Fifth Sunday of Lent (Cycle A)

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The Raising of Lazarus Lectionary:  34 Reading 1 -  Ezekiel 37:12-14 Responsorial Psalm -  Psalm 130:1-8 Reading 2 -  Romans 8:8-11 Verse - John 11:25a, 26 Gospel -  John 11:1-45 Lazarus, come out! LESSON: The Power of God Through Those Who Believe We’re a week away from the start of Holy Week. Our Lord now has his sights set on Jerusalem, and the pace is quickening. In these next two weeks, we’re living just one part of the Gospel passage from today: an encounter with the reality of suffering and death. Jesus is asking us to have faith in him. In today’s First Reading the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of the Lord’s promise to not only to bring us back to life but to bring us home. The background of this passage is the famous "Valley of Dry Bones." The people of Israel were in exile in Babylon. They weren't just sad; they were spiritually and nationally "dead." Their common saying was: "Our bones are dried up, our hope is lost, and we are cut off." They d...
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Review: When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation

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When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation When Church Stops Working: A Future for Your Congregation beyond More Money, Programs, and Innovation by Andrew Root

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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 Mega 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 accustomed 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 form 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 have 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 lasts forever (so there is a time to abandon it and look for another). This idea was completely new to me and was 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. It’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

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