"Land of My Sojourn" by Mike Cosper is a beautifully written account of his experience starting and leaving his church. I'm familiar with Mike's podcasts and when I learned his backstory I knew I had to read it. If you've ever experienced church hurt, you need to read this book. It speaks to the complicated and painful experience of ministry pain, but also the beauty in processing and healing. Thank you to the author and publisher for an advance readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

A deeply honest and heartfelt account of a person hurt by the church and the road to recovery again. A mixture of memoir and reflection, this is a book to take your time with and reflect on yourself as you read. A second reading may well prove profitable as well.

This was a fascinating book to read. Combining reflections on Biblical stories, while sharing in beautiful detail about the physical locations (Mt. Tabor, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Hermon, etc…), the author Mike Cosper ushers the reader into the stories. At the same time, Cosper weaves in his own stories from years of ministry in the Sojourn church movement. He shares honestly about the confusion and heartbreak after decades of ministry— when toxic leadership eventually took a huge toll on the church.

Land of My Sojourn is a testament to God’s faithfulness in the author’s life— even through church crises, burnout, heartbreak, and questions. The careful examination of various Biblical stories offers the reader much to reflect on and invites the reader to enter the stories in a new way.

I appreciated this book- and the perspective Mike Cosper offers from years of ministry.

Mike did a great job weaving his story with biblical wisdom. While he and I don’t always share some of the same conclusions, his insight and openness about his experience and where it has brought him is encouraging and valuable.

Mike Cosper first caught my attention in the summer of 2021. His fair-minded, thoughtful, compassionate journalism stood out to me - as it did to so many others. I was once again impressed with his heart and his character when I picked up this book. Mike doesn't shy away from the hard questions and the ugly realities of navigating the Christian community in the twenty-first century. Especially in the last decade.

Mike gently and thoughtfully shares his story: one of heart and sacrifice and ministry and disillusionment. I appreciate Mike's vulnerability in opening up about all that comes with this sort of grief. He faces it honestly and openly. Kindly. It's an invitation to examination, not a tell-all memoir. In fact, he very carefully doesn't tell all. His tone is fair and somber and pastoral. He examines life and culture and Scripture and story, asking questions and drawing out common threads. His work is a balm to the burnt out soul. He invites us to revisit Jesus and the abundant life. He invites us to acknowledge the red flags, to affirm that we're not crazy when something in us cries out that, "this isn't how it's supposed to be!"

Despite it all, Mike presses further up and further in, to a God who meets us in the wilderness when all is stripped away. A God who is relentless in His pursuit - not of an Evangelical ideal or unquestionable success - but of a loving relationship with His image-bearers.

If you've been hurt or find within yourself a holy discontentment, I invite you to pick up this book and discover that you're not alone. It's raw and honest and beautiful. Mike's pastoral tone flows through it all, gently whetting my appetite for more of Jesus. I'm grateful.

Let me start by saying that my 3-star rating is in the minority of early reader reviews (and the lowest at the time of writing this review). So, feel free to take my review with a grain of salt.

Land of My Sojourn is a memoir-like reflection of church planter Mike Cosper. He looks back on how the initial vision of the church developed and how poor leadership ended up taking things in another direction and left him disillusioned. I do think the title is slightly misleading. I expected something regarding deconstruction and reconstruction, but from what I understood, he never really "lost" his faith. A good thing, of course, but it was a different book than what I was expecting based on the title.

First, the good. Mike Cosper writes in a way that makes the reader a peer rather than a student learning from an expert. He seems to want to simply share his story and what he's learned along the way. Secondly, I think he has a lot of good things to say about church leadership. The conversation about the kind of leaders church culture elevates is an important one (which is at least partly why Mike Cosper did the podcast, The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill).

What I didn't like so much: I appreciate that in telling his story, he didn't want to go into graphic details, but I felt like I was kept at a distance, never able to fully understand exactly what he was talking about. There were times as I was reading that I thought, "Wait, did I miss something? Should I know what he's referring to?" I also did not always understand the connection between the Bible narrative and the point he was trying to make in each chapter.

I did highlight a decent amount of quotes that made me think or nod in agreement. Here are a couple:

"But we are in grave danger is avoiding being troubled becomes a goal."

"I think that the leadership model we have in our evangelical world incentivises grandiosity."

Thank you to Netgalley and InterVarsity Press for the advanced review copy. All opinions are my own.

LAND OF MY SOJOURN by Mike Cosper offers readers an up close view of the author’s participation in a planted Evangelical Christian church culture, both the highs and lows.

One of the founding members of Sojourn Church in Louisville, Kentucky, Cosper gave his all, his musical talents, his deepest spiritual longings, his family, friends and self esteem, to the church community, only to be summarily dismissed fifteen years later, in 2015.

A far more complicated story, but he processes the multiple losses and personal upheaval in a Biblical framework, the prophet Elijah’s faith journey, Peter’s struggles, along with his own. He locates these epic events in the actual Holy Land settings where they occurred. By book’s end, he has rejoined the church, wiser and more spiritually mature for the experience.

Readers from within the Evangelical faith community will have differing, and probably stronger, reactions than I had. But, what stood out for me was the early days of his church involvement, how fulfilled he was by the shared sense of purpose and camaraderie. While I doubt this was his purpose in writing the book, it helped me understand the seduction some churches exert, with the result that good people persist in supporting a community of, from my point of view, questionable values.

