Churches and the Crisis of Decline: A Hopeful, Practical Ecclesiology for a Secular Age

Ministry in a Secular Age #4

by Andrew Root

Named One of Fifteen Important Theology Books of 2022, Englewood Review of Books

Congregations often seek to combat the crisis of decline by using innovation to produce new resources. But leading practical theologian Andrew Root shows that the church's crisis is not in the loss of resources; it's in the loss of life--and that life can only return when we remain open to God's encountering presence.

This book addresses the practical form the church must take in a secular age. Root uses two stories to frame the one about a church whose building becomes a pub and the other about Karl Barth. Root argues that Barth should be understood as a pastor with a deep practical theology that can help church leaders today.

Churches and the Crisis of Decline pushes the church to be a waiting community that recognizes that the only way for it to find life is to stop seeing the church as the star of its own story. Instead of resisting decline, congregations must remain open to divine action. Root offers a rich vision for the church's future that moves away from an obsession with relevance and resources and toward the living God.

This is the fourth book in Root's Ministry in a Secular Age series.

Genres: Theology, Church, Christian, Leadership, Christianity, Nonfiction, Ecclesiology

304 pages, Hardcover

Published March 1, 2022

About the author

Andrew Root joined Luther Seminary in 2005 as assistant professor of youth and family ministry. Previously he was an adjunct professor at Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington D.C., and Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J.

Root received his bachelor of arts degree from Bethel College, St. Paul, Minn., in 1997. He earned his master of divinity (2000) and his master of theology (2001) degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, Calif. He completed his doctoral degree from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2005.

Root's ministry experience includes being a gang prevention counselor in Los Angeles, youth outreach directed in a congregation, staff member of Young Life, and a confirmation teacher. He has also been a research fellow for Princeton Theological Seminary's Faith Practices Project.

Root has published articles in the Journal of Youth and Theology, The International Journal of Practical Theology, and Word and World.

He is a member of the International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry and the International Bonhoeffer Society.

Reviews

[Robert D. Cornwall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is the church experiencing a crisis of decline? As one who has spent a lifetime in the church, part of which has been spent in pastoral ministry, I can attest to the fact that things are not going well. I've had my hopes and dreams, I've even written about this in a variety of works including a book on spiritual gifts --- Unfettered Spirit: Spiritual Gifts for the New Great Awakening. Second Expanded Edition. Now that I'm mostly retired, I have experienced the crisis. I'm not sure what the future holds. But, perhaps there is reason for hope. It might not be churches overflowing with people, but the church could be a source of hope in an increasingly secular age.

Andrew Root's latest book, which is a continuation of a series of books focused on "Ministry in a Secular Age" offers a look at the challenge of living faithfully within what he calls the "immanent frame." Root writes that "It is easier to conceive of God only as a flat concept --- a kind of final contingent relation behind the curtain of all explanations -- than to conceive of God as an acting and speaking agent in the world. It's difficult inside this framework to live as though God is ever present and ever active in each and every one of the contingent relations that make up our lives." (p. 11). I'm a believer in science and scientific explanations, and yet at times, we can become so beholden to natural law that God can't act. Thus, everything depends on us. But is this true?

The book draws upon Karl Barth's time as a pastor at Safenwil, a period of his life before he joined academia that gave birth to the RomerBrief - versions 1 and 2. During this time Barth discovered that the only hope for the church was the God who is God, the God revealed in Jesus. The path that he discovered was dialectical -- that the transcendent God enters the immanent frame in Jesus. Contributing to Barth's discovery of this dialectic was his encounter with Christoph Blumhardt, and through him, Blumhardt's father. While the Blumhardt's were rooted in pietism, they found a path that wasn't bound by pietism and allowed for engagement with the world. In fact, Christoph, like Barth, was a socialist.

While Barth provides the theological fodder for this book, Root creates a story about a small, dying congregation that had tried to become contemporary. They had called a young dynamic young man to serve as the pastor. This young pastor sought to create something different within the church and called it Thrive. This young pastor, Luke, was entrepreneurial but also conservative in theology. Ultimately this didn't mesh and he moved on leaving St. John the Baptist Church reeling from their experiment. They weren't sure what to do. Should they call a new pastor or simply shut down. Then, this young man, named Woz, shows up at the Bible study. His grandmother on her death bed told him to find God. So he turned to the Bible study his grandmother attended and asked them point-blank to help him find God. While they weren't sure how to do this, they ultimately embraced the calling. As a result, they discovered something Barth believed, and that was we can't find God, but God can find us. So, they agreed to wait with Woz for God to find him. Waiting is the key. It's not easy to wait, and yet Root believes, following Barth that this is the only way to stem the tide of decline.

