The Congregation in a Secular Age

Keeping Sacred Time against the Speed of Modern Life

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date 19 Jan 2021 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2021

Talking about this book? Use #TheCongregationinaSecularAge #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!


Description

Academy of Parish Clergy 2022 Top Ten Book for Parish Ministry

Churches often realize they need to change. But if they're not careful, the way they change can hurt more than help.

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.

This is the third book in Root's Ministry in a Secular Age series.
Academy of Parish Clergy 2022 Top Ten Book for Parish Ministry

Churches often realize they need to change. But if they're not careful, the way they change can hurt more than help.

Leading practical...

Advance Praise

“Andrew Root is one of our leading practical theologians. Over the years he has carved out a space within which solid theological reflection and philosophical inquiry are merged into practical strategies that are illuminating and often fascinating. In this new book he continues his ongoing dialogue with Charles Taylor, providing us with a fascinating and timely exploration of time, church, and culture. Time is something we tend to take for granted. But it is a crucial dimension of social and ecclesial life. In this book Root clearly lays out the implications of thinking about time and speed and the ways in which we build communities, think about theology, and ultimately become more faithful disciples. This is a book well worth reading.”—John Swinton, chair of divinity and religious studies, University of Aberdeen 

“Root serves as a guide for current congregations often lost in the time and space of the wilderness of high modernity. He deftly leads his readers on an adventure through historical, philosophical, and theological perspectives, providing an eternal compass of resonance toward our True North. The experience of reading this book is what I imagined it was like to witness Moses parting the Red Sea. Just as Moses created a passage for Israel from Egypt, Root shows us how to suspend the relentless rush of time and points the church toward a path from our present captivity in the rat race of modernity to the life-giving vitality of the love of God. This book is required reading for the next generation of Christian leaders. Root provides a clear and resounding perspective on why and how the church matters in a secular age.”—Pamela Ebstyne King, Peter L. Benson Chair of Applied Developmental Science, Thrive Center for Human Development, Fuller Theological Seminary 

“On a secular view of the world, we are thrown into an existence in which our time is running out. The pressure is on to accomplish as much as we can, as quickly as we can, which generates a constant anxiety that fuels depression. Not only does this pressure terrorize the secular world, it also menaces the many congregations that are fighting for survival in the so-called secular age. In response to this situation, Andrew Root offers a fierce remedy. As someone to whom this book really speaks, I could feel a weight being lifted off my shoulders, page by page. Why? Because this book offers a fresh, timely, and powerful reminder of the hope of all hopes––the one true hope––to which the gospel witnesses. As such, it made me a happier person, authentically so!”—Andrew Torrance, University of St. Andrews 

“Root is an expert reader of contemporary church life. He deftly distills complex philosophical, historical, and sociological scholarship and delivers what his readers need to know. And Root’s constructive proposals challenge churches and individuals to rethink their relationship to time and busyness. The Congregation in a Secular Age will leave many readers wondering just how Root knows them and their congregations so well. This book is a valuable resource to anyone who has the nagging feeling that there’s never enough time.”—Ryan McAnnally-Linz, associate director, Yale Center for Faith and Culture 

“Andrew Root is one of our leading practical theologians. Over the years he has carved out a space within which solid theological reflection and philosophical inquiry are merged into practical...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780801098482
PRICE $26.99 (USD)
PAGES 288

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (EPUB)
Send to Kindle (EPUB)

Average rating from 3 members


Featured Reviews

The subtitle of this book, "Keeping Sacred Time against the Speed of Modern Life," captures Andrew Root's counter-cultural approach to church leadership in a time of great change. Even before the pandemic that has forced change on institutions and individuals in 2020, there was broad consensus among those who care about the Church: too much is changing outside church walls. Church leaders need to innovate, the thinking goes, and adjust to meet the needs of our new American way of life or we're going to lose people. In many congregations, covid has accelerated this pressure to create more and bigger projects.

Root shows how such thinking, while maybe exciting while creativity is flowing, ultimately drains the people, often leading to anxiety and depression. He uses writing from philosophical, sociological, theological, and historical scholars to challenge our unthinking acceptance of the "speed of modern life." He takes that scholarship and shows clear implications for a different path forward. The result is not a quick and breezy read; he made me think, and that careful reading was a joy.

This book belongs on every pastor and congregational leader's "to be read" list.

Was this review helpful?

What time is it? It's secular time! In a three-part volume about Christian life in a secular age, author, and professor Andrew Root paints for us the challenges surrounding youth ministry; pastoral ministry; and ministry to the congregation. The first volume deals with the reasons why young people's faith had flipped from a culture of "difficult not to believe" to "difficult to believe" within 500 years. The key is to move away from talking about faith to practicing faith in love to the young ones. Root looked at the state of authenticity and how it interacts with duty-bound individuals. The second volume looks at the challenges of pastoral ministry in a secular age where the challenge is for pastors to communicate hope even to people who refuse to see any hope. Thus, the second volume aims to encourage pastors with hope through historical examples and that ministry unveils God's presence to people by helping them recognize and perceive "divine action" in their midst. From youth ministry to pastoral ministry, now author Andrew Root helps us look at congregational ministry in an age of secularism. His key thesis is this: Congregations are unable to keep up with the changing tide of cultural changes leading to burnout, depression, and a shift from sacred living to frantic behaving, from faithfulness to a "drive for vitality." The solution is to go back to the fundamentals of ecclesiology and to help local congregations do the same.

