Constant growth and expansion are the hallmarks of success in the 21st century. If your church hasn't seen double-digit increases in membership, if you're not planning a 20,000 square foot expansion to your building, if you're not planting a new 1,000-seat campus every year, you must be doing something wrong. Right? Not so, claim Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand, the authors of When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation Beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation. They suggest that calm, steadfast witness in response to God's movement might just be a suitable alternative to the boom-or-bust model of church.

Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, USA. He writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture and younger generations.

Blair Bertrand is a lecturer at Zomba Theological University, teaching consultant with Theological Education by Extension Malawi, and adjunct lecturer at Tyndale University, Toronto. He has served various Presbyterian Church in Canada congregations as an ordained minister and lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Andrew Root has written quite a few, much heftier, books on congregational change and management over the last decade or so. I haven't spent too much time with those volumes but this book is marketed as an attempt to distill all of that work into something accessible and digestible by the average person sitting in a pew on Sunday morning.

Root and Bertrand describe some of the more prevalent features of "management" in our society. The perceived need for constant growth, always more, and the need to be frantically busy at all times. They also describe these as lethal to the Church. In a world where objective truth has all but been abandoned, experience is governed entirely by personal feelings, and the community has been almost completely eclipsed by the individual, Root and Bertrand claim there is a better way for the Church to be.

The Church is not a Fortune 500 company and it should not seek to behave like one. Rather, the Church should focus its energy on God. Funny, that. A return to the relationship with God is a calm and steady theme throughout the book. Root and Bertrand are certain that God continues to speak to us through sacrament, scripture, prayer, learning, and ministry. They are persuaded that we can, again, learn from the liturgies and calendars, rhythms and patterns of our traditions. There is no call here to a radical reformation of the Church such as we saw tried 500 years ago, but rather a reminder that we have an alternative model of how to be as church.

This book is not a series of tips and tricks for reviving a declining congregation. Nor is it a step-by-step manual to successful stewardship campaigns or anything like that. Rather, it is a persuasive suggestion that our calling as 21st century Christians may be to live in smaller, calmer, more intentional communities than we have done for many generations.

So many of the recent books I've read on theology and congregational development have been focused squarely on American Evangelical models. This book was a welcome relief from that track and even includes several references to the realities of church in Canada, courtesy of Dr Bertrand. What a lovely change!

Some of the assumptions about church were still unhelpful for me. The book is written primarily with certain varieties of Protestantism in mind. For me - and I suspect for many Anglicans and Roman Catholics - some further conversation about how sacraments, especially Eucharist, and structured forms of prayer like the Divine Office would have been most welcome. No book can address all people in all circumstances. if my most substantial critique is that I wish there were more of it, I think that's a sound recommendation.

In summary, I think When Church Stops Working is a well-written, accessible, refreshing entry into the field of congregational development. Its focus on spirituality, relationship, and God certainly speaks to me and the challenges and opportunities I see in my parish, diocese, and church. This could make for an excellent book study for clergy groups, parish councils, or entire congregations. I hope that this book will be widely read and its ideas discussed by people in every order and ministry of the Church.

Review title: Church attendance is declining, this book addresses why and a path forward

I wanted to read this book for several reasons. My unmarried, college/early career-aged kids are willing to go to church but there’s no one their ages at church and no place for them to connect or have community. I have increasingly felt like I don’t fit in at church either, especially if I mention my interest/background in science. Also, I have seen so much division in the church and am concerned about fringe ideas that have become popular. Would this book have some insight that might help? I decided to read it to find out. I received a pre-release version of the book, When Church Stops Working, from NetGalley and read it with the Kindle app on my iPad so instead of page numbers, I reference location numbers when citing quotes. Here’s a summary of the book and my review.

In the Preface, this quote to pastors really summarizes the whole book, “This book will encourage you to walk, to do something, but this something might be more paradoxical than you expect. The point of this book you’re holding is to address the church in crisis, but in a way you probably haven’t considered.” L41. And the book goes on to share with pastors and church leaders ways to see God at work in their church and to shift focus from growth/attendance to waiting on God’s presence and action.

Chapter 1: Why Your Church Has a Problem, but It Isn’t What You Think
Diagnosing the root of the crisis in the church is similar to a medical diagnosis for a complex issue that was initially misdiagnosed. For 50 years the church has been treating the symptoms without addressing the systemic cause: infection of the secular age. Symptom 1 is the sense that the church and Christianity have less influence on society than they once did. (L211). Symptom 2 divides the public and private such that fewer people are expressing their faith in public/corporate/church settings. (L222). Symptom 3 goes deep to the core – it is now possible to not believe in God. (L244). Life must have resonance, otherwise, it is just busyness. If the church needs more of anything in the crisis it faces, it is more resonance. (L311).