I've read several of Root's recent books. I find them intriguing and provocative. I'm not an aficionado of Charles Taylor's works on secularism, which Root draws deeply upon, but what he suggests in these books, and especially here seems to make sense. As I read I thought about my own points of departure. I've long found Barth helpful, at least at points. He might push the dialectic further than I might but I find his view of the transcendent God reaching out to us through Christ compelling. At the same time I've found Open and Relational Theology helpful, but as I read the book I began to discern that Open Theology tends to be bound by the immanent frame, limiting God to our participation. You have to be at least open to Barth's theology, especially the early Barth, to truly embrace what is revealed here, but if you are open to Barth, you will find something compelling.

[Ryan Turnbull · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete nonsense. Avoid at all costs. Despite cranking out book after book about Charles Taylor’s work, there is very little evidence that Root has either read or understood Taylor’s project. Not to mention the absolutely embarrassing misread of even the most basic parts of Karl Barth’s theology. I’ve never read a stupider book.

[Dina Horne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Root brings theology to life with an alternative to the same old story about a church in decline on the verge of closure. What if a church was renewed by a new visitor seeking to know God? Root weaves in some history with the parallel story of Karl Barth. It’s a lot of accomplish but instead of feeling stuffy, the book is a great encouragement with inspiration for the church to be better.

[Conrade Yap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Saying that the Church in the West is on the decline is nothing new. The Church at large is in a crisis. Even before the pandemic, many churches are already in dire straits. Older people are decreasing with attrition. Young people are leaving because of disillusion. The majority of the rest in between is basically too busy with their own concerns to be worried about Church! Yet, what exactly is causing this? What are the roots behind this decline? Is there hope for the Church? What can we do about it? The problem: No pulse. That means the heart had stopped and the demise is declared. In a stark and shocking picture of the state of the Church, Author Andrew Root shows how a formerly thriving church had turned into a pub! This fictional story of a gentrified neighborhood commercial pub is called "Church Brewhouse" once it has taken over an old church building. How does a Church survive the secular onslaught? What is behind the disillusionment?

He eases theological discussion with a story of people struggling to keep the faith. From John the Baptist to Karl Barth, sacred places to secular influences, Root poses several observations about life, faith, and what it means to be Church. He notes that a small number with a vibrant community is more beautiful than a large congregation that hardly interacted. He critiques how some pastors have exchanged dependence on the living God for reliance on resources and human programs. He helps us distinguish between thin and thick culture formation. Of particular interest is his critique of churches that hire new pastors not on the basis of their ability to speak the Word, but on their appeal to young people. Theological concerns become mere theory while practical matters occupy center stage. Why the chasm that comes between transcendence and earthly Church? That is because many churches have gravitated to worldly practices like marketing, business management strategies, budgets, and aesthetics to draw in the crowd. Root shows us the way forward to lead the Church back from program-based mediocrity to biblical spirituality. Using the examples of Karl Barth and Willie James Jennings, Root combines Barth's theological vision with Jennings's ecclesiology to provide us with an alternative ending. Root does this with a style that is "part time travel saga, part contemporary musical update" using historical figures to showcase the story of the Church's decline and a vision of hope. Some of the historical challenges for faith include:

- Loss of connection/pulse
- Manipulation of religion in support of wars
- Replacing God with Moralistic themes
- Incoherence with "God is God"
- The problem with "Institutionalized religion" and "Individualized spiritualities"
- Failure to find or experience God
- Ecclesiological disagreements over the need for Church
- Crisis of Relevance
- Allowing busyness to crowd out faith matters

Thankfully, after listing out the problems that lead to the decline of the Church, Root starts a process of re-envisioning the future of the church. He reminds us to have a proper perspective of the place of the Church, that the Church is not to fight for "market share" of the world as if she has the right to own the world but to learn to co-exist and to remain in the world. Distinguish it from apathy which is a form of negativity that arises out of a failure to possess something. However, active waiting is to learn to keep in step with the cultural changes without compromising or diluting the Christian witness. Learn to be relevant without losing our identity in Christ. Root calls it "resonance" and continues to help us distinguish between "having" vs "being." Possessiveness and the desire for control via human wisdom are some of the key impediments to the spiritual vitality of any Church. Impatience is the antithesis of learning to wait upon the Lord. Root explains resonance not emotively but active and constructive critique; openness; affection.

My Thoughts
==============
Root does an excellent job of breaking down some of the most critical reasons for the Church's demise. While this might seem too general for comfort, it should make church leaders sit up and take note of any similar symptoms in their respective churches. While Root might not be speaking for all churches, even those of us who are leading "healthy" churches need to remember that every human organization is vulnerable. Churches that thrive are those that are alive and know the importance of waiting upon God. Root warns us not to repeat the mistakes of the past, such as substituting spiritual work with human activities. For instance, one could have many activities but participants might still feel disconnected and distant. He is also well aware of the discontent among those who take this path of waiting in the world and with the world. Beware of the individual who bends toward being the initiator of making things happen. In fact, this strong sense of individualism undergirds both expressions of pietism and liberalism. Of interest is Root's observation of how some of the most liberal people are children from conservative and pietist pastors. Is it simply about a reaction against predecessor generations? No. It is due more to this individualistic tendency. This is indeed worth some pondering. If it is true, then we will not see the conservative-liberal exchanges as mere doctrinal stances but two siblings expressing their underlying individualism albeit in different ways. Both are lifeless, which is a warning to any one of us trying to anchor ourselves in any one position. I think this is worth further study.

