The call for pastors and congregations to be innovative can have a dark side: an obsession with contemporary relevance and entrepreneurship that lacks theological depth and promises burnout and exhaustion. Leading practical theologian Andrew Root shines a light on the problem and offers a treatment.

Contents1. Only the Creative Survive: How Mission Became Married toInnovation2. We're All Sandwich Artists Now: Work and Backwash, Reversing a Historical Flow3. Hungry, Hungry Markets: Workers in Contradiction, Children inConsumption4. Let's Get Extra: Exploring the Secular Contradiction of Capitalism5. Leave It to Management: Managing for Permanent Innovation6. The Viennese Worm That Exposes the True Self: When Work Becomes about Flexible Projects7. Justification by Creative Works Alone: When Creativity Becomes King, the Self Becomes a Star8. Why You're Not That Special but Feel the Need to Be: Singularity and the Self9. Standing Naked against Money10. The Three Amigos of the Mystical Path: How the Self Is Freed from Singularity11. Aesthetic Epiphanies, Mad Poets, and a Humble Example of What This All Looks LikeIndex

"This perceptive and engaging book is a godsend for leaders and pastors"The call for pastors and congregations to be innovative can have a dark side: an obsession with contemporary relevance and entrepreneurship that lacks theological depth and promises burnout and exhaustion. The Church after Innovation shines a light on the problem and offers a treatment."This book will help you to consider the possible costs of chasing innovation and entrepreneurship--for you and your church. It provides significant insights and questions regarding some of the most pressing challenges of our time."--Angela Williams Gorrell, Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University"There's something satisfying about a story that is this big, bold, and revealing about how our cultural presumptions came to be--especially when so beautifully told. When Christians fall in love with ideas of leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship, we can be sure they have ignored for too long the secular economic context in which they live and breathe. A timely wake-up call."--Brian Brock, University of Aberdeen"This perceptive and engaging book is a godsend for leaders and pastors. In a market saturated with quick-fix, innovate-or-die polemics on church growth, this book offers a richer path to help realize a transcendent creativity of epiphany (over innovation) that values people, nurtures personhood, and promotes flourishing for the church in a secular age."--Nick Shepherd, FRSA, Archbishops' Council of the Church of England"With penetrating analysis and prophetic force, Root exposes how the false idols of capitalism are being smuggled into the church through the Trojan horses of innovation and entrepreneurialism. A bold, necessary, and urgent book."--Richard Beck, Abilene Christian University; author of Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age"Seminaries need to assign this book. Ministers need to read this book. I'm grateful to Root for so powerfully articulating the biggest problem facing the church--namely, our supposed need to innovate."--Tripp Fuller, founder and host of the Homebrewed Christianity podcast"This important book is worthy of reading and rereading."--Rodney Clapp, author of Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Age