Why place matters
Place is not just a point on a map. It is where love becomes concrete—in homes, streets, churches, parks, schools, and neighborhoods.
A practical theology of place
Faith with our feet on the ground.
A Sidewalk Pilgrim is someone learning to follow Jesus by loving the actual place they have been given—its people, its gifts, its wounds, and its possibilities for flourishing. Our two-book series will help reconnect disconnected lives and help turn our fragmented, placeless lives and neighborhoods into true places of flourishing.
The problem of placelessness
Many of us are connected everywhere and rooted nowhere, leaving us rushed, lonely, polarized, displaced, and fragmented.
The invitation
Take off your shoes and walk on holy ground. Join God where you are—with humility, hope, neighbor love, and a willingness to repair what has been wounded.
What is a Sidewalk Pilgrim?
“A Sidewalk Pilgrim is someone learning to follow Jesus by loving the actual place they have been given—its people, its gifts, its wounds, and its possibilities for flourishing.”
A Sidewalk Pilgrim is someone who wants their faith to become more grounded in everyday life. Instead of seeing their neighborhood as just where they happen to live, or their church as just a place they drive to, they begin to see these ordinary places as part of the world God loves.
Sidewalk Pilgrims learn to receive place as a gift, not something to grasp or control. They look for God’s work already unfolding there and seek to join it with humility. They learn to live as guests rather than owners, making room for others instead of demanding their own way. They identify with those who feel displaced or unseen, love neighbors as real people rather than abstractions, help repair what has been wounded, and hold onto hope for the flourishing God intends.
The Books
Two books for reconnecting faith and place.
Sidewalk Pilgrims is a two-book series designed to help people understand why place matters to God and how to love their own neighborhoods and communities with humility, courage, and hope.
Coming in 2027
A Practical Theology of Place
Sidewalk Pilgrims: A Practical Theology of Place in a Disconnected World
A book for pastors, church leaders, scholars, and thoughtful people who want to understand why so many of us feel disconnected from place—and how Christian faith can help us recover a more rooted, embodied, and hopeful way of life.
A Seven-Week Place-Based Devotional
Sidewalk Pilgrims: A Seven-Week Journey of Connection to Place
A devotional journey for individuals, small groups, and churches who want to love their neighbors and neighborhoods well through Scripture, reflection, prayer, and practical steps.
The Roots of Disconnection
Placelessness has deep roots.
“Placelessness” is not simply life in a soulless suburb or living a nomadic existence. It is a stunted spiritual imagination and practice that turns places into interchangeable “spaces” to use and then abandon. To find our way back to place, we need to understand the deep tangle of drivers that has brought us here.
01
The Managed Suburb
Matt’s life is stable, busy, and fragmented: home, work, school, soccer, small group, and politics are all scattered across disconnected places.
02
The Lonely, Curated City
Lisa lives in a walkable, exciting neighborhood, but curated connection, churn, and social sorting leave her wondering what it would take to truly belong.
03
The Displaced Commuter
Dominga’s story shows displacement as an everyday reality: rising rent, longer commutes, fragile neighborhood ties, and the loss of ordinary places where life once held together.
Seven roots shaping our current state of placelessness
01
Racialized Displacement
Slavery and racial hierarchy normalized the forced movement of people - embedding displacement, segregation, and control as enduring patterns of American life.
02
Sacred Conquest
Christian imagination has too often been distorted into a story of conquest, control, and divinely sanctioned possession.
03
Westward Expansionism
The pioneering spirit trained us to prize movement, mastery, and new frontiers over rooted responsibility.
04
Globalization
Economic and political forces increasingly detach ownership and decision-making from local life.
05
Fragmented Urban and Suburban Lives
We live fragmented lives spread across work, school, church, shopping, recreation, and home.
06
Other-worldly Religion
Some forms of Christianity treat the here and now as spiritually secondary, making place seem optional.
07
Social Media
Social media allows us to be everywhere without being truly present anywhere.
Seven Principles of Place
01
Gift
Place is God’s gift of home for belonging and abundant life for all.
02
Participation
God is present and active in the material world, inviting us to participate in his redeeming work.
03
Guests
We are guests, not owners, with responsibility shaped and limited by context.
04
Exile
We identify with the displaced in a posture of uncertainty, longing, and trust.
05
Love
We love God, neighbor, and creation by making room for abundant life for all.
06
Repair
We remember and repair systems and practices that wound places and people.
07
Hope
We live toward God’s promised future of flourishing places and communal shalom.
The Authors
Meet the authors
Sidewalk Pilgrims grows out of years of research, ministry, consulting, and place-based practice in churches and neighborhoods.
