Churches and the Crisis of Decline

Churches and the Crisis of Decline PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781540964816
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
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 new book, related to Root's critically acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age project, addresses the practical form the church must take in a secular age. Root uses two stories to frame the book: 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. This book 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.

Churches and the Crisis of Decline

Churches and the Crisis of Decline PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781540964816
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
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 new book, related to Root's critically acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age project, addresses the practical form the church must take in a secular age. Root uses two stories to frame the book: 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. This book 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.

Churches and the Crisis of Decline (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #4)

Churches and the Crisis of Decline (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #4) PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493434950
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 430

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Book Description
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 book: 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.

Churches and the Crisis of Decline

Churches and the Crisis of Decline PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781540965332
Category : Church
Languages : en
Pages :

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

Ministry in a Secular Age Set

Ministry in a Secular Age Set PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9781540967084
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Andrew Root's well-received Ministry in a Secular Age series offers a developed practical theology that uniquely attends to divine action. Series volumes engage with Charles Taylor's articulation of our cultural context and the challenge he raises for Christian life in a Western world that has found divine action increasingly unbelievable. This project provides not only a needed and deep dialogue with the issues Taylor presents but also offers a constructive vision for confronting Taylor's challenge. Volumes include: · Faith Formation in a Secular Age: Responding to the Church's Obsession with Youthfulness · The Pastor in a Secular Age: Ministry to People Who No Longer Need a God · The Congregation in a Secular Age: Keeping Sacred Time against the Speed of Modern Life · Churches and the Crisis of Decline: A Hopeful, Practical Ecclesiology for a Secular Age · The Church after Innovation: Questioning Our Obsession with Work, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship · The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms: Why Spiritualities without God Fail to Transform Us

The Pastor in a Secular Age

The Pastor in a Secular Age PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9780801098475
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Academy of Parish Clergy 2020 Top Ten Book for Parish Ministry In Faith Formation in a Secular Age, the first book in his Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, Andrew Root offered an alternative take on the issue of youth drifting away from the church and articulated how faith can be formed in our secular age. In The Pastor in a Secular Age, Root explores how this secular age has impacted the identity and practice of the pastor, obscuring his or her core vocation: to call and assist others into the experience of ministry. Using examples of pastors throughout history--from Augustine and Jonathan Edwards to Martin Luther King Jr. and Nadia Bolz-Weber--Root shows how pastors have both perpetuated and responded to our secular age. Root turns to Old Testament texts and to the theology of Robert Jenson to explain how pastors can regain the important role of attending to people's experiences of divine action, offering a new vision for pastoral ministry today. This is the second book in Root's Ministry in a Secular Age series.

The Congregation in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #3)

The Congregation in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #3) PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 1493429728
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 391

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Book Description
Churches often realize they need to change. But if they're not careful, the way they change can hurt more than help. In this culmination of his well-received Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, leading practical theologian Andrew Root offers a new paradigm for understanding the congregation in contemporary ministry. He articulates why congregations feel pressured by the speed of change in modern life and encourages an approach that doesn't fall into the negative traps of our secular age. Living in late modernity means our lives are constantly accelerated, and calls for change in the church often support this call to speed up. Root asserts that the recent push toward innovation in churches has led to an acceleration of congregational life that strips the sacred out of time. Many congregations are simply unable to keep up, which leads to burnout and depression. When things move too fast, we feel alienated from life and the voice of a living God. The Congregation in a Secular Age calls congregations to reimagine what change is and how to live into this future, helping them move from relevance to resonance.

When Church Stops Working

When Church Stops Working PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493441949
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
What if the solution for the decline of today's church isn't more money, people, programs, innovation, or busyness? What if the answer is to stop and wait on God? In When Church Stops Working, ministry leaders Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand show how actively watching and listening for God can bring life out of death for churches in crisis today. Using clear steps and practices, they invite church leaders to stop the endless cycle of doing more and rather to simply "be" in God's presence. They tell the story of two congregations who did this--and found new life in the process. When Church Stops Working distills the core themes of Root's critically acclaimed Ministry in a Secular Age series in a more accessible form. Leaders and churchgoers who are burned out and hopeless will experience affirmation, encouragement, and empowerment as Root and Bertrand turn to the book of Acts as well as examples from contemporary congregational life to show what "active" waiting looks like and the saving grace it can hold.

The Congregation in a Secular Age

The Congregation in a Secular Age PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 9780801098482
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Churches often realize they need to change. But if they're not careful, the way they change can hurt more than help. In this culmination of his well-received Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, leading practical theologian Andrew Root offers a new paradigm for understanding the congregation in contemporary ministry. He articulates why it is so hard for congregations to change and encourages an approach that doesn't fall into the negative traps of our secular age. Living in late modernity means our lives are constantly accelerated, and calls for change in the church often support this call to speed up. Root asserts that the recent push toward innovation in churches has led to an acceleration of congregational life that strips the sacred out of time. Many congregations are simply unable to keep up, which leads to burnout and depression. When things move too fast, we feel alienated from life and the voice of a living God. This book calls congregations to reimagine what change is and how to live into this future, helping them move from relevance to resonance.

The Pastor in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #2)

The Pastor in a Secular Age (Ministry in a Secular Age Book #2) PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Academic
ISBN: 149341822X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
In Faith Formation in a Secular Age, the first book in his Ministry in a Secular Age trilogy, Andrew Root offered an alternative take on the issue of youth drifting away from the church and articulated how faith can be formed in our secular age. In The Pastor in a Secular Age, Root explores how this secular age has impacted the identity and practice of the pastor, obscuring his or her core vocation: to call and assist others into the experience of ministry. Using examples of pastors throughout history--from Augustine and Jonathan Edwards to Martin Luther King Jr. and Nadia Bolz-Weber--Root shows how pastors have both perpetuated and responded to our secular age. Root turns to Old Testament texts and to the theology of Robert Jenson to explain how pastors can regain the important role of attending to people's experiences of divine action, offering a new vision for pastoral ministry today.

The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms (Ministry in a Secular Age)

The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms (Ministry in a Secular Age) PDF Author: Andrew Root
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493443399
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Post-Christian life and society do not eliminate a desire for the transcendent; rather, they create an environment for new and divergent spiritual communities and practices to flourish. We are flooded with spiritualities that appeal to human desires for nonreligious personal transformation. But many fail to deliver because they fall into the trap of the self. In the last book of the Ministry in a Secular Age series, leading practical theologian Andrew Root shows the differences between these spiritualities and authentic Christian transformation. He explores the dangers of following or adapting these reigning mysticisms and explains why the self has become so important yet so burdened with guilt--and how we should think about both. To help us understand our confusing cultural landscape, he maps spiritualities using twenty of the best memoirs from 2015 to 2020 in which "secular mystics" promote their mystical and transformational pathways. Root concludes with a more excellent way--even a mysticism--centered on the theology of the cross that pastors and leaders can use to form their own imaginations and practices.