Chapter 2: Busy People, Busy Church, A Killer Cocktail
Busyness sucks the joy out of people and the church often falls into the trap of adding to the busyness. Sarah and Abraham try an innovative and culturally acceptable approach to conceiving. Sarah’s handmaiden had their baby. They didn’t want to wait for God’s solution. Real people get hurt when they are treated as a problem to solve.

Chapter 3: Stop All the Having and Just Be
Always rushing to the next thing – to do more and more, takes away from the joy in the moment, just being present. The waiting church is a church led in humility into confession and thankfulness. The waiting church lives in the now by gratitude. (L762).

Chapter 4: It’s Time to Wait, but for What?
The church began during a period of waiting together. “Through waiting, the church is sent out into joining the acts of God. Waiting shapes the church to be, solely by the acts of God.” (L990).

Chapter 5: Waiting Brings Life, Not a Slow Death
In every community, including church communities, there is conflict.
1. No Tension → No Community (L1177).
2. No Crisis → No God (L1200).
Before the return of Jesus, there will always be some crisis but the church has misidentified declining numbers as a crisis to solve/fix. But that’s not the real crisis. “The real crisis is encountering a living God who is God. God is real. God is God, and we are not.” (L1224). “Our crisis is continual because God is God. Because God is God, we must wait.” (L1391).

Chapter 6: Forget the Mission Statement – Get a Watchword
“But a mission statement and good missional theology are not the same thing. A mission statement is an agreement about how a group of people will direct their actions. It puts our human actions at the center. Missional theology puts the emphasis on God’s own action. God is the agent in missional theology.” (L1415). We need to prioritize encountering God over programs and events.
• The First Move: Learn to Encounter
• The First Move: An Experiment in Encountering One Another
• The Second Move: Encounter God – “Barth’s advice is to not chase sunsets, concertos, or dead dogs, because they are not a sure thing. Instead, look to preaching, prayer, and mission as places we might encounter God.” (L1593). I don’t entirely agree here because the heavens declare the glory of God. Spending time in nature is a wonderful way to encounter God, connect with him, and see his glory.
• The Second Move: Encounter God: Hearing God, Seeing God, Serving God

Chapter 7: Out of the Family Basement
This chapter tells the story of a church that went through periods of decline and growth, pastor transitions, and change. Morality tales remember history with the goal to teach what to do or not to do. “Watchwords remember an encounter. They point to a time and place where God showed God.” (L1879).

Chapter 8: Nothing Can Separate You
This chapter starts with another example of a pastor/church that has a watchword formed from the experiences of a family and taught through their lives to the 7th grade Sunday School and then to the whole church. But in time, since “God moves in time, really acting in our lives, watchwords must come anew.” (L2037). To know when you need a new watchword, “listen by waiting” and develop an ear. “When one watchword passes away and you need another, you need to do less and wait, listening for what sounds like Scripture.” (L2059).

This book is written to pastors, elders, and church leaders, and not really to lay people. It was a good book, and I do think the ideas presented would be helpful for churches looking for God’s actions in their community. I think the advice for churches to wait for God rather than to fill the schedule with busyness and activities is wise. I had hoped it would offer some hope for me and my family but it wasn’t written for that purpose. I would recommend this book to people in leadership at churches.

At a time when churches are asking "what more can we do?" and pastors feel like they have run out of answers, Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand challenge us to lean into our Biblical faith, listen and wait in community, and see God move through his people. Their thoughtful approach is inspiring as it draws on church history, Scripture, and ministry experiences. This is a timely book that I would recommend to all church leaders who are seeking to understand what God desires to do through the church today. Thank you, Andrew and Blair, for writing a book that is profound, challenging, and inspiring to leaders who love the church and desire to be faithful ministers in a secular age.

The odds are fairly strong you've been in a church that stopped working, though certainly there are exceptions.

I thought about these experiences often while reading "When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation Beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation" by Andrew Root and Blair D. Bertrand.

As a Christian with a disability, I'll admit that I've gotten myself caught up wanting the church to do more for access, more for equity, and more programs for this or that or the other.

I've been guilty of wanting more.

Yet, as I was reading "When Church Stops Working" I began to realize that what I really want is less "doing church" and more "being the church." I want a church less concerned with programs and more concerned with prayer. I want a church less concerned with activity and more concerned with stillness. I want a church that seeks God's presence rather than offers more presents.

Root and Bertrand ask the question "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?"

Working with Root's themes from " Ministry in a Secular Age series," "When Church Stops Working" explores the theological roots of actively waiting for God and imagines a world where struggling churches will use such waiting and listening as a way of moving out of crisis and into God's presence.

