Researching the intersection of American Christianity and the common good

The church isn’t the life-giving cultural presence Jesus calls it to be, but it could be.

Christianity in America is no longer the life-giving force that transforms people, places, and things for the common good; instead, Christian practice has wedded itself to political outcomes instead of choosing to be a source of life for a broader culture. Willowbrae Institute will research, publish and equip Christians to build formational institutions, reshaping Christian imagination and helping individuals create lifeworks.

What We Do

  • Research

    What makes Christianity resilient and fruitful? Willowbrae conducts empirical research on the state of Christian formation, discipleship, and influence in the American context.

  • Publishing

    Willowbrae aims to publish popular resources and reports as well as podcasts, peer-reviewed journal articles, bible studies and books from public intellectuals around themes of resilience and fruitfulness.

  • Equipping

    With findings from research, Willowbrae will begin equipping cohorts for leaders in our first few years of operation around ideas of spiritual formation, Christian imagination, and institution-building.

Board of Directors

  • Rev. Bryce Hales

    Bryce Hales is the Pastor at Trinity Church San Luis Obispo. He did his seminary work at the Free Church College (now known as Edinburgh Theological Seminary) in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is currently pursuing doctoral studies at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis.

    As an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America for more than 15 years, his pastoral roles include work in campus ministry, church planting, and spiritual formation, in Utah, Colorado and California.

  • Dr. Ashley Hales

    Ashley Hales holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where she focused on Enlightenment philosophy and early American and transatlantic literature.

    With her husband, she is the co-founder of The Willowbrae Institute, a new think tank studying the fruitfulness of Christianity in America. She is a Kirby Laing Centre Academic Fellow and hosts The Cartographers Podcast with Bryce. Ashley is the author of Finding Holy in the Suburbs and A Spacious Life (IVP).

  • Darin Kita

    Darin Y. Kita is a senior global investment control manager at Capital Group. He has 25 years of investment industry experience, all with Capital Group. Earlier in his career at Capital, Darin was a senior global client support manager and a senior manager in the portfolio control department. Before that, he was a shareholder service representative with American Funds Services Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of California, San Diego. Darin is based in Los Angeles.

  • Elizabeth Neumann

    Elizabeth Neumann served as the Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

    Her experience includes serving on the inaugural staff of the Homeland Security Council (now part of the National Security Council) in the President George W. Bush White House and advising the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, State and local governments, and private sector clients on a range of homeland security, cybersecurity, and risk management topics.

    Elizabeth currently serves as the Chief Strategy Officer for Moonshot, a social enterprise working to end online harms – such as violent extremism, disinformation, child sexual exploitation, gender-based violence, and human trafficking – by applying evidence, ethics, and human rights.

    She serves on the board of the National Immigration Forum where she recently helped launch the Council on National Security and Immigration and is a National Security Contributor for ABC News.

  • Caleb Maskell

    Caleb Maskell (PhD, Princeton University) is an Associate NationalDirector of the Vineyard churches in the United States.

    Caleb is passionate about developing leaders and institutions that will help to produce a healthy, courageous, and hospitable future for the church in the 21st century. He lives in Denver, Colorado with his family.

    Since 2010, Caleb has led the Society of Vineyard Scholars, which exists to foster and sustain a community of theological discourse in and for the Vineyard movement. Caleb is passionate about developing leaders and institutions that will help to produce a healthy, courageous, and hospitable future for the church in the twenty-first century.

  • Daniel Darling

    Daniel Darling is an author, pastor, and leader. He is the director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dan is an award-winning writer, a columnist for World magazine and a regular contributor to USA Today. Dan’s work is often featured in Christianity Today, The Dispatch, and The Gospel Coalition and his op-eds have appeared in The Washington Post, CNN, Washington Times, Time, Huffington Post, National Review, First Things, and other leading outlets.

    Dan speaks and preaches around the country and is regularly interviewed on radio and television, including MSNBC’s Morning Joe, CNN and Fox.

    He hosts the podcast, The Way Home and holds a bachelor’s degree in pastoral ministry from Dayspring Bible College, has studied at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and is a graduate of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

    Dan has pastored churches in Illinois and Tennessee. He and his wife Angela have four children.

Our Goal

The Willowbrae Institute focuses on equipping leaders to build formational institutions, reshaping Christian imagination and helping individuals create lifeworks. This will happen through three areas: researching, publishing and equipping. Participating with a network of like-minded institutions, Willowbrae aims to enable the American church to be the life-giving cultural presence Jesus calls it to be.