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A Roundtable Review

Müller, Sabrina.

Lived Theology: Impulses for a 
Pastoral Theology of Empowerment.
Eugene, Oregon: Cascade, 2021.

ISBN: 978-1725273962

Hagley, Scott J., Karen Rohrer,  
and Michael Gehrling, eds.

Sustaining Grace: Innovative 
Ecosystems for New Faith 
Communities.

Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2020.

ISBN: 978-1532687594

Reviewed by Patrick Todjeras
University of Greifswald, Germany 
patrick.todjeras@uni-greifswald.de



E c c l e s i a l  F u t u r e s :  Vo l u m e  2 ,  I s s u e  2

130

In the following review, I want to challenge you readers. I 
want to introduce two books that deserve to be presented and dis-
cussed together. A connection is not only given by the fact that, 
Sabrina Müller, Scott Hagley (as an editor), and Kristine Stache (as 
a contributor to the second book) are on the editorial board of this 
journal or that both books were published by the same publisher. 
Rather, the spirit of the books is quite similar. The authors want to 
empower and help those who try to figure out what discipleship 
looks like as lived theology for Müller, or what it looks like in an 
innovative ecosystem of communities of worship and witness for 
the editors of Sustaining Grace.

Sabrina Müller has a rather concrete practical-theological 
conviction: “The concern here is that people who have not studied 
theology be perceived and taken seriously as representatives of 
lived theology, in order for them to be able to become constitu-
tive part of ecclesial and theological praxis” (85). The central term 
of her book is “lived theology.” Lived theology is based in experi-
ence, a change of the self and its system of meaning “that brings 
the entirety of the past, present, and future into God’s presence” 
(85). Lived theology must support and serve everyday life; it con-
tinually changes; it empowers people; it remains in need of inter-
pretation in daily life; it requires a conversation partner; it reveals 
itself plurally, multifacetedly, and sometimes controversially. Sa-
brina Müller makes a significant contribution to emerging debates 
around lived theology. Rooted in qualitative empirical research, 
she situates the conversation around the theologizing of people in 
congregations with the theological notion of the priesthood of all 
believers. This book also contributes to the debate around disciple-
ship. She defines “discipleship” as more of a search movement than 
a know-it-all indoctrination. She sees it as “a way of life and of faith 
that describes a movement in searching of common priests” (18).

She uses five reference discourses to help her put the term 
into perspective. First, she explores the connection between com-
mon priesthood and volunteer work (5–23). Although her system 
of reference is the German-speaking theological landscape, her 
approach supports a deeper understanding in general. She says, 



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“Volunteer work is an active expression of the common priest-
hood, but only when the theological level and function of priests, 
namely their ability to ‘appear before God’ independently and to 
express themselves theologically, is not neglected” (15). Secondly, 
she explores religious experience as the origin of a lived theology 
(25–46). Third, she discusses the public realm of lived theology—
digital and analogue (46–60). Fourth, she elaborates on lived the-
ology as an aspect of empowerment (62–73). Finally, she moves 
on to a pastoral theology of empowerment (74–84). Müller doesn’t 
focus in her interpretation of lived theology on traditional con-
gregational forms, nor does she return to parochial core congre-
gational structures. Rather, social religious network phenomena 
are also the subject of this study. For in such digital places, lived 
theologies are emerging at a rapid pace and new leadership struc-
tures are being formed. Sabrina Müller thus adds an essential new 
aspect to the concept of the “common priesthood” and advocates 
for ordained and non-ordained people to meet on theologically 
equal footing. This is precisely why the question arises as to how 
“priestesses” and “priests” present themselves today, what their life 
plans are, and what their lived theology looks like, which has to 
change and prove itself again and again in everyday life.

Sabrina Müller’s book is captivating not only because of its 
multi-layered perspectives, but also because she summarizes each 
chapter with a picture to increase the understandability of her ar-
guments. She is thus forced to simplify argumentation structures 
in a comprehensible way—which she certainly succeeds in doing.