Discontent, disillusionment, and disappointment may very well be some possible reasons for the decline of the church. The solution: A Dialectic relationship of mutual respect and healthy distancing. We can learn to disagree without cutting off links totally. We can also learn to distinguish when to come together and when to keep a distance. Whatever it is, it is life that ultimately keeps any church alive. This life is to be sought in Jesus. We can organize all kinds of programs but without the life to put them together, these will all stutter. We need to understand more about lived ecclesiology. We need to be real people with God and with one another. Put it simply, once churches are devoid of real relationships, they die. However, the converse is equally true. Inject life and just like how the author has resurrected John the Baptist, Karl Barth, Erich Fromm, Harmut Rosa, Blumhardt the Younger, and others into modern life, even dead buildings will be resurrected!

Andrew Root (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is the author of numerous books, including Faith Formation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, The Congregation in a Secular Age, and The End of Youth Ministry? Root is also the coauthor (with Kenda Creasy Dean) of The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry.

Rating: 4.25 stars of 5.

conrade
This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Academic and NetGalley without requiring a positive review. All opinions offered above are mine unless otherwise stated or implied.

[Steven Argue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for every pastor and ministry leader - from a trusted and creative scholar who gets ministry and brings theology to life. Love this book.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a helpful and hopeful book for pastors and church leaders. This book requires some honest hard thinking about how churches see themselves and their work. It will not give you 5 Ways to Raise your Attendance. It will help you think about how your congregation can authentically show up for one another.
Most importantly, it will remind leaders and congregations how God is already/still present to them.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked much of this, as I have for the whole series. I would have found concrete examples from actual churches more helpful than a realistic parable, as moving as it was.

The way the grammar builds from one thinker to another can be a bit hard to follow, also. But overall this is a helpful corrective too many visions of the church that rely on market logic and tools rather than divine action and patience.

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Mindblowing Book

I really enjoyed the book. Root is takes you on a journey to see the faith you are familiar with in a new way that is mindblowing. I don’t think I will look at church revitalization in the same way again and that’s a good thing.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal book. insightful study on the anxiety every church experiencing declining membership is feeling. Only gave 4 stars because I think this could have been a much shorter read.

[Phil Aud · Rating 5 out of 5]

(This review can be found on my substack account: philaud.substack.com)

The danger in starting a review by acknowledging an author’s rigorous academic engagement is that you lose readers almost immediately. Stick with me, though, because two things are true of this book simultaneously. First, it’s hugely accessible. Second, it engages a number of important scholars without losing that accessibility. This is not merely because Root is a great writer (he is), but because his writing itself demonstrates what he is seeking to accomplish with his writing. His writing, and not just his ideas, are a kind of pedagogy. Towards the end of the book in footnote, Root writes that “when worked out…ministry always has precedence over theology; the minister or pastor has precedence over the theologian.”1 This is a rather shocking claim, perhaps even a dangerous one, given the divide we sometimes see between the Church and the Academy. But Root is a scholar, and is writing this about about another scholar for whom this insight is important (as is made clear throughout the book): Karl Barth. More on this in a moment. For now, let me just note that book has deeply pastoral concerns and is therefore widely accessible without dumbing anything down. One of the ways that Root makes this book accessible is by incorporating an ongoing story of a fictional church. When I read that he was going to do this I thought, ‘this might be terrible.’ It wasn’t. He managed to tell this story really, really well while also writing about Barth in a compellingly narrative style. The two narratives naturally weave in and out of each other brilliantly.

Root engages three scholars in particular here. First, Charles Taylor, a philosopher who writes on how the West became secular. If you know Root, this is unsurprising as he is a Taylor scholar and deals extensively with Taylor’s work over the course of many books. The second is Hartmut Rosa who writes on time and Modernity. Root really delves into Rosa’s concept of Resonance (see chapters 11 and 12 in particular) which are very helpful (more on this below). The third, as previously mentioned, is Karl Barth. But it’s important to note that the primary lens through which Root is writing about Barth is pastoral, he is writing about Pastor Barth. As Root acknowledges early on, “The story I tell about Barth is the account of a pastoral theology for the immanent frame” (21). Barth, of course, is one of the most stunning theologians of the twentieth-century. When Root writes above about the precedence of the pastoral over the theological then, we need to understand that he is writing about a man who was a pastor-theologian. His comment is not a slight on theology, rather it is noting that theology must be shaped by the life of the congregation. The “immanent frame” that he mentions is Taylor’s language and refers to the ways in which we’ve moved out an understanding and therefore feeling of transcendence as a society over the course of the last, say, 500 years.

