Andy Root's Essential Themes

Andrew Root: TLDR

I have been reading a LOT of Andrew Root books of late, including Churches and the Crisis of Decline, The Church After Innovation, The End of Youth Ministry, and now The Congregation in a Secular Age, all within the last 6 months or so, and I think I’m getting a sense of Root’s overall ethos, which I think can be boiled down to one sentence:

Evangelical and Progressive churches have both succumb to modernity to the extent we/they are functional atheists and act as if the gospel message has no power.¹

Broadly speaking, Evangelical churches do this by making church trendy and “seeker-sensitive,” essentially doubting that God and the gospel is compelling alone. Weekend services are designed to be attractional and compelling, so that worship participants will want to invite their neighbors and friends. There’s often a sense of needing to be “bigger and better” than before, something I’ve heard referenced as a “purple cow.”² This isn’t to say that Christians should not present the message of Jesus in a compelling way, or that the Christian message has never been contextualized to a culture (of course it has), rather it is just that this reliance on trendiness seems to delegitimize the power of the gospel message itself.

Again, broadly speaking, Progressive churches do this by assuming social change/justice is dependent on human action, functionally doubting God’s work in the world and the power of the gospel to change hearts and minds. This is often best exemplified in the dismissal of comments of “thoughts and prayers” in response to mass shootings. Of course, politicians can sometimes use “thoughts and prayers” as a throwaway line, not intending further thought or action, but assuming responses to violence and tragedy should have not impetus in prayer or discernment I think speaks to Root’s broader points. Root’s foundational point seems to be the belief that God IS working in the world and that our responsibility is not to initiate good in the world but instead discern and join in on where and how God is working.

More, both churches seek cultural relevance, but in different ways. Evangelicals through an adoption of what Root calls the speed/acceleration of modern life, not so much a teaching about the common challenges of modern life, but more so a “how to live your best life” amidst all the hustle & bustle rather than questioning the need to participate in such hustle.

Progressives take a different yet somehow similar track toward cultural relevance, essentially baptizing most everything on the cultural and political left.³ I have lost track of how many times I have heard the phrase “God/the Spirit is doing a new thing” when it comes to conversations around evolving trends in modern society. Yes, I would probably agree that God is doing a new thing, I am just not sure anytime something changes, it is necessarily of God.

Root seeks not so much to critique each individual choice, but to call the church to more discernment and intentionality. Again, to exemplify, through social media⁴ there is a pressure to respond quickly and sharply, giving little time for discernment and prayer. It seems the spiritual practice of discernment has almost been lost altogether in this time.

I think what I most appreciate is that he critiques not from the worn out “Evangelical/Progressive” dynamic, but seeks to take a more “meta” approach. More, he seems less interested in simply going back to the way things were, rather instead calling for a more critical and faithful examination of the way things are and how the church participates.

Of course, I may be wrong in my assessment. And I think there are some Calvinist undertones (a high theology for sure at least).⁵ I am curious what others have taken from Root? Or how others might disagree?

1. In perhaps true honor to Root, I felt the need to footnote extensively!

2. I have heard this phrase repeatedly in The Unstuck Church Podcast, in which co-host Amy Anderson talks about people driving down the road not being compelled when seeing regular cows, but a purple cow will grab their attention.

3. Of course some Evangelicals embrace Christian nationalism, but broadly speaking, this isn’t happening in the mega churches (see Andy Stanley, for instance).

4. A great example of the speed/acceleration Root writes about in The Congregation in a Secular Age.

5. Root clearly exemplifies a high Christology and what I’ll call a high theology overall, perhaps best exemplified in his “God is God” appeal from Barth in Churches and the Crisis of Decline.