A Serious House: Why if Churches Fall Completely Out of Use, We May Miss Them
Ebook
The church is in deep trouble, maybe in its death throes. Losing touch with the church has meant a break with the Western cultural past, its history, its music, its art, its literature, much of which cannot fully be understood without its religious heritage. But something more important than any of that is in danger of being lost.
The church is a deeply imperfect and frustrating organization, but within it, community is experienced, values are nurtured, and God's presence in the world is embodied in a people. The church carries the story of Jesus; it tells the story of who we are, it calls us to give away our lives to others and to find love as life's central meaning.
We have crossed a cultural divide. Before, if you did not hold traditional religious beliefs and belong to a church you felt obliged to explain yourself. Now the pressure is to explain why you do. This is my answer.
“Martin Camroux’s A Serious House is a carefully considered reflection of the present state of the church and Christianity. Deeply personal, it draws on Martin’s own journey of faith as a pastor, preacher, and scholar, while exploring the great issues and formidable challenges faced by Christians. We should be grateful to Martin for this eminently readable, searingly honest, learned, if sometimes uncomfortable book.”
—Richard Jurd, United Reformed elder and lay-preacher
“How welcome—another thoughtful, refreshing, and well-crafted work by Martin Camroux. This book weaves together strands of autobiography, preaching, and socially aware apologetics, defying stale stereotypes of these genres, overcoming their more exclusive aspects, and enhancing their complementary strengths. This approach is profoundly pastoral, as Camroux speaks for those who are losing their sense of church and for those on the threshold of finding this as a more honest, more convivial, more transformative actuality.”
—Ian McPherson, United Reformed minister
“A Serious House is the credo of a liberal Christian known for his candid criticism of churches to which he remains devoted. It is written with clarity and honesty. It is informed by and sensitive to tradition. And it is evangelical.”
—Clyde Binfield, professor emeritus of history, University of Sheffield
- Title: A Serious House: Why if Churches Fall Completely Out of Use, We May Miss Them
- Authors: Martin Camroux, David R. Peel
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2024
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9798385207848, 9798385207831, 9798385207824
- Resource ID: LLS:9798385207848
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-05-07T23:30:16Z
Martin Camroux is a United Reformed Church minister and served in local ecumenical partnerships for over thirty years. He was cofounder of Free to Believe, the URC Liberal Network, and was the London Times’ “Preacher of the Year” in 2001. He is the author of Ecumenism in Retreat: How the URC Failed the Break the Mould (2016) and Keeping Aive the Rumor of God: When Most People Are Looking the Other Way (2020).