Success and deconstruction in a Philadelphia church
Review of "Circle of Hope" by Eliza Griswold.
Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church
Griswold, Eliza
Published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux
2024
This book reads like a novel, with four pastors as the main characters and church meetings as the plotline in the story of one church. Yet this is actually immersive journalism, based on four years of recording details about the real life, internal workings of one congregation.
Circle of Hope tells of the rise and demise of an innovative evangelical church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The church had a passion for serving its community as Jesus would have, at a time when many evangelical churches were focused on saving individual souls. Its success in community transformation drew new leaders as it expanded to four sites and a wide network of specialized street ministries.
It is also a story of deconstruction in one church community. The first big challenge was the covid pandemic, which was especially difficult for a community-oriented congregation. Before the pandemic ended, anti-racism, inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons and gender equality were creating internal tensions. As the church turned more inward, power dynamics between the leaders, more than external pressures, led to separation between the various pieces that made up Circle of Hope.
Readers may recognize common elements with their own church experience, in spite of the uniqueness of the Philadelphia context. Church life is messy – in Philadelphia and everywhere.
