Michelle Van Loon

Downsizing: Letting Go of Evangelicalism’s Nonessentials

Michelle Van Loon came to faith during the Jesus Movement. Over the next fifty years, she enthusiastically worshiped and worked in a wide variety of evangelical groups. Today, she laments the accumulation of baggage—religious ideas and practices that were unhelpful at best, and harmful at worst. Downsizing encourages readers to reflect on their own experience with evangelicalism, evaluate the movement’s legacy, and participate in shaping its future.

Release date: August 19, 2025. Preorder today!

Translating Your Past: Finding Meaning in Family Ancestry, Genetic Clues, and Generational Trauma

In an era often marked by both fragmentation in family and culture and a hunger to discover our genetic roots, our family stories–including the difficult, complex ones–can carry great spiritual strength. Discover how patterns and gaps in family histories, generational trauma, adoption, genetic clues and surprises, spiritual history, and the church help us translate our own pasts and understand why these stories matter. 

Becoming Sage: Cultivating Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife

The book explores what the unique challenges of midlife can teach us about Jesus and how to think about everything from church, friends, and family, to money, bodies, and meaning. Publisher’s Weekly says Sage is “a helpful resource for people in midlife and for churches eager to offer help and understanding to this growing demographic.”

Born To Wander: Recovering The Value of our Pilgrim Identity

Born to Wander weaves together personal stories and keen insights on the biblical themes of pilgrimage and exile. Engaging and thoughtful, enhanced with practical suggestions, prayers, and questions, Born to Wander will teach how to trust God even when you don’t understand what’s happening around you and follow Him even when it hurts.

Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith

By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each “holy day” and enlivening our experience of even the most “ordinary time.”

If Only: Letting Go of Regret

Learn to let go of the “woulda, coulda, shoulda” thoughts in life. Discover how Jesus can redeem our regrets for his glory and our good. He can transform our past into wisdom for today and a flourishing, free future.

AWARD OF MERIT: Christianity Today 2015 Book Awards, Christian Living category

Parable Life: Living the stories Jesus told in real time

By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each “holy day” and enlivening our experience of even the most “ordinary time.”

Uprooted: Growing a Parable Life from the Inside Out

Jesus’ stories starring grocery store ingredients like mustard seeds, yeast, wine and figs show us his power to transform us from the inside out.

• Church Volunteers: An Oxymoron
• Not Just Everyman’s Battle
• The Trouble with Confessing in Church
• The Best Christian Halloween Party
• Would Jesus Walk Away From A Mortgage?
• Why Boys Are Failing in the Classroom
• The Hutterites: Beyond Bonnets and Buggies
• ‘Happy Holidays’ in Church?
• Christ and My Curly Hair
• When A Midlife Crisis Becomes Serious
• Taking A Break From Your Spouse
• Holy Hot Flashes! A Spiritual Take On Menopause
• Raising Yeshua-Followers On The West-Bank
• When Higher Education Is Neither: Why Should I Earn A Degree?
• Stop Turning Thanksgiving Into A Facebook Like
• Learning The Spiritual Disciplines From A Mormon Blogger
• Is It A Sin To Look Your Age?
• Why Nancy Sleeth Wants You To Be A Bit More Amish
• Voice of the Victims: Sex Abuse Survivors and the Church
• Green With Housing Envy: Bursting the Bubble of Coveting My Neighbor’s Home
• The Cynicism Trap: Why Trusting Fellow Christians is a Spiritual Discipline
• Why Friends Disappear When You Reach Midlife
• A New Chapter In The Homeschooling Movement
• Exposing The Sins Of The Baby Boomers
• How To Wait For A Slow-Moving Messiah
• Sexy `n Spiritual Tees For Jesus
• Jodie Foster’s Confession Made Her My Hero

• In Defense of Church Hoppers
• How Adulthood Is Like High School All Over Again
• Like Valerie Harper, We’re All Terminal
• My Teenager Made Me Finally Grow Up
• Don’t Let Women’s Ministry Turn People Into Projects
• Women Of The Web
• Who Raised These Millennials Anyway?
• The Transformative Heart Of ‘What Not To Wear’
• God Doesn’t Want Christian Clones
• The Unfortunate Art Of Female Self-Sabotage
• Raised In A Christian Cult
• Aged Out Of Church
• Tied Up In Our Own Preferences
• Faith Unsettled
• The Church Deserves Better Than Ugly Decorations
• To Have and to Hold, In Hardship and Unhappiness
• The History We’d Prefer To Forget
• Holiday Traditions, Under Construction
• Parented By Grandparents
• Faithful Compassion Over Gut Reaction
• Sex, Drugs, and Getting Old
• Blogging Truth To Power
• Long Way From Home: The Housing Crisis Lingers On
• Fear Of Missing Out Isn’t Just a Season
• The Blessing Of Missing Christmas
• We Don’t Age Out Of Our Sexuality
• Put Down The Church Attendance Scorecard
• Confessions Of A Media-Protective Parent
• Why I’m Not A World-Changer