Okay, back to Barth. In his early days, Barth bristled against the conservative views of his father and pursued an education with a full move towards a modern liberal theology. Barth hit a crisis, however, when he began to pastor, because Barth’s theology didn’t “land for the congregation” (29). The reason this is all important is because Root, in various ways and places, demonstrates that neither liberalism nor conservativism are “working” in the lives of actual people in the Church. While each “side” frames itself as the answer over against the other, “a closer examination reveals that pietism and theological liberalism are related (and not just distantly). Pietism and liberalism are siblings, maybe even twins with a grudge” (202). Not much has changed. There are many ways in which Barth returned to what he left behind. But we would be mistaken to see this as a return to conservatism from liberalism. Instead, after his father had died and he found himself a pastor, “the theology of a living God, which Karl had once resisted, now called” (28).

In chapter 4 we read about Barth’s claim that “God is God,” which is a significant claim for the duration of the book. Interestingly, this doesn’t really mean anything. It is “a nonexplanation” (63). But this is precisely the point, especially within a modern framework. God is not a concept to be grasped, and “God cannot be known apart from God’s act to make Godself known” (63). What does this have to do with the crisis of decline? Everything, because who we understand (or don’t understand!) God to be, has everything to do with how we will respond to the crisis of decline. It is important to point out here that the word “God” is not so much the problem in our secular age, as Root reveals. Rather, it is the belief in the action of God in our world that is problematic and thus a challenge to our Modern sensibilities. The word we must focus on in the statement “God is God” must necessarily be the word is (81). Root writes,

“Ministry is about the God who is. The preacher must speak of the is, drawing near to her people as pastor with a presence that proclaims God is…The is confesses that God is not a concept but an agent moving in history, penetrating the immanent frame, coming to those in the immanent frame with judgment and grace” (81).

Perhaps all of the things we find ourselves putting so much of our energy into — programs, missions statements, vision statements, etc. — are actually distracting us from the action of God, which we’ve decidedly taken up for ourselves. As Root writes, “Neither mainline nor evangelical congregations are in a crisis due to their failure to have or execute a mission or vision statement” (226). I mean he’s right, right? Instead, “They’re in crisis because they’ve avoided a watchword” (226). What is a watchword? “The watchword is the local and concrete narration of the community’s encounter with the living God who is God in the world” (226). Chapter 15 deals with the importance of a “watchword,” and how such a word comes about.

In chapter 6, Root makes explicit the fact that “The Church Is Not the Star of Its Own Story.” It is easy to think that we, whether liberal or conservative, are necessarily responsible for the rise or fall of the church and thus carry the burden (given to us by modernity). Instead, Root shows us that waiting is a seemingly forgotten act of faith. As a Pentecostal, I couldn’t help but think of how important the practice of “tarrying” was for us when I was young. Waiting was a central part of our spiritual life and practice. This has largely disappeared. This was not by accident, even if we didn’t notice the subtle shift happening to us.

It makes sense that late modernity would make waiting an enemy, because growth is one of its highest goals, if not the highest…Waiting has no place in the drive for growth. In late modernity, if you’re not growing, you’re declining—meaning if you’re waiting, you’re losing. When the church sees its essential issue as one of decline (negative growth), it seeks innovations that often move it far away from waiting. Waiting, even in the church, becomes wasting. But as we’ll see, this only spins the immanent frame closed, compounding our problems by leading the church to think it is (or has to be) the star of its own story. This inevitably pushes the church to see itself as a competitor with the world, not a lover of the world. (142)

I’ll never forget being in a conference and hearing a very well known pastor say that when he was growing up he repeatedly heard (from his father, which is not an unimportant detail), “pray for revival, pray for revival, pray for revival.” He then said bluntly, “Revival never came. So I decided it was time to get off of our knees and figure out how God works.” In other words, waiting didn’t do anything as far as he could tell, so we had to take matters into our own hands. Statements like this reveal a move away from God while (in typical Modern fashion thinking we can explain God, or at least how God works). This is a move away from a God who is God. Root again,

Waiting is seeking. My concern is that facing decline, most church leadership sees waiting as the enemy of survival, because they have assumed, along with modernity, that the only human action that counts is the expenditure of energy. The goal is to do something, to expend some energy, to survive. But the only human action that can save us is to wait. Only waiting as a form of seeking readies us for an encounter with a God who is God. Waiting is the heart of faithful seeking. (164)

I know that some may wonder, aren’t we supposed to do anything? Here is where Rosa’s scholarship brilliantly comes into play. Root especially zeroes in on Rosa’s concept of resonance. “Resonance,” writes Root, “is waiting action” (165). He significantly expands on this over a number of chapters while continuing the fictional narrative for what this resonant engagement looks or feels like.

