Bearing the Weight of Lay Ministry in a Disaffiliated World

by Andrew Reyes

• Church Leadership & Ministry

• Publisher: Resource Publications (Wipf and Stock)
• Published: 2025

Publisher's Description

What do you do when the church you love seems to be emptying out? When the retreat gets canceled, the pews stay bare, and your inbox fills with apologies and absence? Still Here is a heartfelt exploration of lay ministry in a time of institutional decline and spiritual disaffiliation. Drawing from years of hands-on experience and theological reflection, Andrew Reyes names the disillusionment that many Catholic ministers feel--and dares to stay anyway. This is not a story of easy answers or hollow optimism. It's a testimony of persistence, of vocation reimagined, of showing up with dignity even when others do not. With pastoral candor and prophetic insight, Reyes speaks to everyone still laboring in the vineyard, still setting up folding chairs, still waiting for someone to walk through the door. This book is for the faithful who feel forgotten--and who are still here.