Our adult book club will be meeting during Lent 2025 to discuss the book by Andrew Root and Blair Bertrand, When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation Beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation (2023).

The title has a double meaning — the common experience that “church” as we have come to know it seems to be declining in relevance and numbers and that efforts to counteract decline by trying harder to be “relevant” actually make the problem worse, because what we really need is less works and more faith!  Dr. Root teaches at Luther Seminary in St. Paul MN and has written prolifically on the theology and sociology of secularism and how it impacts congregational life and ministry; this book distills that research into a form that is intended for congregational-level reflection and discussion.

We’ll meet on Thursdays from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. both in-person in the church office and (for those who prefer) on Zoom (meeting ID 288 623 8502, password 971936) with the following schedule:

Thursday March 6 - Chapters 1-2
Thursday March 13 - Chapters 3-4
Thursday March 27 - Chapters 5-6
Thursday April 3 - Chapters 7-8

We still have a couple copies of the book available … pick them up at the service on Sunday or in the church office.

Other books we’ve read in the past include:

David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (2019)
Austin Channing Brown, I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness (2018)
Brian Zahnd, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (2017).
Nadia Bolz-Weber, Accidental Saints (2015).
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (German 1939, English tr. 1954) - copy available here.

Please check the calendar of events for the latest schedule.