David E. Kresta, PhD
David E. Kresta is an urban economist and community development scholar and practitioner who teaches, writes, and consults on faith-based local engagement. He is the author of Jesus on Main Street: Good News through Community Economic Development, building on doctoral research at Portland State University that explored the role of churches in neighborhood change. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona with his wife and has two adult children living in Portland, Oregon.
Rev. Luke Lingle
Rev. Luke Lingle is a placemaker and leader with more than 15 years of experience as a United Methodist pastor. He previously led the Church and Community Placemaking Lab at the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School and served as Executive Pastor at Central UMC in Asheville, guiding churches to reimagine their spaces as centers of connection and impact. He is a co-founder of New Chapter Ventures and lives in Asheville, North Carolina with his wife and four children.
Frequently Asked Questions
Theology of place, placelessness, and rooted faith
What is a Sidewalk Pilgrim?
A Sidewalk Pilgrim is someone learning to follow Jesus by loving the actual place they have been given—its people, its gifts, its wounds, and its possibilities for flourishing. Sidewalk Pilgrims want their faith to become more grounded in everyday life. Instead of treating neighborhoods, streets, parks, homes, and local institutions as background scenery, they learn to see these ordinary places as holy ground, part of the world God loves.
What is a theology of place?
A theology of place asks why place matters to God and how Christians should faithfully inhabit the actual places where they live, worship, work, and serve. It begins with the conviction that the material world is not spiritually disposable. God has given creation as a home for himself and all creation, and Christian faith becomes concrete in neighborhoods, streets, churches, local institutions, land, housing, and shared community life.
What is placelessness?
Placelessness is not simply living in a suburb, moving often, or feeling nostalgic for a smaller town. It is a stunted spiritual imagination and practice that turns places into interchangeable “spaces” to use and abandon. Placelessness shows up in fragmented lives, loneliness, polarization, displacement, and a loss of shared belonging. It trains us to be connected everywhere while rooted nowhere.
Why does place matter to God?
Place matters to God because God created this world as a home for communion, belonging, and abundant life. Scripture begins with God making a world in which to dwell with his creatures, and it ends with God’s dwelling among his people. Our sidewalks, homes, neighborhoods, parks, schools, and local institutions are not spiritually neutral backdrops. They are where God’s love and justice become visible.
Who are the Sidewalk Pilgrims books for?
The Sidewalk Pilgrims books are for pastors, church leaders, scholars, lay leaders, small groups, and thoughtful people who want a more grounded, embodied, and hopeful faith. The first book, Sidewalk Pilgrims: A Practical Theology of Place in a Disconnected World, provides the theological and sociohistorical framework. The second book, Sidewalk Pilgrims: A Seven-Week Journey of Connection to Place, offers a devotional path for individuals and groups learning to love their neighbors and neighborhoods well.
What are the Seven Principles of Place?
The Seven Principles of Place are the heart of the Sidewalk Pilgrims framework: Gift, Participation, Guests, Exile, Love, Repair, and Hope. Together, they help Christians receive place as God’s gift, join God’s work already unfolding there, live as guests rather than owners, identify with the displaced, love neighbors as real people, repair what has been wounded, and hope for the flourishing God intends. These principles are based on careful readings and synthesis of theologians such as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Walter Brueggemann, Miroslav Volf, Willie Jennings, and others.
How can churches become more place-based?
Churches become more place-based by learning to love the actual neighborhoods and communities where God has placed them. This begins with listening, walking, noticing, learning local history, building relationships, sharing power, and discerning what God is already doing. A place-based church does not simply run programs for people; it becomes a faithful presence with neighbors, local institutions, and the wider community.
Is this only for urban churches?
No. A theology of place applies to urban, suburban, rural, and small-town contexts. Placelessness shows up differently in each setting, but every place contains gifts, wounds, histories, neighbors, institutions, and possibilities for flourishing. Sidewalk Pilgrims is not a call to romanticize the local or idealize one kind of community. It is an invitation to inhabit whatever place we have been given with humility, attention, love, and hope.
How is this different from simply “loving your neighbor”?
Loving your neighbor is central, but Sidewalk Pilgrims asks a deeper question: what kind of place makes neighbor love possible, durable, and just? Neighbor love becomes more than individual kindness when we attend to the histories, institutions, built environments, economic pressures, wounds, and gifts that shape our shared life. A theology of place helps Christians love actual neighbors in actual places, not abstractions.
How does Sidewalk Pilgrims address justice and repair?
Sidewalk Pilgrims does not merely celebrate place. It also asks who has been displaced, excluded, forgotten, or harmed. Love of place requires remembrance, lament, repentance, and repair. This includes confronting racialized displacement, sacred conquest, gentrification, economic exploitation, and other forces that wound people and places. Repair is part of faithful presence because God’s flourishing is never only for the already-secure.
When will the books be available?
The books are currently under development and we hope to announce publishing plans later this year with release in 2027.
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