COMING 2027 - from Eerdmans
Even These Stones
A Fable for the Church
Illustrations by Deb Mostert
To rediscover what the Church might yet be, we need to set aside statistics of decline and anxious strategising long enough to remember her mysteries.
This fable for the Church is not escapism.
It helps us see and join enchanted things.
The story of the story
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.”
“These days, the church needs stories to push into our hidden places,
stories to rattle our assumptions and complacency, stories rousing hope.
We need stories rising up from our deepest places, stories like Mandy’s.”
Winn Collier, Author & Director of The Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination
“This story is mystical and stunning, . . . masterful and magical.”
Susan Meredith Fish, Author, Editor, Theologian
