Andy and Tyler discuss his latest book, The Familiar Stranger: (Re)Introducing the Holy Spirit to those in search of an experiential spirituality (Hodder & Stoughton, 2025). Tyler is the lead pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, USA and the national director of 24/7 Prayer USA.
AP You’re no stranger to the United Kingdom. You relate early on in the book, an encounter with God when visiting London in 2016.
TS I love the UK. I’ve spent a huge amount of time there and some of my closest friends and greatest influences have come from the churches and leadership in the UK.
AP You say early in the book that you’re writing for the thirsty, the suspicious and the uninformed when it comes to the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you could just briefly summarise how you categorise those three types of people?
TS I think there’s a huge number of believers in the world today that would say, ‘Hey, if there’s more on the table of the feast of knowing God and life with Jesus, then I want it. I want every course he’s serving!’ And so for those folks, simply describing and offering a pathway to experience that is deeply biblical and entirely authentic is the key.
Others tend to get a bit more nervous than excited when the Holy Spirit is brought up.
And that could be because of just a lack of experience. If I’ve been following Jesus for decades and you start talking about an aspect of a biblical life that I’m yet to experience, then maybe that feels more threatening to me than it does exciting. Because if I haven’t experienced it, then I’m suspicious it isn’t real or true.
Or it could be because of a toxic or manipulative past spiritual expe
