Power Trip
A Religious Leader for the Resisterhood
An Evangelical Texan is now using her pulpit to fight Trumpism. Will her flock follow?
It’s a beautiful September morning in Austin, Texas, and Jen Hatmaker is gently heckling the congregants of Austin New Church. Today’s sermon is on the parable of the Prodigal Son, and Hatmaker, delivering the sermon, is just winding up for a big theological swing when a cell phone rings.
She pauses.
“One time my phone rang, from the front row, in the middle of my own sermon,” she reveals, to laughter. “Yeah. Loved that.”
The parishioner’s phone rings again, and Hatmaker lets loose a slow, deep chuckle, eyes searching for the offender. “Get outta here!” she waves, as more laughter breaks out in the chapel.
Hatmaker, the New York Times-bestselling author and popular Christian speaker, has created a behemoth brand rooted in authenticity, humor, and candor. In the last two years, she has been honing this same easy-going sincerity to empower, and even provoke, her own core audience — evangelical women.
ANC is a far cry from a Texas megachurch: Low-lit and A-framed, the small structure houses only about 300 people. Today, it’s close to capacity. Parishioners of all ages…
