Most newsletters keep the scholar and the preacher in separate rooms.
“On the Way” doesn’t.
I’m Fr. J. Michael Strachan — rector of St. Dunstan’s Anglican Church in Largo, FL, and a New Testament scholar (Ph.D., Marquette University, 2022; Th.M. in New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2009; M.A. in Biblical Exegesis & M.A. in Historical and Systematic Theology, Wheaton College, 2004 & 2005). My research (original-language exegesis, the New Testament use of the Old Testament, Jewish backgrounds of the NT, and biblical theology) begins in the study and then flows into the pulpit on Sunday morning.
“On the Way” is where that work lives between Sundays.
The name of this Substack comes from a conviction that runs through everything I preach and write. We are not finished products — we are pilgrims. We’ve been set free from the power of sin and death, but we haven’t arrived yet at the promised land of bodily resurrection and eternal life. We’re on a New Exodus journey: baptized through the waters, fed on the road by the Eucharist, and led by the Spirit through the wilderness of this world toward the new promised land.
This Substack is not a collection of finished thoughts from a destination reached. It’s dispatches from the road as I seek to walk in the way of the Lord.
This year, the way has taken on a particular shape for me — a journey toward physical and spiritual wholeness that I’m writing about here, too, rooted in the same New Exodus framework that shapes everything else. What Scripture says about bodies, health, and transformation is far richer than most Christian wellness content lets on, and I want to explore that together.
Each week you’ll find the full text of my Sunday sermon alongside daily reflections on the biblical text, the church year, and life on the road. The writing is shaped by the Anglican lectionary and twenty years of learning to read Scripture carefully — but wherever you’re starting from, you’re welcome here.
On the Way is free to read. Posts older than three months are available to paid subscribers, along with occasional essays and deeper dives that go beyond the Sunday sermon. As this Substack grows, paid subscribers will also get early access to first drafts of books in progress — including a commentary on the Gospel of Mark and other projects currently taking shape. If the work is valuable to you, a paid subscription is the best way to get more of it — and to be part of where it’s going.
No matter where you’re starting from, or how long you’ve been walking, you’re “On the Way.”