What I loved about this book is that is calls us out of the weariness of trying to keep up by doing or having more (97), and instead to step into a new way (which is really an old way) of ministry with a focus on the God who is God. After having read, listened to, and watched a number of exposes on how the Church (in the West, at least) is failing, I needed something else. This book lives up to its claim of being “A Hopeful…Ecclesiology.” This is not to say it isn’t also a critique. It is. But it’s a liberating critique. A hopeful and energizing critique. It’s hard to hear that we’ve been, intentionally or otherwise, the star of the show instead of the “narrator” (91), but this truth is meant to free us from the burden which God never placed on us in the first place. Being the star of your own show is draining. There is another way, however, and that way produces life and energy for the Church and its leaders (134). This is the way that Root, via Barth, is calling us into. Each time I picked up the book I felt energized for ministry and hopeful for the Church’s future. I hope you’ll pick it up and find the same.

1
Andrew Root, Churches and the Crisis of Decline: A Hopeful, Practical Ecclesiology For A Secular Age (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2022), 266. The remaining references will be given via page numbers within the post itself.

[Zak Schmoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the title of this book as well as the fact that it interacted with Charles Taylor and Karl Barth. I enjoy Taylor a great deal, and I feel like I should know more about a theologian as influential as Barth. This book is interesting because it tells a parable of a church as an illustration of the theological principles that are talked about in each chapter. Though I had some theological differences with the author (and Barth by extension), I think the general principle of this book is right on. We often times obsess about resources when we think about church decline, but when we do that, we are playing by the rules of what Charles Taylor calls the imminent frame. We are acting like we are necessarily bounded by the limits of the material world, but we need to remember that God is God. That's where he talks about Barth. This is a pretty easy read up until the final chapter where it gets rather technical, and it is quite interesting.

[Rick Dugan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Andrew Root lays a foundation for understanding how the modern church has been deeply shaped by secularism and what Charles Taylor called the “immanent frame.” This frame of thinking finds it hard to recognize transcendence or anything beyond material, empirical frames of reference.

Interspersed in his commentary on how the church has been impacted by secularism and the need for a Christologically centered worldview, Root tells the fictional story of “St. John the Baptist Church,” a century-old congregation that from external appearances is on its last legs. Attendance has shrunk to a handful of long-time members, the building is in need of repair, the neighborhood has changed, and the last pastor – who had done all he could to innovate new ways (including a new name) to connect with the community and instill a vision for missional growth – had finally decided that it’s easier to give birth than raise the dead. So he left.

Alongside the story of St. John’s, Root tells the story of Karl Barth and his evolution from pietism to liberal Christianity to socialism to forging a new trail that finds “the God who is God” within the immanent frame of secularism.

Christ is the head of the church (Col. 1:18) and Christ said he would build his church (Mat. 16:18). If this is true, then life comes from outside the church. And yet we have a tendency to call a church “alive” if it is flush with human and financial resources. By pursuing these metrics, the church becomes “the star of own show” rather than pointing to the work of Christ in the world. This is just acquiescing to modern secularism, says Root. What the church needs isn’t more resources or relevance. What it needs is life. And that life comes from Christ alone in his time.

Therefore, all the church can do is wait for Christ to act. That this sounds ridiculous is evidence of just how deeply secularism has permeated our thinking. However, Root is relentless in believing that Christ is acting! His story of St. John the Baptist Church – a parable of sorts – illustrates how. What the church needs is to be present in the world (among people) and learn to see God at work in the world. Key to this is prayer for and with those in the world. We need to rid ourselves of the idolatry of “doing something” or expending energy for the sake of results. We do these things in order to “have” (get some kind of result), but we’ve lost the ability to “be,” which is how God works.

There are a number of tensions (Root calls them dialectics) at work in the world: time/eternity, suffering/hope, visible/invisible, etc. In Christ (Christology) these tensions are reconciled. The transcendent God enters the immanent frame in the flesh and blood, divine Son – Jesus Christ.

Should St. John the Baptist Church just shut down? Well, apparently God was still at work, though his work wouldn’t register on the radar of conventional, modern church growth charts. But maybe the “growth” that St. John’s came to recognize is the only growth that really matters.

Many will struggle with the invitation to wait, do nothing, and “be.” However, Root suggests that this isn’t opposed to activity. It’s just a different kind of activity with a different focus. It’s in our being that we become salt and light. Root refers to this as “resonance,” which can be described as waiting with people in the world. For this to happen, we need to recognize Christ’s presence in us, our presence in the community, and Christ’s presence in those around us. This is an entirely counter-intuitive paradigm for mission, but Root backs it up by pointing to Christology – Christ became one of us, one with us, to bring us into God.