• Why Advent Is More Jewish Than You Think
• Why Your Deflated Retirement Dream Might Be God’s Open Door
• Middle-Aged Women Face A Crisis Of Discipleship
• Treasures in Heaven, Tchotchkes on Earth
• Six Ways To Support and Challenge Those Who Leave Church
• Pilgrim’s Progress: How Restlessness Leads Us To Jesus 
• How BSF Saved Sandi Patty
• Your Peak Life Now: How to Face Career Decline with Grace and Faith

• The Midlife Church Crisis
• Passover Is For Christians, Too
• How To Keep Time Like A Christian
• Your Church Needs Boomers 
• When I Was Forbidden to Attend Church, I Learned to Cultivate a ‘Remote’ Faith
• Elisabeth Elliot’s Lost Manuscript
• Christian Boomers Like Me Want Change Too
• How We Stay In Church Matters as Much as Why

• How to Fight Peer Pressure Culture in Our Churches

• Spirit Calling: How To Hear The Voice of God in Old Testament Prophecy *First place, article series, 2018 Higher Goals Awards, Evangelical Press Association
• Fun Challenged: A Good Time Is What You Make Of It
• Simply Christmas: The Beauty of Paring Down, Rather Than Piling On
• Born Again Dependence
• Father, Forgive Them? 
• The Measure of Love
• Neither Do I Condemn You
• The ‘And’ of Advent

• Why Church history matters
• Imitate These Things (Not Those)
• Waiting at the End of the Driveway
• Be Ye Therefore Perfect
• Whose Spiritual Gifts Are They?
• Enjoying Life isn’t a Sin
• How To Disagree and Be Better For It
• How To Leave a Church (When You Know Its Time) 
• Is Restlessness a Sin?
• Let All God’s People Say “Amen”

Reading Hope in Trying Times with Brian Allian

Care Package with Pastor Corey Ashley

Facebook Live 6/27/18: Born To Wander discussion with Moody Publishers

2016 Trinity International University/Trinity Society of Women Theology Conference: Exiles & Pilgrims

Igniting A Nation 4/6/17

Igniting A Nation 7/11/18 

Houghton College Chapel 2/3/21

Passover Seder overview 3/31/21

Good Life TV 7/21/22

Faith Conversations with Anita Lustrea 

Podcast discussions with Martha Manikas-Foster of Family Life Radio’s Inside Out program:

• Looking Your Age
• But I Want THAT
• The Church Over 40
• Regret
• Avoiding the Pitfalls of Homeschooling
• Becoming a Pilgrim
• Slowing it Down in  Advent
• Medically Vulnerable During COVID-19
• Making the Most of a COVID Christmas
• Family Research Can Bring Us Closer to God
• The “Nones” and the “Dones”

Moody Radio Network’s Midday Connection

• How People 40+ See The Church
• Generational Differences
• If Only – Part 1
• If Only – Part 2
• If Only – Part 3
• If Only – Part 4

Moody Radio Network | Chris Fabry Live!

• The Whisper App & Confession (hour 1 of the program)
• Born to Wander discussion
• Translating Your Past

Moody Radio Network | This Is The Day podcast with Nancy Turner

• Calendars and time

Chicago Sunday Evening Club’s Things Not Seen podcast

• Healing From Regret

Post-Consumer Reports podcast with Chris Marchand

• Episode 33
• Episode 70

Chained No More Radio

• Stepping Out Of Regret and Remorse

Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman

• 9/15/18
• 9/5/20

Spirituality for Ordinary People

9/18/18

Spark My Muse

• 12/5/19

The Way Home (ERLC)

• 12/29/19

Women Encouraged

•  Episode #27

Called Out with Tyler Braun

 7/2/19

Lay Renewal Ministries

• 10/22/19

Cultivate Women’s Podcast

• 4/8/20 

Leadership Lab Podcast

• 5/6/20 

More To Be with Elisa Pulliam 

• 6/29/20

Empty Nest Guests

• Episode 13
• Episode 15

Christian Curious

• Aging Well

The God Show

• Episode 202

Let Go, Lean In with Lisa Lewis

• Episode 95

Heartlift with Janell Rardon

• Translating Our Past

REImagine Podcast

• Episode 153: Meaning, Purpose, and Spirituality in Midlife

The Common Good radio show/podcast

• 7/5/23

The Healing Words with Pamela Nichols

• Christian worldview, Jewish heritage, spiritual growth, and storytelling

The Last Service podcast

• Grace Bible Fellowship