I found myself consistently captivated by "When Church Stops Working" almost precisely because it's so counter to the way we live in American society these days. There's a pervasive attitude of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps and we've come to apply this to church life. If one program doesn't work, start another. If one slogan doesn't work, create another. Get a new sign. Start a new program. Attract a new audience.

Do something. Do more.

What if more is not the answer?

As a person with a disability, I've often felt that "being" the church is actually more inclusive and accessible. When we apply performance standards to church life, we inevitably exclude. When we simply invite people to be in God's presence, we cast our nets more widely and sit quietly in a safer place. We're children of God who've forgotten how to be childlike. For me, what Root and Bertrand are basically writing about is allowing ourselves to be children of God again.

It's weird, I suppose. It seems like as adults it's counter to actually being adults. Yet, time and again scripture calls us into just such a relationship with God and it makes sense that just such a relationship would also be the calling of the church.

Instead, we get caught up in a numbers game. We see attendance decline or offerings decline or service decline and we go into panic mode. According to Root and Bertrand, what we're doing is actually making everything worse. In an accessible and understandable way, they offer a theologically grounded explanation of what's really happening and how we can move forward. The examples, steps, teachings, and guides are practical yet immersed in faith and surrender and trust.

I must confess that I initially struggled to get into the rhythm of "When Church Stops Working," yet as I wound down my closing pages I found myself deeply moved both in terms of how I viewed church life and how I viewed my own journey.

There were so many things I loved about "When Church Stops Working," yet perhaps what I loved most was that I felt like the church that leans into this type of future is a church that would feel accessible, welcoming, and safe for me and a myriad of others.

There's simply no question that "When Church Stops Working" is a book I'll be referring to again and again and again.

This is a great diagnostic, as well as therapeutic, tool for leaders in the church.

Root and Bertrand prove to be worthy guides through the increasingly treacherous terrain of what we call “church” in 2023. I appreciate the way they lead through story and especially the ways they flesh out what these lofty ideas look like in the concluding two chapters.

A lot of books of this sort are great at diagnosing the problem, but fall short in remedy. This is not one of those. I’m excited to see how it may help leaders in the church continue to lead faithfully.

I was given an ARC of this book through my own request from Baker Academic and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"The Church is in crisis." That's nothing new. "The world is influencing believers more than the Church." That's old news. "The Church should try harder, work more, develop better programs, and become more relevant to the secular world." Been there, done that, what's next? Well, what if the Church should move away from its conventional measurements of success such as numbers, more efforts, and imitation of "successful" megachurches? Now we are listening. Beginning with a frank assessment of our prevailing culture, the authors point out the influence of secular society over the church at large; dividing societies into three major dichotomies: Secular vs Sacred; Public vs Private; and Immanent vs Transcendent. Secularism now sets the agenda, not the sacred. In a culture that prefers to keep the faith as private as possible, it is now possible to not believe in God and not need God. Along with that, secularism diminishes the awareness of the transcendent. The key to understanding how to revitalize the Church has more to do with this environment instead of throwing more money, programs, and innovation into the Church. In a bold shift from a myopic focus on internal Church dynamics, authors Andrew Root and Blaire Bertrand help us understand the trajectory of ministry for the future. They first critique the conventional ministry strategies, especially those based on "rules of capitalism." One popular way is that of acceleration in order to have more: Do more, get more, and perform more. Many churches that adopt this practice will tend to rush hastily with their plans instead of waiting for the Lord. One popular capitalist maxim is, "It is not the big who eat the small, but the fast who eat the slow." Churches swallow this whole: hook, line, and sinker. They remind us of the critical need to learn how to wait for God's timing. Unfortunately, impatience often drive human decisions through accelerated programs instead of waiting upon God through prayer and trust. Another catchy strategy is to use the popular mission-vision statement to drive the Church forward. The authors then point out the difference between a "mission statement" and "missional theology." The former put human actions at the center while the latter lets the Word of God drive any action. They call for the use of a "watchword" instead of a mission statement. In contrast to a "password" which we use to enter and forget, a "watchword" is something that shapes us to observe and discern things beyond mere results. The use of such a "watchword" helps us appreciate the relationships we have as we encounter one another, and to wait in such a way that we may encounter God. Weaving together the stories of faith, we let God speak to us in a way that blesses the relationships we have with one another.

Root and Bertrand also have some things to say about small churches. In chapter seven, they point out two "traps" that such churches can fall in. The first is family domination where a few families discourage the entry of newer members. Without being "invited" to such a clique, it is hard to grow. Secondly, there is the "endowment effect" which leads to sacred cows we are afraid to slay. We need to move away from just the family sheep and learn to care for all sheep. The authors then close with a story of Pastor Mike Woods, whose way to revitalizing the Church began with a "watchword." In fact, it is to link the old watchword with the new, From "Nothing can separate us from God's Love" to "Never Alone." Identifying this watchword is key not only to the revitalization of the Church but to the recognition of her identity. The job of the leader is to amplify this watchword everywhere, that the entire church ministry will flow from that. The source of this watchword: God.