Sustaining Grace explores the dynamic between new faith 
communities and denominational systems through the lens of 
stewardship and sustainability. Sustaining Grace is an outcome of 
a group convened by the Church Planting Initiative of Pittsburgh 
Theological Seminary and the 1001 New Worshipping Communi-
ties program of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The editors Scott 
J. Hagley, Karen Rohrer, and Michael Gehrling bring together both 
the academy and practitioners from church judicatories, church 
plants, and traditional church communities to offer a theologically 
grounded, practical, and generative conversation.



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Scott Hagley is Associate Professor of Missiology at Pitts-
burgh Theological Seminary. He is the author of Eat What Is Set 
Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context (2019). 
Karen Rohrer is the director of the Church Planting Initiative at 
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Before coming to Pittsburgh, 
she was an organizing copastor at Beacon, a new faith community 
in Philadelphia. Michael Gehrling serves the Presbyterian Church 
(USA) as an associate for the 1001 New Worshipping Communi-
ties initiative.

The editors have collected eleven essays, which are divided 
into three sections. The three sections are preceded by an intro-
duction—better described as a “vision” by Scott J. Hagley, who dis-
cusses the programmatic term “Sustaining Grace” (1–20). Three 
sections follow: Part 1, “Sustainable Ecologies for New Church 
Development” (21–56); Part 2, “Cultivating Care” (57–100); and 
Part 3, “Leadership Development in a Sustainable Church Ecol-
ogy” (101–30).

As a collection, these essays suggest that to facilitate ecologies 
for innovation in our current era, established congregations and 
new faith communities must model the sustaining grace of God 
to one another in creative ways. Thus, problems of sustainability 
are not for church planters to solve alone, but rather are related 
to the theologies of stewardship and the ecclesial system to which 
they belong (18–20). Hagley says, “Stewardship campaigns are 
not enough. We need systems that can institutionalize the ways 
in which legacy and new church developments need one another” 
(19). Issues of vision are not for denominational systems to theo-
rize alone, but are given shape on their historic foundations in the 
creative and prophetic structures practiced in new faith communi-
ties. Scott Hagley requests, “sustaining ecologies of innovation will 
require practices that form and inform faithful und sustained lead-
ers to do the work of new and inherited faith communities” (19).

I will only highlight a few inspiring insights of this book. 
Karen Rohrer’s essay certainly deserves attention. She investigates 
the question, “What practices might bring us closer to sharing all 
things in common across the broader church ecosystem, rather 



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than channeling resources toward particularly well-heeled corners 
and using them only in service to more highly valued forms of 
community?” (29–30). She provokes with the idea of a signing 
bonus for leaders called to convene new faith communities. She 
proposes this as a disruptive practice and discusses how money 
can create gratitude and partnership.

The four essays in the second section give a particularly im-
pressive account of how “cultivating care” as discipleship for new 
church development deserves attention. The suggestions are varied 
and range from truth-telling and truth-hearing in communities 
(Michael Gehrling) to the stewardship of prayer and play, as Ai-
sha Brooks-Lytle proposes (because they “are like partners on the 
dance floor,” 71). Another aspect of care is learning to listen (Kris-
tine Stache). Stache encourages the seeing of the relationships of 
individuals in their particular place as vocation (81). Finally—and 
here the connection to Sabrina Müller’s book is certainly the most 
obvious—Michael Moynagh, next to two other contributors, talks 
about leadership development. He pleads for the democratization 
of church planting and concludes: “Let the Spirit free it [church 
planting] from the clutches of an aristocratic band of gifted spe-
cialists. Put it into the hands of ordinary Christians, as part of their 
twenty-first-century discipleship” (112).

These bright spots that I have been able to briefly highlight 
here show the range of suggestions for an innovative ecosystem 
that are offered. This edited book is excellent for all those involved 
in innovative church development, as theoretical and practical im-
pulses are interwoven. It deals fruitfully with the conditions neces-
sary for new faith communities to flourish. This book speaks to a 
central tension in the growing movement of church planting—the 
mutual need of and the mutual frustration between establishment 
leaders and innovators, conservators and risk takers.

Both books are inspiring, and one can wish them to be read 
and worked through! 