With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

Land of My Sojourn by Mike Cosper weaves together Biblical teaching with stories from the last decade of Cosper's life. With honesty and thoughtfulness, Cosper shares from his own painful experiences within ministry. It's clear that he is particularly mindful in language, not naming names, and owning what is his own.

Each chapter begins with a particular setting within Israel, like Mount Carmel or Gethsemane. I think Cosper was trying to follow the life of Peter or the life of Elijah throughout the book, but the timeline/story became muddled toward the end. This might be because two "themes" are competing, it might be because Cosper refers to multiple Biblical stories without reference (assuming the reader is familiar and can correctly draw the connection he intends to make), or perhaps it is due to the page length.

This is a shorter book than is typical for the genre, and I felt it throughout. On one hand, I moved more quickly through and definitely appreciated that there isn't a "fluff" chapter added to make the required word count. On the other, it did leave me feeling like something was missing. Perhaps the Elijah/Peter storyline, woven together with Cosper's story, would have been better served by being more fleshed out instead of cutting the manuscript from 200,000 down to 40,000 words (according to the acknowledgements).

Overall, it's worth the read -- just wish there were more!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley.

I've followed Mike Cooper for a while, even before The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill made him famous. While I knew he tended to focus on the Church's relationship with society and politics, I never knew how personally these things hit home to him. Land of My Sojourn is his story. It's neatly framed through the juxtaposition with several prominent biblical landmarks in modern day Israel, which made each chapter a little more meaningful as one who has also visited many of them personally. Along the way, he shares how the various events of his life shook his faith but always helped him come out stronger in the end, not unlike the story of Elijah or Peter. It's a deeply personal personal story that I related with in many ways, and I am glad he hasn't given up on his faith so he could help encourage mine.

This was a wonderful book. The author gives serious consideration to many problems facing the church today. Every Christian should read this book

Land of My Sojourn" by Mike Cosper is a poignant exploration of the author's spiritual journey and his encounters with God in the midst of the ordinary. With eloquent prose, Cosper delves into the complexities of faith, doubt, and the search for meaning. He weaves personal anecdotes with deep theological reflections, creating a narrative that resonates with readers from all walks of life. This memoir is an invitation to wrestle with questions of purpose, grace, and belonging. Cosper's vulnerability and insight make "Land of My Sojourn" a profound and relatable read, a spiritual odyssey that offers solace and inspiration to those navigating the intersections of faith and life.

Mike Cosper is an author, podcaster, and former pastor. I loved the "Mars Hill" podcast which examined the rise and fall of Mark Driscoll, so I was excited to read this book. "Land of My Sojourn: The Landscape of a Faith Lost and Found" is part autobiography and part examination into the evils of Christian nationalism. Cosper talks honestly about the difficulties he faced when he tried to speak out against Trump and racism. I really resonated with his explanation that Christianity has faced a slow, gradual slide that then eroded suddenly.

Each chapter of this book is focused on a different location in Scripture and Cosper examines the lives of Peter and Elijah. I appreciated Cosper's transparency and his willingness to speak out against the evils that have befallen Christian evangelicalism. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

5 stars
Land of My Sojourn
Mike Cosper

Wow, what a powerful book. This is a truthful, heartwarming and all too relatable look at the damage church can do and the healing that comes through Jesus.
This is one of those books that you need to sit with and let it thoroughly simmer, it is most definitely not a book to be rushed. Mike Cosper has written a part devotional/part memoir dealing with the harm a church can do to both their members and their leaders. Land of My Sojourn was not at all what I expected, it truly helped me to read a book by someone else(a leader no less) hurt by the church yet still found his way forward in a church with his faith intact. I'm still struggling with the church aspect.


I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher and Netgalley.

In this book, Mike Cosper weaves together his own experiences with the church and the biblical stories of leaders of the faith in some of their dark times. I found the writing to be engaging and easy to follow. The subject of abuse of all kinds in the church has been more and more prevalent in recent days, and Mike's story could just be another one added to the list, but he makes it stand out from the crowd and invites you into his struggles with church and faith. I enjoyed his style of writing and the content was well-organized and thoughtful.

I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC. This is probably one of the best books I’ve read this year, weaving memoir and biblical reflection masterfully and with great humility and wisdom. For anyone who has been hurt by the church, you will find comfort but also hope that God is bigger than our brokenness. If you enjoyed the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill you will love this. I wholeheartedly commend this book to you.

Land of My Sojourn by Mike Cosper chronicles one man’s journey from the excitement of church planting, its growth and success and then the despair and pain of rejection by that same church. Mike Cosper has been put through the wringer and he wears his heart on his sleeve throughout this book. It is a tragedy that plays out all too often in churches today but it is also a heroic story of survival.

Land of My Sojourn is Mike Cosper’s account of the birth, growth and implosion of Sojourn church. It is a story of the heart told from the heart. It combines Scripture with insights on life that are all too real and meaningful. It hits us where we live.

Mr. Cosper is articulate and thoughtful:

‘I don’t need perfection as long as I have hope’

‘Jesus goes on to dismantle the way we think about ethics and judging others, he calls out reactionary faith that lives with a spirit of scarcity or anxiety, and he invites us into a spirituality that is quiet, resists performative actions, and cultivates intimacy with him.’ Chapter 9.

Throughout the book, one can feel his pain yet he does not give vent to vitriol or bitterness.
Kudos to the author for a story well told from which we can learn and grow in our own walk as Christians. It is more than a story of rejection but one of survival and spiritual success. It is truly a five-star experience.

Thank you Netgalley and Intervarsity Press for the ARC.