This isn’t an easy read, and though Root is drawing primarily from Karl Barth, Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age” is always in the background. Like Taylor’s writings, there is a bus load of coded language that isn’t always easy to follow: immanent frame (Taylor), resonance, dialectic, etc. Root uses each word as shorthand to reflect complex subjects, so it takes some digesting of the concepts in order to read the book with ease. It isn’t for the faint of heart. At the same time, if Root’s message can be headed, it is a pathway out of the exhaustion that typifies “Church” today. It’s an invitation into the mystical union with Christ where he initiates the building of his church, as he promised he would do.

[David Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Europe and North America many churches are in decline: losing members, merging with other congregations, closing their doors. Andrew Root unpacks this crisis using Charles Taylor’s work on secularity, especially his concept of the immanent frame.
But how should churches deal with this crisis? In embracing a rigid, individualistic pietism and expending lots of human energy? Or in fully adopting a liberal political vision?

Root argues there is another, more life-giving way. He does so by presenting a wild remix of Karl Barth‘s evolving dialectic during his pastoral years and Hartmut Rosa‘s concept of resonance.
His argument is very entertainingly and movingly illustrated by a fictional story about a declining church and an alternative history in which this struggling congregation finds life in embracing this dialectic of action in waiting.

I really liked the way Root used Rosa’s thought on resonance and its fusing with Barth’s dialectic of time/eternity and enhypostatic/anhypostatic. I think this has lots of explanatory value of our lived experience and shows a way forward. I loved the little story elements in between, they really made it a much more enjoyable read. He misspelled one of his central German words though and kept repeating it over and over, which kind of freaked me out as a native German, haha.
Still, I think this is a great book. I found his analysis of this crisis facing the church and the way different congregations try to deal with it intriguing and his main argument (dialectic/resonance) fresh and accessible. And: it really made me pause and wait for the God who is God.




Favorite quote: “Inside the immanent frame, only the dialectic positions as on the road to Emmaus, able to encounter the living Jesus lovingly ministering to us by hearing our lost news, and sharing his word of salvation with us (Luke 24). Only a living Jesus can free us from religious mechanization to live, sharing in our narratives of loss and in a meal of resonant friendship. Jesus‘s own dying is the victory over the having-mode of action. God chooses to so love the word that God in Jesus Christ bears the full violence of the having-mode. The resurrection appearances revealed that Jesus has overcome the having-mode by meeting each disciple in the being-mode. Jesus appears not with a to-do list and operational plans to possess the world. He arrives with words for renewed friends. His touch overcomes doubts, and his words are not of owning the world but of feeding little sheep in and through the open wound of personal failure. Jesus appears as the Victor over dying to offer friendship, forgiveness, and ultimately (and cosmically!) participation in his own being. […] Through the dialectic of dying and now living through dying, Jesus offers the world, by the Spirit, the invitation to be in Christ. Jesus invites us to be in the world, free to love the world by being free from the having-mode of action, to now be in him, to take on his own being-mode of action of love, peace, and transformation through the Spirit.”

[David S Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required Reading for Christian Leaders

I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the importance of this book for those in church ministry. This book is simply stunning - both a joy to read (impressive given the depth of subject) and a joy to ponder.

Root brings together several streams of significance into this book. Firstly, and if you know Root, unsurprisingly, a consideration of A Secular Age. His niche of applying Charles Taylor to the church continues well here. However, to this he then adds an engagement biographically with Karl Barth in his early pastoral life (and his influences). Finally to this Root then adds an imaginative thread wherein he ties these stories together in an imagined story of an urban church trying to survive.

The result is a tour-de-force of learning and excitement. The way that Root does this is a lesson in itself. Without cynicism or bitterness he lays down a path that implicitly critiques so much of the mess of the modern evangelical church complex. Essentially, if I understand him, showing that the church has become entirely bound up within the immanent frame of secularism by becoming the star of its own story. The net result of this is that we, the church, no longer know how to find or encounter God. Instead we pursue busyness and activity as a way of proving that we are flourishing, which is sadly just an attempt to grasp on and hold the world that Christ calls us to die to.

Rejecting the brokenness of visions statements, prosperity gospels and calls to action (all of which are attempts to “have”, own or possess), Root counsels a Barthian model of waiting for the God who is God. This calls the conversation into a consideration of how dialectic theology might keep us from the desire to “have” by installing a dialectic watchword (in place of vision statement) that will have resonance for a community.

If you get this sense, as I do, when I get the latest church leaders email, or attend a denominational conference, or listen to the massive podcast about one churches failure, that there’s a bigger itch beneath the one we’re talking about, then this is the book you’re looking for. This is an academic and spirit inspired engagement that shows that not only will the “try harder to grow your church” model not work, but that the why it won’t work is significant for our time.

For what it’s worth also, a five minute conversation with most people under-40 will tell you that the model of church that we’re seeing perfected right now (late modern seeker sensitive) isn’t interesting. In place of church as a show you’d like to attend, occasionally, Root compellingly shows (and my notional experience would confirm) that what people really want is an encounter with a God who is looking for them.