My Thoughts
==============
If there is a way to summarize this book, it would be the 3Ws: Wait-Watch-Work in their order. The first is to learn to Wait. Just like the Book of Acts, we need to remember that Acts begin not with chapter Two to go forth and multiply. but with One, to wait upon the Holy Spirit to come. This teaches us the discipline of waiting upon God. We need to resist the temptation of rushing like the world does. The discipline of waiting forces us to sense the moving of the Spirit. If God doesn't move, we need to stay put. When God prompts, then move. Far too often, churches panic whenever numbers come unfavorably. From financial to attendance numbers, their ministries function on the basis of reacting to crises. If we learn the discipline of waiting, we will not let these factors influence our direction. Faith will be the guide instead.

Secondly, we need to learn to watch the movement of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts is not about the "Acts of the Apostles," even though most of the key leaders are the apostles like Stephen, Peter, Paul, etc. It should be more accurately titled as the "Acts of the Holy Spirit. The authors point out how many churches erroneously use busyness as a mark of health. That is something we all need to be careful of. I have heard someone mention BUSY as an acronym for "Buried Under Satan's Yoke." This can be arguable but the main point is that we should not busy ourselves in doing what the world tells us to do. We need to watch and pray for the direction God's wind is blowing. Move with the Spirit. Serve in God's flow. Watchfulness and prayerfulness should be the key marks of such a strategy.

Finally, we need to locate our Watchwords. If the first two Ws are done well, this will eventually be revealed. The authors remind us that while new generations will need new watchwords, they should not be totally different from the old ones. God moves in mysterious ways. Learning to identify our watchwords should be the most important thing any leader could do. Otherwise, we will be running ourselves empty. Unless we learn how to put first things first, we will be foolishly putting the cart before the horse. God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply, so says Hudson Taylor, a famous missionary to China.

This is a remarkable book that helps us look out of our conventional ministry boxes. It should be required reading for leaders or anyone burdened for the Church.

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 more than twenty books, including Faith Formation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, The Congregation in a Secular Age, Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Church after Innovation, and The End of Youth Ministry? Root is also the coauthor (with Kenda Creasy Dean) of The Theological Turn in Youth Ministry. He is a frequent speaker and hosts the popular and influential When Church Stops Working podcast.

Blair D. Bertrand (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is a lecturer at Zomba Theological University, teaching consultant with Theological Education by Extension Malawi, and adjunct lecturer at Tyndale University, Toronto. He has served various Presbyterian Church in Canada congregations as an ordained minister and lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Rating: 4.5 stars of 5.

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

There are a lot of theories to explain the decline in participation in mainline christian churches. One common idea is that struggling churches just aren’t doing enough to keep their memberships actively involved. Today we see any number of activities that compete with the church for our time and church is simply getting prioritized last (symptom 1 of the secular age). The other two “symptoms” are variants of the same theme (churches simple have less influence and our belief has simply changed/evolved and church hasn’t left up). The success of Meg Churches seem to highlight the truth of all this; however, this book strikes a different tone.

Doing for the sake of doing doesn’t work and just leads to burn-out. What is needed is the patience to wait for God’s action instead of acting on our own. This is a particularly difficult task in a society that has grown accustom to instant gratification. In our capitalized society, we know speed is a significant factor for success. Here the author provides a few practical ideas on waiting. Here also, there is a discussion about crisis that was a struggle for me to completely understand/agree with (No crisis = No God); however, one aspect of this discussion provided an interesting insight. Simply point, the drive for uniformity can be detrimental to the church community and some "tension, discord and even conflict” is actually healthy for the community to grow in faith. Getting comfortable with diversity is important; however, it can also be true that extreme opposites with some for of uniform belief just doesn’t work … and this tension was not covered at all.

The book then finishes up throwing away the “mission statement” that is so common in business and replaces the concept with the watchword. I haver to admit that it took me awhile to discern the difference, but as far as I can tell … mission statements drive what we do and watchwords drives what we believe (core ideals) which indirectly influence what we do. Not every community will always have a watchword (so they need to wait until they can discover what it should be) and no watchword last forever (so there is a time to abandon it and look for another). This ideal was completely new to me and very thought provoking.

1. Why Your Church Has a Problem, but It Isn’t What You Think
2. Busy People, Busy Church — A Killer Cocktail
3. Stop All the Having and Just Be
4. I’s Time to Wait, but for What?
5. Waiting Brings Life, Not a Slow Death
6. Forget the Mission Statement
7. Out of the Family Basement
8. Nothing Can Separate You

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#WhenChurchStopsWorking #NetGalley