Originally, when I finished reading Andrew Root’s book, The Pastor in a Secular Age, I was going to write a blog under this title to reflect on my takeaways from that book. Well over a year later, and after finishing another two of his books, I have even more thoughts on ministry in the secular age!
While I’m no expert, and I’ll definitely fumble around trying to explain things as well as Root does in his books, I think that this is such an amazing topic worth looking into (though I definitely recommend reading his books on this topic if you’re very interested — and if you do, I’d love to chat with you more)! Instead with this blog, I’ll point out some convictions I have about ministry moving forward, along with what that looks like in practice.
A brief warning: I use the term “faithful church”, not in the biblically sound (and therefore not heretical) preaching of doctrine, but rather, a church that has faith in God. After all, this topic is far from a primary issue, and not something to divide the universal body of believers over. While I do have strong convictions, it’s a completely different thing to live this out in a very real local church body. Things like this require nuance, gentleness, and going back to the Word, instead of dogmatically dividing congregations. I wouldn’t go in with guns blazing and calling churches heretical just because churches don’t fit my ideal vision. You should be careful to do the same.
Book 2 — The Pastor in a Secular Age
This book came to me at the right time, when I became very involved with the youth ministry at the church I went to in Mississauga. It was very clear that the way the kids could be ministered to was very different than how I was ministered to. I wondered, “Am I really fit to do this?”, as I often struggled to relate to the kids and speak gospel truth to them. It always felt like nothing stuck and resonated with them, and that we as a leadership team were chasing after the next best thing to get them excited about Jesus.
As I read this book, I realized, “Yeah, I don’t have what it takes to make these kids believe the gospel in their hearts and live it out in their lives!” The truth is, there is nothing we can say or do to cause people to believe. That is completely up to God! So then, “What exactly do pastors (or ministers, to that extent) do?” you might wonder.
Root talked a lot in his book about the history of specific pastors and how the approach of ministry has changed over time, and it’s quite fascinating to read! In the second half of his book, he gave a few answers about how ministry actually looks like to people who believe they don’t need God (read, secular age), taking inspiration from the Bible itself!
He emphasizes that God must move and act in people’s lives first before a heart change can occur (there are obviously a lot more details in his book on this, which is why I recommend reading it). It’s through this action that God does as an act of ministry, and He then calls the ministered-to to now minister to others, sharing in how God has acted in their lives. But of course, there is nothing we can do to stir up God to do this necessary action!
Takeaways
So then, what is a pastor/minister? My belief is that a pastor/minister is akin to a farmer, who faithfully sows seeds in the ground, and watches the clouds in anticipation for the rain to come. While the farmer cannot control when it rains, he is however, able to tell when it will rain, based on his extensive experience in the fields. Similarly, a pastor/minister faithfully preaches the word, and watches and waits with his people for God to act in their lives with much anticipation and faith, because he himself has already been ministered to.
Prayer follows this exact shape of faithfully waiting on the LORD, and is therefore the primary form of ministry, as our way of watching the clouds and waiting for the rain to come down. And when it does rain, we can say, “Look! God has come and acted!”, sharing with amazement in our eyes!
I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Daniel 7:13–14, ESV)
Book 3 — The Congregation in a Secular Age
This book came at a time when I was beginning to get tired. I was getting tired of trying to live faithfully (especially in the ministry sense). I wondered, “How much longer God? I can’t hold on!” as the daunting weight of trying to live out the rest of my life laid heavy on my shoulders. I also was starting to worry, “God, how can your church stay faithful? There’s just so much to do, and so little to do it all with!” This marked the start of me seeing the cracks in (my) modern-day church.
In fact, this book put me in a crisis (which makes Root’s follow-up book all the more fitting), as it outlined the problems in the church in a modern context, instead of giving solutions! As I read, I couldn’t help but cry over the fact that the church is breaking apart; that everyday people like me hear the call to live for eternity, yet feel exhausted and even depressed when we look at the struggles of reality. There is a “crisis of decline”, as the book says, but it isn’t what you might initially think.
So what is this “crisis of decline”? It’s a decline not of resources, but of livelihood. The root of it is that we as a church don’t truly have faith in God that He will move and act to change people’s lives and hearts. As a result of this doubt, we will try to grasp at whatever we think we can get. This looks like trying to “innovate” (a key theme in this book) to attract people into the church. This forms the mentality that “it’s all up to us in order to survive as a church”; as Root puts it, “the church becomes the hero of the story”. In trying to live as the hero, people in the congregation act as if God isn’t sovereign, and therefore must stretch themselves in order for the church to even have a chance of surviving, only to burn out at the end.
