A while back on Threads I said that “I don’t know of any are more relevant to their time than these.”
Upon further reflection, I *might* add the Bible to that list.
In all seriousness, while I am fond of these books, I’m not THAT fond.
I read these books in the following order:
#4 The Church After Innovation
#5 Churches and the Crisis of Decline
#3 The Congregation in a Secular Age
#6 The Church in an Age of Secular Mysticism
#1 Faith Formation in a Secular Age
#2 The Pastor in a Secular Age
Funny enough, I stumbled across Root’s work when I saw his “innovation” title, and boy was I in for a surprise!
It’s hard to rank these books, but in my opinion, the most important are:
#5 Churches and the Crisis of Decline
In short: We think the church crisis is decline, the real crisis is that we don’t really believe in God anymore.
#3 The Congregation in a Secular Age
In short: We think churches need to do more, but in reality all this “doing” is burning out pastors and diluting our awareness of God.
#2 The Pastor in a Secular Age
In short: The pastor’s most essential task in our time is to help people encounter God through prayer, ministry, and testimony.
For those unwilling or unable to dive into the whole 1,000 plus pages of this series, there is a more digestible summary book, When Church Stops Working by Andrew Root and Blair D. Bertrand which I’d highly recommend also.