So seriously, if you’re leading in a church, buy this book and put it at the top of your pile. Today.

[Joel Wentz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Root is just the best. I already adore the "Ministry in a Secular Age" series, and I thought it was complete! But out of nowhere (at least to me), Root dropped an entire new volume that may, in fact, be my favorite in the whole series (The Pastor in a Secular Age is right up there with it).

I love how fluent Root is in cultural theory and philosophy, so his diagnosis and suggestions are incredibly rich and nuanced, but also not too abstract, academic or out of reach for the person who doesn't have time to dive into the likes of Charles Taylor, Hartmut Rosa, or various Frankfurt School thinkers. He is a trustworthy guide to sift, sort and translate that important work and apply it to the work of ministry in our time. This volume does more of that, but with a tighter focus on the biography and thought of Karl Barth.

As someone who hasn't read any of Barth myself (I know, I know....) I found this book extremely illuminating and helpful. The idea that the church, by definition, should always "in crisis" in a secular age because we should be constantly pointing beyond the immanent frame resonated with me deeply, and gave me language for an experience that I have wrestled with for a long time. Root's exhortation to correctly identify the crisis we SHOULD be facing (as opposed to the crisis of resources, or energy expenditure) is a singularly powerful insight that the American church absolutely must consider. That alone if worth the price of the book, in my opinion.

Finally, I love the creative edge that Root brings to this volume, as he tells an imaginative story of "what could have happened" to a church in decline today. I live in a very progressive-secular city, and found his narrative very plausible, and it worked on my own imagination in a positive way. This is another element that distinguishes this book from many others of its ilk. I totally loved this, and highly, highly recommend it to anyone in ministry leadership or vocational work, or even if you just care about the church being a vital, life-giving presence in our culture today.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An engaging interlaced series of stories, biographies, and theology attempting to address how congregations might thrive in the present day.

The author began by lamenting how he was eating at a restaurant bar which had formerly been a church. He told a story of how the church had attempted to reach out to its community but fell apart. He then reimagines the story of the church if they could have found a way to succeed.

This reimagination is done in terms of Barthian theology. The author goes into great detail regarding regarding Barth's intellectual and theological development with great emphasis on his engagement with the Blumhardts.

The author also will discuss Helmut Rosa's sociology in turn.

The author thus encourages Christians to consider how they bear witness and to see themselves as maintaining a level of energy. Effort might expend that energy, but to what end? It may be better to stand and wait for God to move, to seek to perceive how God will prove to be God and work in their midst. God may then work powerfully in their midst and empower effective witness through His Spirit.

This is a really compelling book and a very needed antidote to the consumeristic church model of our day. Consider it well.

**--galley received as part of early review program

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this is an odd book, alternating between the story of an imagined mainline church called St. John the Baptist, which closes and gets turned into a brewpub, AND a history of Karl Barth's life as a church pastor, trying to figure out his theology in the context of a congregation. Over the course of the book, Root tries to reimagine how St. John's could've gone a different direction - proposing that the future of church community lies in the quality of our relationships: with God, with one another, with our neighbor. In other words, a church's future does not lie in fiscal resources, programming, relevance, active engagement, or what we can do to change and make things better. I most love his suggestion that we must wait for God -- that we can't make God come to us or to anyone else, but that the waiting and watching is worth it. Some may think this sounds simplistic but as a former parish priest, from what I've seen and experienced, I'm just not sure the rat race of striving for church survival and "success" is worth it. But I could be wrong. This book is worth a read - even if you start skipping the Barth parts (like I did) and focus on the engaging (if fictional) St. John the Baptist parts.

[Jonathan A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bold work that looks at the face of oncoming decline and demands actions that go against common sense. Root has a brilliant understanding and facility of Taylor, Barth, and others. He applies good, deep, profound theological and sociological notions in a way that can be brought into the local parish. The good news is that there is hope. The bad news is that the hope offered does not measure up to the commercial and capitalistic standards that many churches and Christians have embraced as markers of a successful ministry. Root is clearly writing from an evangelical context and applies the norms of such a context into his work, but I wonder what his work would look like if he considered a sacramental liturgy/theology. In an ecclesiology with a space for the transcendence in the liturgy itself, there may be a different shade of nuance in Roots application of Barth and Taylor. Regardless, this is an excellent work that would serve pastors well even though it is lacking of any quick and easy answers. Maybe that is why it is so good.

[Ben Gresik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would say three things about this book.

1) It's hopeful. It seems to present alternatives to the future that I hadn't thought of before and yet also seem like they're already forming.
2) It's deep. Root really gets into the weeds of explaining some philosophical and theological concepts which are necessary to understand what he's saying. He ruminates over words in some sections and tackles the concepts from many angles until their shape is clear.
3) It's readable. By pairing some fairly abstract theological concepts alongside a narrative and the history of Karl Barth, it's easier to clarify and misunderstandings of the material in between. The stories prompt you to understand what is explained in abstract.

