COMING 2027 - from Eerdmans
Even These Stones
A Fable for the Church
In the early days of pastoring my church, things were pretty dire (and we even had a flood!).
Between Sundays, I was often alone in the old building. One day, heavy with the very real possibility that the church might soon close, I heard our resident gecko calling across the empty sanctuary and imagined that this little lizard might soon be the only living creature in a decommissioned church.
Maybe the creatures living in the walls remember something we’ve forgotten. That gecko’s song helped me sing this quiet church back to her calling. And as I did, I wrote this story.
May it remind us, when we forget how to worship, that “even these stones will cry out.”
"No kidding: If I could make one new book magically appear on the bedside table of every minister, priest, deacon and elder in North America, The Vulnerable Pastor would be it. Mandy Smith's wise and hopeful book is timely, a much-needed antidote to the influence of macho leadership run amok, which has wrecked so many pastors and churches. It is also timeless, an important reminder that God's power is made perfect in weakness. If you are a pastor, please read this book; if you have a pastor, please read it with them.”
– John Pattison, coauthor of Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus