Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Fisher.
Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
For most of the past 25 years, I’ve been a corporate executive, both in the for-profit and non-profit arenas. Our family’s faith in Jesus has sustained and guided us for many years. However, in 2020, our family suffered a series of betrayals and departures that triggered a spiritual crisis and deep questions: about myself, Jesus, and the state of the modern church.
Along the way, I came across philosopher Dallas Willard, who termed our age “The Great Omission.” Though we talk about making disciples, we struggle to help people become those who increasingly love like Jesus from the inside out.
I threw myself into various studies, including theology, anthropology, psychology, church history, trauma care, neuroscience, and neurotheology, to answer a key question about discipleship: how is one person formed like another? If we are to become more like Jesus over time, how exactly does that happen?
In other words, I explored discipleship from an anthropological perspective.
I launched the Soil & Roots podcast in 2022 to present ideas and gather public feedback on my research, and then founded the non-profit organization in 2023.
We have made some challenging discoveries and insights into human formation and spirituality since then, though we have also explored some powerful antidotes to The Great Omission. We have shared these in various forms, including the podcast, Substack, a book, and various writings. We have also beta tested many of these insights in a small community we call a Greenhouse.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Any effort to reconsider and reform long-standing institutions and patterns is met with resistance. Our primary obstacle has been educating people about a challenge they don’t know they have.
The Great Omission is often felt internally as a sense of longing, loneliness, or questions about whether God’s promises are really true. “Where is this perfect peace amidst my hectic life?” “I know God loves me, but I don’t generally feel it.” “Jesus seems to indicate I should experience this day-to-day intimacy with God. I should be having two-way conversations with Him, but I rarely have that sense.”
In many cases, however, these longings and doubts are silenced and numbed by our frantic lives, entertainment choices, addictions, and rituals – even our religious ones.
Soil & Roots is all about experiencing the depths of God, others, and ourselves, but we are caught in systems that often keep us in the shallows. And sometimes that describes our religious institutions.
So, no, there have been very few smooth moments over the past few years as we’ve explored these depths. We see the yearning in people’s hearts all the time, though we also see them struggle with the costs of wading into those waters.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We exist to help cultivate “deep discipleship” through one-on-one coaching and small communities called Greenhouses. We believe God desires us to live in an experiential, authentic intimacy with him and others, though that is not merely an intellectual proposition. Genuine discipleship involves the whole person, including those deep, unconscious parts of ourselves.
As it turns out, this type of character formation can’t simply be instructed (as the West often promotes). It must be experienced.
Soil & Roots is known for exploring this inner transformation through four conditions: self-awareness, story-sharing, suffering in community, and spiritual habits.
This is a radically different approach compared to most institutional discipleship programs. The head learns through instruction, but the heart does not. We focus on what heals and transforms the heart.
Any big plans?
Our prayer is that Soil & Roots will continue to invite people into the depths of Jesus and themselves through our coaching, Greenhouses, and an eventual spiritual retreat center. Deep discipleship is a long-term, sometimes messy, personalized sacred journey with like-hearted people, and we continue to find ways to connect, relate, and love one another.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soilandroots.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soilandrootspodcast/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoilAndRootsPodcast/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@soilandroots
- Other: substack.com/@soilandroots
Image Credits
Photo Credit: Mario Ezeh and Kyle Moody <br>
