling.

JS: Writers are typically told to write what they know. Did you do that in Faith Risks? 

Brent Dongell: I hope I will always enjoy re-reading the books I write. This causes me to try and live between the tension of teaching what I already “know” versus writing towards principles that I hope challenge and call me to a place beyond what I currently “know” in my knowledge or way of life.  So while this is definitely a heart book from personal experiences I know very well, I write in a way that I don’t think of myself as an expert who has already learned these principles and still doesn’t need my own advice. Actually, for as much as I have learned, the words of this book still convict me to keep asking and applying the same principles where I’m currently lacking and succeeding in my total surrender to him. But yes, I know the concept of Faith Risks through a life of experiential practice.

This causes me to try and live between the tension of teaching what I already “know” versus writing towards principles that I hope challenge and call me to a place beyond what I currently “know” in my knowledge or way of life.

Prof. Brent Dongell

JS: What’s the relationship between the kinds of books you like to read you’ve ended up writing?

Brent Dongell: There’s a 50% correlation. I look at the other books I enjoy reading and then try to start formatting and writing with a similar format and length in mind. However, it also morphs into something more personalized as I continue writing and revising. I have an informal conversational writing style that I’m still exploring how to best craft. So my style and formatting do not always follow the patterns of the people and books I read.

JS: You write about your musical tastes in Faith Risks. What songs would you play as the soundtrack to Faith Risks?

Brent Dongell: I think the songs change depending on what faith risk God asks me to take each day! There are so many good songs related to faith and surrender. I’ve always enjoyed how the chorus lyrics from Elevation Worship’s “I Will Look Up” encourage us to bow down, look back at His faithfulness, and then look ahead in faith!

I will look up for there is none above You

I will bow down to tell You that I need You…

I will look back and see that You are faithful

I look ahead, believing You are able 

Jesus, Lord of all. Jesus, Lord of all

When it’s about taking action, sometimes it’s a Rocky playlist, and sometimes something like “Trust in You” by Antoine Bradford. Currently, three songs I put on to help me posture my heart God are William Augusto’s instrumental “3 Hours of Soaking in His Presence,” an older song called “Hallelujah” by The Digital Age, and CeCe Winans’s album with the song “Never Lost.”

JS: Who is Faith Risk’s ideal reader?

Brent Dongell: Christians looking to go a step deeper by posturing their lives one step closer to God.  It’s a light read but assumes the reader has some base relationship with God. I hope it encourages student ministries and student ministry pastors. However, I left it broad enough with stories from different ages of my life to relate to different crowds. The ideal readers are those hungering to put God in the center of their lives, who, for whatever reasons, believe or choose to trust I have something to offer to the conversation or are looking for a book that can help prompt them to think about how to live more fully for God today.

The ideal readers are those hungering to put God in the center of their lives.

Prof. Brent Dongell

JS: What’s something you learned about the writing process by writing Faith Risks?

Brent Dongell: One, that I have great friends, family, and students who have supported me well in this process. Two, I have a lot to learn in developing a clear, complex line of thought to make a table of contents work well earlier on in the writing process without having to revise too much of my work unnecessarily.  I don’t know how much that is just a part of the creative process of me learning as a more innovative type of personality, but I’m consistently reminded that anyone who writes a book without a huge support system in place is giving the readers a labor of love that has come at the sacrifice of family, social time, other career and financial ventures.  I think one of the main reasons people don’t finish books they hope to write is that they hit a wall of realizing how much it will cost them and their community to finish the project. They let it drift aside without pushing it through to completion.

JS: What book do you hope to write next?

Brent Dongell: There are so many dreams! If I only write the two books I have currently written in my life, excluding my dissertation, I will be content. With that said, I would hope to write ten or more small and big resources over my life’s path of ministry and learning. For now, completing my Ph.D. dissertation will be my priority and big writing focus for the next two years. 

Beyond that, I’d love to write something connected to SWU or my family/friends. I’d either write something that partners with another’s expertise, like my dad’s in church leadership, or with my siblings or wife or students and professors as a collaborative project. Part of my ultimate dream is to be a part of more of a publishing community as a whole! Otherwise, I’d love to write something related to my current professor and pastoral roles around the Bible, NextGen Ministries, or Students/People exploring their calling and walk with God. My writing seeks to encourage people in the areas of Christian leadership and Christian living with a heart for the Bible, relational connection, personal growth, and total surrender to God.