If you're in a church situation where decline is a real consideration, this is a book at least worth considering.

[Todd Buegler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Andy's past books, and I have always appreciated them.

But this book, I loved.

I loved it because Andy was able to take Karl Barth, and make him approachable in a way I haven't experienced before. (And I've read Barth, both in college and then in seminary.)

Andy told Barth's story in such a way that it helped me to understand Barth and his theology. I appreciate Barth more now than I ever did in the past.

And the way that Andy framed this book, in the midst of a congregational parable, made Barth's theology both practical and pastoral.

This is a book that I highlighted, and that will help me to frame and articulate my own ministry. I'm grateful for the opportunity to have read it.

[Marcas]

This is a good book that takes God seriously. He's not just an idea, but someone whom we can and should know. He cannot be contained by the 'immanent frame' of self-avowed secularists or self-avowed Christians alike. Amen to all of that .
Strangely enough though, the in-depth notes at the end of each chapter may be my favourite thing about the book. Andrew muses on all sorts with candour and clarity, here and cites many fascinating works. These short vignettes really captured my attention and left me wanting more.

He uses this space to lay out different types of knowledge, secularism, evangelical sub-groups, and all sorts.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not a theologian, a lover of church history, or a philosopher. I tried to get interested in Karl Barth's back story, but I just couldn't hang on. I understand the basic concept of the immanent frame, but I just can't get excited about it. The fictitious story of the modern day church and how it shifted its mindset was interesting to me. So, I read the parts about that and I skimmed some of the other parts....about the power of music and the presence of God. But the different schools of religious philosophy in 19th Century Germany just couldn't hold my attention.

I might have done better discussing this book than reading it.

[Carmen Imes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cover of this book does NOT do it justice. It's rare for me to attempt a theology book and find it to be a page-turner, but I couldn't put this one down. Far from dry and academic, this book is profound but lovely. Part biography, part imaginative story, laced together with deep insights into the calling of the church to wait with the world for an encounter with the God who IS, and while waiting, to pray.

I've never read a theology book this fast before. I took pages of notes. Thanks, Andrew Root, for this luminous and inspiring read! It gave me just the connective tissue I needed for my own book on the church. I'm so grateful!

[Kyle Penner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. But goodness, some parts were hard to follow. Chapter One blew my mind, but I was skimming by the end.

I am beyond grateful for the fictional narrative that Root created to help make some of the ecclesiology practical. I even cried at the ending.

Which means that Andrew Root’s next book/challenge should probably be to take all his wonderful books and just write a story about them. That way I can pass his books on to others with less formal education and say “read this.”

Thanks for the book. It’ll permeate much of my work in the church.

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the story of the modern church, but the history part was a bit more difficult to follow. Although there were some really interesting truths in this book, I felt it was very long and the author repeated himself a lot. If it had been half the length, I would have enjoyed it a lot more. And I would also have preferred if the historical parts had been in chronological order. So it was often a chore to read, but there was some great wisdom in the book. However, for a non-theology student, it was a bit difficult at times.

[Kathleen Krynski · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like the core message of this book is true - churches need to encounter God in his love for the world. Hence 2 stars instead of 1. But this book is 280 pages, and I'd say it's about 180 pages too long. So much fluff, repetitiveness, etc. Also, I can't say I'm overly familiar with Charles Taylor or Karl Barth, but at least as their thought is presented here, I fundamentally disagree with many elements of it. I feel like Root is trying to do something fancy here and it's not working, especially not in a book that seems like it's more directed at pastors than academics.

[Ben Faus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Greatest Book

This book is probably the single greatest I have read in not only diagnosing modern church decline but also combating poorly conceived notions of countering that decline. It is both densely theological (and full of footnotes) but also surprisingly practical. Hard to ask for more in days that feel desperate for the American church. But, Root helps remove that feeling of desperation as well! ;)

[John Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less helpful than the previous volumes; the Barth thread is hard to follow because it goes back and forth chronologically and hares off in directions that seem tangential at best to the other threads (including a weird use of Mozart as a positive straw man), and the St. John's thread (because it's a fiction meant to illustrate the point) does very little to actually point parishes to a new (old) way of understanding themselves.

[Willem Maarten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enigszins langdradig boek dat de inzet van Karl Barth herneemt om een ekklesiologie voor een kerk in de secularisatie te vinden. Het gaat in de kerk niet om de mens maar om God, niet om activiteiten maar om vertrouwend verwachten. Originele vorm door het inbrengen van fictieve, roman-achtige delen. Voor de inhoud kun je echter beter de boeken van Barth zelf lezen.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whew! This book reminded me why I disliked philosophy and theology classes. So much circular and repetitive thinking. That being said, overall, I felt that Root says something profound about how the church should confront decline and it's totally different from anything I've heard from church governing bodies. It left me with a lot to think and pray about!