Takeaways
A church that chases after innovation (trying to cater to culture and trying to find something that will stick with the culture surrounding them) believes that, and as Root puts it, “the highest good is acceleration”. With this underlying belief, the congregation is bound to crumble, with people feeling alienated and getting burned as the church pursues this idol.
Knowing that this is the natural conclusion, and I’m going to be very harsh here, I don’t desire to partner with churches that have this false belief permeate their ministry efforts. It’s not my desire for congregations to get burnt out in this pursuit, and this also includes pastors! Rather, I desire to see churches come together and rely on God to change hearts. The ultimate good should be God, and nothing else should take His righteous place. I want churches to be faithful!
So then, what does a faithful church look like?
Book “3.2” — Churches and the Crisis of Decline
Originally, Root only wrote three books as part of his “Ministry in the Secular Age” series. Now, he’s written follow-up books, going in reverse order.
His “3.2nd” (okay, really fourth) book explores the life of a theologian, named Karl Barth, his experiences as a pastor, and his convictions about ministry as a result of those experiences. At the same time, Root shares the story of a fictional-but-very-relatable church going through their own crisis.
A once vibrant church now finds itself without a pastor to lead the congregation. Their long-standing senior pastor recently left, and so the elder board comes together to form a search committee. They end up hiring a young man to be the lead pastor at the church. Upon joining, he completely rebrands the church, throwing away the rich history of the church, in favour of trying to appeal to the culture around them. Their church is now focused more on social justice and the community, and they often hold huge events regularly to try and bring in more people. On the surface, it seems like a lively church, but on the inside, they were rapidly dying.
The new lead pastor ends up throwing in the towel, citing that the church just wasn’t growing at the pace he wanted it to, and left for better endeavours (a megachurch down the road). Now, the congregation, dysfunctional and even more hurt, hires a new lead pastor, who tries to “bring things back to the good ol’ days”. However, the church has changed, and nothing seems to stick with them, including this replacement pastor. Facing financial issues, and having no direction, the church is pressured to close down and sell their property to be converted to a bar.
It’s in the midst of this crisis that the church re-discovers who they really are, and what being a church looks like.
This story was such an amazing read, as it provided me with hope — hope in God, that He preserves His people. I won’t spoil the rest of the story, but I do have some takeaways…
Takeaways
There is a huge difference between the mode of “having” and “being”. Churches that are focused on the “having” are focused on having resources — the obtaining of things/people for the potential of doing something with them. In the midst of a crisis, they view their problem as a lack of having resources (and therefore need to chase after more). As mentioned in book three, this ends up with people feeling alienated and burning out.
Instead, churches that are focused on “being” are focused on cultivating relationships; or as I would say, being present (the ability to be with others). What brings churches out of their crisis of decline and into life is a term that Root uses called resonance. I’d summarize it like so: resonance is the shared relational experience of God’s ministry that is ever-elusive. In other words, you can have resonance only with other people in relationship with them. This lends itself towards the “being” type of church. Resonance is elusive, however — we cannot control when God acts and moves, since otherwise, we’d just approach resonance as another thing to have!
Churches that are full of livelihood are ones that are practicing being in relation with each other, always seeking for God. When God does act, the congregation comes together to affirm and remind each other of God’s action. The faithful church is content with being present with the people around them, actively sharing the gospel and their hope in the LORD as they wait alongside those who are seeking Him.
Implications & Exhortations
Now obviously, with a short blog like this, I could never do any of Root’s books justice (I likely sounded like I was going insane in trying to explain his books). So the first call to action is to check out his books (feel free to lend one from me — just ask)!
But, really reflecting on what I’ve read so far (I still have his “2.2” and “1.2” books to read), I have stronger convictions for what faithful ministry looks like.
Instead of trying to chase after what’s popular in culture, trying to be relevant, trying to innovate and attract people into church (or fellowship, or the faith) — which is what I did a lot in my early ministry years, I instead will be praying and waiting.
I will wait with people who are seeking to find God, and I will wait on the LORD to act in their lives and change their hearts. In waiting, I will be active in prayer. Praying for others, with others, knowing that it’s through prayer that I get to be present and share about God’s ministry in my personal life, which prompts us to anticipate God’s ministry to us in the near future.
I know that there is nothing I can say or do to change people’s hearts. Instead, I will rely on God’s word to do this secret work in people’s hearts because God’s word is powerful (2 Tim. 3:16–17; Heb. 4:12)!
If I were to give some sort of “anthem” for ministry in the secular age, it would be Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. We invite others to come and see the amazing grace of God displayed on the cross, and we place our hope in Him, knowing that the revealing of this wondrous mystery will change people’s hearts and lives.
At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ […] (Colossians 4:3, ESV)
Will you join me in prayer with and for others as we wait on the LORD to minister and change people’s hearts and lives?