Written in three parts, Part One is where Root explains why he thinks congregations are depressed. There are several signs of such depression. One of which is the lack of willingness to go beyond mere attending Sunday services. Another sign is the lack of motivation regardless of the topics or programs introduced. Modernity's frantic speed to get things done had led to an unfortunate state of apathy and lethargy. When our identity gets tied to our accomplishments, we risk identity crisis when we fail or get fatigued. When change itself becomes an identity of the Church, we risk burnout. Even if we have over a billion dollars, time and speed would gobble up what amount of money we throw against them. Apart from the futility of fighting against time, there is also the danger of letting busyness define us. Busyness can easily lead to exhaustion, fatigue, futility, and burnout. The key to the problem is the replacement of "sacred time" with "secular time." This could come in the form of the new being perceived as better than anything old, or the faster more respected than the slow; etc. Part Two examines the problem of this secular time in greater detail. Following German social theorist Hartmut Rosa's lead, technology, social change, and our pace of life are all the causes of speeding up. Not only must the Church recognize the potency of these three sources, but she also needs to understand the complexities that arise out of their interactions. These three lead to three crises: 1) Technological acceleration; 2) Social Life Acceleration, and 3) Pace of Life acceleration. Root gives readers a fascinating treatise on how these three accelerations had impacted congregational life. Part Three helps orientate us toward addressing these. Change our perspective of time to be more critical of the way modern technology saps our energy and limited resources. Beware of turning everything into resources we want to make use of. Root notes that while sabbatical and slowing down church might seem to work at first, the root problem is not addressed. For if rest is only a subset of growth, eventually, it becomes a chicken-and-egg quagmire, where growth needs to greater need for rest; and rest only possible if a certain growth level is achieved. We need some form of "stabilization" from constant change, but that too could lead to "alienation." Other need for stabilization includes our resistance to letting time and futuristic expectations diminish our sense of identity. Root unleashes his dual dimensions of resonance to help us chart a path forward.

My Thoughts
==============
Andrew Root is one of the most avid observers of cultural change and social dynamics. He applies it well to the state of the congregation. On the impact of time, Root argues that while the purpose of "slow church" is correct, the solution is inadequate. I interpret that to mean that strategies to attempt to slow things down are not solving the problem, though they do slow the decay. Practical-wise, "slow church" has its merits and readers might misconstrue Root's observation as a reason to jettison such a noble initiative. Readers might want to give the author some leeway before drawing any conclusions. My key takeaway is that slowdown initiatives can only help us in a limited way. We need something better to supplement them. My thinking is that there is enough merit not just to slow down but to alter conventional thinking toward a more regulated form for stabilization. Sabbath as a rhythm works well as an institutionally sanctioned event. We are creatures of habit and once things are established in some routine or rhythm, we will learn to adapt rather than abandon the pressures of society. I make a distinction between adapting and catching up. Root is correct in observing the futility of trying to play catchup. The risk is that any stabilization activities he proposes might just be another name for the practices of slowing down or taking a Sabbath. Given such a lack of understanding of anything apart from conventional slowdown or separation of activities from secular to sacred, it will take time for laypersons to understand the significance of stabilization. After all, the more a person is steeped in secular values, the more difficult it is to think outside of that domain. That is why it is crucial to understand Root's first four chapters about the "depressed congregation." Otherwise, the rest of the book would not be meaningful.

On congregational despondency, I prefer to see it as a challenge rather than a fact. Root is spot on with regard to the effects of technology on stressing up our life expectations. That reminds me of the difference between kairos (timely) and chronos (clock) time. Instead of letting ourselves be enslaved by the latter, we need to learn how to capture the best use of time. That calls for our identity to be based on something bigger than ourselves. While it is true that busyness lends itself to fatigue and stress, many of us have come to accept that as a normal way of life. Some of us have developed strategies to deal with or to adapt to such a modern pace of life. I see Root's reminder as one that is linked directly to discernment. We need to discern the eternal from the temporal; the important over the urgent; and the necessary instead of the superfluous. If we don't discern the threat of time and technology, we might end up serving these principalities instead of subjecting them under the lordship of Christ. In that sense, I see the wisdom of Root in calling us back to childlikeness via the three movements of Matthew 18: the Resonance of Humility, Humanity, and Community.

Andrew Root's books always challenge me not just to critique culture and conventional ways, they also make me think about how the Christian faith can speak the way forward. As I ponder about the secular-sacred time divide, I cannot help but wonder if it is some form of dualism. In some ways it is. However, for the benefit of the secular mind, this kind of vocabulary might have to be used until the reality and cognitive understanding of kairos time takes root.

Andrew Root (PhD, Princeton Theological Seminary) is Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and has written extensively about youth ministry.

Rating: 4.75 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.1

Was this review helpful?

Readers who liked this book also liked: